There’s a massive experiment playing out right now in front of hundreds of millions of people, with billions of dollars at stake and the future of entertainment on the line. It’s better known as the latest season of “Stranger Things.”

The experiment began last month, when Netflix NFLX -5.04%▼ released seven new episodes of its most popular show, making this season unlike the previous ones in a notable way: You couldn’t finish it the day you started it.

To most players in the streaming marketplace, that’s simply business as usual. To Netflix, it’s heresy.

The decision to hold the final two episodes of “Stranger Things” until this weekend, five weeks after the first batch, represented a departure from the company’s signature innovation: the binge-watch. It has been more than a decade since Netflix pioneered the model of releasing full seasons of television shows at once, rather than one week at a time, and that concept of bingeing quickly became synonymous with the company. “Netflix’s brand for TV shows is really about binge-viewing,” co-chief executive Reed Hastings once said. “It’s addictive, it’s exciting, it’s different.”

This company that became an outlier when it ditched the conventions of television has become the outlier of the streaming world by sticking to the Netflix way. Bingeing alone doesn’t explain the company’s success over the past decade, but it was the singular phenomenon that distinguished Netflix and revolutionized Hollywood, as streaming television replaced the movie business and music industry as the defining cultural force of our time.

So what happens when the disrupters get disrupted? How do successful companies respond when the conditions of their early success change—and can they? To binge, or not to binge?

These are the fundamental questions facing Netflix as one of the biggest winners in the pandemic economy has become the year’s biggest loser in the ailing S&P 500. The answers might just force this proudly iconoclastic company to swallow its pride.

“I think Netflix does need to and is beginning to change their mind-set about what their business model looks like—and I would have to assume that all options are on the table now,” said Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen.