“We didn’t want to force an ending.”
In the vast landscape of streaming, where more and more users opt for a weekly release model, Netflix has remained firmly committed to the method of releasing an entire season at a time.. However, for the final season of ‘Stranger Things,’ they chose to do things a little differently, releasing the first seven episodes of season 4 in May, followed by the final two episodes now in July. Episode 9, in particular, drew a lot of attention for its 2 hour and 19 minute runtime.s; To put it in perspective, ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, the Marvel movie that arrives this weekend, is about 15 minutes shorter.
The decision to keep episode 9 as one oversized installment instead of splitting it into 2 parts was one the Duffer brothers came to after watching it and struggling to find a natural break. As Ross Duffer exclusively told Collider:
“I think we just couldn’t find a good place to cut it because there’s almost an hour of tension buildup, and then it gets difficult for an hour. Then we have our 25 minutes of lowering the conclusion. It just wouldn’t have been a very satisfying episode to stop it.” after that first hour. In our opinion it would have just been exhausted. We didn’t want to force an ending, so we thought, ‘well, it’s just going to be this monster episode.’ If you want to pause it, go ahead.”
Although they couldn’t find a good way to break up the episode itself, it wasn’t typical for the season to break up the way it did. As with so many things these days, the decision did not come from a deliberate decision in writing, but was born out of necessity. With the extensive visual effects required for a show of this scale, there were concerns that all nine episodes might not be completed on time. Matt Duffer commented on the decision to split, saying that “the episodes, actually, the episodes weren’t finished and they weren’t going to be ready for May. But it wasn’t designed to split“.
When asked if they would consider writing Season 5 to have a deliberate break in the middle to allow for a staggered premiere along the lines of Season 4, Matt considered the possibility:
“I like what you’re saying, which is, if we were to do a cut again, write more in that break. Write during the cut, which we didn’t. We’re lucky that seven had that kind of ending. With the reveal of Vecna, that was just lucky. It was extremely challenging to get seven episodes out for May. I think that was the most challenging thing we’ve faced while making Stranger Things.’ So if we had to do it over again, I’d probably do the split sooner, like you say. I’d write it into the narrative. I’d love to see all eight at once, but also, people talk about it more when it splits. It’s much better that you guys split it, we can keep writing about it.”
While audiences have increasingly called on Netflix to stagger its premiere model to allow for discussion between episodes and allow momentum to build, Ross Duffer also defended the binge-watching model, adding:
“It’s a balancing act. Because I also like it, as a consumer, I fell in love with television, really ‘The Sopranos,’ but I didn’t watch it in real time. I would get the DVDs and I would devour them. It’s like a balancing act. I enjoy what we did this season, and that you get a little bit of both worlds, and that you were able to devour a lot of content and get into the characters and the story, but at the same time, allow for discussion and all that.”
Whatever their plans are for Season 5, with Season 4 the brothers have left a lot of anticipation. Now it’s time to wait until 2024 for the new chapters.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
