I have a confession to make that will probably put me in a minority of people: I had never seen an episode of Stranger Things until two weeks ago. I did not experience the ten-year-long obsession most people had with this show. So when everyone went crazily nostalgic over the last season being released, I did what anyone does after they finish all their university assignments and now have a whole month free: I decided to binge-watch all five seasons in less than a week and hop on the Stranger Things obsession train, ten years too late.
In some ways, I was both pleased and disappointed with myself that I did not watch the series when it first began. Pleased, because I do not know how my mind would have survived waiting two to three years in between seasons, but also disappointed for not following it when my 12 and 13-year-old self would have been unhealthily obsessed with it.
Starting off with season one, I was instantly hooked. The creepy, eerie vibe, ’80s setting and soundtrack, and the small, cosy American town where weird things happen surprisingly appealed to me even as someone who has never really been into sci-fi TV shows. As the seasons went on, the show seemed to stay consistently good in its plot, quality, and dialogue, which is rare with a lot of TV shows, as every series I’ve watched lately just seems to decrease drastically as the seasons go on (cough cough Emily in Paris).
As I continued on my probably highly unhealthy binge, I was not left disappointed. Season two, season three and season four led me down a path of self-loathing for denying my teenage self from experiencing this as it came out. The ’80s romanticism, the oversaturated summer carnival vibes of season three, and the masterpiece of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill made me finally understand the obsession I once watched on social media with indifferent and slightly judgemental eyes.
And then… I got to season five, and it all came crashing down.
The only way I could explain this season was like witnessing a horrendously embarrassing school drama performance: you don’t want to watch, but for some reason you can’t look away, as a part of you is too invested.
The Duffer Brothers are now facing mountains of criticism for this disaster of a season, with accusations of using artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT to write their script as images of a ChatGPT tab open alongside Reddit on their laptop have been circulating on social media. The newest season has been labelled as “Netflix slop”, which I honestly don’t disagree with.
The corny dialogue of “we’ve got company”, “I want Vecna’s heart on a platter”, and the embarrassing overuse of “goddamn” was painful to listen to. This paired with not-so-subtle ad placements (I see you, Nike shoes and Gatorade), and the painfully obvious green screen and bright lighting made me feel like I was watching a highly produced YouTube video instead of a series.
The ending was also far too predictable. Obviously Eleven dies, purely to pump a bit of shock value, and the rest graduate and live happily ever after, even though Max was in a coma for half of her high school years, and Steve gets a job as a teacher despite barely passing his classes and not attending a day of college in his life. But who needs a degree when you’ve saved the world from the apocalypse? Just slap “killed Vecna” on the CV and you’re guaranteed the job.
Despite the trainwreck that season was, I do not regret finally caving to the peer pressure of watching Stranger Things, although my eyes are screaming for a well-deserved rest after staring at my laptop for eight hours a day for a week. The small-town-where-unexplainable-things-happen genre weirdly appealed to me, and my Spotify Wrapped in 2026 will probably contain a lot of ’80s soundtracks.