Although 2025’s Stranger Things season 5 will see the long-running sci-fi series come to its long-awaited conclusion. Almost ten years after Eleven first met Mike, Dustin, and Lucas in a dark forest outside Hawkins, Indiana, Stranger Things season 5 promises to finally answer the many mysteries left unsolved by the Netflix series.
While Stranger Things season 5’s many other answered mysteries will be the final outing’s focus.
Stranger Things Season 5 Has Some “Film-Length” Episodes
Star Finn Wolfhard Noted How Long Some Of The Final Outing's Episodes Are
While season 5 needs plenty of screen time to explain the Upside-Down’s origins, whether Dr. Brenner is really dead, and what happened to Eleven’s sister Kali, the runtime of the show’s episodes is still striking. In a Collider interview, series star Finn Wolfhard itted “There are definitely some episodes this year that the runtime is definitely film-length.” This builds on a trend set by Stranger Things season 4, which featured numerous feature-length outings. Stranger Things season 4’s 9 episodes were all over an hour long according to Forbes.
The longest season four outing, episode 9, “The Piggyback,” clocked in at a whopping 150 minutes, or 2 and a half hours. That would be a considerable runtime for a movie and is almost unheard of for television shows. While no one wants Stranger Things season 5’s most exciting scenes to be trimmed down for the sake of imposing an arbitrary runtime on individual episodes, it is still surprising to see that season 5 will keep this trend alive. After all, feature-length runtimes run the risk of making streaming shows less like normal television and more like serialized movies.
Streaming Shows Having Feature-Length Episodes Has Been A Divisive Trend
Netflix Shows Led The Charge With Longer, Feature-Length Episodes
Since the early ‘00s, HBO, AMC, and Starz have been pushing the boundaries of what viewers expected from television as a medium and exploring alternative approaches to structuring serialized stories. Within this tradition, Netflix’s formula was initially a welcome change when shows like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and Daredevil offered viewers ten miniature movies instead of shorter weekly releases. However, as the streaming landscape has broadened to include competitors like Disney+, Paramount Plus, Prime Video, Peacock, and Apple TV, keeping up with these super-sized shows has become increasingly difficult for viewers.
Part of what made season 1 of Stranger Things such a success was its self-contained nature.
Stranger Things season 5’s extra-long runtimes now feel like a threat as much as a promise, since the show has all but abandoned the brevity demanded by traditional TV structure. Part of what made season 1 of Stranger Things such a success was its self-contained nature, whereas the story of Stranger Things season 5 has over a dozen main characters to follow at the same time. On one hand, more screen time gives the series more room to achieve this. On the other hand, this could come at the cost of the show no longer feeling like a TV show.
Stranger Things can now drag out certain plots while abandoning others thanks to its unlimited approach.
Thanks to Netflix’s approach gaining popularity in recent years, a lot of what made classic TV shows great has been lost. Where shows like The Sopranos, Lost, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad were forced to work their complex stories around the limited runtime of each episode, Stranger Things can now drag out certain plots while abandoning others thanks to its unlimited approach. As anyone familiar with the interminably slow Russia storyline from season 4 can attest, more screen time doesn’t automatically equate to better storytelling in Stranger Things.
Stranger Things Season 4’s Release Model Has Set The Tone For Other Netflix Shows
Many More Major Netflix Shows Are Following The Stranger Things Model
Since the budget and scope of even the biggest TV shows remain limited by practicality, longer episodes also mean that seasons are now much shorter in of episode count. They also take longer to come out. Likely inspired by the success of Stranger Things, Netflix’s other major hits like Cobra Kai, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Squid Game have all fallen victim to this trend. This has an unprecedented impact on the shows themselves.
Stranger Things Season 5's Unexpected Villain Return Will Hurt The Ending No Matter How It Happens
A surprising villain looks likely to return for Stranger Things season 5, and his comeback will hurt the show’s ending regardless of how it happens.
Much like Stranger Things season 5 needs a time jump to explain why its once-teenage cast are now in their 20s, Wednesday season 2’s lengthy production means the show’s stars will be substantially older by the time the second outing arrives. Stranger Things season 5 is hitting screens a solid three years after its predecessor, and season 4 took three years to arrive after season 3’s 2019 release. Legendary blockbuster director James Cameron even cited Stranger Things as a justification for shooting his Avatar sequels back-to-back, noting how obvious the cast’s aging was between seasons.
Why Streaming Shows Might Continue To Get Longer Episodes (But Shorter Seasons)
Feature-Length Episodes Generate Movie Levels Of Hype
It is always exciting to see the medium of television undergo another transformation, as annoying as the accompanying growing pains might be. TV shows are bigger and more expensive than ever thanks to Netflix’s success, and this means viewers understandably expect something bigger, more cinematic, and more immersive for their investment. This can mean that it is sometimes more practical for creators to film fewer longer episodes and spend more time in post-production, resulting in longer breaks between seasons.
The jump in quality from the messy, uneven season 3 to Stranger Things’ far stronger season 4 proves that these long breaks and long runtimes can benefit shows. However, the promise of season 5’s feature-length runtimes still feels like a mixed blessing. It is hard not to wonder what season 5 might have looked like with ten 45-minute episodes, rather than a handful of far bigger, movie-length episodes. The final outing of Stranger Things is likely to usher in a new era for streaming shows, and this means viewers may need to get accustomed to bigger shows with longer production breaks and fewer, longer episodes.
Source: Forbes
Stranger Things
- Release Date
- 2016 - 2025
- Network
- Netflix
- Showrunner
- Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
Cast
Jane 'Eleven' Hopper
Mike Wheeler
WHERE TO WATCH
- Directors
- Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz
- Writers
- Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
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