The Witcher Season 3: How Stranger Things Inspired The Two-Part Episode Split

Netflix introduced the world to the binge-watch model. Instead of watching a new episode one week after the next, an entire season would drop all at once. People could watch the whole thing at their leisure, with many people choosing to watch it all within the span of a couple of days. It seems unlikely the streaming service will ever revert to a weekly release model, but it has begun experimenting with cutting seasons into two volumes and releasing them a month apart, as is the case with its latest release — "The Witcher" Season 3.

The first five episodes of the new season came out on June 29, while the remaining three will come out on July 27. It's a way to spread out the joy with Netflix's most popular shows getting split up, like "Stranger Things" Season 4 and "You" Season 4. In fact, "Stranger Things" played a role in deciding to break "The Witcher" Season 3 up. It's not the only reason, but it played a part as executive producer Steve Gaub told The Verge, "Whilst we were in production, Stranger Things had come out, and they had split their season. And it was like, 'well, that's intriguing.'"

There are definitely pros and cons to a weekly model versus the binge-watch one. By watching something week-to-week, there's an enhanced discussion with the show remaining in the public consciousness for longer. There's also the anticipation of seeing how one episode's ending will play into the beginning of the next one when you have to wait a week. Netflix breaking up seasons into two volumes seems to be a way for the platform to have its cake and eat it, too, by giving audiences giant chunks of content while having some anticipation built up over a month. 

Steve Gaub also explained how the original plan for "The Witcher" Season 3 wasn't to break it up into two sections, but while filming, they found they had a natural exit point to do so. He explained, "That wasn't written into the script; it wasn't known when we were shooting. However, we did know what the season was, and there is a significant pivot point." Gaub also admitted that a straightforward binge-watch release means cliffhangers are a moot point because someone can just immediately watch the next episode to get a resolution. But this way, viewers can look forward to something: "You don't get that satisfaction of the anticipation and discussion and chatting online. So we wanted to give that to the fans, and the story was there for us to do it."

Netflix has changed the game as far as how people consume content. And now, people will have to wait a month to get answers to those confusing "The Witcher" Season 3 moments.