system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: A one season tv-show is not a miniseries

This CMV was prompted by a recent post on Facebook, where HBO, after the success of Chernobyl, promoted its other miniserieses. What bothered me was that among other genuine miniserieses, like The Pacific, there were normal tv-shows that were meant to last multiple seasons, but, for one reason or another, were cancelled and only had one. Shows like Vinyl, or Luck. 

I believe that if you have a tv-show that is designed to be a series that lasts multiple seasons, it's not a miniseries, if it's cut down prematurely. There are usually many storylines that are left unresolved, character arcs that are incomplete, stories that were never told, but possibly set-up. If Game of Thrones flopped and only ran for one season, it doesn't make the show a miniseries. 

Miniseries is exactly what it says. Series that is miniature by design. The time and format were purposeful for the story it wanted to tell. 

Imagine the following: A pilot for a tv-show is released, but for some reason or another, the rest of the show is not. The pilot does not magically become a movie, by the virtue of having no other episodes released. You might market it as a tv-movie, but it's not. It's an episode of a show that never aired.
gpt
Your focusing on the semnatics and ignoring the pragmatics. And humans speak in pragmatics. 

People looking for one season shows - miniseries - don’t really care if they were intended to be like that. Miniseries can be unresolved. 

So when people ask: Oh I’m looking for a new miniseries. Are you not going to say Luck or Vinyl for semantic reasons? Or would you say them because pragmatically you know they mean “1 season tv shows”?