Stranger Things star describes Season 5 as “eight movies” and now everyone’s mad

Jessica Cullen
Maya Hawke and Joe Keery as Robin and Steve, covered in dirty and looking past the camera in Stranger Things

Maya Hawke just described Stranger Things Season 5 as “eight movies”, and the fan reaction is pretty negative, to say the least.

If Stranger Things Season 5 does drop in 2025, then it’ll have been almost a decade since the show aired. Five seasons in ten years is just one of the many metrics that’s potentially causing Netflix to be losing goodwill from fans when it comes to the fantasy series.

Now, one Stranger Things cast member has brought about another wave of criticism with an innocent comment.

Speaking to Podcrushed, Maya Hawke (who plays Robin Buckley), said of the upcoming episodes: “It takes a long time to write each season and a long time to shoot them. We’re making basically eight movies.”

The “eight movies” comment has now reached far and wide across social media, giving everyone reason to make the same frustrated complaint. Can TV shows even be considered TV anymore?

As season numbers have gone down and episode lengths have gone up, the lines between movies and TV are becoming increasingly blurred. Based on the comments, viewers have had enough.

As one X user wrote: “I’m so ready for the era of TV episodes as ‘“’mini movies’ to be OVER.” Others agreed, with comments like: “No-one wants to call television television anymore.”

“Producing movies as television does no favors to either medium,” said one comment, while another added: “I miss the days when television was television that had seasons of 12+ episodes instead of this homunculus mini movie stuff.”

Some comments even specifically cite Stranger Things as being to blame for this new trend. As one comment asked: “Is it an exaggeration to say this show has single-handedly killed television as a medium?”

“A pretty solid show that basically killed the art of television lmao. MCU of TV,” said another.

For more, check out our feature on why Netflix needs to open movie theaters, not malls. We’ve also got explainers on the Upside Down, as well as all the other new TV shows to stream this month.

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