This past New Year’s Eve, the wildly successful Netflix series Stranger Things closed out its final season. The award-winning show had garnered mass international attention over the last 10 years of its runtime, with fans anticipating a complex and decisive ending. Instead, they were met with eight mediocre episodes of repetitive and predictable writing. From numerous plot holes to cliché dialogue, by the conclusion of the season, the vast majority of fans were left dissatisfied and searching for answers. 
Stranger Things debuted in 2016, quickly becoming one of Netflix’s most popular shows due to its diverse characters, dark fantasy storyline, and authentic 80s feel. It initially centered around a few core characters, effectively delving deep into multiple complex storylines. However, almost a decade later, fans have criticized the show’s shift toward an abundance of characters with lackluster plotlines and increasingly corny dialogue, resulting in the loss of the emotional depth that had drawn viewers in the first place.
For example, Mike Wheeler, the courageous leader of the group, had been integral to the storyline since the beginning. Season by season, Mike was built up to be an emotionally intricate character. His character felt deeply nuanced and real, seen through both his fierce loyalty and emotional unavailability. In Season 5, however, Mike appears completely emotionally absent, offering little substance to the plot or the other characters.
During Eleven’s—whose supernatural abilities have shaped the course of the story since Season 1—final moments, she speaks to Mike in the void, and they share a supposedly sweet moment before her departure. Eleven tells Mike she loves him, yet Mike remains bafflingly silent, offering nothing until Eleven pulls him into a kiss. While some may view that as a minor oversight, it actually exposes a fundamental failure in the Duffer Brothers’ writing. Mike’s entire character arc in the previous season was built on his struggle to say “I love you” to Eleven, culminating in an emotional confession of his love during her mind-battle against Vecna. Having Mike not tell Eleven that he loved her during their final moments together invalidates Mike’s entire development during the last season, essentially rendering it a waste of screen time.
In addition, the fan-favorite friendship between Eleven and Max Mayfield—a confident and outspoken member of the group who quickly became one of Eleven’s closest friends—was completely sidelined in Season 5. In Season 3, Max helped El navigate the world of a normal teenager, a journey that quickly turned the pair into inseparable best friends. Yet, during the latter half of Season 5, when Max finally wakes up from an almost two-year-long coma, Eleven does not seem to care much at all, leaving many viewers confused.
Along with countless other examples of sudden awkwardness in relationships, the Duffer Brothers were rumoured to have used ChatGPT to write major portions of the Season 5 script. In their Netflix documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, fans noticed multiple ChatGPT tabs open on the Duffer Brothers’ laptop. This incident sparked outrage against the writers, who have still not come out to refute the claims.
Unsurprisingly, even more criticism surrounds the show’s finale, with numerous fans upset at how quick and simple the final battle seemed. The Mind Flayer, who is the biggest and arguably most imposing villain in the show, was easily defeated by the group in under ten minutes. As well, in the supposed home of all of the evil that had been leaking into Hawkins, their town, from the Upside Down, there was an utter lack of monsters. There were no demogorgons, demodogs, demobats, or any new monsters. In the documentary, script writer Kate Trefry quipped, “I guess I maybe [wonder] about demo fatigue.” Though this sentiment does hold some truth, it just does not make sense to make this dimension an almost entirely monster-free zone. For a series built on high stakes and thrilling fights, the final battle felt underwhelming to many viewers.
Out of a desperation to be wrong about the show’s disappointing ending, many fans turned to the rising theory known as “Conformity Gate.” They believed that a new episode would air on January 7th with an alternate ending because the characters in the show, along with the audience themselves, were under the control of the show’s evil antagonist mind-controller known as Vecna. Details such as prison-like graduation gowns, misleading search results on Netflix, and more led fans down a rabbit hole of research. Seemingly intentional word and color placements were also seen as Easter eggs waiting to be discovered. Instead, days after the release of the finale of Season 5, fans were completely disappointed with the release of a documentary instead of the alternate ending they had been hoping for.
Fans weren’t the only ones disappointed with the release of Season 5. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave the final season the lowest rating yet—an unimpressive 83% compared to Season 1’s exceptional 97% rating. The sharp decline in rating reflects both critics’ and fans’ frustration with a finale that fell short of a standard set by a previously remarkable series.
Ultimately, Stranger Things’ long-awaited final season left fans feeling bittersweet about its ending. Through underdeveloped character arcs, sidelined relationships, and an anticlimactic final battle, the series struggled to live up to the expectations of longtime fans.