There is no doubt that the Netflix original series Stranger Things has taken the world by storm. Ever since the first season was released in July 2016, the show has become one of Netflix’s most popular and watched shows, with the most recent fourth season gaining over 1.3 billion hours worth of views within the first 28 days of its release. It has become one of the biggest faces of Netflix, and the streaming service knows it. On May 31, Netflix hosted the fifth TUDUM event in Los Angeles, although this year was the first year it has ever been livestreamed on the service. On this day, many announcements for their mainstream titles were showcased, including the first teaser trailer and official release dates for the long-anticipated fifth season of Stranger Things. However, following the announcement, others on social media expressed that they believed the style the show has adopted has gone way over the top. With the way the show has become, it feels as though mainstream TV, at least for Netflix, has become so condensed that we are barely receiving a traditional standard of content anymore. If this is what Netflix has become, how long will it be until this standard reaches every other channel and streaming service? As someone who is a fan of Stranger Things and has become attached to the show over the past six years, I completely agree that it is not only unnecessary, but is actively contributing to the fact that streaming services are killing television right before our eyes.

Firstly, Stranger Things has no episodic elements. Every single episode is important to the plot, and because the first few seasons dropped all episodes at once, it created a binge-watching trend. It’s nearly impossible to avoid spoilers with that sort of release, especially for a show that has become such a hit. And frankly, there are people who don’t care about withholding spoilers from people, even if they are asked, because who isn’t going to talk about new content from one of the biggest shows in the world right now? There is little to no consideration for those who can’t watch new episodes for a certain amount of time for whatever reason. It’s going to be talked about everywhere, and the only possible way you can avoid immediate spoilers is by logging out of social media until you’ve watched the episodes. In today’s day and age, and with the addictions social media has caused for our society, people will not let it go so easily unless they’re determined to escape being spoiled.

Another significant issue is the long hiatuses between recent seasons. To be clear, the show had standard hiatuses up until the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, the hiatuses varied from one year to just under two years. Following the pandemic, the longest hiatus (between Seasons 3 and 4) was nearly three years. Not only did the pandemic create delays, but the writers’ strike contributed as well. Now, those circumstances were out of the control of the showrunners. However, I believe that the longer gap gave them an opportunity that they decided to take: to go big. Bigger than they ever had before. And they saw great success from the fourth season as a result. And now, it has been over three years since Season 4, and the final season will start rolling out on November 26. And now I ask myself the question that many have posed before: Did they really need to go that big, if it takes this much time? The show doesn’t even feel like a show anymore. It is entirely cinematic, and the most recent season has basically been reduced to nine mini-blockbuster movies. People start to get bored and disinterested if something takes this long. It is only the truly dedicated fans who are willing to put up with that and stay interested, and I honestly respect those who do.

I will say that they’ve somewhat improved the binge-watching problem, but there are still cons to it. When Season 4 was closer to finally being done, two dates were announced to spread out the release. Volume 1 (consisting of episodes 1-7) was released on May 27, 2022, and Volume 2 (episodes 8 and 9) was released on July 1st of the same year. And while that is an improvement, there is still the issue of too much being dropped at once because of the length of the episodes. As previously mentioned, each episode was basically a movie, with the finale episode being two and a half hours long. As someone who loves taking in as much content as possible from things that I like, even I have to agree that it was too much. And it has already been confirmed that the final season will follow the same format length-wise, though there are three release dates instead of two. Volume 1 is on November 26 (episodes 1-4), Volume 2 is on Christmas Day (5-7), and the official finale is New Year’s Eve (8). 

I have loved Stranger Things for years, and you can guarantee me and my family will be tuning in as these last episodes come out during the holidays. But this show, like anything, is not immune to criticism, and this has been on my and many other fans’ minds. Stranger Things is a great show, but I cannot say that without also saying that it is one of many catalysts to what streaming and television have become. I can understand if some things are from the showrunners’ creative liberties, which I believe should be highly encouraged in general. But when it gets to the point where streaming 8-episode seasons with dragged-out hiatuses becomes the norm, it is not born from a place of creativity, but a place of greed.