I'm not a big fan of the extensive hiatus mode.

For me the issue is not with the breaks themselves. The issue is that for a while, in television, serious or intelligent has become synonymous with self-referential and dense and serialized. But too little attention is paid to the basic craft of conveying information. We end up with shows that seem to assume you have as much knowledge as the writers as to what's happening at any given moment, no matter how long the show's been off the air.