The fourth season of Stranger Things is to be a blockbuster of two halves. The much anticipated, pandemic-waylaid Stranger Things 4 will arrive as a dastardly double whammy, with Volume One debuting May 27 and Volume 2 arriving an eternity (that is, five weeks) later on July 1, Netflix has announced. 

According to the show’s sibling creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, the split is to accommodate the unprecedented running time of the new episodes, which clock in at “almost twice the length of any previous season”. In other words, the supernatural adventures of Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven really do go up to 11 this time. 

But, while sprawling run times may indeed be a factor, it’s hard not to interpret the announcement as anything other than as a body blow against the cult of the binge-watch. Netflix pioneered the “watch in one go” method of viewing when it dropped the first season of House of Cards all at once in February 2013. And now, almost a decade later, it has arguably sounded the retreat by dividing its biggest franchise down the middle. The final season of Ozark has also been split into two manageable chunks, and the same approach is being taken to the ending of Better Call Saul. When even Netflix is stepping back from the bingeing brink, does the “b” word have a future? 

Television creatives have long loathed bingeing, which they feel reduces audiences’ engagement with their work – a cruel disservice to shows typically years in the making. Viewers will guzzle an entire season in a single weekend and then forget it and move on to the next shiny bauble. In other words, binging kills buzz.  

The latest prominent voice to take a stand against bingeing is Marvellous Mrs. Maisel creator Amy Sherman-Palladino who convinced Amazon Prime to stagger the rollout of the period dramedy’s fourth season. “Our show is dense. There’s a lot of s___ going on. And attention must be paid. We’re really happy that they are doing this,” she said.