Stranger Things Season 5 was certainly full of spectacle, but that doesn't mean it's as good as the show's earlier seasons. Many fans criticized the series' final season for trying to do too much. Stranger Things Season 5 failed to meet the high expectations set by the earlier seasons, which were more focused. Right off the bat, fans were off-put by the new season. Will's weird de-aged face immediately took viewers out of Season 5, Episode 1, which had been hotly anticipated for three years.

Weird CGI aside, Stranger Things Season 5 failed to deliver a satisfying final season to its longtime fans. There was a significant time-jump from Season 4 to Season 5, leaving several really cool plot points from Season 4 totally abandoned. Although Stranger Things fans will be getting more content to explore the world of Hawkins with the newly announced Stranger Things: Tales From '85, the animated spin-off isn't going to tread any real new ground. Why was Stranger Things received so poorly? Did the Duffer brothers really use AI to write the Stranger Things Season 5 script?

stranger things season 5 episode 1 review

Stranger Things Season 5 Lost Me at 50 Seconds In

The highly-anticipated fifth season of Netflix's Stranger Things definitely gets off on the wrong foot and sets a bad first impression.

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By Dalton Cooper

5 Stranger Things Season 5 Abandoned Too Many Storylines From Season 4

Max Mayfield in the Rainbow Room in Stranger Things Season 5.

Stranger Things Season 5 felt like a different show altogether. One of the biggest fan complaints about Stranger Things' final season was that plot threads from Season 4 weren't properly continued and that characters who should have been more emotionally affected seemed to have moved on. After Hawkins suffered major rifts (due to an "earthquake"), the town and its residents should've been much more unstable. Viewers hated how this huge cliffhanger from Season 4 was pretty much glossed over in Season 5. Season 4 left off with a view of the Upside Down bleeding into Hawkins, with ash falling from the sky and dead or dying plants. The threat of a toxic atmosphere should've played more of a key role in Season 5. Instead, fans felt like it was relegated more to a background dressing.

When Max almost died in Season 4, it set up the lingering question of whether she would ever fully recover from her injuries. Max spends most of her time in Season 5 in a coma, while her consciousness is trapped inside a realm in Vecna's mind. Max's body remains comatose, but she still gets a lot of screen-time through her struggle inside Vecna’s mindscape. Season 5 does give Stranger Things fans yet another rescue arc, but it's different from all the rest because it's a psychological escape rather than physical.

4 No One Except Dustin Mourns Eddie Munson's Death

We need to talk about Eddie Munson's legacy. Not only was Eddie a fan-favorite character introduced in Stranger Things Season 4, but he also grew incredibly close to Dustin. Eddie's death in Season 4 was utterly heartbreaking. Fans expected the final season to do more with memorializing Eddie, through Dustin's grief, the town's reaction, and just general callbacks honoring his impact on the show.

Stranger Things Season 5 did show Dustin visiting Eddie's grave in a heartfelt moment where he talks to Eddie about his survivor's guilt, and it's not a bad scene. Fans just loved Eddie so much that they expected him to matter more to the story after his death.

3 Stranger Things Season 5 Was Criticized for Weak and Unconvincing Acting

Compared to earlier seasons, the acting in Stranger Things Season 5 didn't measure up in the eyes of some fans. Many complained that the acting was too stiff, and that it felt like "actors acting". Not what you want in a show meant to play on '80s nostalgia and the supernatural. There's camp, and then there's whatever was happening with the dialogue in Stranger Things Season 5. Group scenes were especially lambasted, with it seeming like the actors were tonally out of step with how serious the narrative was.

Look on any social media site or forum, and you'll see viewers talking about how the dialogue was over-explanatory and plain awkward. With the long time in between seasons and the time jump in the show, the Stranger Things cast has grown up both physically and mentally. That's not something that comes across in the final season; the actors' dialogue feels like it's stuck in time from when the cast was younger. Fans feel like the actors' ages weren't considered very well, if at all, when writing their scripts for this season.

2 Scenes Like Will Coming Out Are Poorly Written and Feel Like AI Writing

Some fans theorize that the writers relied on AI to come up with the script, which could be evidence for why the actors' lines sounded so awkward and unnatural. Will's coming-out scene was poorly received — not for the plot point itself or because of queer representation, but just because of the delivery. Viewers even review-bombed the episode, "Chapter Seven: The Bridge" out of dislike for the way the scene was acted.

1 Stranger Things Season 5's Ending Left Many Fans Feeling Disappointed and Unfulfilled

Stranger Things fans really hoped Netflix was going to drop a secret episode, kind of like your favorite band saying farewell at the end of a concert when everyone knows they have an encore planned. What actually happened was far more disappointing, especially for fans who wanted that extra episode. Instead, Netflix dropped a documentary detailing Stranger Things' production.

That wasn't good enough for fans, who felt like after so many years of loving the show and watching the characters grow up, that the plot threads and relationships didn't pay off at all. Fan petitions and conspiracies were all over, from "ConformityGate" to "Cutgate". The rampant disbelief that Netflix didn't deliver the whole show or that there was a significant amount of missing content only further proves just how much viewers were dissatisfied with Stranger Things' finale.

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