There are over 6,000 episodes of EastEnders. Episode count doesn’t dictate budget either direction. The 22 episode US network model was about ad revenue but the real money was in making 100+ episodes so they could sell it into syndication. Many shows were produced pretty cheaply, and the few that became major hits and needed to pay actors a lot to keep them were the outliers. (And even then, the shows themselves were still pretty cheaply made. Friends was not blowing its budget on sets or visual effects.) Big budget TV like Game of Thrones is a new thing with streaming and they’re never 22 episode seasons.

I identified Murderbot as agender but leaning feminine in presentation and voice. I listened to the audiobook after reading the first two and the male reader was a bit jarring.