Stranger Things is pushing itself to the absolute limit. While Season 1 was a fun Stephen King homage and Season 2 got a little more ambitious, Season 3 had episodes that stretched to 77 minutes, and Season 4’s finale was a whopping 2-hour and 30-minute epic that sparked conversations about where the line between television and movie lies.
Now, Stranger Things is somehow going even bigger in its fifth and final season, but that may make the viewing experience a downgrade.
According to Puck, the runtimes for Season 5’s eight episodes will be between 90 and 120 minutes, essentially making the season less like a TV series and more like a collection of streaming movies. What’s more, each episode reportedly has a budget of $50 to $60 million, which puts it neck-and-neck with the most expensive TV show ever made: Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which boasted $58 million per episode.
But is this really a good idea? Traditional television forced stories to be told in 44-minute segments, which kept things moving at a nice clip. Streaming has eliminated the restrictions of a broadcast TV schedule, and while having more creative flexibility has benefited some shows, it’s bogged down others. You can always have too much of a good thing, and how many fans really want to sit down to watch eight straight movies?
Netflix seems to be asking that question itself, as Stranger Things Season 5 will be released in an unprecedented three parts. The first four episodes will premiere on November 26 (one day before Thanksgiving in the United States), the next three drop on Christmas, and the final episode arrives on New Year’s Eve. These may be long episodes, but they’ll all arrive on a holiday, so fans will have time to watch quickly and avoid spoilers.
Stranger Things Season 5 is Netflix’s biggest release yet. The show that catapulted the streamer to new heights is ending forever, and fans have been waiting for this season of television for so long that it morphed into a film series along the way. We’ll soon know whether it was the right call.
