The most expensive shows on TV (and the even pricier ones on the way)

Stranger Things season 4 costs $30 million per episode

This newest round of discourse about TV budgets got started because The Wall Street Journal reported that the upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things — which drops on Netflix on May 27 — will cost a staggering $30 million per episode, twice what Game of Thrones cost at the height of its popularity. At nine episodes, that means Netflix is spending around $270 million on this season, a sum usually reserved for only the most expensive of action blockbusters.

Once again, we have to ask the question of how a show set in our world could cost this much. True, Stranger Things is set in the ’80s, but even if the costume department has to stuff shoulder pads into blazers or acid-wash some denim, it’s not as labor-intensive as, say, making a closet full of medieval dresses fit for the ladies of the Targaryen court. And while there are plenty of special effects on Stranger Things, a lot of the in-between scenes can be filmed on ordinary sets made to look like normal American living rooms, arcades and parks.

So why is the budget blowing up? I suspect it’s a combination of the show becoming increasingly ambitious in scale — creators Matt and Ross Duffer have promised a season that tops everything that comes before — and it reaching a level of popularity where the stars can negotiate more lucrative contracts. And keep in mind that some of the cast members were already big names when they came in, most notably Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), meaning they started with a lot of leverage.

Stranger Things is near the top of the heap when it comes to expensive TV shows. But it’s not at the very top…