It’s striking how much the young actors from Netflix’s Stranger Things have grown up since the show began – many have gone from being kids to almost qualifying for senior discounts! While it’s tempting to criticize the creators and Netflix for taking so long to finish the series, it’s more amusing to consider how many other TV shows started and ended within the same timeframe as Stranger Things.
The show Stranger Things first came out in July 2016. When the final episode airs, it will have been a total of 9 years, 5 months, and 17 days since the premiere – ending on December 31, 2025. Over five seasons, the show will only have 42 episodes, which isn’t a huge number.
Discussing Film created a helpful and attractive list of significant TV shows that premiered between the start of Stranger Things and its conclusion.
Here’s a list of popular TV series that began and ended while ‘Stranger Things’ was on the air:
You, Loki, Dark, Barry, Ozark, Andor, Arcane, Atlanta, Snowfall, Riverdale, This Is Us, Cobra Kai, Killing Eve, Big Mouth, Luke Cage, Derry Girls, Westworld, The Crown, and more.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 17, 2025
Shows like Loki and Andor were relatively short, with just two seasons and a limited number of episodes. However, several other series quickly surpassed Stranger Things in terms of total seasons and episodes, and they did so in a shorter amount of time. Here are a few that really stood out to me…
- Riverdale (2017-2023) – 7 seasons, 137 episodes, a series that had multiple time jumps and alternate universes.
- Young Sheldon (2017-2024) – 7 seasons, 141 episodes.
- The Good Doctor (2017-2024) – 7 seasons, 126 episodes.
- This Is Us (2016-2022) – 6 seasons, 106 episodes.
- Cobra Kai (2017-2025) – 6 seasons, 65 episodes.
- What We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024) – 6 seasons, 61 episodes
- Star Trek: Discovery (2017-2021) – 5 seasons, 65 episodes
- You (2018-2024) – 5 seasons, 50 episodes.
- Yellowstone (2018-2024) – 5 seasons, 53 episodes
- The Good Place (2016-2020) – 4 seasons, 53 episodes
It’s interesting to compare Stranger Things to other streaming shows. Series like The Punisher, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders – all on Netflix – had complete runs, even though some were later retconned. Meanwhile, Stranger Things takes significant breaks between seasons. I’m not saying these other shows are better simply because they have more episodes, but it’s striking how much television can have full, lengthy seasons when Stranger Things is still unfinished after so long.
Stranger Things 5 will drop the first four of its final eight episodes on Thanksgiving.
Kyle Anderson is a Senior Editor at TopMob and the host of the weekly podcast, Laser Focus, where he dives deep into pop culture. He also writes film and TV reviews, and you can find him on Letterboxd.
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2025-11-21 18:03