[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Shaun

overall... disappointing

Spoiler:

I know that with this many characters, tying up everyone's story is tough... but so many characters are just tossed an easy ending. Joyce and Hopper? Engaged and thinking about moving (after only 8 years or so of supernatural horror). Vecna, the Mind Flayer, the most powerful things in the entire franchise? Dead after a bit of fire and stabbing. No casualties.

The Eleven ending was good up until they threw everyone the daft bone of "but maybe she lived!!!!" when Kali was not only dead on screen 20 minutes before that, but the building she was in was blown tf up and the immediate epicentre of the upside down being wiped out. They had a genuine moment of sacrifice and drama and then just watered it down with some "what iffery" bullshit.

Will, Dustin, Mike and Max get a nice little graduation moment but then nothing... no resolution, just a sad little bench talk.

You mean to tell us that after killing 20-50 soldiers, Nancy and Hopper are free citizens? You mean to tell us that the military just wandered off? You mean to tell us that Vickie and Robin just broke up with just a throwaway line about being "over-bearing"? You mean to tell us that the hole in the cave that Max barely squeezed through, Derek did? You mean to tell us that the Mind Flayer, whose whole thing is "invading everyone's minds" did not touch a single member of the group psychically and just opted to turn into a big spider-dragon that didn't land a single blow? Oh and Ted just survived everything? Max was able to graduate the same year as her friends with 2 years being spent in a coma? The stone that infected Henry in the cave... just came from nowhere? Henry went to school with Joyce, Karen, Ted and Hopper despite being taken in by the lab as a child after murdering his family?

I didn't totally hate it, largely because of the soundtrack choices @Ammi but also the "putting away the binders" moment with the new generation of kids (Erica too old for them I guess?) was genuinely poignant.

Also really wanted Holly to ****ing annihilate that Thomas kid that pushed her down the stairs / jumped her from behind. Evil little ****.

Overall from this series I did really enjoy Derek... Holly was a brilliant actress, and there were solid moments from Dustin, Hopper, Joyce, Max, Nancy and Jonathan... but so much time was wasted in the first half with Steve being an asshole, Lucas Mike and Eleven being background characters... Robin being presented as this big "Will accepts himself for his sexuality" beacon only to then have the only queer relationship end off screen by the end.... and then a lot of the performances were really stiff and poorly-acted (Will, Eleven, Mike)

I'd give Season 5 a 6/10 honestly. It's a shame, but it's not quite Game of Thrones S8 level

…yeah I totally get all of those things/points etc and maybe it’s because I’m unwell and delirious and have been TV deprived for a few weeks but I still loved, loved, loved it…….and ugggghhhh, the soundtrack……