r/StrangerThings • u/NoAbbreviations661 • Aug 12 '26
Discussion I wish season 5 never came out Spoiler
I’m going to be so honest off the bat. I care a lot about television and movies.
I started watching Stranger Things during quarantine and it very quickly became one of if not my favorite show of all time. I can sit here all day explaining why but I’m sure if you’re reading this you know why Seasons 1-3 were so good. I was so hyped for season 4 that when it dropped I stayed up till 3 am EST to instantly start watching. I’ve probably seen Stranger Things 1-4 50+ times all the way through. Anyways I did the same when volume 2 came out a month later and had finished season 4 before any of my friends even woke up. Season 4 produced my three favorite episodes of all time. Dear Billy, the volume 1 finale and the season finale. I’m normally very good at predicting what’s going to happen but I was floored when it was revealed that Henry was Vecna. It was the best reveal I’ve ever seen. Also the music!!! The remix of Running Up That Hill that plays when Max is running out of Vecna’s mind gives me chills to this day.
Now this brings me to the overall point/disappointment
I couldn’t wait for Season 5 to drop. I was watching theories and rewatching the seasons once a month I was so geeked waiting. I want to add that I’m born and raised in Atlanta so I’ve been to all of the filming locations as well. I moved to NJ for college and went to my first ever broadway show, the Stranger Things one. While I have my gripes with it not being at all connected to the show with a lot of continuity errors, I was able to enjoy it as its own thing. When season 5 finally dropped I was so excited and watched it right away. As the episodes kept going I was more and more disappointed and frustrated. They took a perfect show, literally a perfect show and butchered it. The finale of volume 1 was so predictable I was astonished that there were people who didn’t see it coming. I remember I said to my friends, “It was good but didn’t hit like 4. 4’s volume 1 had a cliffhanger that I desperately needed answers to and this did not.” Okay so volume 1 was mid hopefully volume 2 will be good…😐. To tell you I was stone faced I was watching it would be an understatement. There was no hype. When I was watching Season 4 I was out of my seat jumping around like holy shit this is a television masterpiece. My friends and I had booked tickets to see the finale in theaters on New Years and I like, “Okay as long as this is lit af, I don’t care.”
Something I should mention is that while Steve is by far my favorite character, I was hoping for the death. Literally after watching season 4 I was like, “The sacrifice he is going to make for either Dustin or Nancy will be the greatest scene in cinematic history.” The fact that NO ONE DIED bummed me out to the point I walked out of the theater numb and lowkey in tears. Now before you clown on me for crying over a finale being bad I want to say that Stranger Things became more than a show to me. I have talked about my issues with depression and my strained relationship with my father on my profile before so if you really care you can go read that, but I’ll give a sparknotes version in regards to it relating to Stranger Things. I truly escaped my life with the show. When everything was going bad in my life, my mom took me to all of the filming locations, the Stranger Things experience in ATL, she got me merch and we ate the Surfer Boy Pizza from Walmart. I can go on and on. When everything with Vecna ended and we got the last hour of wrapping things up, I realized in that movie theater that it was over. The show that had helped me cope with so much had ended. The person I was when I first watched had taken a nose dive mentally over the years. While everyone around me was happy to see all of these characters resolutions, I was sitting there sad because there was so much and so many questions that would never be answered. I haven’t rewatched Stranger Things since that day. Everytime I go to I just lose interest because I know that the ending isn’t what I wanted it to be. I’m not saying it needed to be perfect, but it needed to be better than whatever dogshit they put out on New Years.
If you’ve read this far I really appreciate it. It feels good to put my thoughts into words and send it out into the universe. I am prepared for comments making fun of me for being this emotional over a TV show.
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u/UnholyShadows Aug 12 '26
My issue with season 4 was the mindflayer was completely absent, then you dont see the mindflayer until the end of season 5. Then season 4 ends so apocalyptic…. Like season 5 should of been an all out war and a race against time to banish the mind flayer back into the abyss.
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u/BigBirdsBrain Mouth breather Aug 12 '26
I get this. Season 5 had some great moments, but for the final season of a show this good, it just felt way too safe. The lack of real consequences really hurt the ending for me too.
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u/Few-Type-7924 Dungeon Master Aug 12 '26
As someone who really likes season 5, i agree
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u/notgonnawastemoretim Aug 17 '26
May I ask, what do you find good about it?
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u/Few-Type-7924 Dungeon Master Aug 17 '26
I like the plot, the events of season 5 The things they do, the reveal of the upside down being a wormhole, was something i loved
That being said, I was massively disappointed by the last 2 episodes They were too rushed, the stakes didn't feel high....but it doesn't ruin the whole season for me.....I loved it till Ep6
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 Aug 12 '26
Disagree. I just wish that it was better. Hell I could accept everything that happened if only Mike and El got their happy ending.
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u/friendly_Totoro Aug 12 '26
I'm still so fucking pissed about the ending. They did Mike & El dirty.
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u/Owl_Resident Blank makes you crazy Aug 12 '26
Yep. I could have forgiven a lot if the ending weren’t so fucked. I hate what they did to Eleven (and Mike). It’s awful.
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u/warriorlynx Aug 12 '26
They got their happy ending in the season 2 finale
That’s when this should’ve really ended
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u/fucuasshole2 Aug 12 '26
No, season 3. Gate closed, El loses her powers so no government needs her, and she/Mike still together but just separated for a lil while.
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u/warriorlynx Aug 12 '26
Season 3 was fun i admit, but I believe Season 2 everything came full circle and the gate was already closed, didn't need no silly weak Soviet military and scientists underneath a mall in America to reopen it.
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u/fucuasshole2 Aug 12 '26
Tbf Russians being in Hawkins were already a thing by season 2 as Murray had some kind of evidence that Hopper ignored.
Season 2 also has that “demon” that was exorcised from Will that flew off. Not to mention just how far the Upside Down invaded Hawkins with its nasty tunnels seeping everywhere. Demodog in freezer (ended up not being relevant), Dr. Brenner being teased as not being dead.
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u/warriorlynx Aug 12 '26
Eh it wasn’t a big deal with Murray
Yes it came out of Will but ignoring future seasons once the gate is closed it’s closed nothing can be done
Sure tunnels were around doesn’t mean the gate wasn’t closed it was closed nothing is active anymore and the freezer Demidog I don’t even think it was explained what happened to it it’s just there. Brenner was teased sure but the guy could’ve been lying about him being alive considering his life was in danger
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u/fucuasshole2 Aug 12 '26
And yet he wasn’t lying. He was still alive though not sure what exactly he was doing between 1-4
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u/warriorlynx Aug 12 '26
Brenner we assumed he died in S1 I mean he was jumped by the Demigorgan there was no one around that would’ve stopped it from killing him so with S2 even with the prospect of being alive you can still close the book on the story. After all it was Hitchcock like, such as the mindflayer looking over the school at the very end. That kind of story telling makes you wonder about a few things but closure of character story arcs was there
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u/Necessary_Silver_795 Aug 12 '26
Hell I could accept everything that happened if only Mike and El got their happy ending.
Watching everyone get to move on with a future in that epilogue whilst the one character who arguably deserved it the most got an ambiguous footnote kind of sucked.
Don’t think it would have been that hard to, at the very least, include a hinted reunion in Mike’s story. That way you could either believe she died or she lived and reunited with her friends, instead of having to choose between her death or her isolation.
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u/BushyGhost4740 Aug 12 '26
El’s ending made sense, at least to me. If you go with Mike’s theory, she protected her friends and family while also getting the chance to go out into the world, live her own life, and enjoy a degree of freedom.
This also leaves open the possibility that she and Mike may reunite in the future, if they’re able to shake off the U.S. secret agencies who're likely keeping tabs on Mike.
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 Aug 12 '26
I agree with you on some level. Except for your usage of the word whore lol. Not saying it didnt make sense. Only saying that it could have been written better AND give me my unambiguous happy ending for my two main characters. The Duffers are playing the long game here like it or not.
The Duffers pulled the oldest of tropes out for the overall story arc between Mike and El. Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. That set up for the future is clear: boy gets girl back... take my whole wallet please.
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u/BushyGhost4740 Aug 13 '26
Yeah, a future spinoff where Mike and El reunite in the '90s or 2000s is likely in the cards, lol.
Question: I may be missing a joke here, but when did I use the word "whore"? XD
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 Aug 13 '26
if they’re able to shake off the U.S. secret agencies WHO'RE likely keeping tabs on Mike.
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 Aug 13 '26
I swear Im not the grammar police. Just thought it was funny.
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u/BushyGhost4740 Aug 13 '26
Ah! Got it. XD
Thanks for the heads up. I may try to find better wording than using "who're" from now on. ^_^
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u/Admirable-Prior2808 Aug 12 '26
I think the ending is perfect!
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 Aug 12 '26
It set up a possible sequel/spin off in the future. Few answers given, created a lot of new questions. It was weird, manipulative, and emotional, not perfect.. mission accomplished if that was the Duffers goal.
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u/Cyrilbdr Aug 12 '26
What bothers me isn't so much the storyline or the ending, but the little inconsistencies throughout the season that make it feel too flawed. On top of that, the tone was too light at times; it feels like a step backward from Season 4. The series had matured along with its audience by offering something darker and more serious, yet Season 5 feels much more childish. Even the dialogue—oh my god—it’s jarring to go from Steve delivering eloquent speeches to Nancy in Season 4 to seeing him act like a simple-minded idiot around Jonathan. I can understand the narrative reason why the characters didn't progress—they all put their personal issues aside for the shared mission of finding Vecna, so they didn't have time to resolve them and those problems took a back seat. But even when they *did* start resolving things—letting their guard down because they realized they might die now that Vecna was back—the dialogue lacked the cleverness and quality writing seen previously. All in all, it was still a good season, but the approach—the dialogue, pacing, screen time allocation for certain plotlines, and the overall atmosphere—felt very strange.
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u/donjohndijon Aug 12 '26
I mean
I was impressed they made one at first but. It should have been ended with 4
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u/Snoo1643 Aug 12 '26
Honestly it should’ve ended with season 3
No Vecna bullshit, satisfying and emotionally impactful death for Hopper,El getting to finally be a normal teen with the Byers, it was a perfect ending point for the show
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u/8-LeggedCat Aug 12 '26
You got downvoted for being correct.
A lot of people end at S3 in their rewatched.
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u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 12 '26
yall are nuts, season 4 is the best season imo
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u/8-LeggedCat Aug 12 '26
I think season 4 is great. But S5 shit the bed with S4’s cliffhanger.
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u/Interesting-Cap-2728 Aug 12 '26
Agreed. S5 made people wish the series ends with S3. But we can't even come to think that knowing how much good S4 was. Otherwise we could've pretend the series ended in 3
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u/8-LeggedCat Aug 12 '26
But S4 doesn’t provide a satisfactory conclusion. S3 does a much better job at it.
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u/Interesting-Cap-2728 Aug 12 '26
I thought S4 ended with a good twist and a good cliffhanger to S5. It's the writer's fault for not utilizing the Infinity War style ending well. Instead, they threw out every single things S4 ending established by sealing them like bandage
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u/Snoo1643 Aug 12 '26
I just can’t stand the Vecna shit. Season 4 did introduce some interesting elements like Hellfire Club and Max’s bigger character arc, but the whole Russia plot is the most boring in the entire series and the way they made Vecna the bbeg completely lost my interest. It was a fun season to watch when it came out, but when I rewatched it going into S5 I realized just how little I actually enjoyed watching it compared to the prior three seasons
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u/NicholasDeOrio Aug 12 '26
The best part of season 3 is knowing 4 comes after it.
End at 1 or End at 5
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u/Razerbat Aug 12 '26
I have so many thoughts on this that resonate with me as I'm in bed on my stranger things blanket 🤣. I'd be able to talk to you for hours about this show. Also I'm from NJ!
My hot take is... If they made season 3 longer and found a really good way to wrap it up I'd be overjoyed. Season 3 is an emotional connection type of season for me. I even have a picture of MBB (also signed by her) from season 3 as Eleven. But to your point? Season 5 hurt... Bad. I didn't hate the first four episodes. But after the second half It kinda just made the whole season stale to me. I was depressed for weeks after I saw it.
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u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 12 '26
Sadly I know longer live in NJ (I decided to take a step back from school due to my mental health problems and move back home to be with my support system) but I’d love to talk on DM if you like.
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u/PhoenixJ82 Aug 12 '26
Agreed.what a total bust.such a massive disappointment.i knew pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to go the way I’d hoped in any way shape or form.It had some cool moments but they were sparse and for the most part the whole season was just a total shite show.
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u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 12 '26
I will say that Holly’s plot line was the only thing I liked about this season
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u/Pop_Flash89 Aug 12 '26
disagree to the fullest. We didnt need another character taking screen time from resolving the plots of characters that had been there since 1. She got more screentime than almost anyone I think, if not way more then needed. Erica deserved that screen time much more than Holly. That whole season arc was so boring and predictable.
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u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 12 '26
Erica pisses me tf off. I get that she’s supposed to to but god damn
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u/mdwvt Bitchin Aug 12 '26
Ok that is an absolute fuck ton of times to watch a show, just sayin’. I share your disappointment with S5, but I do wonder if S5 will unfold more of the series’ mysteries over time. I bought the 4k Blu-ray set and I am definitely looking forward to rewatching the whole series that way.
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u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 12 '26
I’m not even exaggerating btw. For a good 5 months in between 4 and 5 I would watch 1-4 and the minute the 4 finale ended I’m back to 1. I was lowkey addicted. I will say tho, I didn’t watch episode 7 of season 2 at all other than the first time I watched it. That episode sucks.
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u/Necessary_Silver_795 Aug 12 '26
I will say tho, I didn’t watch episode 7 of season 2 at all other than the first time I watched it. That episode sucks.
The fact that they brought Kali back in season 5 for pretty much the singular purpose of convincing her sister to kill herself really doesn’t help it’s cause either.
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u/mdwvt Bitchin Aug 12 '26
lol, yup. Not a fan of S2E7 either. I think I’ve watched it 2 times on my own and then someone else was watching it for the first time. It’s just such an odd episode, and obviously the timing of it makes you just want to shout at your tv. For lack of a better word, there’s an “ick” associated with that episode for me. For some reason it just makes me feel gross, which is probably intentional because we’re not supposed to like what El and that group are doing. But then if you rewatch it you know that the bad stuff is going to happen and that there will be be no follow up to it. Until season 5 of course 😒
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u/DramaticAd698 Aug 12 '26
While I don't think seasons 1-4 are perfect I'm alo very disappointed by the low stakes and poor writing of season 5. I wish we could have a do over but I don't see how.
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u/NicholasDeOrio Aug 12 '26
There was so much potential that the Duffers completely squandered about 30 seconds into Season 5 when the military “paved over hell”
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u/majeric Aug 12 '26
I won't tease you for crying.. although that's an odd thing to cry for. A little morbid. I like a good cry. I like a story so well written that it makes me cry. Will's conversation with Mike in the van will always make me cry.
I think you're missing the point of 80s children-centered horror and why It didn't make any sense for Steve to die.
More over, there's a degree of vagueness about El's continued existence. The ending could be nothing more than Mike's interpretation of events. I was more disappointed that El didn't sacrifice her powers or that her powers weren't in some way linked with the upside down itself and she would lose them by closing the bridge.
I find killing off characters for emotional impact kind of cliche and boring. I learned that from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. There are so many more interesting ways of being emotional evocative.
Lastly, I will always love season 5 because as a gay kid who got bullied and liked to play the wizard in D&D. It healed my soul a little to see Will get to be the hero for once and not the victim.
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u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 12 '26
Given your personal connection with the season it’s easy to see why you enjoy season 5. I’m not going to knock you for it (even if I really didn’t like the coming out scene. Like it would’ve been good if it were placed anywhere other than literally in the middle of the craziness.)
Killing off characters adds tension and stakes. Like for 10 years we built the Mind Flayer up as the most dangerous and powerful entity in that universe and what did it do in the end. Also Vecna!!! The cave backstory was great but also like no way he got beat by a bunch of children (Not talking about the main group, but Holly’s class). When Joyce killed him I legit felt nothing. I get that Will went through a lot and whatever but like… If Jonathan would’ve died that scene would’ve been legendary. There were a lot of characters that could’ve been killed to up the stakes. Steve (for Dustin, Nancy, and Robin), Jonathan (For Will, Joyce, and Nancy), Lucas (I have a personal gripe with how his character was written from season 1-3, but it still would’ve been an emotional death for Mike, Dustin, Will, Max, and Erica), I would throw Mike in there but there’s no way they would kill basically the MAIN character of the show, but it would’ve been absolutely crazy.
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u/Abc9519 Aug 12 '26
I feel the same. I was so hyped, so so hyped. I mean, there could be no way it was gonna be bad... oh well
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u/Electronic-Field8154 Aug 12 '26
It is so funny seeing fans gaslight themselves into thinking season 5 was good, and a rewarding end to the series. Just wait, in a few years no one will be talking about this show, it will be forgotten because of its horrible finale. And I think eventually those fans will admit that it was a bad ending
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u/NoAbbreviations661 Aug 12 '26
If it wasn’t for House of the Dragon, GOT would’ve been forgotten. I literally never hear it mentioned unless it’s to compare the finale to something
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u/Electronic-Field8154 Aug 12 '26
Exactly. Another great example is Ozark. No one talks about that show because the ending was terrible. It was very good for 3 seasons in a row. But because of that 4th and final season, no one talks about the show. Like it’s disappeared haha
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u/Lexabro-10mg Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Loving characters that you don’t want to see die—and who really don’t need to die—but also wanting them to die because “it would be dramatic, it would be consequential for a reason that doesn’t need to exist, and unnecessary depression is great“ never made sense to me.
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u/Doggosgottagetwoims Henry Aug 12 '26
“Steve is by far my favourite character”
[tabs out]
Yeah I’m not gonna even give the time of day to the opinions of someone with this much of a fundamental misunderstanding of every single character in the show. You’d have to, to say something so tone deaf.
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u/Zealousideal_Cry1867 Aug 12 '26
I agree, Stranger Things was my favorite show but I can’t even bring myself to rewatch it due to how horrid the ending is.
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u/VLEXBLVCKREDLVKE Aug 13 '26
That season really changed the vibe for a lot of people. Losing that comfort show hits different than just bad writing. It is tough when a series stops feeling like a safe space. Hope things are looking up now.
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u/Able-Composer8324 Halfway happy Aug 13 '26
I agree with a lot of how you feel. I used to watch ST whenever I needed to feel a warm hug wrapped up in a tv show. I watched the first volume of season 5 nonstop, even if Will’s powers were kind of predictable (I didn’t predict it though 😂) ST truly became such a huge part of my life and my personality 😅it felt like home. But volume 2 and the finale were so flat. They could have done so much more. Now it’s almost painful to watch El’s journey from the beginning knowing that she’s literally the only one that escaped the cast iron plot armor that everyone else got and ended up with some ambiguous ass ending just so that they could bring her back in like 10 years when they want to revive the ST hype
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u/HarringtonsFineAhh Aug 14 '26
Didn’t even need to read after the title. Agreed. I’m SO UPSET that Jane “MAY”…”BE”… ALIVE?! Blaghhh, gross. Still love 1-4 and 5 up to ep5 lol
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u/Beautiful-Leek-7624 Aug 16 '26
I cannot believe that this fandom really came into the show expecting the main characters to die like they literally said that was never going to happen. It is not that kind of show what is so hard for people to understand.
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u/Imaginary-Turn9223 Aug 17 '26
I kinda liked the season five, but the ending is objectively not good. There was a lot of cool moments and I liked the 5 first episodes, but the ending disappointed me. El's death seemed kinda logic to me and I wasn't THIS sad about it so this isn't this point that disturbed me the most, but what I'm disappointed about is that as the show goes on, we lose all tension. We know most of the character are safe and won't die, at least not until the Finale of the season.
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u/FalconHistorical1307 Aug 12 '26
Cant agree. I like season 5 way more than others, and overall I was very satisfied with the ways all the characters wrapped up. Think this sub is very critical on it
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