Netflix released the first four episodes of the fifth season of “Stranger Things” at 8 p.m. ET on the East Coast of the United States (2 a.m. tonight, Swedish time). But many who tried to watch the wildly popular science fiction series were met with error messages.
“Some members experienced streaming issues on certain TVs, but service was restored to all users within five minutes,” Netflix said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter .
Even then, Netflix had predicted that the great interest would cause problems.
"Netflix increased bandwidth by 30 percent to avoid a crash," series creator Ross Duffer writes on Instagram.
Abba song
"Stranger Things" has become a cultural phenomenon since the premiere season was released in 2016. Among other things, the series has managed to make old classic pop songs into hits again, such as "Running up that hill" with Kate Bush in the fourth season.
The fifth season features Abbas' hit song "Fernando" in the second episode. The song topped the charts worldwide in 1976 and has sold over six million copies.
Cool reviews
It's been three and a half years since the last season of "Stranger Things" so expectations are high, but several of the first reviews are not effusive.
Expressen's Mattias Bergqvist gives it three out of five stars, but thinks the series provides too few answers:
"What is at stake and what happens if the series' heroes lose is never really made clear. As little as the characters sometimes seem to know, it is just as difficult, at least at times, for the viewer to hold on to their commitment."
Roxana Hadadi of the American entertainment website The Vulture agrees, saying that "Stranger Things" has gotten lost in all the nods to the 80s and its own greatness. The series has become "a pastiche of a pastiche," she says.
However, they are not supported by Jack Seale in the British The Guardian . He gives four stars out of five and describes the first four episodes as "a five-hour action comedy horror film where every bit is luxuriously drawn out".
