Netflix reinvented TV watching by introducing the binge drop, releasing an entire season of its original series at once as opposed to the steeped-in-tradition weekly cadence.
There were naysayers, arguing that going week to week keeps a show in the cultural conversation longer. But Netflix stuck to its guns — and its binge model — until it modified it for Season 4 of Stranger Things, which was released in two batches more than a month apart in 2022.
It ushered in an era of split seasons for some of Netflix’s biggest series. Done in part to get fresh episodes to fans faster after production delays related to the pandemic and the Hollywood strikes, the trend peaked in 2023 and 2024.
In 2023, new seasons of The Witcher, The Crown and a supesized one of Virgin River were all released in two batches each. The following year,
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