It’s the end of the Stranger Things debut long weekend, and we are now four hours into the final season with four more episodes (some over an hour) to go.
Netflix has done something unusual this time around with a three-part split over the course of a single month, and something even stranger (no pun intended) given that it has decided to plant these Stranger Things season 5 episodes on the three major holidays of this time period.
When Do Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 and Volume 3 Come Out?
- Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 launched the Wednesday before Thanksgiving on November 26.
- Stranger Things Season 5Volume 2 (three episodes) will be released on Thursday, December 25 at 5 PM PT, 8 PM ET, Christmas Day.
- Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 3 (the ~2 hour finale) will be released on Wednesday, December 31 at 5 PM PT, 8 PM ET, New Year’s Eve.
On top of that, Stranger Things Volume 3 is also getting a limited theatrical release with showtimes that begin simultaneously on New Year’s Eve at 5 PM, something the Duffer brothers convinced Netflix to do given the scale of the event. The pitch of this season is that it’s effectively a bunch of blockbuster movies strung together. From the first four, you can kind of get that impression, but it’s supposed to escalate from here.
So, is this good or annoying?
Stranger Things season 5
Netflix
On the one hand, Netflix knows that people have off these holidays, and likely the day after, so they can watch Stranger Things at their leisure. That said, if you’re trying to watch them as soon as you can, either as a superfan or just to avoid spoilers at the very least, 8 PM on the two biggest holiday nights of the year seems like you may have to move some things around if you had actual plans with family or friends during that time. Airing these on a more random evening seems like it could be the better call, outside of trying to take over the holidays. I suppose it may get more press that way.
You know what would have gotten more press? Releasing these episodes week-to-week like every other non-Netflix show on TV. Netflix keeps trying to hedge, keeping its “binge” model intact, but splitting shows into two or now three chunks. At this point, I don’t understand why they don’t just bite the bullet and make their biggest shows week-to-week to keep the conversation going about them. Weeks/a month break is just annoying in terms of storytelling, and you could achieve the same longevity through a flat-out normal release. I don’t think we can consider these “binge drops” at this point when you’re taking over a month to air four episode, three episode and one episode chunks of something. That’s not a binge, it’s just stupid.
I don’t know if they’ll do something like this again for a while, as few shows are as big as this one, and something like Wednesday doesn’t seem like it’s ending any time soon. Squid Game also did this weird half-season thing where “season 3,” really just the second half of season 2, aired not all that many months later. Just be normal Netflix! Be normal!
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/12/01/the-stranger-things-season-5-volume-2-and-3-release-dates-new-episode-time-netflix/
