Netflix's opening 8-minute tease of Stranger Things season 4 proves that the streaming service should rethink how it releases its original series. Nearly three years after season 3 premiered, Stranger Things is returning with a highly-anticipated fourth season in two volumes. While the opening minutes of the next season are a welcome surprise, it does reveal a consistent streaming issue with Netflix.
In April 2022, Netflix reported that the platform had lost 200,000 subscribers in the year's first quarter. Furthermore, they explained that they expected to continue to lose subscribers in greater numbers as the year proceeded. As a result, Netflix's stock plummeted and they have since continued their policy of mass layoffs of Netflix employees.
This release of the opening scene from Stranger Things shows that Netflix is close to solving its biggest problem, but is still not quite there. Netflix would benefit from releasing original show episodes weekly instead of all at once. While Netflix has built its brand around immediacy and accessibility, the binging format is clearly no longer working for the streaming giant. Other streaming services like Amazon's Prime Video, Apple TV+, and HBO Max have implemented weekly releases of many of their shows, garnering more tension, interest, and conversation from viewers. These extended release schedules give viewers something to look forward to each week instead of attempting to get through the whole release in one sitting to avoid spoilers. In turn, this encourages conversations and theorizing around mystery shows and outlandish series - something that both The Lincoln Lawyer and Russian Doll season 2 would have benefited from on Netflix in 2022.
This is not to say that Netflix hasn't been experimenting with a new format. The Fear Street trilogy (Fear Street Part 1: 1994, Fear Street Part 2: 1978, Fear Street Part 3: 1666) was released over the span of three weeks and kept a lot of fans' interest. Stranger Things season 4 seems to be an all-out epic as the penultimate season of the series, since there will be two volumes. The first volume will have 7 episodes released on a single day and the second volume will end with 2 episodes the length of 2 feature films.
While it seems like a step in the right direction, the 7 episodes of Stranger Things' fourth season's first volume still align with the binging format for which Netflix is best known. But the fact that viewers will have a couple of weeks in between installments to process and catch up on what they just watched is advantageous as well. Stranger Things will likely not lose its relevance in that time period, but the spacing out of its release and the early tease make it clear that Netflix might be on the verge of solving their biggest problem.