They didn't need wherever Max was. She should have died in season 4 and then the whole gang would have a big motivation for the last season, they didn't need to put Holly (who was a side character anyway) like a main character and this could have made more time for the others.

My biggest reason I HATE this season,  season 4 ends with HUGE portals ripping through the earth, GIANT crevices form, the city is up in smoke, and they're looking off in the distance seeing the upside sky in the real world with the red lighting.... Season 5 starts... It's another bright and shiny day, they cover the portals with a metal plate, and life goes on as normal... LIKE FUCK THATS SO LAZY, they didn't even try to continue the story

I have a 2.5 year old daughter who I wasn’t even pregnant with when season 4 came out. In the time it’s taken them to make season 5, I made, birthed and raised a person who is now speaking full sentences and has some level of independence. That’s how long it’s been. And this was the best they could do.

“They planned for only 5 seasons” the writing says they only planned for 3 seasons lol

Season 5 was terrible. The Duffer brothers screwed up SOOO bad. If they truly cared, that script would have been their top priority over the past 3 YEARS! They let down so many people including the cast. What a colossal F up.

El didn't get a goodbye with hopper.  She only talked to Mike

"a good series isn't ruined by one bad season" yes yes it is when that season is its finale.

Timeskip was the first warning for EVERYONE

Going to sleep listening to tv show slander is incredible i don’t think i’ll be able to watch not even  15 min. thanks for the video

58:42 he's become quote 32?! Poor Lucas.

I watched every episode, but I didn't finish the finale. By the time the graduation scene ended, I simply did not GAF about any of the characters or the world of the show anymore. My enjoyment of season 5 dropped significantly with every episode to the point that I simply didn't care to finish the last one. Even the first episode of season 5 pretty much single handedly destroyed any overt excitement I had for the season. As soon as Robin said the military simply paved over the interdimensional chasms I was like ohhhhhhhh so this is going to be bad. Damn.

Personally, I really enjoyed volume 1, but volume 2 and 3 were a big let down. I didn't like that they didn't kill anyone important off, and they even left 11's death up for viewers to decide. I think that this show could have really benefited by keeping a smaller cast and not expanding out so much like they did. I think that the show also struggled with the duffer's sloppy writing which left multiple plot holes inside of the show that will never be concluded.

Remember that elevator scene with the Scoop's Troop in S3, when Eric is telling everyone about Tina, uncle Jack, yadda yadda and Steve just crashes out, saying "...I don't CARE about Tina or Uncle Jack..."
Well, that's me with the "Holly and the other kids" storyline...I am NOT hating on the actor who plays Holly's role; she's wonderful. But I just don't care enough about Holly, let alone the random kids to be invested in their plot-

Their ages didn't bother me. I'm watching a show where tentacles shove alien eggs down into the stomach of children, I can suspend my belief that the cast of 20 year olds are still in HS.  

I could not, however, forgive the writers for leaving a ton of questions unanswered. My gripes are as follows: too many dimensions/settings to keep track of, too many characters, the decision to introduce new main characters and split screentime between them and the already established cast, lack of relationship resolutions (max and el didn't even acknowledge each other), adding conflict that had no purpose or no plot involvement (from Dustin being bullied to the introduction of exotic matter, nothing really had a point), bad dialogue, bad performances/lack of chemistry between most cast members, oh and way way too much plot armor. You can't have a character say "nothing is coincidence" and then have every single person saved by something ex machina style. Wtf? Felt like they spit on the audience with that one.

Ive never come across a theory video "for sleep" before, but damn this is so nice to watch before bed

I finished high school (16yo) when season 4 came out. I’ve almost finished a degree now

That would've been the best season finale if conformity gate was true. It would have been cool the episode starts and vecna has all of them trapped Will and Eleven use their powers to get loose and free everyone and then the big fight starts. Vecna brought them to dimension x instead of the group going themselves

The release strategy really pissed me off. By releasing season five during the holidays, they were telling us that this season was going to be a big deal. Most movies that are released during Thanksgiving and Christmas are either blockbusters or Oscar movies. Stranger Things was competing with those movies (even though 2025 was a terrible year for holiday movies and shows). They were basically telling us that Volume five was so big, that you had to watch ST with your families on the holidays.  👎👎👎👎

13:53 one theory I heard is that Netflix chose this release strategy to keep to get 2 months subscription out of people instead of just 1.

the dumbest part of this is that they could have just released it on a weekly basis and kept people engaged, excited and subscribed longer, 2 weeks longer.

If they had two more episodes or epilogues, that would have given them three months of subscription. (Not that I think they should make this season even longer. Some have said this season could have been one 2 hour film and I agree with that.)

I'm a queer man, and imo, Wills coming out should have been much less serious. If I were the bros and I'd gotten to the end of the series, without having will come out, I'd have just gave him a boyfriend in the flash forward, have him and Joyce discuss how this realtionship is going, then have Will and his bf go hang out with the rest of the crew and them be friends with his bf too.

Instead I spent most of that scene being like "why is he coming out to people he's never had a one on one conversation with on screen" yknow?

Again, if it were up to me, BUT I have to have this long scene, I'd cut the cast mates down. His mom, his bro, the kid crew, and maaaaaybe Robin at a absolute push.

Also Steve's "almost" death being prevented by Jonathan felt soo weak, it should have been Dustin fighting for his friends life... And he should have failed to save Steve.

Love Steve, but we needed to lose more cast mates, imo, and Dustin didn't get an arc this season because he was barely there for most of it, this loss could fix that.

I don't need Johnathan and Steve to "complete their realtionship arc" because I've been bored of how these two interact since season 2, it wasn't until mid season 5 that I got bored of Dustin and Steve's friendship, and that's mostly cuz they both kinda fell by the wayside this season in the duffer bros attempt to wrap things up.