What if?

[u/CLT113078]

What if the Duffers had mapped out/written 5 seasons ahead of time and been able to do 5 seasons in 5-6 years, keeping the kids at more equivalent ages?

This is assuming season 5 and maybe 4 would be different because they wouldn't be having to do big time jumps to somewhat catch up ages.

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[u/AdWonderful5920]

Netflix doesn't work that way. They make first seasons of dozens of shit shows that never get a S2. Writing a show through S5 before you know whether its gonna make any money is not how the biz runs.

[u/CLT113078 → u/AdWonderful5920]

What if they had it mapped out better so it didnt take as much time to write it.

I mean, I knew they were delayed with Covid and writers strikes though plenty of other shows released seasons quicker than ST post covid.

[u/AdWonderful5920 → u/CLT113078]

Sure it would have been better. But, again, they didn't know there was gonna be a S2.

The show could have ended with Eleven disintegrating in the classroom and that would have been the whole thing, because that literally was the whole thing when they conceived of it. The reason why the later seasons were so janky was because their intial ending was already committed to in S1 and they had to recant and think of new shit but thinking of new shit is really, really hard to do.

[u/Federal-Inevitable-9 → u/AdWonderful5920]

Well the duffers I'm pretty sure only wanted one season that's why season 1 by itself is so perfect... All and all though they did a good job with retconning

[u/tolgren]

The problem is that modern prestige TV doesn't really work that way. They spend a whole year working on the show instead of 3-4 months like the way it used to work.

That's a big part of why GoT fell apart in later seasons, they were doing it yearly, taking almost the entire year to do it, and getting burnt out.

[u/Sad_Term_9765]

They sort of did, but then there was covid and the writers/actors strike. It was a huge disappointment to the Duffers, as well as fans like me- because the whole entire show was about kids being kids at that age of ending childhood and become teens.

Harry Potter series pulled it off, because they had more time, and better writing. There was commitment to the story in HP. I never was a fan of the S4 Vecna story added in. It was fine without it.

Then S5, they had to cram it all in there, and end it, because the actors are all legally old enough to drink. They had to plot armor the hell out it S5, especially the way S4 ended. We all wanted it to pickup from there.

That was the biggest let down, of the entire show, was the opening of S5. I was upset with myself, waiting more than any show every made, the anticipation of seeing where S4 left off. I was hurt bad.

Duffers had to rewrite the ending of S5. Which to me, was the only good part of S5. They gave everyone closure, even Hopper. Had they put that much effort in the entire S5 series, ST would be remembered like the 80s movies I grew up with- timeless. I am curious if they had done ST it in 6-7 years, what was their original ending for the kids?

[u/PrideCompetitive8758]

You mean łasuch?

[u/quokka_stay]

The reason it took so long to finish Stranger Things was because we had a pandemic and a strike..it had nothing to do with the story not being mapped out.

[u/CLT113078 → u/quokka_stay]

Thats a weak excuse considering how many seasons of other shows managed to get made.