At what point, I wonder, will Netflix understand that this idea of splitting its big shows in half is doing more harm than good. I am hoping it will be after Wednesday season 2, but at this point, who knows what might make it through the dense walls of corporate HQ over there.
It seems pretty clear that at least in this case, the splitting-up of Wednesday season 2 into two parts, Part 1 on August 6 and Part 2 on September 3, is a mistake. First, I’ve recently covered the fact that viewership across seasons is down. While season 1 and season 2 both started identically, there has been a dramatic falloff for season 2 now while word of mouth was spreading about season 1.
That gap could be tightened by Part 2’s arrival in two weeks, but it is far more likely that viewers finish a show in one or three sittings rather than remember to tune in a full month later for the next four episodes.
But it goes beyond mere viewership. We’re seeing it play into the story as well.
Part of the benefit of all Netflix’s shows being able to be watched in a binge is that they can structure their story however they want with rising action, surprises and climaxes across 6-10 episodes. But with these split seasons, that’s often not true. You want some sort of big reveals and/or cliffhangers at the end of episode 4 in order to ensure viewers stick around for answers when it comes back in a month.
With Wednesday, episode 4 was clearly designed this way. It featured the death of at a major character, the escape of last season’s big villain, the arrival of her grandmother, the reveal of the crow-based murderer’s identity and then it wants you to believe Wednesday may have just been killed, and that’s the cliffhanger. Of course that’s not true, but they had to throw that in there.
Past that, it’s how promotion for Part 2 is handled. In this case, it would have been a fun surprise to tune in to the next episode and find Gwendoline Christie’s Principal Weems standing there, the dead season 1 character who is now a ghostly spirit guide for Wednesday. But as soon as promotional materials started for season 2, Weems was front and center in new photos and essentially leading the Part 2 trailer, spoiling what could have been a neat twist.
I know the only reason Netflix keeps doing this is subscription retention for at least two months instead of one and a quick cancellation, but it’s hurting these shows both in terms of viewership and dramatically, and I hope they reverse course. No signs they’re doing that, past a few exceptions, however, with Stranger Things season 5 about to be broken up into three parts this winter.
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