Rating (out of 5):

Thoughts and comments:

(Review to be added.)

Rating (out of 5):

Thoughts and comments:

(Review to be added.)

Overall Rating (out of 5):

Warning: This will mostly be complaints about the latest season.

Thoughts and comments: Let me be clear: I once considered myself a long-time fan, as I was around since the show began in 2016.

Emphasis on once, because I very quickly grew out of that opinion several seasons later, when I learned some of the cast members (Noah Schnapp and Brett Gelman) were openly Zionist. It sucks, especially since I grew up enjoying the show and its premise, but I could not see those actors the same way anymore.

The same could not be said for my immediate family, who are really, reaaaaally diehard fans-- while I was happy to be rid of the show, they refused to let it go. The short summary being my parents think that I am too "woke" (aren't we all). It's likely that my family's attachment to the show might be due to the fact we watched almost every season together. Stranger Things was one of very few shows where we could all willingly sit down and watch together, as every family member has drastically different interests in TV shows, games, and books. My parents praised the accurate 80s' American movie culture and influences, my brother, a fan of the musical artists from that time period and can name every artist and song that played without hesitation, myself enjoying the acting and sci-fi/mystery aspects that the show had to offer. But we could all agree that what the show had lined up from the very first season was weird, horrifying, but also incredibly promising.

I spent my last few days of 2025 overseas with my family. So for old times' sake (and because I was stuck in an AirBnB with nothing else to do), we watched and completed Season 5.

...But what the fuck happened??

I've seen many people online suggest that after events like the writers' strike and a Duffer Brother's divorce (the wife was also a writer for the show), the cracks in the show's writing REALLY begin to show. I don't know how much of this is true, but honestly-- I wouldn't be surprised. The direction of the last season is a far cry from the shock and excitement that I felt in the previous seasons. This feeling doesn't come from the fact that "everything" has been revealed this season and there's not much "mystery" really left-- it's just the fact that the season's writing was absolute dogshit.

For starters, what stood out to me the most is that there's at least one plan montage in EVERY episode of season 5, and it gets old fast. A character would randomly have a revelation, get random objects to explain the reasoning behind their ideas, and then describe their long, convoluted plan while everyone stands around with a quirky comment or disagreement. These quirky comments are also Marvel-movie level bad. I was so sick of everyone talking, their lines were all predictable, annoying and unrealistic, and everyone feels the need to finish each other's--

(Look at this shit, man. They want to be the Marvel cinematic universe so bad.)

Sentences. Sure, you could chalk the dialogue up to the fact that they're likely referencing cheesy dialogue from 80s films to really amp up the nostalgia factor-- But I don't remember it being this fucking bad and being this CONSTANT in the previous seasons.

Some of the characters, especially the women, feel whittled down to one or two personality traits and nothing more. I found this especially apparent for those who didn't have much to contribute: like Robin (she's the quirky one!), Vickie (she's the overbearing gf!) and Joyce (she's the hysterical mother!). This writing highly bothers me, especially compared to how female characters were treated in previous seasons. For example, although Joyce was considered "overbearing" and "hysterical" by other characters in the first season, the audience and the main cast learn that she was right and onto something much bigger than everyone expected. But this season, she's suddenly treated less seriously again. Her relationships with other characters like Mike (who has been with her through almost EVERYTHING that happens), suddenly regresses as she's treated like a ticking time bomb-- characters sneak out behind her back or chalk up her concerns as her being dramatic. She's an overprotective, hysterical, overbearing mother stereotype all over again. And it sucks!

This season Nance also had it pretty bad, as she also feels whittled down to being "the cool/strong female character" who conveniently has to shed all her feminine traits and become more masculine to be taken seriously as a female character. I haven't even spoken about Kali and Eleven's character development yet but for now, holy fuck. Watching the debilitation of female characters is where I start to believe that theory of all the good writers having disappeared-- because the Duffer Brothers really cannot write women for shit.

Additionally, with the Stranger Things cast so spread out, and its' numbers somehow EXPANDING this season: no one has time for character development at all. Dr Kay for example, with no apparent character motivation, just shows up to do... something? And then disappears without us ever knowing what happens to the military after they leave Hawkins. Characters who would have had a perfectly well-suited role in helping the main cast (heavy on Dr Sam for this one, who knows how to help Eleven better than anyone!) never show up again.

Also, I spent the entire season waiting for someone to die. Wouldn't it have made sense for someone to die at this point? Especially since the stakes have risen and whatnot? Plans went wrong a number of times but somehow no one dies? Like actually, brutally die. I don't typically wish for death, but the stakes and my immersion with the story were genuinely so low that I wanted someone to get permanently wiped off the screen. I got EXCITED when I saw Steve fall. EXCITED.

But maybe I am woke, because I was disappointed that one of the only people who really died on-screen was a person of colour, and a side character of all things. This is also funny when you remember there was a "violent and brutal death" that the Duffer Brothers were promising us this season-- which we never got. Any on-screen death was reserved strictly for the "throwaway side character". I sincerely think Kali was done dirty this season. Because clearly they were really struggling to find someone to kill from the main cast, huh? Here you go guys eat up! ANOTHER SIDE CHARACTER DEATH! GREAT! FANTASTIC!

And no, I am not counting Eleven's "death" in this review. She had the worst ending of all.

A young girl is abused and experimented on for her entire life-- but eventually, she finds a life for herself in Hawkins, makes friends, gains a family. A life that a regular child should have. Despite this, she is forced to grow up. She cannot escape her past and the adults that gave her this trauma. Eleven is confronted by it and consistently preparing for the worst to happen on a daily basis. Her sister, another abuse victim who's gone through enough shit on her own, convinced that the only way to cease the cycle of violence and experimentation is to end their own lives. Her foster father, begging her to reconsider and to let herself have the life she never got to experience.

And at the end of it all? The Duffer Brothers believe that the abuse victim has to be wiped out of the story to "keep the magic alive" for the rest of the cast to be able to move on with their lives.

...

You cannot be fucking serious. I am not laughing. No one is laughing.

For a show that claims to be made "for the outcasts", everything that happens to the cast and how they move past the events in Hawkins is the most conformative, safest nonsense ever. Everyone's able to peacefully live their lives now because they fit in (and somehow not go to prison because of several crimes they committed?), and Hellfire is now accepted by the general public so it's not really outcast-y anymore. Yeah everyone's got it good! Max even graduated on time after being in a coma for so long! Hopper is able to go back to being a police chief and is being offered a job in Montauk (ignore the fact him getting his job back is unrealistic, check out that cool Montauk reference guys)! Yeah everyone's fine except for that one outcast tho, who is barely grieved 18 months later by her family and friends. But when she is, her partner is lovingly told to move on by her foster father. So congratulations, the lesson you've given us outcasts is "you can either die or conform".

Don't even get me started on the other excuses that the Duffer Brothers' provided for their shit writing. Things that they supposedly deemed as irrelevant to the main plot (such as Vecna knowing Joyce and Hopper from highschool, what was happening to Will when Vecna was getting fucking DECAPITATED since they have a "mind link" or something)...

All happened off-screen. All of it. They just didn't care to explore it because fuck me, I guess.

Everything cool just happened off-screen guys and we totally weren't scrambling to finish the ending in the middle of filming the last episode, guys. I was there, trust, it was really cool.

(Review to be continued.)

Last updated: 13/01/2026