The fourth season of the show will be here in one week on May 27th, and while it is not the final season of the show, it sure is acting like one.
Tudum is reporting that the fourth season of Stranger Things will be nine episodes. We've seen that before, but usually it's not that much, 5-15 minutes extra, most of the time.
Not true for Strange Things. These are monsters. We have.
The grand finale for season 4 will be a movie-size episode. The episodes have a budget of $30 million each. Some of that is going into the cast salaries, as everyone has gotten raises over the years, but a lot of it will be special effects, as the need for those has increased the more troublesome monsters the series has faced.
Is this good? The results were split after I posed the question to my followers.
In the current era of entertainment, if a movie asks us to watch 2 hours and 20 minutes, then we may sit down and binge watch eight, 50 minute episodes of a TV show.
It's about pacing. 13 hours total for a season is not long, but 75-90 minute episodes capped with a 2.5 hour finale seems like it could be overwhelming if it isn't really engaging. Would you rather read a 500 page book with 50 chapters or 15 chapters? It may be the same, length and content, but it may be easier to break it down into smaller pieces.
I agree that all that matters is whether or not they are good episodes, but it still feels strange. Sometimes I don't like to watch a season of a show that is 58 minutes long, and I like to watch 38 to 43 minutes instead. Again, bite-size chunks. It may be a matter of preference, but blocking out 2.5 hours for a single episode may push the patience of some fans. It's not the series finale. Can you wait for the end of season 5?
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The Herokiller series and The Earthborn trilogy are my sci-fi novels.