#they're both netflix properties and whatnot

[kneworder]

What's insane to me is that TUA s2 broke so you'd think they'd give it more priority and but then actively didn't. But you could argue it's because they were more focused on ST s4 but then TUA s3 was still really successful and beat ST s4 multiple times with weekly views and yet that still isn't enough. Like, in terms of money, which is the only thing Netflix really cares about, it should've become a higher priority after s2 but instead it became less of one

st is more marketable, is my guess? slap a funny little sailor outfit or d&d club shirt on someone and boom you're selling halloween costumes for decades. huge cast that appeals to younger and older audiences with some pretty big names in there.

tua doesn't have an acting equivalent to winona ryder (or even sean astin or matthew modine), the most marketable outfit is five's uniform (which isn't nearly as distinctive as the kind of stuff we see in st), and it's wacky enough that it doesn't specifically appeal to kids (coming of age) or teens (romance drama) or adults (parenthood themes + winona ryder).

i wanna be clear that i do like stranger things a lot, although i really really disliked some of their writing decisions (read: 90% of season 3). it's pretty clear a lot of the stuff they throw in there is for its marketability, but it's still a fun and enjoyable show, like there's a reason why its fanbase is so huge. at the same time it's significantly easier to build a fanbase when parts of the show are so blatantly there to sell, as compared to tua which is completely off the rails all the time.

i also think it's interesting to compare the two shows' season 3s, because personally I found them both extremely disappointing. imho they very much flattened down characters and made them less complex and created plots that thematically didn't fit with the previous two seasons. honestly i was even more pissed off with st (although i think my disappointment with st3 definitely influenced my expectations with tua3 i do not trust netflix anymore). but st3, for better or for worse, certainly did their absolute best to make it the most commercially successful season yet -- scoops ahoy outfits, the kids' egregious 80s outfits (particularly max & el), the entire conceit of starcourt mall, even the new coke ad read bit. even if the writing suffered, the profit didn't! they're still profiting off of the notoriety of st3's branding, and now with the hellfire shirts, it's continuing. tua's writing suffered, and it didn't introduce any new avenues for profit in season 3. maybe i'm just tin hatting over here but that's my two cents.

anyway. yeah. disappointed but not surprised. i am not expecting much from tua 4.