Films and Fiction

Films & Fiction Weekly

The aptly-named Duffer Brothers have made an embarrassing remark in an interview with Variety, where they say that the three-year wait between new seasons of streaming shows is actually a good thing.

I’m sure almost no one would agree, but more telling is the part where they say they don’t like 20-episode seasons, and only watched movies as kids. Well, maybe they shouldn’t have made a TV show, then.

In the past you could expect a large US show to run for 20+ episodes per season and have a new season a year, like Star Trek. Now, streaming shows typically have an 8-episode run and take about three years between seasons. It’s a stark difference. In fact, I think the two formats are totally different. Streaming isn’t really TV at all, it’s more just a long movie cut into a serial, and with the Netflix binge model, even more so.

It’s embarrassing for the Duffers to say that, though, especially with a show like Stranger Things, which has taken almost a decade to complete, and the young cast have clearly aged out of their roles. But even for other shows, it’s a bad thing. So much modern entertainment relies on the hype and trends to get views. How can they be expected to keep that up during the three years when there’s no new “content”? Why should anyone care about Stranger Things now, when so much new stuff has released since 2022 to catch our attention? It’s not practical to expect a show to run purely on goodwill in that time.

Severance season two ended on a cliffhanger, but we likely won’t see a third season for at least a couple of years. Will fans care about it in that time? And what if it fails to deliver, and all that waiting was for nothing?

I doubt if longer, episodic season would suit streaming audiences. It’s hard to imagine them sticking with a single show for six months when there’s so much on offer to grab your attention, but the Duffers are partly responsible for changing people’s expectations. If you want to make movies, go and make movies, and leave television alone.

Game over, man! Game over!

Alien: Earth has finally ended. Well, I say ended, because the credits rolled, but not a single thing has been resolved. All the characters are still alive, the story hasn’t developed, and this whole season was just a teaser.

How can a show about Xenomorphs on Earth fail so badly? It should be an easy win, but instead we’re subjected to over seven hours of relentless trash, stuffed with pretentious Peter Pan references, some of the stupidest characters ever committed to film, and a plot that subsists on convenience.

It turned one of the scariest creatures in sci-fi into a cute little pet, which Wendy can stroke, call to heel, and use as her personal guard dog. Don’t be surprised if season two has her playing fetch.

This really is a contender for worst show of 2025.

This Isn’t The Way

I was considering doing a reaction to The Mandalorian and Grogu trailer, except that I had no reaction to it. It’s exactly what I expected: safe, unimaginative, full of nice “oh, look!” moments, but nothing that makes you really want to go out and watch this movie.

I expect the film will be exactly the same, with a ton of cute Grogu moments, lots of action scenes where Din Djarin is harmlessly attacked, protected by his beskar plot armour, and several cameos of popular characters, to all be forgotten within a week.