Stranger Things season four is finally going to premiere sometime in 2022 after fans have been waiting for it with bated breath. Recently, one of the actors on this Netflix show, Paul Reiser, spoke up about the rapid consumption of content.
Created by the Duffer brothers, the 2016 Netflix show became a pop-cultural phenomenon as it helped resuscitate the sci-fi genre and the classic child endangerment theme — where kids on bicycles try to find their friend who has mysteriously disappeared when they encounter a girl with telekinetic abilities. Amidst surfacing secrets about illegal laboratories and experimentation, dysfunctional families, mercenary bureaucracy and supernatural elements, including a deadly interdimensional demon albeit with flower petals for teeth, the show became an absolute favourite among the masses.
Ever since its release in 2016, the show helped catapult Netflix’s popularity and people binge-watched the show ever since its release. However, Reiser who plays Dr Owens, Will Byers’ doctor who works on the behalf of the government to update them about the supernatural occurrences, has spoken up against the downside of binge-watching.
Dr Owens is initially a questionable character who appears suspicious in the beginning. However, fans are convinced of his good intentions after he helps Will and the rest of the town as well as helps Chief Jim Hopper get official papers to adopt Eleven legally.
Reiser was himself not sure about his character. “There is a very good reason for everybody to be suspicious. And that was a fun thing to play — no matter how warm or accommodating he tried to be, he was up against this wall of, ‘Yeah, we ain’t buying it.’ I was thinking, ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t trust me either if I was you. You guys went through a terrible year last year. I get it,’” he said.
Reiser does not condone binge-watching content. He says that it takes away the audience anticipation that exists as they eagerly await the arrival of the show. That leads to impatience and a yearning for more content as soon as they finish watching the season in question.
While talking about the varied consumption of content on the part of the audience, he said, “There’s good and bad. I remember when I did the second season of Stranger Things, and people were clamouring, ‘When is it coming? When is it coming?’ And then they’d watch it all in a day.”
Talking about how underwhelming it is for performers, he said, “And I’d feel like, ‘Well, we just spent a year and a half making that. Take your time, chew your food.’ And it’s like you work hard at making a meal and somebody gobbles it down. It’s like, ‘Well, that seems a shame.’ On the other hand, I know personally as a viewer, I’m way behind, but I know that it’s there.”
Reiser only had a few minutes of screentime in the third season and it is unlikely for him to make a return in the fourth season. However only the fourth season will confirm our suspicions and theories.