You can instantly turn into Matt Damon at the end of Saving Private Ryan when you realize there’s at least one entire generation out there who don’t remember a time when the biggest shows on TV aired once per week, didn’t get reruns for an eternity, and couldn’t be paused, but Netflix continues failing to strike the happy medium with its latest trend for splitting its marquee shows in half.
The binge model has its pros and cons, as does the weekly rollout, with the majority of high-profile streaming exclusives tending to favor one or the other. However, ever since Netflix embraced the decision to cleave new seasons in twain and separate them by several weeks – presumably for the self-congratulations that come with two hefty sets of viewership data – the response from subscribers has been muted to say the least.
Either way, The Crown has been confirmed as the latest addition to the trend, with the sixth and final season of one of the platform’s biggest-ever episodic hits arriving firstly on Nov. 16, before vanishing for almost a month prior to bowing out with what’s presumably intended to be a bang on Dec. 14.
In most cases, the “mid-season finale” of a Netflix series split in two tends to be a cliffhanger of sorts, which makes you wonder where the line is going to be drawn when it comes to a drama based on the true-life history of the modern Royal Family. Using Princess Diana’s death as bait for the back half would probably be in bad taste, so maybe we can rule that one out, although you never really know.