The Duffer Brothers want to continue making more TV shows with long release gaps like Stranger Things
- Thread starter Cosmic Smash
- Start date
- Opinion
lughnasadh123
Member
Is it though? I think there's other factors that are more strongly tied to diminished returns than having shows come out more regularly.
Bojji
Gold Member
Drinker explained this very well:
Big gaps between seasons are stupid as fuck, one year of GTFO...
rm082e
Gold Member
Yes, but there was an actors strike in that gap, and they make episodes that are sometimes over an hour long.
Personally, I'll take quality over quantity. If they can't make quality the the wait doesn't matter anyway.
Lionel Richie
Member
Reminder that Stranger Things plagiarizes Elfen Lied. They can't keep getting away with it!
falconhoof
Member
I dropped off Stranger things during season 2 so I don't know where it went, but surely there's an issue with aging actors, especially kids.
Alandring
Member
Same here. It would be okay it every season of their TV Show was amazing, but it isn't the case at all for Stranger Things.
Soodanim
Gold Member
In fairness the 8 episodes are something like 18 hours in total with the finale alone being 3 hours, so this isn't your normal TV series. For comparison MCU Phase 1 and 2 were both 12 hours and Phase 3 was 24 hours, so this is more akin to an entire movie series in terms of runtime.
Of course that doesn't speak to its quality, and the fact that these kids have had 9 years of growing doesn't do it any favours either. There's a benefit to having some semblance of continuity in your actors' ages.
j0hnnix
Member
Holy crap. I did not know it was this long. I've had this discussion with my fiance and we are getting tired of trying to remember bits and pieces of a show that takes forever to release the next season. 1 year fine but anything past that your are forcing me to rewatch past seasons, just disrespecting the viewers time.
xrnzaaas
Member
It's even worse when you realize that Stranger Things is about kids. Most of them are adults now and it's going to be hard to hide that in the show.
Trogdor1123
Gold Member
each episode is like 2 hours long in season 5. If the did 45 mins for each it would have been faster.
The issue isnt really the gap between seasons or the length of episodes. It's the narrative flow. If every season was its own self contained eexperience and didnt require you to remember that 4 years ago a child version of this grown ass man actor said "I don't like blue doritoes" once and now its a critical part of the plot.
American Horror Story does it right. Recycle the actors but new plots and stories.
American Horror Story does it right. Recycle the actors but new plots and stories.
Escape Goat
Member
Nobody likes the build up. Either make shorter seasons without garbage filler or dont turn it into a series. Better yet do an anthology series.
Yeah i really loved Severance season 1, but season 2 took so long to come out that all the build up was lost and i lost all motivation to continue. I find the wait way less of an issue on episodic stuff like Black Mirror.
kpopSuperstar
Member
I worry for House of the Dragon, I am already forgetting what happened last season.
March Climber
Gold Member
Link to the actual article: https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/duffer-brothers-netflix-exit-stranger-things-future-1236529430/
If they're going to take this path they need to work more with adults rather than kid actors. I also agree with the above takes that these long breaks in between seasons means that the viewer could potentially forget everything and also that the hype tends to die down a bit because a show is simply missing.
It's one of the big negatives of this streaming generation: They release a season -> wait a year for ratings -> greenlight next season -> season takes another 2-3 years to complete -> season comes out 3-4 years after previous season -> rinse and repeat.
I feel like the cycle only breaks when a show hits season 5 or 6, like Cobra Kai.
I don't think going back to 24-episode TV style shows is the answer. I just think that these streaming services should greenlight 2 seasons at a time. It would solve the wait time issue because season 2 would be worked on and released during or slightly after they're looking at the ratings for season 1, which would be around ~2 years per season. That's reasonable.
If they're going to take this path they need to work more with adults rather than kid actors. I also agree with the above takes that these long breaks in between seasons means that the viewer could potentially forget everything and also that the hype tends to die down a bit because a show is simply missing.
It's one of the big negatives of this streaming generation: They release a season -> wait a year for ratings -> greenlight next season -> season takes another 2-3 years to complete -> season comes out 3-4 years after previous season -> rinse and repeat.
I feel like the cycle only breaks when a show hits season 5 or 6, like Cobra Kai.
I don't think going back to 24-episode TV style shows is the answer. I just think that these streaming services should greenlight 2 seasons at a time. It would solve the wait time issue because season 2 would be worked on and released during or slightly after they're looking at the ratings for season 1, which would be around ~2 years per season. That's reasonable.
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100%. That's the appeal of TV Shows. You watch a season which builds up a story and then bam, can't wait for the next season to see what happens after all that. 1 year later, the next one comes out and continues it. Waiting multiple years is ridiculous.
I mean, I don't know a single TV Show that had 3+ year release date for a season that actually turned out good. Game of Thrones final season had almost a 2 year wait and we all know how that turned out.
Then they should split it up into something more manageable. 3 years is laughable for a new season. Take a look at Supernatural for example, they managed a new season witrh 20+ episodes yearly and to me personally, they were all banger seasons. Also, like you and the below poster mentioned, the actors age is doing them no favours. Movies work for that because they're one time views, so you can easily rewatch them, but when your season is 3 years in development, I bet you most people would now be forced to rewatch the show because it has been too long and they forgot certain parts.
I genuinely think that is the reason why, by forcing you to watch them all over again and pay that sub.
I watched 1 season and that was it. Not sure how they managed to milk that many seasons out the show. I personally prefered Altered Carbon more than Stranger Things but they cancelled that show after 2 seasons.
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
Garbage show.
You remember season 2 perfectly then
Reizo Ryuu
Gold Member
There's too many shows for shows to take breaks that are that long; it's like returning to a game after a long time and then having to spend a lot of time figuring out what happened before, and 3 minute recaps of dozens of hours doesn't help that much either.
The Cockatrice
I'm retarded?
I love Stranger Things but that is a dumb fuck mentality because most people nowadays just kind of move on if it takes too many years for a new season unless theyre super fans. We have so many TV shows that it's almost impossible to keep up with them. Might work for 1-2 seasons but by the third and so on, you'll start to lose people.