The new release schedule feels a little weird, but I like Stranger Things as much as the next nerd. The fourth season of Stranger Things will consist of nine episodes and will be split into two parts. The first seven episodes of Volume 1 will be available on May 27th. Volume 2 will be released on July 1.
Three of the episodes are expected to be extremely long. The episodes are all over the 90-minute mark. The finale was reported for nearly two and a half hours. The Duffer Brothers posted a letter on their website that said the earlier episodes in Volume 1 are rumored to be larger than the first three episodes.
Do the Duffer Brothers know what they are doing? Generally speaking, yes. It feels like a capital-G Gimmick to keep fans involved as long as possible and to extend their visibility over a month instead of a weekend, as often happens with Netflix-produced television. This doesn't feel like television, it feels like another franchise's cinematic universe, and maybe that's what they should have done in the first place. It's a season if you make two or three movies. It doesn't feel like anyone is saying no to the Duffer Brothers.
I know that I struggled through the last season of the show. It felt like the 80s-inspired nostalgia had been pushed as far as it could go without a lot of energy to support it. The story was slow and lacked the character-driven urgency of the previous seasons. The announcement of these extra-long episodes doesn't make me excited.
I understand why they're doing it, their shows do well for a weekend, and then the press drops off as people want to watch a marathon. The fourth season can be split into two parts, with a month in between, so fans can get started without feeling like the ending has already been spoiled online. The five-week wait between the start and end of the season gives new fans a chance to catch up on past seasons before the finale, and gives the Duffer Brothers time for an extended press tour.
For example, Lost. The smash-hit mystery box TV show first aired in 2004, when streaming was still a thing of the future, and every week people got more clues, stories, and questions to untangle. There were forums and fanboards dedicated to wild speculation and theorizing. Many people loved Lost because it gave them the chance to try to figure it out. It's one of the best television shows of all time.
This is very different to Stranger Things. The impact of any episode, individually speaking, was relatively insignificant to the theorizing that took the whole season into account. The excitement of each season drop was high and then the next season started teasing its cast, posters, and trailers. With five weeks built into the release schedule between Volumes, I have to ask, why not just release Stranger Things weekly?
With the multi-episode bloc release schedule, it felt like something was changing for the better. This announcement makes it seem like Netflix is experimenting with ways to stay in the news cycle for as long as possible, rather than delivering a cohesive and exciting television experience. A series of films that are being described as television, simply because they exist in the same volume, is what we are getting. Does streaming eliminate the difference between television and a cinematic universe?
This schedule feels like a lot of effort to circumvent a perfectly good weekly release schedule, which would achieve the same goals as this split release, allowing people time to speculate, invest, and set aside evenings to watch the show. If this was the plan all along, why not release more episodes? The medium is meant for drop in-drop out viewing.
I'm repeating the arguments that were brought to the table when Black Mirror announced their 90-minute episodes. I think there is a difference between a narrative television series and an anthology series, but I don't think it's that interesting of an argument.
I don't want to 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 I want effective, tight, cohesive stories supported by a fun and exciting fandom. The audience of Lost was what I want. For a while, I thought that the show would deliver, and it did for two seasons. But now? I'm not going to be able to easily dip in and out of a marathon watch of Season 4, that the series has turned into a massive franchise. I just want to watch a television series without having to sit through three movies.
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