The recent release of Stranger Things’ series finale felt definitive in ways that extend beyond fans’ teary-eyed and long-awaited farewell to Hawkins.
Yes, our gang of loveable nerds defeated the show’s Big Bad and put an end to the mysteries of the Upside Down and whatever the heck was going on with Mike’s hair.
But outside the show itself, the conclusion of season five — nearly a decade after Stranger Things first landed on Netflix — also felt like an end to the very way we consume, and talk about, TV.
When Stranger Things debuted in 2016, all episodes dropped at once. This pioneering release model ushered in what we now call binge-watching, reshaping how, and when, fans discussed their favourite shows.
At the time, Netflix’s simultaneous releases were considered by some to signal the death of water cooler TV. Gone were the days of feverishly reacting to episodes, dropped on a weekly basis, with fellow fans at work by the water cooler.
All of a sudden, fans’ questions changed from “did you watch last night’s episode?” to “wait, what episode are you up to?”. Stranger Things was unique in that it both pushed this transition while still remaining a buzzy show that lit up group chats and ignited fan debates.
So, as we bid adieu to Stranger Things’ pop culture-defining run, you might be left questioning whether any other show will muster that same feeling of truly communal viewing.
What is the state of water cooler TV in Stranger Things’ Upside Down-sized wake? Did the finale take our last slice of appointment TV with it? Will water coolers ever be the site of post-episode rundowns again?
The BN (Before Netflix) times
To answer these questions, I cast your minds back to the BN (Before Netflix) times.
TV’s big boom in the ‘90s was built on the rollout of episodes on a week-to-week basis. Friends, Seinfeld and Twin Peaks were among the buzziest shows whose staggered episodes meant fans could chat about Rachel’s haircut the day after a new instalment aired.
This rollout model continued in the aughties. The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Lost, and Prison Break became runaway hits, partly fuelling their success on the anticipation, chatter, and debates among fans in between weekly episodes.
Then, in 2013, Netflix moseyed onto the scene and dropped all episodes of House of Cards at once. In TV terms, it was the equivalent of dumping an eight-course meal on viewers rather than drip-feeding them for weeks at a time. And as it turned out, we are all gluttons.
The end of the water cooler?
A large part of Netflix’s success was established on this disruptive release model. Early seasons of its flagship shows — Stranger Things, The Queen’s Gambit, Wednesday, Squid Game, and Bridgerton — encouraged fans to binge excessively, with Netflix’s insistence on giving us more presenting another blow to water cooler TV: an excess of choice.
Now, with an endless library to choose from and the ability to consume it all at once, our post-episode discussions had changed entirely. Chatting about your favourite show with a fellow fan suddenly hinged on two things not seen in the BN times; that the fan was up to the same episode as you, and that they even knew what show you’re talking about.
What resulted was an extremely fragmented viewing experience. Your chats about a steamy scene in Bridgerton had to be prefaced by spoiler warnings, rather than a communal hornfest about an episode you both watched at the same time.
Or, you scrolled so far down the Netflix homepage that you landed on a niche title that prevented you from dishing with a clueless colleague, a far cry from the days when Friends was one of only a handful of accessible choices on offer.
Social media enters the chat
This is mostly the state of the TV landscape today. But if you are (rightfully) mourning your weekly TV gossip sesh, take heart: water cooler TV is not entirely dead, it has simply changed location.
Take, for example, shows like The White Lotus, Succession, Severance, Heated Rivalry or the final season of Stranger Things.
All of these titles, released in the AN (After Netflix) times, captured the zeitgeist and proved that our appetite for dissecting TV’s buzziest moments remains intact, even though we’re no longer watching on the same schedule and aren’t short on choice.
If your colleague isn’t up to speed on which White Lotus guest is the most rich, white and awful (spoiler: all of them), you know who will be? Countless fellow fans over on TikTok, Reddit, or whatever platform of your choosing. Enter, the digital water cooler.
When Stranger Things (frustratingly) shifted from a binge release to a split-season rollout for its final season — a tactic it also applied to Bridgerton and its reality TV slate — I avoided discussing new episodes in my personal group chats.
I didn’t want to be the one who spoiled the reveal of Eleven having notably poutier lips than past seasons (“I can clear a path!”), so I headed to the Stranger Things subreddit instead. There, I consulted with fans, predicted character deaths and became a pariah when claiming that Henry could absolutely get it.
The discourse moves online
In another time, that subreddit would’ve been the water cooler. Sure, it’s less effective in avoiding work, but not if Reddit is just a window-scroll away from the office Slack chat.
The digital water cooler is also where those niche shows that sit outside the monoculture can truly flourish. With such an overstuffed programme, your immediate circle might not have caught Heated Rivalry (their loss), or they might turn their nose up at The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, or shrug when you mention Hacks.
But for every disinterested colleague or friend, there are countless avid fans just like you who are ready to shout their opinions into the void in real time. It’s why the online discourse around Heated Rivalry almost eclipsed the show itself, and why Severance fans posted unhinged theories to the point of (metaphorically) splitting their brains in two.
So, is water cooler TV truly dead?
While it’s true that water cooler TV is probably dead in the traditional sense — with fewer people watching the exact same show at the exact same time — that doesn’t mean your TV faves are dead, too.
Netflix might’ve thrown a spanner in how we discuss TV, but its crown jewel Stranger Things, both a product of the binge model and a reigning monoculture hit, proved we still yearn for communal viewing, however fragmented it’s become.
As we leave Hawkins in the rear-view mirror, fret not: there’ll be plenty more TV moments to talk about. The water cooler hasn’t dried up, it just logged on.
Lead images: Apple TV, HBO and Netflix
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