I think there is some truth in that and this final run of Stranger Things may be an exception but, I am watching the latest season of the The Morning Show and so far episodes are approximately 50 minutes in length.
The days of TV episodes averaging between 30-40 minutes in length are over.
I find it increasingly tedious to commit time watching prestige, big budget TV shows and this one is no different. The total runtime of the four episodes which have dropped so far amounts to 283 minutes, which is almost 5 hours devoted to the first half of this final season. The average runtime so far is 70 minutes per episode. It’s staggering really.
I mean sure if you’re a die-hard fan and want to see a bunch of twenty-somethings masquerading as teens finally wrap up this story then it won’t be a marathon for you. But for the rest of us, if you’re anything like me, I am left thinking this story could have naturally ended in season 4 and the show runners are dragging it out because it is now an established IP and Netflix wants to maximise user engagement and by extension profit from your time as much as possible.
We have allowed these tech-bro fascist retards to control every aspect of our digital lives, plunging us toward an anti consumer subscription model for every digital commodity, stripping us of autonomy and agency as a consumer.