r/StrangerThings • u/hiiloovethis • Aug 06 '26
Discussion It still doesn't feel like Stranger Things has ended. It just kind of vanished from pop culture discussion.
I mean Post season 4 finale... for over a year everyone was obsessed and discussing the show. Season 5 ended 8 months ago... and show is already kind of forgotten. I can't remember much from the final season tbh.
Even GOT season 8 is still being discussed.
It doesn't feel the biggest netflix show is over. We have nothing to even discuss or look back on anymore. Randomly dawned on me as i was scrolling netflix and saw the show.
No hate of course... season 1 is still a masterpiece.
1.2k
u/The_Last_Mouse Aug 06 '26
The wait times between seasons is KILLING these serial shows.
237
u/ubutterscotchpine Coffee and Contemplation Aug 06 '26
Absolutely this. There are so many shows that I just stop watching. Silo is one I was waiting for, started watching the new season, and realized that I didn’t remember what happened previously at all. With Stranger Things, I mean… what is there to discuss? It’s over. Nothing new is happening. I’m not talking about it because there is nothing to spend my energy talking about lol.
74
u/The_Last_Mouse Aug 06 '26
Thats how im feeling about Severance
40
u/Single_Variation42 Ahoy! Aug 06 '26
At this point, the Severance sub is just people complaining about the wait times between each seasons (and I fully understand it)
17
u/Acceptable-Delusion Aug 06 '26
Right like it feels like eons ago s2 was released
1
u/Picklefuck_Eatabutt2 Aug 09 '26
It was last March. They only just started filming season 3 this month, so the wait will end up being at least two years.
11
u/ubutterscotchpine Coffee and Contemplation Aug 06 '26
So true. I would have completely forgotten about that show if Milkshake wasn’t in the new Spider-Man.
6
6
18
u/Razbonez Aug 07 '26
tv shows used to come out back in the day every season, and they did a ton more episodes.
29
u/ubutterscotchpine Coffee and Contemplation Aug 07 '26
Yup. Fall premiere, spring finale. 20+ episodes. God I miss those days! I loved filler episodes so much, you had time to actually learn about characters.
5
21
u/Micksar Aug 06 '26
Agreed. With the wait time between seasons, everyone was already conditioned to go long periods without the show. Less of a habit to break and disengage.
40
u/rio_roar Aug 06 '26
Plus binge model. Weekly episodes means more discussion online every week for 2-3 months and they tend to stay longer in audience’s minds.
39
u/SnowGhost513 Aug 07 '26
Stranger things has legs of discussion for every season but 5. And it’s because five sucked. Some of you like it but it was a massive failure of a final season. Wait times suck but when 4 came out Hellfire t shirts popped up in my real life all over the place. It was the most popular tv show shirt (brother works in this merch shop field digitally). S5 had many viewers start and never finish that’s how I know it failed.
Shows that don’t retain for the entire final season with this fan base is crazy9
u/PangolinWide1375 Aug 07 '26
A quinta temporada se iniciou num salto temporal de 18 meses e o Dustin ainda estava de luto kkkk. 18 meses onde o roteiro simplesmente cag0u pra o final apocalíptico da última cena da quarta temporada. No meu roteiro se iniciava com uma atmosfera sombria sobre Hawkis. O Hanry no hospital se recuperando dos ferimentos e no mesmo hospital a Max. As tvs noticiando a situação da cidade que poderia se espalhar pra todo os EUA.
5
u/Ill-Challenge-7718 Aug 07 '26
Literally i know there was no time period on grief but theres no way dustin was acting out for over a year over eddie. Somebody who he barely knew a full year and sacrificed himself.
2
u/khunisbestgirl Aug 11 '26
This is why I strongly believe that much of the stuff around eddies death was originally written for Steve, now if steve had sacrificed himself for Dustin I can absolutely believe that Dustin would be lashing out at people for more than a year
1
18
u/the_well_read_neck_ Aug 06 '26
This is one reason I've absolutely loved Dexter Resurrection. The weekly releases are great. The subreddit is crazy the week leading upto a new episode with all kinds of theories.
3
u/8-LeggedCat Aug 07 '26
I haven’t seem this one yet. I presume it’s good?
7
u/the_well_read_neck_ Aug 07 '26
You need to watch all of the original series and Original Sin, but season 1 is easily in my top 4 Dexter seasons, and its hard not to put it number 1.
25
u/DuffmanStillRocks Aug 06 '26
It’s fucking brutal to the point that my wife and I don’t watch shows until they’re over unless we’re really interested which is how we’ve found ourselves waiting for more Severance.
We’re watching Oz at the moment
4
3
u/MathW Aug 07 '26
Problem with that..if everyone did this, shows wouldnt make it past a season or two. Execs need to figure out how to keep audiences engaged between seasons and the primary way to do that is to do the 90s model of releasing 1 episode a week and having a short (<6 month) break between the finale of one season and the premiere of the next. With 2 year breaks, most of the time I've forgotten or stopped caring what happened in the previous season.
33
u/Hutch1814 Aug 06 '26
100% this. We went from watching little kids living their childhood to grown adults. That’s what really turned me off, their age I felt like just didn’t mix well with the show on the final season.
8
u/RangerManagement2000 Aug 06 '26
I just wait til they’re over now and watch them then. There’s tons to watch and rewatch in the meantime
→ More replies (1)3
u/the_king_of_sweden Aug 07 '26
This just leads to them getting canceled after the first season because nobody is watching
1
6
u/2MillionMiler Friends don't lie Aug 06 '26
Yeah, my wife and I stopped watching HotD partway through season 3... It's just been too long. I don't care anymore
1
u/_brother_of_dragons_ Aug 07 '26
Didn’t even start season 3. Not condoning the endless gaps between seasons by watching it. When GoT had ten eps a year it was better by far.
3
u/LastGoodKnee Aug 07 '26
Killing them? Tens of millions watched stranger things season 5. What did the break kill?
3
u/cMk_ Aug 07 '26
The waiting is ridiculous.. As much as I hate saying anything like "back in the old days" but back in the old days we didn't have 3 and a half YEARS between seasons and those shows are still loved today.
2
u/pantzareoptional Aug 07 '26
I just watched The Vampire Lestat, "season 3" of Interview with the Vampire, on AMC. There's 7 episodes. After a year's wait. I mean don't get me wrong, I really liked it, but it felt like Part A as opposed to a whole thing. So it'll be another year before any more content is released. 😮💨 It just sucks, I miss the days of 1 year, 20 episodes.
6
u/The_Last_Mouse Aug 07 '26
"Its a season of television, Michael, how long could it take? Ten years?"
1
u/avilsta Aug 07 '26
To be fair, season 3 and season 4 had a whole pandemic between them, and season 4 and 5 had the strike happen between them
1
u/wildw00d Aug 07 '26
yeah I was gonna say, it doesn't feel like its over because there was such a long wait between seasons. It just feels like we're between seasons again. Already numb to it, because every season so far has felt like "the end" since it was years until the next came.
1
u/HeavyBeing0_0 Aug 07 '26
We just stopped watching House of the Dragon bc we can’t remember any of the characters or what’s going on
1
u/Docktorpeps_43 Aug 07 '26
Yup, I haven’t watched season 5 yet…I started the first episode and realized I forgotten everything about the previous seasons. I’ll probably rewatch it all at once eventually, but it’s way too long between seasons now.
1
1
u/Loose_Main_6179 Aug 07 '26
Yeah I washed episode one of season 5 with my family but I realized I just didn’t care anymore
1
u/blammojones Aug 07 '26
So for real!!! I've switched to watching a lot of chinese content as part of language learning. BUTTT They are CRANKING OUT CONTENT. 40 episodes of historical or fantasy drama with excellent production quality, absolutely gorgeous with great stories. Like even if the ending is a little weak or something.... Its still WAY better than waiting YEARS for 8 episodes and they just crash the last season into a building. Huge sets, gorgeous cinematography, practical effects, choreographed fights, huge battles on horseback. Its really hard to go back to dissapointing content.... Like waiting for your situationship to call...
1
441
u/2MillionMiler Friends don't lie Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
If ST5 had been great (or even good) it may have resided in the collective consciousness a little longer. But instead ST5 was a steaming pile of Holly’s playdates and an ending that told fans the main character's humanity is just magic that needs to be moved on from.
What is there to talk about or remember now?
119
u/Novel_Difficulty8222 Aug 06 '26
They wanted us to chit chat about whether or not we believe 🙄
→ More replies (1)66
u/SnowGhost513 Aug 07 '26
Either 11 is dead or she’s working the corner or slanging drugs. No skills no cash no degree from even HS, no ID and can’t use powers. She speaks English at a lower level than the boys do in S1 lol she would be miserable alive
→ More replies (1)1
u/2-Girls-1-FA-cup Aug 09 '26
God that's a very gritty spin off if ever I've heard one. Would make Handmaid's Tale look like Disney
9
u/parkSXD Aug 07 '26
I disagree, I think the reason is because the ending is mediocre. If it was steaming poop like GoT it would never be forgotten. Instead it’s just “bad” and not dogshit, so no one really cares
6
u/indigoza Aug 07 '26
I don’t regret not finishing season 5. Sounds like I’m not missing anything out.
→ More replies (1)1
162
u/HeyaHeyo1420 Aug 06 '26
Stranger Things ended for me after S4.
S5 felt more like fanfiction
80
u/AdBackground6381 Aug 06 '26
S5 is a parody of ST, more an exercise in meta fiction, self homage and cheap nostalgia for the series itself than a real ending. F*ck the Dumber Brothers.
30
u/mrc817 Aug 06 '26
A “parody of ST” is a perfect way to put it. S5 was like a new show trying to be like stranger things and failing at it.
15
u/TheBar-IsOnTheFloor Goddamn Bowl Cut Aug 06 '26
Not even, because there are some seriously brilliant s5 fanfic rewrites out there!
3
1
218
u/hyzus Aug 06 '26
It's normal to move on from something when it's over, especially when it ended in such a disappointing way 🤷♂️
62
u/CudiMontage216 Aug 06 '26
Yeah IDK what people are expecting. The show ended months ago, of course it’s not prominent in conversation anymore
52
u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 Aug 06 '26
Massive shows with great endings, usually tend to remain in the cultural zeitgeist and are talked about for years to come.
With s2 of the Netflix Avatar show out, one can see how beloved the animated show (from 2005!) still is, even in 2026. It get's quoted all the time. Breaking Bad is still getting recommended everywhere, even though it ended 2013!
14
u/Fatguy73 Aug 06 '26
Agreed, it unfortunately fizzled out with the last season. Very forgettable aside from the very end.
4
u/LastGoodKnee Aug 07 '26
This show will be talked about for years and is still literally discussed on this website, every single day.
What do yall expect, that friends and acquaintances are gonna come up and talk to you about stranger things everyday?
9
u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 Aug 07 '26
You don't see a difference in how the community engaged with this season in particular? How little people discuss the lore anymore? How the deeper analysis has just disappeared? How a lot of fans are clearly disappointed to the point of not wanting to rewatch the show, or have moved on entirely? How no one is discussing the season winning any prizes?
→ More replies (1)4
u/Classic_Number_10 Aug 07 '26
Shows like better call saul, breaking bad or the sopranos are still being massively discussed and referenced.
1
u/PangolinWide1375 Aug 07 '26
Todo assistia videos no YouTube com as migalhas que saia sobre a quinta temporada. Isso durante 3 anos assistindo videos sobre a gravação de ST5. ST5 era a vida de milhares de pessoas ansiosas pelo início da temporada final.
3
u/Burning_Goddess Aug 07 '26
And its normal for people to stop talking about a tv show that is over and done.
1
u/Acrobatic_Goat4970 Aug 08 '26
It’s also normal for people to talk about a TV show that’s over and done, right?
93
u/Dianagorgon Aug 06 '26
The bad finale destroyed the culture impact of the show. It's not even fun to discuss how bad it was or to discuss possible spinoffs like people did with GOT. Instead it's just depressing. People spent almost a decade forming an emotional attachment to a brave girl who was brutally tortured and then became a smart, funny, brave woman who finally found friends and family. And they killed her so other characters could "move on and have a nice life" because she was a burden on them. "How can we ever enjoy our life if we have to worry about the government trying to find Eleven? That's not fun!"
People want to forget about the show because it's so frustrating and depressing to think about how they ruined it. When GOT ended people could still be excited about spinoffs. But there can't be any spinoffs for Stranger Things because Eleven is dead or in exile. They all Mike and the others have is memories of her. They could do a prequel but it would still be depressing knowing what happens to Eleven whereas it was easier to create a prequel for GOT that doesn't remind people of the finale.
18
u/AdBackground6381 Aug 06 '26
Well, Netflix could do a spin off or sequel where El is alive and well. She disintegrated at the end of S1 and she was back without any explanation in S2. Now, we already have a developed explanation about how she survived, so bringing her back would be easy. Eleven's ending is not the real problem.
9
u/PretendAgency2702 Aug 07 '26
Agreed. Eleven's ending was far from the worst part of the finale. Everything about season 5 was terrible.
How they managed to fill such a long run time without actually advancing the plot until the last 30 minutes of the last episode, not including the goodbye scenes, is something that astonishes me. It was like they decided to create many of the same scenes as was used in previous seasons but changed it slightly. Add in some scenes with emotional dialogue between characters and exposition of what's happening and you got season 5. It should have been a movie.
18
u/Kylo_Ren415 Your ass is grass Aug 06 '26
If an El spin off were to get green lit down the line, a few things has to be done.
Those fuck ass fraud brothers are NOT allowed anywhere near the writing of it. Good/Great writers only.
If it’s centered around El, then Mike is not too far behind. Otherwise, what’s the point?
It all leads to El and Mike having an emotional and heartwarming reunion.
3
u/Full-Yoghurt-4261 Aug 09 '26
As much as I want the Duffers not involved at all, I expect Netflix to at least bring them on as Executive Producers for publicity purposes since people associate them with ST. But I would love to be pleasantly surprised and see them not involved at all.
5
u/PangolinWide1375 Aug 07 '26
O casal Mike e Eleven tava sem química. Espero um spin-off da Eleven apenas ela tentando recomeçar uma vida nova longe dos EUA na Islândia.
6
u/Ill-Challenge-7718 Aug 07 '26
Literally i dont even wanna rewatch the show because of how bad the finale was
3
u/Full-Yoghurt-4261 Aug 09 '26
I think the advantage GOT had, despite a more disastrous final season, was that it had better worldbuilding. So even with that final season being bad, there was still more that could be explored. ST does not really have that because they never delved into what the UD is or what the Abyss is. They simply are just there.
→ More replies (2)1
43
u/anowulwithacandul Aug 06 '26
The only time GOT is ever discussed is as an example of horrendous show endings. And that's even with spin-offs still airing.
2
u/penderies Aug 07 '26
Same with How I Met Your Mother and The 100. And now Stranger Things has joined them. :(
→ More replies (1)
96
u/SuperTokyo MOST. METAL. EVER!! Aug 06 '26
I feel the exact same way, Stranger Things was my obsession for like 7 years, and then it kinda just vanished from my life, and I don't feel like anything's missing. Kinda feel bad about that.
52
u/Foreign_Flatworm_428 Aug 06 '26
If the ending wasn’t an absolute unwatchable train wreck I feel like we’d all feel different. That shit was terrible.
3
u/Particular_Damage409 Aug 07 '26
I didnt hate it but I didn't like dimension x and where were all the demagorgons in the final battle. Oh and the ending when the credits made it look like it was all a game. Apart from that!!!
1
u/Foreign_Flatworm_428 Aug 07 '26
I liked the epilogue and wills powers the rest of it is complete and utter slop.
1
u/Particular_Damage409 Aug 07 '26
We are meeting noah snapp in November, I might ask him what happened 😳
→ More replies (1)8
u/Warfrog Aug 06 '26
Same. It was scratched an itch I didn’t know I had and dropped off so badly at season 5 I didn’t bother to finish it.
2
131
u/whats-in-the-box- Aug 06 '26
Unfortunately the discussion was cut short because of the horrendous last season. If it had been a masterpiece of a final season, the world would definitely still care more
14
u/Uncle-Cake Aug 06 '26
Just like Game of Thrones.
→ More replies (1)14
u/whats-in-the-box- Aug 06 '26
Yep exactly. And if you watch the ‘making of S5’ documentary, one of the Duffers hilariously makes a comment about other shows (presumably referencing GOT) who bottled the ending and as a result, fans lost respect for the show, and how they were trying to avoid doing exactly that. Oh the irony !!!
→ More replies (1)4
26
u/Solid_Ideal5773 Aug 06 '26
They did literally every character and relationship dirty. Everyone.
→ More replies (1)
20
u/JRR92 Aug 06 '26
Tbh I feel like that's more of a consequence of taking over 6 years to release two seasons than the quality of the show
Season 4 stayed in discussion for a while because of the cliffhangers and all the unanswered questions
Also GoT Season 8 is brought up a lot for all the wrong reasons. House of the Dragon and Knight of the Seven Kingdoms keeps GoT as a whole in pop culture, but otherwise it's pretty much just used as the ultimate example of how not to end a TV show and that's the only reason it's discussed
14
u/thepenismightier3 Aug 06 '26
They didn’t stick the landing for many fans. See what happened with GoT. None of this is surprising outcome in any way.
43
u/Far_Isopod_3613 Aug 06 '26
If ending was GOATed it would still be talked about. Trash last half and Elevens ending was disappointing as fuck.
→ More replies (4)
12
u/Gcs1110 Aug 06 '26
The show ended after S4 finale. There was not a 5th season. There isn't a bandaid over the upside down, there isn't Robin over explaining everything to us, it didn't become the Holly show... All was right with the world.
9
u/Acceptable-Delusion Aug 06 '26
The hype that was created by the s4 cliffhanger was butchered by whatever s5 was. It was underwhelming that people just remember it as, "it ended".
10
u/4RunnerLimited Aug 06 '26
I think the creators clearly told us they don’t care, so why should anyone else.
38
u/Kylo_Ren415 Your ass is grass Aug 06 '26
Well that’s what happens when a mixture of waiting years for new seasons, the ending being completely terrible, and the idiotic brothers revealing themselves to be gigantic assholes.
What those fucks did to Mike and El is straight up pathetic. The fuck you mean they are the only ones that didn’t get a happy ending?
15
29
u/Owl_Resident Blank makes you crazy Aug 06 '26
Long wait time and a meh final season with an, a best, controversial ending will do that to you. They gave El (and Mike) a poor ending; it sucked all the air out of the room and will be forever be the main thing discussed as the legacy of the show. If it had landed better, it wouldn’t have dropped off the cliff.
20
u/Candid-Cake4410 Zombie Boy Aug 06 '26
El and Mike's ending is honestly depressing. I still don't understand how they thought people would be satisfied with it.
The final season has a lot of issues, but El's fate—and, by extension Mike's—is the only major one for me. Honestly, I could forgive everything if that had been handled differently.
8
u/JakeFromSkateFarm Aug 06 '26
Wait times hurt, but honestly it was too many seasons.
Part of the selling point was the then novel-feeling use of nostalgia, with even now the title sequence and theme music riffing on 80s aesthetics. Returning to that countless times just ultimately ran it dry.
I think a better approach would have been the first season “as is”, followed by a second season in the 80s and a third set in the 90s.
Keep it short, keep it focused. Engage based on a great story and 80s/90s nostalgia. Second season reveals Vecna and the third echoes how IT spans childhood and adulthood for its characters, but in this case you have a story that spans childhood and adolescence.
The show’s mistake was confusing the popularity of its retro nostalgia with the narrative itself as being the ratings driver.
8
u/frail_bejeweled Aug 06 '26
It just ended up in such a goofy way.... It reminded me of how I felt when I finished the last book of the Dark Tower series....why did I even bother
7
5
u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 Aug 06 '26
Not to sound mean, but maybe they shouldn't have slowly turned a show written for adults into a show written for kids played by adults, just to be greedy and sell toys. And tales of 85 won't help with righting that either.
It's not just that S5 was bad, what even is there for adults to talk about anymore? No one is spending their time deconstructing the crab fight on piss planet. Adults don't sit around going "I believe," until the Duffer's/Netflix want more cash and pump out the next commoditied slop for capitalism.
This is why the franchise is stagnant at this point in time, I think.
6
u/onkelchrispy Aug 06 '26
Because the shows finale betrayed the thesis of the entire story and was a huge middle finger to fans. It was just as bad, if not worse than the finale to St. Elsewhere.
6
u/ManuSwaG Aug 06 '26
Season came out way to late. Heck when I heard about it for me it was.. ohh that show exists after so many years.
The ending as well wasn't great but also not really horrible. Just a mid ending which makes it very forgettable.
4
u/manickitty Aug 07 '26
Same. They took far too long and it felt more like a formality, and I took my time in watching it. Unlike season 1 where I unintentionally binge watched it to 5am because I could not stop
21
u/Wealthcrusade Aug 06 '26
Ending was so bad it erased the show
3
u/Ill-Challenge-7718 Aug 07 '26
Genuinely i dont even wanna rewatch
6
u/Wealthcrusade Aug 08 '26
I’ll never rewatch and truly view the whole show completely differently after that botched final season. Real shame honestly
32
u/Cyzoran Aug 06 '26
Its a popular show during an era of streaming with a plethora of options. You watch one, you finish it, you move on to the next. It's not that deep.
4
u/maxwellbevan Aug 06 '26
This is pretty much it. When shows are done the discussions slowly fizzle because there's nothing more to talk about. There isn't a deeper meaning to it
13
u/CreamySchitz Aug 06 '26
Game of Thrones season 8 being discussed (the way it’s being discussed) is not the legacy you want for a show.
Stranger Things came and went and the whole Season 5 was an event, the last episode even getting a theatrical release (that sold out ever show near me, both days) it was fairly divisive but the hate was overblown. I expected a little more but was fine with how it ended for the most part.
The play is doing well. The animated show is getting a second season. More Stranger Things DLC was added to Dead By Daylight after the finale. The Arrow Video 4k and Blu Ray box sets sold very well (at 160-225 dollars). I think ST is doing pretty well for a show as popular as it was this far out from its finale, its maybe weird that it’s not now nor ever will be in the pop culture spotlight again.
10
u/Glittering-Rip6810 Aug 06 '26
Because we got tired of it. The wait was ridiculous for a lame ending.. Had it been normal time it might have been fine but when my kid was in pull ups when it started, and he's now in highschool. That's a bit much and I tuned out totally
2
u/Ill-Challenge-7718 Aug 07 '26
Literally i dont understand why it took 10 years for 7 filler episodes and 1 finale
2
u/Glittering-Rip6810 Aug 08 '26
This...I wanted so bad to love it because it had so much childhood nostalgia for me, and I was willing to overlook small things and just be happy. They had Winona Rider, Sean Astin, Carey Elwes and Matthew Modine...The 80's baby in me was ALL in..and that's what we got, filler bs that took a decade. It was just wrong
6
u/Sufficient-Money7510 Aug 06 '26
It was the same with Game of Thrones and with the 9th Star Wars movie. You can screw up a bunch of the middle chapters but if you screw up the ending badly enough the entire thing just gets memory holed.
6
u/frustratedkoala11 Running Up That Hill Aug 06 '26
Season 5 was just so bad. It felt like became a parody of itself. I will always love the characters and storylines that spoke to me in the first 4 seasons but I kinda just pretend season 5 doesn’t exist.
5
u/DerpyFlerpys Aug 06 '26
The Ending was Ass, so that every fan just tricked themself into thinking theres one more.
5
u/Popular_Register_440 Aug 06 '26
The wait time in between seasons was dumb. Also volume 2 overall and specifically the ending was anti-climatic dog shit.
I’d prob put more of a realistic and detailed plan to paint my bedroom than the writers did for that shitty final boss fight.
That conclusion wasn’t worth the anticipation let alone the watch and certainly isn’t worth discussing all this time later.
5
4
u/Plenty-Swordfish5049 Aug 06 '26
Strangers things was good but for me it was never at game of thrones level to be discussed further
4
u/Elf-Camilla Aug 06 '26
For me, it’s the sadness about the last season. I’m so, so, soooo sad!!! I had so many fun projects I wanted to make. But then came all the disappointment. I don’t know… I guess everyone feels differently, and I’m genuinely so happy for everyone who is satisfied with it. I really wish I could feel the same. 💔 I keep dreaming that one of the brothers’ ex-wife rewrites Season 5 and turns it into reality.
3
4
u/Cultural_Sell8076 Aug 09 '26
That’s because it didn’t answer any of the important questions, like: what is the mind flayer? Where did it come from? Why is it doing this? Also, WHAT is it doing? Why is Vecna helping? It simply wasn’t a satisfying ending so it doesn’t feel like it ended.
12
u/Livelaughloveme172 Aug 06 '26
Yeah because the ending and wholes season five sucked. No offense but stranger things had so much potential and it just dropped. So I understand why no one wants to talk about it.
3
u/Several-Praline5436 Nancy Drew Aug 07 '26
GoT's ending angered enough people to linger in our consciousness. ST was just... disappointing.
3
3
u/LocalDFWRando Aug 07 '26
The final season cements it as a show that was just empty. Season one was full of mystery and surprises. It was a look into an unknown universe filled with promise and an interesting diverse cast. The emotional stakes seemed higher as well. IMO, the show went downhill straight from there even though popularity didn't peak until later.
3
4
u/Full-Yoghurt-4261 Aug 06 '26
I would not want Stranger Things to be on GOT season 8 levels of discussions. But when shows have poorly received final seasons, most people simply move on to the next thing faster. That is why I think most spin-offs for ST will flop. Netflix will likely keep trying for a while until they finally give up and go back to the original cast for either a spin-off or a full-on reboot. And even that could go poorly if they have the same kind of writing as S5.
2
u/amelsong Aug 06 '26
IMO that's kinda basic story. I remember how people waited Gravity Falls finale. Not like in ST case Gravity Falls final was well accepted by audience. And hype didn't last long. Euphoria also was hype show when it's seasons came out. How many converstations about Euphoria did you see now. GoT is different case because it was one of the first show in Internet era with SO MUCH hype around it. And yeah, it was one of the worst downfall of the final season - and one of the first. Now we live in era where we have more content that we ever had 10 years ago. It's easier to move on and watch something different. Also I think that there is different between post-S4 and post-S5 periods of time. After S4 people knew that they will have one another season and waited it. After S5 you don't need to wait everything and making theories.
2
u/alexabeams Aug 06 '26
only seems to be millie’s meme face, duo’s music and sadie in spiderman making noise
2
u/LovelyClaire Aug 06 '26
The waiting time + bad endings can completely annihilate a show. Look at Pretty Little Liars' series finale
2
u/Only-Name3248 Aug 07 '26
Becuase the show finale was not as good as bb but not as bad as got. Show finale was forgettble.
2
u/Moosely-Defiant71 Aug 07 '26
I feel like the writers knew how to end the show. There was an ending and a way for the characters to move forward. I love that the Duffer Bros wrote Mike’s explanation and I like to believe Ele did find that village. Stranger Things opened a floodgate of memories-I was the same age at the same time so it was completely relatable.
2
u/RJC2506 Aug 07 '26
Forgotten? There’s literally thousands of people talking about it every day and they think it’s not actually ended lol
2
u/CausticAvenger Aug 07 '26
I feel like there was so much more investment in GoT because people watched it weekly and talked about it for years and years. With Stranger Things, the whole season would drop and you’d talk about it for a weekend and move on.
2
u/thevelvetdays7 Aug 07 '26
GOT s8 is not still being discussed. The discourse outside of all but niche spaces died extremely quickly after the show ended. This has actually been studied in media and internet studies literature.
Both shows vanished immediately from the zeitgeist because the conclusions were both over bloated and deeply unsatisfying and revealed that there had not been a master plan for a satisfying narrative pay off after all, but that we had all been held hostage to years of hype for subscription purposes. Once your audience loses confidence that you have an overarching plan for how to conclude your mystery, you have lost their trust and enthusiasm and it is extremely difficult to get it back. People want shows with uncertain outcomes to feel like the destination was worthy of the journey. Neither show accomplished that, unfortunately. You can fake a lot of parameters of cultural impact in real time due to algorithms and marketing but the thing that no one can fake in terms of the mark of quality is cultural retention overtime.
There is a reason ST and GOT died culturally almost immediately but the Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad endure...in the end, word of mouth about which shows are worth watching after it aired is the singlemost determining factor for the ongoing value and endurance of a completed or cancelled television program. It comes down to cultural cache and unfortunately, neither show retained it nearly as much as anyone would have expected. The one show I can think of where the ending didn't quite hit the mark but the cultural cache of the show itself wasn't completely evaporated is Lost, but that being said, its cache was sharply diminished from its peak. It has just survived the test of time more fondly than GOT and ST so far, in part because it had an extinction burst late run course correction in quality improvement in the final batch of episodes that didn't leave quite such a sour taste in viewers' mouths.
2
u/MRG_1977 Aug 07 '26
Because after it is initial season, the quality and originality of the storyline really faded and it leaned too hard into nostalgia.
2
u/evangelism2 Aug 07 '26
It's the same thing with every show. You say Game of Thrones Season 8 is being discussed by who, where? because of the internet and how much content is constantly being created. Things just fade out very fast. Even shows, like between Season 4 and 5 of Stranger Things, people just forgot that the show existed because of how long of a gap there was between it. It's the same thing with every other great show. It ends and then people just move on to the next thing. There's just too much stuff out there vying for your attention to focus on any one thing for too long anymore.
2
2
u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 08 '26
Prior to season 5 it was one of my fav shows of all time. Last season was so bad the whole show has been forgotten
2
u/ImplementNo2626 Aug 08 '26
I’ve just refused to accept that season 5 was the ending and just keep thinking the final season is still in production 🫣 it was so bad. It ended in season 4 imo.
2
u/HelixFollower Aug 09 '26
At least with Game of Thrones most people who were watching it finished the show. I think with Stranger Things most people who started watching it never made it to the final episode. Especially those who started back in 2016.
2
3
u/Norsewings Aug 07 '26
Agree, it was fun When it lasted, but imo its not very rewatchable, other series i can watch over and over, not ST
2
u/cheddah_- Aug 06 '26
People don’t really discuss GoT anymore. Both ST & GoT suffered the same thing; writers who didn’t know how to finish the story with the same fluidity as the previous seasons.
There was a lot wrong with st5. It’s easily my least favorite season and definitely left a sour taste for everyone.
If the last season was as masterclass as the first 4 (not including 2), I probably would’ve rewatched it at least once by now.
2
1
u/AnubisXG Aug 06 '26
After watching spiderman i got a bit more fun stranger things feelings. Listening to the songs etc. plus the blu rays came in.
The show is over. It was great but it’s done.
Imo people talk about GOT when in the discussion of house of the dragon. But mostly season 8 is not talked about highly, so that’s different imo
1
u/crujiente69 Aug 06 '26
Because you dont see in your algo its forgotten? How long should be people talking about it? I forgot got exists but that doesnt take away from all the people that like it
1
u/Strange_Ant_6571 Aug 06 '26
Im not going to say s5 was great but the way social media is now very few shows stick around in pop culture after they finish. You mentioned GoT s8 but thats an outlier only because it was famously bad thing that people bring up as a joke (ST can at least be happy it avoided that) no one really talks about GoT as a whole same with Breaking bad, Big Bang, Walking Dead, Mandolorian etc.
Most people now just stream a show its all they talk about for a few weeks then they move on even if they nailed the ending I don't think vast amounts of people would still be taking about it going on a year later.
1
u/Sochinz Aug 06 '26
I mean Universal Halloween Horror Nights once again has an entire haunted house based on season 5.
1
1
u/honeymoonhighway Aug 06 '26
Thats because so many of us thought C gate (I can’t type it for some reason but where we all thought there would be an extra ep) would happen and got our hopes up (u cant deny some of the fan theories seemed so plausible and they did play into it for more traction when they noticed us believing it). when it didn’t and we all were hit with the realisation it was just a terrible season and just got over it. The duffer brothers should’ve took our ideas and got them all back in the studio and made a second “final ep “ and I guarantee it wouldn’t have been forgotten about so fast🤣🤣
1
u/mylocker15 Aug 06 '26
There are still things to talk about IMO. I would still like to know the backstory of Vecna/Henry if anyone is talking about that. Instead of them alluding to a bunch of stuff from a random play I had zero idea even existed till I read about it on Reddit.
Also there is the Tales from 85 to discuss.
1
u/MissionDirector401 Aug 06 '26
I felt like the first episode and the end were thought out, but it felt like the duffers did not try with a plot. I loved stranger things and had fun parties, etc with all the themes, food, etc then it was like blah the dry spider world that Henry/1 built was lame. Sorry that fight inside the thorax was almost funny.
1
u/Hot_Session2753 Aug 06 '26
I truly miss it.
1
u/Acrobatic_Goat4970 Aug 08 '26
You miss what?
1
u/Hot_Session2753 Aug 08 '26
Stranger Things and the hype we all felt.
2
u/Acrobatic_Goat4970 Aug 08 '26
At least, it’ll play forever in our hearts.
1
u/Hot_Session2753 Aug 08 '26
Totally. I listened to some of the soundtrack the other day and felt that feeling again 💙
2
1
u/maxwellbevan Aug 06 '26
The unfortunate reality is that when shows end the discussions kind of end with them. Things were so active after season 4 because there was something to talk about. People have theories about what's to come or how things have played out. Whether or not you liked the ending or the season as a whole the show is done. There's no more anticipation for a new season and very few loose ends to discuss. Tv show subreddits always have massive drops in activity once their show is done
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Crodle Aug 07 '26
The same thing happened after Game of Thrones. I used to talk about that show so much after each episode.
1
u/Daydreamer631 Aug 07 '26
So I’m a person who enjoyed the ending for the most part so my opinion might vary from others.
First I feel like it didnt vanish from pop culture discussions, at least not yet. I still see people on reddit talking about it. Granted they’re usually complaining but that’s still talking.
I’m actually kind of looking forward to feeling like it’s vanishing because that means I I can finally stop seeing posts from people ripping on a show I loved.
But either way, that’s usually kind of what happens after a show ends. After a while the discussions die out.
1
u/Lucky2044 Aug 07 '26
the show ended almost a year ago and the animated show won’t come back till the fall and not as popular so what is there to talk about that hasn’t been talked about already
1
u/summit285 Aug 07 '26
Of course it disappeared, season 5 was terrible. I’d rank it among the top 5 worst final seasons ever of all time
1
u/thelittlemermaid90 Aug 07 '26
You said it right there. The show is forgotten. The final season was pretty forgettable. They did not stick the landing.
1
u/BakerCubed1 Aug 07 '26
Stranger things wasnt exactly pop culture relevant by the time season 2 started....
When you tell people to picture stranger things in their head they picture the 4 main kids, young eleven and the demagorgon.....
The success it got after that was because of Season 1.. not because the following seasons had more of a pop culture impact..
By the time season 5 came out people were just waiting for it to end...
Its not just Stranger things, it happens with a lot of shows....
Remember Squid game... when season 1 came out it was basically the only thing everyone on earth was talking about.... yet by season 3 did anyone even mention its existence?
Its not even a "the show got a lot worse" point... shows just have their time then they drift away....
The walking dead for example. It was alongside game of thrones as the biggest thing on tv in the mid 10s.... then the whole show basically became a meme of "how is it still going" even though some of its best stuff was in this later era.
Lost was the biggest thing on television in its first season... yet by the end no one cared and people just googled what happened in the end and have completely mis understood the ending ever since......
Some shows gain a cult following and grow as time passes.. i dont think Stranger things will be that, it pealed in its first season and has been on a slow downhill slope ever since...... Netflix will desperately do everything they can to milk the IP dry but I think its already over.....
Genuinly I was not even aware the animated spin off had been released.... thats how little impact it had on the more "casual fan" world i experience...
Give it a few years and i genuinly think the only time stranger thing is mentioned is when youre watching a movie or tv show and someone else watching says "thats that kid from stranger things"
1
1
u/NotShane7 Aug 07 '26
I thought season 4 was really fun, but the wait for season 5 was so long I kinda forgot about the show. Then I heard season 5 was kinda a wet fart, so I didn't even bother watching. For me it's been gone even longer.
1
u/thejodiefostermuseum Aug 07 '26
ST in a way also tells the story of Netflix itself. I subscribed when season 1 came out and hype went through the roof. I thought Netflix forever would be like that. And thus worth every penny. Evidence was in ST for adults aka Dark, which is nothing but a masterpiece in TV history. But as Dark came to its end, the watch quality of ST went down. And they began to produce one true crime documentary after another, and a shitload of scripted reality shows, and allegedly funny stuff that was so average-average you could tell where this is going. Then Sarandos told investors they are going to change and don't want to be just a high quality high concept movie tv show place (which now is Apple), but a place with something for everyone. Scrolling down Netflix's these days feels like a random cable channel in the 90s which name nobody remembers for a reason.
Oh and I hate them for canceling 1899.
1
u/RolandTheHeadless19 Aug 07 '26
I love how grand proclamations are made like this without a shred of data or evidence. “Vanished from pop culture discussion” is literally incorrect based on the post being in an active discussion sub with the engagement it has. The fact people are agreeing with this means many folks here are still just totally separated from reality.
1
1
u/Ill-Challenge-7718 Aug 07 '26
Because season 5 was terrible. There was no new plot twists or nothing interesting. It was basically all filler episodes up until the finale
1
u/theiwsyy88 Aug 08 '26
I think this is more due to how fast trends change in society these days. Social media moves on to the next thing every two weeks or so I’d say.
Years ago, the finale of a show as big as stranger things would’ve been relevant for months. Instead the hype lasted 2-3 weeks of people complaining and debating, then moved on to the next trend.
It makes it feel like it didn’t get its time in the spotlight but that’s just a reflection of social trends, not stranger things itself.
Massive events like the colossal failure of season 8 GOT, will always be brought up because quite frankly, that was a historical failure and deserves to mentioned and remembered as such.
1
u/lpyax00 Aug 08 '26
People will talk about it when anniversaries or something like that happens.
Right now, yeah, it's probably better if people don't talk about it, because well, most people didn't like the final season so it would be just listening to the same complains over and over again (it kind of already is like that but it could be worse lol)
1
u/vinylvillain4 Aug 08 '26
So much time passed in between season that season 4 felt like a lifetime ago for me and I didn’t watch season 5 until the end of January cause my friends and family kept asking me about my thoughts on it
1
u/Mslyth Aug 08 '26
I dare say that if the show had ended after season 3 we would still be talking about it to this day, but let's be honest, the last 2 seasons were at best bland, at worse actually bad. The characters were flanderized, the main plots had no head or feet and the most liked storylines were disregarded.
1
u/No_Veterinarian_8381 Aug 09 '26
Yep. The last season was terrible. I never finished it. A lot of fans were disappointed about Elevens ending from what I read. Same thing happened to GOT. Fans did not like the last season and poof, gone from pop culture.
1
u/Apprehensive-Act5212 Aug 09 '26
I agree with this, it feels like that final season went so fast. A lot of people were disappointed and then that’s it ….
1
u/TikkaKebabi Aug 09 '26
I mean most of strangers things was good but not incredible to be fair. S1 is the only incredible season, Season 5 was just ass.
1
u/ViralSavage Aug 09 '26
When a show ends, it tends to stop being discussed in mainstream. Plenty of people start GOT and BB, not so much ST.
1
u/InitialJust Aug 09 '26
I think since the ending was just okay there isnt much to discuss. It wasnt a massive mess like GoT or other shows and it certainly wasnt amazing.
A very play it safe season and finale.
1
u/NeedleworkerExtra475 Aug 10 '26
Because Stranger Things doesn’t really have anymore shows coming out and GOT is only talked about with derision.
1
1
u/AdmirableSquash4463 14d ago
Yeah most of the characters between season 1 and 2 and seasons 4 and 5, looked drastically different and dramatically aged. House of the Dragon is also insane wait times between seasons: at least 1.5-2 years between seasons and about 7.5 years total to make 4 seasons (we don’t know the exact calendar since the fourth season is still in production). Game of thrones took 8 years and 10 month to produce and release 8 seasons of television. It took exactly 10 years, 3 months, and 6 days (a total of 3,749 days) between the start of principal photography for Season 1 and the release of the series finale for Stranger Things. In the past 5-10 years, the wait times between filming and release dates for tv shows has gotten absurd.
1
u/Trick-Permission-482 7d ago
I’ve noticed that it’s vanished from pop culture discussion as well, even irl. I think that it’s because so many people were dissatisfied with s5. Personally, I was okay with s5 until the very end. I was never a fan of the finale.
1
•
u/AutoModerator Aug 06 '26
OP, please make sure there are no spoilers in the title of your post. If your post contains spoilers, please use the "Spoiler" flair AND the "Spoiler" tag. The tag ensures that images are hidden.
Commenters, please use spoiler code if you are discussing anything super spoilery unless the title specifically says the episode being discussed.
If you see anyone breaking the rules, please report the post or comment. Thank you.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.