'Stranger Things' Would Be Even Better if Netflix Didn't Let Us Binge It All
Commentary: No one likes to wait, but I miss the anticipation of watching a favorite show week by week.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Admittedly, there can never be too much Erica in the world.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I need a little less Stranger Things in my life. Or really, I need the same amount of Stranger Things, just doled out one episode at a time on a weekly basis, not all dumped on me in two large batches of lengthy episodes.
Look at this fourth season of the Netflix hit. The first seven episodes arrived on May 27, and two mega-size episodes came later, on July 1. And don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the new season. Even though creators Matt and Ross Duffer didn't bring back Alexei (I didn't really think they would), and killed off a great new character, the show was super-satisfying and worth the big chunk of time I devoted to watching.
I just miss the old TV model of weekly episodes, with days in-between to rehash the plot twists with friends and speculate on what's coming next.
There are times, sure, when binge-watching is a joy. I'm a mom. I remember sitting up with a newborn at night, watching endless DVDs of House and My Name Is Earl, just letting each episode roll into the next because I physically couldn't get up to change the disc.
As my co-worker Abrar Al-Heeti has noted, some of us find binge-watching kind of daunting.
Stranger Things is such a well-done show that I'm willing to make myself wait to catch up on the latest plot twists. The show's episode lengths are all over the map, but that just adds to the fun. I'm OK with making time for a one-hour episode one week, and a 90-minute, almost-movie the next.
When seven long episodes show up at once in my Netflix account, there's a natural human desire to keep watching until the final credits roll. How will they save Nancy? What's happening to Eleven? Maybe I just need to hear Steve and Dustin's latest snappy dialogue. Why is Hopper STILL in the USSR? (My co-worker Richard Trenholm smartly pointed out to me that the Hopper storyline might have seemed even more draggy if it was doled out week by week.)
Yes, I could just demonstrate some major willpower and not binge all the available episodes. But there's a neat community that forms around weekly episode drops. Social media and friends are all buzzing about the exact same part of the show that you've just seen -- no one's way ahead. And you don't have to block off a huge part of your schedule to watch episode after episode. You can just carve out that hour or so each week, and then luxuriate in the anticipation.
I know that this isn't going to happen. Netflix is rocking up to the bank with the current model, and it seems to be OK with the Duffer brothers. The part of me that wants instant gratification is secretly happy they're just shoveling it out in huge chunks.
But with no known premiere date for the fifth and final season, a fresh batch of Stranger Things seems interminably far away. Had it been dropped an episode at a time beginning May 27, we'd only be five episodes in, and each week's social buzz would be about the new episode.
The world is throwing bad news at us every single day, it seems, and sometimes, having something to look forward to -- even if it's a simple episode of a hit TV show -- is what gets me through. And the irony's not lost on me that episode-by-episode was the only way the characters in the show, sitting in Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s, could watch their favorite shows. Sometimes, the retro way is the best way.
