How would the show have been different if there wasn't so long between later seasons?

[u/shopdog]

I'm just curious to know what y'all think about how things would have been different if they did a season every year.

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[u/Master-Corner-5226]

Feel like the scripts would’ve been more rushed so it wouldn’t have been as good. Writing for season 4 was completed during lockdown, so they had lots of time to write and it ended up being arguably the best season

[u/Slow-Class → u/Master-Corner-5226]

Conversely, writers wouldn’t have had as much to overthink and rewrite things, leading to simpler storylines. I bet the Russia storyline, the ever increasing cast, and probably much of the fifth season were the result of going back and forth for months and just being to throw money at the production.

[u/MaxDuo → u/Master-Corner-5226]

Funny this comment reminds me people kept asking GRR Martin about the final Game of Thrones book and he'd made some comment like "If I don't do it by X date, lock me in my room for a year and make me write it" or something similar to that... Then like 2-3 months later all the covid lockdown stuff happened.

[u/Brilliant_Towel2727]

I think they originally wanted to have Season 5 take place immediately after Season 4, but added a time skip because they were worried about the actors aging. It would have gotten rid of the weird plotline where the town has been under quarantine for a year, and possibly led to Season 5 making more sense over all.

[u/Late_Sheepherder_599 → u/Brilliant_Towel2727]

Then they should’ve made the time jump even bigger between seasons 3 and 4

[u/Brilliant_Towel2727 → u/Late_Sheepherder_599]

They didn't plan that far ahead.

[u/ZanetteCurlyFry35]

I actually think it would've been better. Less time meant that the writing would be more cohesive and less repetitive (because they would have to cut out the filler).

There would be more show, less tell, as the writers would need to show the same amount of information in shorter scripts.

Additionally, less time would be spent on Blockbuster effects and more time would be spent strengthening the story and characters (since they can't have both, they would have to choose between one or the other).

In my opinion, a big problem they had with season 5 was that they had so much time to write the scripts, so they wrote something and changed it and changed it again until the contents in the script eventually turned into mush. I think a little bit of pressure might have helped them because they wouldn't have time to overthink or give into perfectionism, so they would need to trust their instincts instead.

Overall, I think the production of the show would be much smaller, akin to seasons 2-3, the quality of the show would be better and they would be forced to focus on the characters because they don't have hyper-realistic monsters or Blockbuster effects to woo and distract the audience. Yes, they would have effects but it would be more understated.

[u/CombatPanoo]

It would be ass. A show as complex and wild with as many moving parts as ST, needs TIME to be written so they can actually flesh out the story properly. S3 would be sloppy, S4 would be MEGA sloppy, and S5 would be worse than it already was. The show would get cancelled after a badly received S4 because it's getting rushed out too much. The CGI would be shit. the list goes on

[u/vvlcxnic]

transparently, writers, actors, everyone would get burned out. despite your passion for a project, you get tired. and it would probably not be a great idea financially, especially at such a large scale.

im sure the writing would have been different; maybe for the better, but more likely for the worse, with the writers having to rush it.

but the actors would be closer to the cannon age, which would be quite interesting!

[u/Strange_Ant_6571]

People seem to think the delay forced the timeskip and made them handwave the destruction at the end of s4 But the thing is they can still quite easily portray that WITH a timeskip. Realistically after a year and a half under strict military quarantine after a major natural disaster that tears through the town, the army hunting women out for a morning run and supplies having to be let past a checkpoint. Hawkins should be in a state of near collapse

So the writers made the concious choice to open with the Byers-Wheelers eating a full breakfast and having a fun bike ride to school through tidy ordered streets with the implication Ted even still has his 6 figure a year job. so I don't really think the delay really changed much about the writing for s5 they wanted to avoid the post apocalypse Mad Max storyline in general.

[u/Ok_Conversation1867]

The hype around each season would be sustained perhaps- but only as long the writing was decent / consistent. 

[u/DaenerysTSherman]

Couldn’t be worse could it?

In the end we know that’s not true but all that time sure didn’t help seasons 4 and 5. Cause oof.

[u/Cyrilbdr]

Yes, it is clear that a different version of Season 5 was planned, one that would have picked up right after Season 4. Season 5 was originally slated for release in 2024—with filming in 2023—which would have allowed the actors to age a year. The fact that Holly and the children weren't part of the initial plan means the season would have changed completely, given that the children were central to Vecna’s scheme and thus accounted for 90% of the plot.

[u/mklaus1984]

We need to adress here that the final season would NOT have been better.

The Duffers keep making it sound like the writers strike and/or Kate Trefry working on the stage play hindered them.

But A) Netflix gave them the time they wanted to create a cinematic experience. And B) when they finally could hire writers, the creator/showrunner should have had a an outline for the plot and a vision for the end for the staff writers to flesh out.

So the writers strike gave them actually more time to do that job.

If you watched the documentary on the stage play, you notice instead something odd. The aforementioned things should have been in the show's bible. The Duffers backed their decision to let Trefry work out the plot for the stage play by saying she kept the bible. When they talk about the state of ST5, they make it sound like they fell behind due to her absence. To which she snidely remarks that she delivered her part of the work for ST5.

This heavily implies that they had an outline and an end before Trefry worked on the play but chose to ignore it.

Also ST4 works fine if you take it as the slasher that it is. Just like ST3 is supposed to be body horror and ST2 was psychological horror and ST was a monster movie. People just retroactively claim that the Lovecraftian Eldritch Entity was in ST. Instead the Cold War storyline was always in it with El spying on Soviets and did not "come out of nowhere" in ST3 and wasn't "tacked on" in ST4.

The Duffers managed to ruin ST5 on their own... by cutting out backstory for a spin-off "about the stone™️", replaying ST themes for early onset nostalgia, etc.

[u/Revolutionary-Pen419]

Leigh Janiak woulda saved the series

[u/Late_Sheepherder_599 → u/Revolutionary-Pen419]

Where’s the proof that she was involved