Netflix is dropping the third season of Stranger Things in its entirety on July 4. I doubt everyone will watch it all that day — they’ll have barbecues to attend and fireworks to light — but rest assured that most of the people who want to watch the eight new episodes will consume them in pretty short order, and why wouldn’t they? Stranger Things is a really good show. It’s got a likable cast, great ’80s period detail, and monsters from another dimension that want to rip off your face and drag you to hell. It’s fun stuff!
It’s also got a great sense of pacing. I’m rewatching the first two seasons to prepare for the third, and I’d forgotten how tightly those early episodes were written. The disappearance of Will Byers leads right into the unveiling of Eleven’s powers leads into the discovery of Will’s fake body in the quarry. It’s written in a way that always makes me want to watch more…but should I?
We live in the age of streaming. Netflix distinguished itself as a service by dropping whole seasons of television at once. No longer would people have to wait a week to find out the resolution of the latest twist. They can just let the next episode play, and by the time they come out of their stupor however many hours later, the story is over and they’re happy and they’re late for work.
And that’s fun, don’t get me wrong; sitting yourself down in front of your TV for a weekend and taking in the whole of a new story is one of the streaming revolution’s greatest pleasures…but we lose something in the bargain.
This is a Game of Thrones fansite, and it wasn’t too long ago that we were merrily chomping through the final six episodes of that show, which aired every Sunday. Those episodes stirred up a lot of controversy, but my, was the conversation electric. Having six days between episodes left space for people to theorize and debate, to rage and gush. That conversation could get heated, but it was always worth having and very rarely boring. Corey Smith, a writer here at WiC, wrote that what he’ll miss most about Game of Thrones is the community aspect, how fans from different walks of life could come together to talk about it and break it down. That kind of community thrives when the episodes are released one at a time. We can fill the space with our chatter, and it’s a lot of fun.
Stranger Things is not Game of Thrones. The lore isn’t nearly as dense, so it doesn’t lend itself as well to the crafting of fan theories and such. But I still think it would be a blast to talk about what we think is going to happen between episodes, and to speculate on the rules governing the Upside Down, or if there are any, or who’s going to get together with whom, and so on. I want that experience.
I think it would be good for Netflix’s bottom line, too. People are going to watch Stranger Things, but Netflix, if you’re reading, wouldn’t you rather people be hooked on your service for eight straight weeks rather than in one big rush over the fourth of July weekend? Don’t you want to dominate the news cycle for a couple of months? Don’t you want success? DON’T YOU?
Granted, Netflix couldn’t get away with this for every show; it would have to be reserved for a special few where it really works, like Stranger Things. But in certain cases, I think it could be a goldmine for viewer and distributor alike.
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So what do you think? Am I alone in wanting Netflix to change its distribution methods? Or would you enjoy the wait between new Stranger Things episodes as much as I would?
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