like many series it just got more stupid each reiteration. The last season it seemed the producers were really struggling to make the 38 year olds seem like teens.

I'm an 85 HS grad so I thought they did a great job showing the 80s era. Some things in the final season were a little goofy and my mind didn't stay focused as much in the final season. Up the Irons, The Trooper is one of my favorite Iron Maiden songs. Supposedly the entire idea for the show came from some X-men comics. Might read those...

That last boss fight was awful. The smoke version of the Mindflayer seen in the upside down was actually scary, but the real thing was just another generic CGI monster that looked like it belonged in a Marvel movie. And just due to its massive size the fact that a bunch of kids with a flame thrower and a machine gun were able to harm it was ridiculous. And nobody dying (or even being seriously injured) was a bit too much of a Disney ending and felt out of place in this show. And then the military...just lets them go free? Did Linda Hamilton have a brain aneurism and drop dead while they were in the upside down? They repeatedly sabotaged highly classified ops and killed a bunch of soldiers in the process. They'd all be disappeared to a black site or military prison and never heard from again. ** Edited by HokieNoVA at 1/9/2026, 12:05:30 PM

They absolutely nailed life in the 80s, and the story was great. Seasons 2 and 3 were also good. But then it just got goofy in by Season 4. Too goofy. The goofy kung-fu fight in the airplane over Russia was idiotic...and then the fact that they survived the plane crash in the middle of Russian winter AND found and infiltrated the secret Russian base (as regular civilians) was a bit much. I like my shows to be at least somewhat believable. I did finish all five seasons, but only because I felt like I had to.

I think we maybe binged seasons 1 and 2, then watched 3 and 4 when they were released. Haven't watched season 5 (honestly haven't even talked about it, even though netflix is on multiple times a week in our house) and I'm not 100% sure if that's because of the length of time it took to be released or if I was just tired of the series after season 4.

since she started at the beginning as she said its freaking 3 years between season. I was 100% bought it as i watched them all at once!

Characters at the end and some serious eye roll moments/stories that felt so forced.

They made it unnecessarily complicated in the end but it was still fun and I liked the way it wrapped up. The one thing that did bother me writing-wise is how characters in all these tense, need for immediate action circumstances, would have a 10 minute heart-to-heart and none of the chaos around them ever interrupted.

season (soon after it premiered) saying I'm not into paranormal BS but it was, indeed, awesome as they struck all of those fun nostalgic notes (I was born in 79) and had genuinely great story telling and characters. My kids, now 22, 19, and 15 also really got into over the years so it's one of the few entertainment type things all 4 of us could really get into together and talk about. That made it a big deal. As far as the last season and ep, I enjoyed it. I thought the show was generally better in earlier seasons but I have no quips with the last wrap up season and ep. They went above and beyond to provide closure, which is arguably unique in it's own right. I think this series will really stand the test of time as a great, ambitious piece of ubiquitous American pop culture and deservedly so. Bravo. There are not many series I would rank ahead of it, only ones I can think of for me would be: The Wire, Sopranos, Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul, Band of Brothers (if you count a mini series). Any others? I think it's better than Sons of Anarchy, Justified, Homeland. These all just quickly off the top of my head. I'm obviously missing a bunch.

The Wire and Sopranos (my favorites). Is Homeland and BCS up there with those?

people like Better Call Saul better but you need to consume Breaking Bad first. You have to consume these. Homeland is pretty awesome. There is an initial plot that lasts a couple seasons and then the seasons are sort of independent of each other afterwards, however those 1st few seasons are amazing! The Diplomat on a Netflix is pretty awesome as well and is still ongoing, I presume.

story. It's basically Mike Ehrmantrout's origin story as well. Gustavo Fring coming to power as well. It's good stuff. Many people ultimately liked it better. I'm not sure I'm one of them...

but in general a masterful show. Band of brothers is amazing. only 10 shows but arguably the best 10 shows of anything you have ever watched. Back to Stranger things. I am 83 baby so i do remember 89 pretty well but I had all those prop items in the show, my house looked exactly like that, the biking around, be home by dark was my childhood. My oldest is 5 1/2. can't wait to rewatch this with him. I do agree never has a show wrapped up every character

on it but I probably like GoT better. The level of character development was epic. Even the race to the end make for fun eps, just startling relative to the initial pacing.