Prismatic Pin

Rating: ★★★★☆ ❤

Date Finished: 01 January 2026

Season 5 spoiler, lots of swearing

I am one of those people that started watching Stranger Things in 2016, as soon as it was launched. The storyline, the characters, the aesthetics, everything was so captivating. Besides that, I am also in the same age range as the teenage actors (Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, Natalia Dyer, Maya Hawke), which made it even more relatable.

I have nothing bad to say against the first two seasons, they were absolute cinema. But the third one was, in my opinion, when everything went downhill. I know that this is the favourite season of the fandom in general (especially annoying kids that don't understand shit and only care about ships lmao), but this is the season where Mike, one of my favourite characters in S1, became a douchebag out of nowhere, and the USA propaganda was insufferable.

S4 was a good season, but that's the point where the plot holes start to show up. It clearly shows how Vecna was made up to justify extending the story for one more season. The actor who plays young Henry was too young to be in high school with Joyce or Hopper. Also, why don't they remember their classmate AT ALL? Ted Wheeler in S1 was supposed to be way older than Karen, but they went to school together?? We know that Suzie's dad grounded her because Dustin was agnostic, but why didn't they give them a proper breakup? Where is Max's mom when her daughter is in a coma???? And of course, if Byler was completely one-sided from the beginning, WHY WAS MIKE THE WORST BOYFRIEND EVER TO POOR ELEVEN?

S5 is so fucking bad that I will honestly pretend it doesn't exist not to ruin my fantasy of the perfect series it was in the first two seasons. Robin was reduced to a clumsy girl that makes horrible dick jokes and helps Will come to terms with his own sexuality. The dialogues are dumb as hell, there was no need to include Tammy Thompson in Will's coming out scene. Speaking of which, that is a fucking horrendous scene. No sane person would ever call everyone and their mother to come out IN THE RIPE YEAR OF 1987.

The Jancy breakup scene is also enraging. Not that I disagree that the characters needed it, but Nancy simply shoots the shield that was COMPLETELY dangerous, everything starts to melt, but there are NO CONSEQUENCES AT ALL. If they had broken up and died, that would be my favourite scene ever. In the end, no one dies, only poor Kali that was brought from S2 just to fill the death quota. Also, the fandom hate on her is unproportional, she had her reasons to believe sacrifice was the only solution. Killing Vecna was the easiest thing ever, the Upside Down becomes school playground, everyone (except Mike) gets their happily ever after like it's a Brazilian telenovela ending. Speaking of Mike, he says to Will in S3 "do you expect us to stay in the basement for the rest of our lives?", and in the end, that's what happens to him. Well, karma is a bitch. lol

I know this review is basically me enraged about the series, but I still give it four stars. Despite the problems in S3 and S4, I'd probably give it five stars if its ending was satisfactory. Well, it's not the first time that Netflix ruins the last season of their shows, I've seen it before in Sex Education and Orange is the New Black.