I think some of these are modeled after a TV show format but are just long movies and several episodes or sub-story lines are added to extend it out to 8-12 hou

I think some of these are modeled after a TV show format but are just long movies and several episodes or sub-story lines are added to extend it out to 8-12 hours worth of content. It might be a better story if it was condensed, somewhere I read that removing in the edit phase is key and much more difficult but contributes to a better product.