Stranger Things Season 5 is out now, and while fans quickly flocked to the streamer to check out the long-awaited return of the season, the way Netflix released the series shows the platform’s biggest issues.
What is Netflix’s biggest issue with Stranger Things Season 5?
For Season 5 of Stranger Things, Netflix has adopted a model it’s slowly but surely been using for some of its biggest shows. The first four episodes of the series dropped on Thanksgiving, with three more episodes set to release on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025, and then the finale of the series coming on December 31, 2025, which is New Year’s Eve.
For Stranger Things, this isn’t entirely new. Season 4 of the show also split up its episodes, albeit in a much different way. The first seven episodes debuted in May 2022, with the final two debuting two months later, in July. Squid Games, Netflix’s biggest show, also split up its final two seasons, releasing Season 2 in December 2024 and then the final six episodes in July 2025.
The format seems to be one for Netflix to be able to get as much excitement out of some of their biggest shows as possible. However, it also highlights one of the biggest problems Netflix faces. When the streaming company originally began broadcasting its own shows, it innovated the “binge method,” releasing entire seasons of shows at once and allowing fans to watch at their own leisure.
Now, Netflix seems to be attempting to exist in both worlds. While most of its shows still come out in batches, the company seems to be staggering the release of some of its biggest shows in order to keep fans coming back. It’s unclear if the release format will hurt the company, as Stranger Things Season 4 and Squid Game Season 2 resulted in some of the streamer’s biggest numbers.
However, as a watcher, it does seem to kill some of the momentum of watching these shows. Whereas the binge model drew criticism because the show ended so quickly, this new method doesn’t really help much either. Traditionally, weekly releases of TV episodes allow for a build-up of momentum, so each episode feels big. Dropping an indeterminate number of episodes at a time makes it so that only a handful of episodes are “big” ones, and only complicates the viewing experience when there are multiple release dates for episodes.
For Stranger Things, it doesn’t seem like the release structure will hurt the show. The show is already one of the most popular in Netflix’s entire catalog. However, it will be interesting to see whether or not the decision to continue splitting up shows in this format works for Netflix when it comes to less popular products.