If you binged the first five episodes of Cobra Kai’s sixth season on Netflix and then eagerly tried to find Episode 6, only to discover—confusingly—that it wasn’t out yet, you are not alone. If you then shook your head in bewilderment when you saw that Part 2 isn’t releasing until November 15th, I wouldn’t blame you.
If you seriously considered cancelling your Netflix subscription when you learned that the final five episodes of Season 6 wouldn’t arrive until sometime in 2025, I would call that an appropriate response. This release model that Netflix has adopted for shows in their later seasons—from The Witcher to Stranger Things to Bridgerton—is frankly terrible.
The thing is, I get why Netflix is doing it. They want to extend the life of a new season so that you don’t cancel your subscription. Sure, at one point they blamed this on unfinished post-production, but that’s clearly not the real issue now. It’s one thing to release most of Stranger Things 4 in late May and the second part in early July (just over a month, of course, which means you’ll have to stay subscribed for three!) but another to spread out Cobra Kai over many, many months.
As far as solutions go, let’s just accept that the binge model is dead for popular ongoing shows. You’ll get that for the first season so that everyone can binge it and the numbers look great, but for Season 2 of Squid Game or Wednesday, Season 5 of Stranger Things and Season 4 of The Witcher (and the list goes on) expect at least some—if not all—of these to be released in “Parts”.
There is a better way! A more natural way! It’s pretty simple, because it’s been used in the past and is still being used in one format or another by many competing streamers. Simply release the first three episodes the first week and then a weekly release every week after that. We know Netflix can do this, because it did with the popular anime Delicious In Dungeon.
I understand that there is a deep divide between those of us who really enjoy weekly releases—and miss the good old days, when everyone watched big shows like Game Of Thrones or The Walking Dead at the same time together—and those who prefer a binge model. But does anyone prefer this multi-part release schedule?
The benefits of a weekly release schedule are clear for both subscribers and Netflix. Netflix gets to extend our subscriptions by several weeks or more. The conversation around the new season keeps going for that entire time, with more attention given to each individual episode in the press and on social media and discussion boards. For producers and writers, shows can be written in a way that takes advantage of this, leaning more heavily into exciting cliffhangers and so forth. If there are post-production issues, teams can focus on finishing earlier episodes first and work on later episodes that stream later.
Viewers, meanwhile, don’t binge the first five episodes in a day and then wait around for weeks or months for the next batch. Everybody wins! That may not be possible in Cobra Kai’s big Sekai Taikai tournament, but it’s possible for Netflix and its subscribers and shareholders.
