I think my preference is different for books than it is for episode. For books, I like 2-4 sort of “main characters” but one clear protagonist and narrator. Actually, I’m a sucker for an unreliable narrator lol. When you have one character who acts as narrator, you have to read between the lines to get at other characters’ motivations and aspirations, and personally I find that really engaging. You do end up seeing more how characters evolve in relation to one another rather than individually, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.
There are books written from multiple points of view that I find are done really well, but a lot of them run the risk of not developing the characters fully because the author is so busy trying to make sure you know everyone’s perspective. That is definitely true of Episode stories. You can show more than one point of view and keep the intrigue, but this is where many Episode stories can fall flat. Because Episode is a visual medium, it makes sense to see other characters performing actions or engaging in dialogue, but when the dialogue reveals what’s really happening or a new character is now narrating what’s really happening - it just kills the tension of the story. You want a certain “things are not what they seem” vibe that uses the characters’ aspirations to create tension, but if we know exactly what everyone is feeling and thinking along the way, there’s less press to keep reading.
There are a lot of scenes in Episode stories (and books or any medium) where something seems off and instead of making the reader wonder “hey what’s that about? I better keep reading” the author gives us every detail about what another character is thinking or doing, but it often feels like there’s no real reason for this other than not wanting readers to hate a specific character. Dramatic irony can be a very effective literary device, but the reader should still not have all the information about the situation.
Actually, in saying that, I’m not sure my preferences for Episode are actually very different from what I like to read in books. I do like 2-4 main characters, seeing what multiple people are up to, but saving the narration for the protagonist. That being said, it’s far from a dealbreaker for me. But I find large casts of main characters suffer from woefully underdeveloped characters that makes it hard to really root for them throughout the course of the story. But if you have only one main character who is the narrator, reliable or otherwise, they definitely need to be likeable lol. There are a lot of ways to effectively tell a story, so at the end of the day I am open to anything as long as the characters are well-rounded, believable, and set up for an honest path of development.