Squid Game isn’t making the mistake that spoiled Stranger Things
NetflixSquid Game Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger so shocking that even Sylvester Stallone would be scared to tackle it (shoutout to the three action movie fans who got that).
Thankfully, we won’t have long to wait until we find out what happens to Gi-hun and the other contestants, as Squid Game Season 3 is rumored to be making its debut sometime in the summer of 2025.
That six-month(ish) wait may seem agonizing, but it’s a blink of an eye compared to the long gaps between some seasons. Indeed, this has become a bit of a talking point among those of us who enjoy the small screen.
It used to be that shows would air a new season each year, yet as budgets have ballooned and prestige TV series have evolved into what are essentially six-to-10-hour-long movies, the gaps between seasons have grown chasms.
Three years later…
NetflixThere are many offenders when it comes to these cavernous season breaks – it’s been two years since we last saw Joel and Ellie, and don’t get me started on House of the Dragon or Severance – but the worst offender, in my opinion, is Stranger Things.
We last visited Hawkins in 2022, and we’re still months away from Stranger Things Season 5 Part 1 (or whatever Netflix is calling it). In that time, a lot has happened; in fact, to demonstrate how long a period of time has gone by, I thought I’d list just a few things that have happened in those three years so you get a sense of how long it’s been.
Things that have happened in between Stranger Things Seasons 4-5:
- My best friend proposed and got married
- My other best friend had a kid
- My sister got engaged
- Another friend got married… wait, should I get married?
- I moved house… twice… and city once
- The Queen died
- We got a new(ish) king
- Barbenheimer
- We had like eight Prime Ministers
- Marvel released six movies and will likely wrap up Phase 5
- The DCEU died and was reborn, minus the E, as the DCU
- We’ll have had two seasons of White Lotus
- Ted Lasso ended
- Gavin and Stacey ended
- Slow Horses managed to finish three more seasons
- Taylor Swift completed her tour. What tour? The world tour!
- Oasis reformed (yes, really)
- Somehow Trump returned
That’s a lot, right? I think that what’s really shocking, though, is that enough time has passed since Stranger Things Season 4 ended, and now there are people in the world who didn’t even exist as thoughts when we last saw Eleven and the Party. They aren’t babies either; they’re mini-people you can have actual conversations with (Editor’s note: I believe they’re called children).
Wait, what happened?
NetflixThat’s ridiculous, and jokes aside, it comes to the detriment of the storytelling. These two-to-three-year gaps are killing all the momentum the shows have built up, and I’m not left excited for what’s to come. I’m just confused about what’s happening when the next season begins.
I know for a fact I’m going to have to watch a Stranger Things recap before I can enjoy Season 5 because it’s been so long I won’t remember everything that happened, and that’s just depressing. Imagine having to sit and do the equivalent of TV homework before you can enjoy something. Who’s got time for that?
Perhaps the biggest problem with these long gaps isn’t that I can’t be trusted to remember a grocery list I was told four minutes ago, let alone the plot of eight episodes of television; it’s the unreasonable expectations the fandom builds up during the wait.
After all, on Reddit, social media, and other wretched internet hives of scum and villainy, you’ve entire groups who’ve essentially assembled their own writer’s room and spent the last couple of years writing an alternative version of the series in their minds.
When the actual show is released, the version on screen doesn’t match the version the fans wrote in their heads, and everyone’s left feeling a bit disappointed. It’s not fair, I know, but it happens.
Thankfully, Squid Game isn’t falling into the same trap. A six-month gap is the perfect break. It’s just long enough for us to get hyped without us necessarily overhyping it in our heads, and for older viewers (like myself), it means I won’t spend the first episode desperately googling characters as I try and fail to remember what happened the last time I saw them.
Looking for more hot takes? Then check out which Squid Game characters we think will die in Season 3 or our article breaking down Squid Game Season 2’s biggest unanswered question.