Furious fans, bloated storylines and television seemingly made only to sell merch … it’s time to stop dragging series out. Most of them deserve no more than one outing
Though it aired almost two months ago, fans are still angry about the Stranger Things finale.
So disappointing was the wrap to the five-season sci-fi that its cast are still having to deny that there is an upcoming secret final episode. I was not remotely disappointed, however. I thought the show ended perfectly: when I stopped watching it after season one, episode eight.
I’m going to come out and say it, so that we can start fighting straight away. I believe that almost all recent TV shows should have been one season long.
Stranger Things had a perfect eight-episode arc: a little boy disappeared into a hellish parallel dimension and his mum (who was Winona Ryder!) fought tooth and nail to bring him back. The show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, seemingly knew this, as they originally pitched the series as an anthology featuring a different cast of characters each season. Netflix, naturally, said no – after all, you need a franchise with familiar faces if you want to sell customisable Stranger Things terrariums at two for £30. And so by the end, the show was stretched out beyond recognition and stripped of everything that made it groundbreaking and original. By all accounts, Ryder was left with nothing to do.
