One could argue (and I will, at length, whether you want me to or not) “prestige” TV shows take way too long to make. I get these are expensive series and, if it’s something like Game of Thrones, often have massive action set pieces with a billion extras. But in the case of Stranger Things, despite some certainly employing many visual effects, it just seems to take forever. I keep making jokes about how all the kids on the show can qualify for social security now, but it’s not that far off. Lots of TV shows have come and gone in the time of this one, but so did a lot of major world events.
Stranger Things premiered July of 2016. By time it drops its very final episode, it will be December 31, 2025. That’s 9 years, 5 months, 17 days. A very long time. The following are all the major world events of the 20th and 21st centuries that took less time than the entire run of Stranger Things.
- The First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918): 4 years, 3 months, 15 days
- The Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945): 6 years, 1 day
- Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953): 3 years, 1 month, 3 days
- Crewed Apollo Space Missions (11 October 1968 — 19 December 1972): 4 years, 2 months, 9 days
- Iran-Contra Affair (20 August 1985 – 4 March 1987): 2 years, 2 months, 9 days
- Existence of the Vine App (24 January 2013 — 17 January 2017): 3 years, 11 months, 25 days
- Time from When Vine Discontinued to the Day I Write This (17 January 2017 — 25 November 2025): 8 years, 10 months, 9 days
In fact, if stacked end to end, Stranger Things has taken longer than both WWII and the Korean War combined (9 years, 1 month, 4 days).
It also only took 16 days longer (or 9 years, 6 months, 2 days) for Marvel Studios to release the first 17 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s from Iron Man all the way to Thor: Ragnarok.
When Stranger Things premiered, the iPhone 7 was just about to come out. We just had the launch of the iPhone 17. Overwatch took home Game of the Year in 2016 and its servers officially shut down within just six years.
I could find more conveniently numbered durations of time tied to things that took a long-ass time, but I’ll stop here. Because, suffice to say, this fucking TV show has taken way too long to finish. And the fact that it’s now trying to steal three different holidays from us all rather than just dropping all at once has me extra annoyed. It better be worth it; those kids have grandchildren to feed.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.