[fortyseven]

I was rocking along with this and then BAM a slam on Steven Universe out of nowhere.

It's all subjective, of course, but personally, I've found SU to be rock solid. The main arc is there, but the stand alone eps are just as valuable for that show. Not every episode of a show that doesn't obviously advance the main story arc is 'filler'. Some are just trying to tell a story. I notice that people tend to label those kinds of stand alone stories "filler" if they didn't like them.

I say this because I'm guilty of this kind of thing, too.

And that's not to say there AREN'T episodes of shows that are just spinning their wheels burning off quotas-- see the Arrowverse for lots of THAT. Oof.

This is why I've been increasingly becoming a fan of 13 episode seasons for some shows. Tell a good story. Get the hell out. Or if you just have 23 episode seasons, break it in half. Tell two solid arcs. Maybe bridge them if you must.