‘Stranger Things’ returns, but do we still have the time to care? 

Three years after its last season, “Stranger Things” is back, but with feature-length episodes and growing viewer fatigue, the question is whether fans still have the time to care. 

By M.J. Cameron

“Stranger Things” Season 5 is set to premiere on Nov. 26 with its first four episodes. The series will then air the next three episodes on Christmas Day, and the finale will air on New Year’s Eve.  

It has been three years since Season 4, and “Stranger Things” has been revealed to have their Season 5 episodes run from 60-90 minutes.  

“It’s definitely a long season. Not every episode is like a full-blown movie, but there are some episodes this year that the runtime is film-length,” Finn Wolfhard said in an interview with Collider. 

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I hear about the newest series that fans love, only to find out the episodes are an hour long and it’s been years since the previous season, I automatically find another series to watch.  

Because of the stigma that I must dedicate hours into a show to know the story only to wait years for a continuation, I’ve given up a ton of shows I used to love. “Girl From Nowhere,” a Thai thriller I used to love, had hour-long episodes that I gladly watched for its gripping story. Four years later, there’s still no third season, and my interest has faded. 

Not everyone feels the same way. Olivia Richardson, a sophomore at UWT, gave me a new perspective to consider. 

“Personally, I like longer episodes because it keeps me entertained for longer and takes up more time,” Richardson said. “But I also have a short attention span so usually I end up watching it in segments.” 

“Stranger Things” is a great series. While I am skeptical about watching season five due to being a busy college student with a short attention span, Maya Hawke reassures longtime fans in an interview with Fangoria that the Duffer Brothers were taking care of the series. 

“Our showrunners, Matt and Ross, take a lot of responsibility. They have an amazing team of writers, but they’re very involved,” Hawke said.  “They write a lot, and they are very intense and serious about the quality of the continued writing, and so it takes a long time to write each season, and a long time to shoot them.” 

The final season started production in January 2024, which wasn’t the original plan. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in 2023 shut down Hollywood for months, halting production. The main cast including Millie Bobby Brown, Joe Keery, Sadie Sink and others are in high demand, which causes conflicts with production.  

Shows like “Stranger Things” having long episodes also tie in with the rise of streaming services over cable TV, which is a topic within the study of communications that helps people understand how the industry has evolved. 

One of the producers for “Broad City,” Paul Downs notes that “streaming allows us to have room for stories that might have otherwise been really short,” Downs said. “We actually get to explore certain things that we otherwise might not.” 

The cast of “Stranger Things” acknowledges that the Duffer Brothers take extreme care of the quality of the show. With the rise of streaming services and the freedom to expand stories, the show can conclude its expansive story without restrictions. However, whether fans stay loyal to the series after a long hiatus and the rise in Netflix’s subscription prices, it’s hard to determine the outcome of the series’ finale. 

College life teaches you to value every hour, which makes committing to a 90-minute episode feel like a luxury. While I respect the craftsmanship behind “Stranger Things,” Heinz College states that the idea of binge watching has become romanticized in the age of digital platforms, which can negatively affect students. This can include poor sleep, social isolation and increased stress. 

The way we engage with media is changing because our time has become our most limited resource. With the show coming back just shy of UWT’s finals week, will fans give into binge culture or prioritize their grades 

While I had the time to binge the entire series during the summer, I didn’t anticipate how busy I would be, and “Stranger Things” doesn’t hold that much importance to me over getting through my junior year.