Was this series still going? The madness of releasing new seasons every three years

When Millie Bobby Brown recently announced that, at 21, she had adopted a daughter, some recalled that over the course of 42 episodes of Stranger Things, the actress had managed to overcome adolescence, move to another country, get married, build a house, and start a family. In fiction, meanwhile, she’s still 13 years old, even though a decade has passed in real life. Time moves very slowly in the town of Hawkins. And the schizophrenic cadence of series premieres between seasons is to blame.

It’s no wonder, then, that many viewers were disappointed when the fourth season ended in July 2022, realizing that it still wasn’t the end of the show and that they would have to wait another three long years to close the chapter. And December 31 is still a long way off.

The eclectic timetables of the platforms can already be considered televisual crimes against humanity. Don’t ask me to follow the plot of Wednesday, when they’ve only managed to record eight episodes in three years. This month, the fourth and final season of Upload premiered almost without warning. And even the most avid viewers have asked ourselves: was this series still going? Did anyone remember where it ended two years ago? Who are these people? Just as we think there are celebrities who are already dead when we see their obituaries, it’s not uncommon to think there were television series that had already ended. If their platforms don’t even trust them anymore, why make the effort?

Among my upcoming release calendar, I also see that the Japanese show Alice in Borderland is returning in September, three years after its release. I thought it was as dead as the players of its macabre game, although, in reality, it should have been cruelly killed off after the miniseries from which it originated (and it’s not the only one).

The only people I allow these time jumps for are Larry David and Lisa Kudrow’s The Comeback, which has made it a tradition to premiere a new season every 10 years or so. Because I know that by the time Ted Lasso returns in 2026, he won’t be as interesting as he was in 2023.

Fortunately, this chaos makes you even more appreciative of those series that, like in the old days, continue to religiously keep their annual appointment: The Pitt, Only Murders in the Building... Because no one can explain how between two seasons of Stranger Things there have been four of The Bear (38 episodes), nine Marvel movies, 48 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, 65 of The Simpsons, or that HBO Max has changed its name three times.

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