Stranger Things 5 should have been much better
The Duffer Brothers had no idea what they were doing. On New Year’s Eve 2025, the 10 year running Netflix original Stranger Things’ final episode was released. People joined around their couch promptly at around 8 p.m. (CST), brought their friends, threw a party, and watched the two hour,10 minute trainwreck of a finale to start off the new year strong. Some hit play on the finale, purely out of curiosity or hate watching it. Others played it because they trusted the Duffer Brothers to create absolute cinema or believed that they would find a way to fill in all the plotholes. Many fans were already disappointed with the series after volume two was released on Christmas, and many people didn’t even complete the series out of disappointment.
I mainly only watched the season because I felt I owed it to my younger self. I realized right away how the finale failed to explain many things, but I didn’t hate the ending right away. I was a little disappointed, but not angered or sad. My feelings have changed a lot after weeks though. Every social platform I have has slandered the series to smithereens over the last couple of weeks. I became frustrated with the Duffer Brothers as more interviews came out with them. Very direct questions about the characters being answered in “maybes,” as if they didn’t write the story themselves. For example, when being asked about what happened with the demogorgons while they fought Vecna, they claimed that “Mainly, it’s just that Vecna was not expecting this sneak attack on his home turf,” while the viewers are fully aware the Vecna would have known about the attack on multiple occasions.
The Duffer Brothers also emphasized that “everything matters,” but when being asked about small details fans made theories about, they claim they don’t remember. They had extra time to work on the writing due to the season being fully delayed for a year, yet when the filming for the final episode happened –as shown on the documentary they just released – they weren’t even done with the script! This goes to show that the writing truly was rushed and lacked the emphasis on detail that they had encouraged from the beginning. Although people on Reddit say that many productions work that way, I find it irresponsible to do so on a final season of a show that emphasizes small details.
The show had a happy ending as well, which I don’t disagree with, but after the Duffer Brothers emphasized that it would be a sad Christmas and said they wanted to focus on the final battle, I was expecting a lot more angst. Eddie’s death in season 4 was perfect. I was sad they killed him, but it built the story forward and I am glad they didn’t bring him back for that reason. Many things in the end downplayed everything that had brought them to the final moment. Vecna’s battle ended quickly, and he was killed as if he was a simple demogorgon and not as the biggest villain in the story. The near death/deaths didn’t matter in the end, especially since Mike decided to create a story where Eleven lived. And while I believe that she did die, giving the story at all that she could be out there disappointed me greatly. It made me feel like the writers were afraid to make the viewers sad instead of writing a good story.
There are many things I have strong opinions of for this show that I would write 10 pages on if I could. I didn’t touch on the cultural impact on the “Conformity Gate” theory, which I believe people used to cope with the fact the show ended poorly. Eleven as a character and how I believe she was wronged especially by Mike and I found it sad how their relationship was emphasized when it was truly messy and toxic. I definitely could have emphasized more on how the Duffer Brothers aren’t good, as well as season 5 having many unnecessarily long scenes on irrelevant things. (e.g. 12 kids, Max and Holly escaping for over an hour of the episode, overexplaining plans to the whole group, etc). Overall, I enjoyed watching the show and others who also enjoyed it shouldn’t be getting hate, but, it is important to understand why others were totally disappointed in the ending of the story and rightfully upset with the writers.
