Two things seem to frustrate fans: short seasons and split seasons, and if there's both? Extra fan frustration, regardless of intent. However, Netflix's Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria is now offering up an explanation for why the recent trend in split seasons for streaming shows. During the Next On Netflix preview presentation Deadline asked Bajaria about the release model. Bajaria explains, "[s]ome of those have been for reasons, because it was during Covid and strikes to get the shows on so audiences don’t have to wait for a long time."
Bajaria goes on to explain that it actually usually has to do with the specific show, rather than the decision of Netflix at-large.
“A lot of times it’s been creator-driven. Peter Morgan on The Crown, Shonda Rhimes on Bridgerton, there was a way that they wanted to structure or write it because they felt it was an actual, natural emotional break. So there’s no set way, it depends on what’s best for the show.”
Split Seasons Aren't Uncommon, They're Just Extra Obvious on Streaming
Network television is no stranger to splitting seasons. Fans can almost always expect a midseason finale for a show that airs in the fall and wraps its season in the spring. That involves usually a month or two long hiatus. The season, at its mid-point also usually has a cliffhanger to keep fans wanting more for when the show returns in the winter. That's no different than the "actual, natural emotional break'" that Barajia is referencing. The reason, it seems, that so many eyes tend to zero in on for example, Bridgerton Season 3 or Cobra Kai being split into multiple parts is the total episode count of those seasons. The addition some streamers are taking of splitting seasons into not two but three parts, like That '90's Show and Cobra Kai, also seem to be fueling the fan frustration.
When it comes to network television like Law & Order: SVU or Grey's Anatomy, those shows easily have at least 20 or more episodes each season barring seasons affected by something like the writers strike or the COVID-19 Pandemic. The break doesn't feel as sudden because fans have had week after week of consumption that feels substantive and makes the break feel almost 'earned.' When fans instead get four episodes, maybe five at a time and have to wait for only four or five more episodes, it seems that that doesn't feel as earned as it does with network television.
Eyes are now turning towards the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, which has entered post-production. Could that be split up too? Stay with Collider for the latest updates.
Stranger Things
- Release Date
- April 5, 2013
- Runtime
- 77 minutes
- Director
- Eleanor Burke
Cast
-
Mani
-
Bridget CollinsOona
-
Victoria JeffreyLil
-
Keith ParryBagman