Opinions and Editorials Section
By Monica Dobson, Newswire Intern
When it was announced that “Outer Banks” on Netflix was confirmed for a fourth season, I was jumping up and down with happiness. Later, it was announced that the 10-episode series was going to be split into two parts, with the first five episodes releasing on Oct. 10 and the last five episodes releasing on Nov. 7. Being almost a month apart, all of a sudden that momentum of
excitement dropped. Notably, the first three seasons were not premiered in the same format as they are now.
“Stranger Things” was the first Netflix series to have its seasons released in two parts. Its ensuing revenue success has led to similar protocols for other hit shows.
Netflix first started this change in release style when it was announced that season four of “Stranger Things” would have two volumes. The first volume consisted of seven episodes and the second volume dropped the last two episodes, which came out five weeks ago. The finale was over two hours long.
There are a few reasons Netflix may have started doing this with most of its popular shows, such as “Bridgerton,” “Emily in Paris,” “Cobra Kai” and “You.” After seeing the success of “Stranger Things,” Netflix may have thought that their other series would get the same result — an increase in views and income. Another reason is to stop the people who tend to make an account only to use the free trial and then cancel shortly after watching the show.
Another explanation for Netflix delaying the releases of their series and cutting them into parts can be attributed to the Writer’s Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike that occurred for almost five months beginning in the summer of 2023. This delayed filming and development for their finished or almost finished projects, including “Outer Banks.”
Many other shows, specifically on-air television, release one episode per week. This lets people discuss the latest episode or make predictions about what they think will happen next in the story.
This marketing strategy simply does not work on Netflix’s end because fans will jump to watch as many episodes as they can and then discuss the show in its entirety with fellow fanatics. However, after waiting for almost a whole month for the next batch of episodes, people forget what happened previously, and they are not as excited to watch it anymore.
The promotion for “Outer Banks” season four has also been very underwhelming because of the minimum interviews and press for part one. There was a premiere for part one, but the question remains: will there be one for part two as well?
In general, the transition from binge-watching a series in one sitting to half-binging doesn’t feel right and completely takes the fun out of binge-watching shows.
It is unclear if Netflix will continue this two-part strategy with its series. It seems that if a show’s first season does really well, Netflix will continue to do the same with newer shows.
As a freshman in college, all I want to do after a bad day is sit in my bed, eat ice cream and binge-watch my favorite series. In the meantime, until part two of Outer Banks season four comes out, I will only be daydreaming about it.
