It’s been a long road for the cast of characters and their town of Hawkins, Indiana. Almost ten years ago, Stranger Things premiered on Netflix and became a cultural phenomenon. In fact, it can be used as a benchmark in time of its massive influence and shift in trends. Before its release, the nostalgia of the 80’s was still present. Taylor Swift’s 1989 was making real waves, hair metal still played at dive bars and sports events, and the Rubik’s cube still had people trying to solve it at world record pace.
But it wasn’t until the summer of 2016 that the world became set on anew path where the 80’s were suddenly BACK. Later that same year, Bruno Mars released his heavily 80’s inspired album 24K Magic, full of synths and slow jams to evoke the glitz and glamor of the period. Pop music would continue in this trend of heavy synths leading melodies for dance hits, ballads, hip hop, and vaporwave in particular finding a home on the internet in meme edits through Vine (we still think about you). This fervor for nostalgia would be seen within the film industry as well. Remakes and legacy sequels were starting to pick up steam already, but with the success of an original property which wore its 80’s influences proudly on its sleeve, studios would seek to revitalize their own IP from the decade. The results were overwhelming, brimming with nostalgia as the cash grab for attention and reason to tune in. Another show on Netflix took this route with Cobra Kai, a sequel series to the Karate Kid films. There have been three Ghostbuster films in the wake of Stranger Things, of which the show’s very own Finn Wolfhard appears in the latter two. Steven Spielberg himself, whose 80’s and early 90’s flicks are often pinpointed as his best work, would go on to direct an adaptation of Ready Player One, which is literally just a big 80’s IP nostalgia platter. It was clear audiences were willing to to turn out to theaters or tune in to stream the new thing if it made them feel young again, that the heroes we loved and cheered for would never die, and would always be back for another adventure.
Stranger Things Barb Adult Costume
The immediate success of Stranger Things would sustain itself through the 2010’s with additional seasons, along with plenty of Stranger Things costumes becoming popular for both Halloween and watch parties. And the show continued to play heavier into the nostalgia, perhaps due to pressure and expectations from Netflix and the massive influence it had spawned. While its first outing felt like a perfect balance of style and substance meshed together, the show would at times have its reach extending its grasp. Season 2 took place largely during Halloween, with the younger kids dressing up as (funnily enough) Ghostbusters, along with having an episode largely devoted to Eleven meeting her “sister” and a group of misfits (which was widely panned, with even series creators the Duffer Brothers having expressed some regret on). Season 3 would go even further with the centerpiece being the new Starcourt Mall, along with taking place in summer, while also amping up the horror, and maybe one too many side plots and minor characters filling up the 8 episodes.
Stranger Things Starcourt Mall Coffee Mug
The Duffers seemed to be aware of both its missteps and oversteps from previous seasons, and a delay in shooting due to the pandemic gave them ample time to reemerge with what would be their best storytelling since the show’s debut. Season 4 was gargantuan in every way. The horror aspect has been turned up to 11, without losing its humor and hope or divulging into just straight gore or slasher territory, the stakes have never been higher, and the group has become fractured by more than just not talking to each other. The kids are getting older, and the Duffer Brothers wisely took narrative steps to splitting the cast up to motivate their separate paths that all connect by the end. Its release schedule was also eyebrow raising, with the season being split into two volumes, the latter only containing two episodes yet both collectively totaling about 4 hours in length. It was clear the Duffers wanted to finally lay out the world building plain and clear which they had slowly been hinting and winking at over the last few years. There’s also the sheer size of the cast now, along with new villain Vecna in the mix as an excellent body horror throwback to icons like Pinhead from Hellraiser and Freddy Kreuger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (Robert Englund actually has a guest appearance in the show, which fans had theorized before its release his casting hinted at a big horror villain taking center stage). All this, and cramming all that story in there, necessitated a length that previous seasons couldn’t contain.
Stranger Things: Deluxe Vecna Latex Mask
The result proved successful, with season 4 becoming the most viewed English-language series ever on Netflix, and the second Netflix property to surpass a billion hours viewed within a month, only behind it the streaming giant’s smash-hit Squid Game. It was inescapable, along with its smart and effective use of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” seeing a massive resurgence in popularity and finding new fans in young audiences.
Now, it seems the Duffers are set to continue with this formula and release strategy, and upping the ante on it. Earlier this month, it was announced Season 5 would be releasing in three separate parts at the tail end of the year, with the first half of the 8 episode season releasing November 26th, the day before Thanksgiving. Part Two will consist of episodes 5-7, releasing Christmas Day, leaving the final episode to drop on New Year’s Eve.
It’s quite the gamble to lead your final effort of a show with this release schedule. On the one hand, it’s a smart move to split up a season. The days of bingeing through a show when streaming platforms were still in their infancy are not what they once were, and odds are the episodes for Season 5 will be quite lengthy, making any attempt to watch them all in one sitting too tall of an order. Not to mention, it builds anticipation for what comes next. It’s what television used to be; having to wait until at least next week for the upcoming episode, albeit less cinematic, VFX heavy, and without a feature film-length runtime. But in the modern age, where spoilers have become all the more inevitable to come across, a segmented release schedule also helps viewers who might not be able to even watch the first four episodes at once from getting the entire finale spoiled altogether. The other upside to this release strategy is the proximity to holidays, particularly ones where people would be at home. Thanksgiving break and Christmas Day are prime times where audiences will be home with family, back in town where there’s not a whole lot to do, away from work and other obligations, these holidays in essence allow life to be on pause for a short bit, especially in the gap between Christmas and New Years where everything just feels like a blur as the last few days of the year wind down.
The one risk seems to be New Year’s Eve. Again, all signs point to the episodes being quite lengthy. And while the first two parts landing on the big holidays in November and December are huge opportunities for immediate viewership and engagement on a mass scale, having an expectedly 2.5 to even 3 hour finale drop New Year’s Eve feels like audiences now have to weigh their options and plans for the night. Sure, there’s plenty of people who host New Year’s Eve parties at their home. Depending on what time the finale actually goes live, perhaps coinciding with midnight and the start of a new year could allow people to have their cake and eat it too with celebrating the holiday and then sitting down together for a watch party. Odds are, that’s what Netflix and the Duffers are betting on. But there will still undoubtedly be people going out to other parties and clubs, and potential audiences prioritizing that does handicap your viewership. Although, the upswing to that is it just gives people the chance to watch it first thing New Year’s Day, since a majority of people will be off work. Perhaps the strategy is less of a gamble than it seems.
Things are still under wraps when it comes to plot details. We know Linda Hamilton, most famous for her role as Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise from James Cameron, will be appearing in the final season, only identified thus far as Dr. Kay. We also know Will Byers will be playing a bigger part, and Vecna will be back. Beyond that, we’ll have to speculate and have our own theories before any trailers release.
The episode titles and release dates are as follows:
November 26th
- “The Crawl”
2. “The Vanishing of _____”
3. “The Turnbow Trap”
4. “Sorcerer”
December 25th
5. “Shock Jock”
6. “Escape From Camazotz”
7. “The Bridge”
December 31st
8. “The Rightside Up”
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