Stranger Things can’t catch a break since the finale, and the pile-on is now the point

The fifth and final season of Netflix’s sci-fi adventure series Stranger Things wrapped up in December 2025, and at least online, there was a ton of blowback. We’re now well into the new year, and new controversies continue to arise.

At this point, it’s starting to feel like fans are picking at a scab. It’s clear a lot of people were dissatisfied with the way Stranger Things ended, but the pile-on now seems to be the point.

The many controversies of Stranger Things 5

From Conformity Gate to SNL

The first four episodes of Stranger Things season 5 came out in November, and by and large, people enjoyed them, including us. The fourth episode, “The Sorcerer,” is one of the highest-rated of the whole show on IMDb, where fans have cast well over 100,000 votes. The backlash didn’t pick up noticeable steam until the next three episodes dropped on Christmas Day, 2025. People reacted particularly harshly to the penultimate episode, “The Bridge,” taking special aim at a scene near the end in which Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), a character who had been around since the beginning, came out as gay.

Other complaints started to get louder around this time: the dialogue was bad, the stakes weren’t high enough … and then the series finale dropped, and the backlash took on a life of its own. Unhappy with the twists and turns of the finale, some fans developed an elaborate conspiracy theory about a secret, eighth episode just around the corner that would address their concerns. This became known as Conformity Gate.

Of course, there was no secret episode, but by then the backlash had gained too much momentum to stop. On January 12, Netflix dropped a documentary about the making of Stranger Things season 5. Fans took screenshots of individual frames and claimed that they saw ChatGPT tabs open on laptops being used by Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators and writers of the series. This, some concluded, was proof that they used ChatGPT to write the final season, which is why it sucked so much.

Believe it or not, there’s more. On January 17, star Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) hosted Saturday Night Live, and many fans were offended by the jokes he and the cast made about Stranger Things. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more controversies to come.

The Stranger Things backlash is stretching itself thin

Anger with no outlet

Personally, I thought the Stranger Things finale was more or less fine, but it’s obvious that a lot of people were very disappointed. I feel like some of those people are latching onto these continued controversies so they have excuses to keep airing out their unhappiness, and the proof is how flimsy a lot of those controversies are.

Take the ChatGPT controversy. Above, you can see the offending frames from the documentary. Are those really ChatGPT tabs open on those laptops? Maybe…? And what if they are? According to Axios, ChatGPT was receiving some 2.5 billion prompts in the middle of 2025; like it or not, people use it for all kinds of things, and that the creators of Stranger Things MIGHT have it open does not prove that they used it to write scripts for Stranger Things season 5, however, certain people on X.com might be about it.

Or take the SNL controversy. Below, you can watch one of the sketches that offended people. In one bit, the show mocks how long Will’s coming-out scene took. “Guys, I’m gay…ning the courage to tell you the truth, and the truth is I’m gay…zing at all of your faces…” says Will, played by SNL cast member Jeremy Culhane. Some fans dinged this scene as homophobic, and it’s true that there was an actual homophobic backlash to Will’s real coming-out scene, to the point where right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec got on the news and claimed that children in the audience could be put at risk by seeing it. But the SNL scene clearly mocked its own length and has the endorsement of the actual Stranger Things cast members, several of whom appeared in the SNL episode. And while reasonable minds can differ on whether the sketch was funny — I thought it was pretty hit-and-miss myself, as is often the case with SNL — the long-running sketch show has featured plenty of queer cast members and writers over the years, and declaring that this sketch is homophobic seems like the least charitable interpretation it is possible to have. But I think some of the disgruntled Stranger Things fans are willing to have it because it lets them stay on board this hate train.

Until next time

This isn’t the first time people have been massively upset over a TV show’s ending

Seeing the Stranger Things backlash reminds me of the reaction to the ending of Game of Thrones, another hugely popular genre show that let a lot of people down. Since the series finale aired in 2019, nearly two million have signed a petition to remake the eighth and final season with “competent writers.”

Like the hidden Stranger Things series finale, the notion that HBO would actually remake the final season of Game of Thrones is ridiculous, and I have to think that most people who sign that petition know it’s not going to happen. But it does give them a way to work through their dissatisfaction, and that’s worth something.

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Alternatives

The final season of Stranger Things is in the books, and people will probably be talking about it for a while to come. I’m all for spirited debate, but if anybody is in the mood to move on, there are other shows that might scratch the Stranger Things itch without indulging in conspiracy theories. There are shows out there that may be even scarier, weirder, and darker than Stranger Things. Feel free to check them out until the next furious online backlash, which we can all rest assured will come along sooner or later.