Two series in 2016, two paths for serial television. The first is Stranger Things.

Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in the summer of 2016. That’s a long time in human years, but even longer in TV years. The show was only the seventh non-MCU original drama the platform had produced—it was early enough that Netflix was still in experimental mode, fishing around for prestige but also a firm identity to rival the Premium Cable giants that still monopolized the conversation. With Stranger Things, more than any of the other original series of that era, Netflix seemed to find both. While technically an original concept, the show’s calling card was always its intense, nonstop, nostalgic referentiality. From its first frames, Stranger Things was a pastiche, paying homage to Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, and the terrifying suburban landscape of 1980s horror cinema. The show was derivative, but that was its genius.

Ten years later, Stranger Things has finally come to an end, but Netflix has been reborn in its image. Netflix knows what you like to watch, with sweeping data on your viewing habits and algorithmic anticipation of your moods, and Stranger Things’ naked appeals to the most beloved media objects of your childhood helped the streamer realize it could simply produce content that it already knows you’ll like. At the time, there was a lot of consternation about shows like Stranger Things and USA Network’s cult hit Mr. Robot being too derivative, too tethered to texts its audiences had already consumed. But Stranger Things seemingly broke the seal, its popularity normalizing this kind of creative approach, intimate emotional narrowcasting. As Aaron Bady wrote in his review of the show’s first season, “when have we last seen such a lack of anxiety when it comes to influence?” As the decade has wound on, we’ve watched the rise of an industrywide obsession with existing IP—reboots and revivals and extended universes. What Stranger Things helped Netflix understand was that the most valuable, reliable existing IP is the data you give to your favorite streaming service.

Just a few weeks after the finale of Stranger Things, another series from 2016 has shockingly come back to life. AMC co-produced the John le Carré adaptation The Night Manager 10 years ago with the BBC as part of the rising tide of limited series anchored by A-list movie stars and helmed by acclaimed film directors. HBO had scored a hit in this........

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