The last episode of one of Netflix’s biggest and longest-running shows, Stranger Things, aired on December 31, 2025, on New Year’s Eve.
When the first episode aired on July 15, 2016, Stranger Things debuted as an authentic 80s nostalgia, full of mystery, horror, and comedy. Stranger Things starred Winona Ryder, who was initially the only A-list movie star in the series; she was one of the most prominent actors from the 80s.
Soon after the show’s popularity grew enormously, fame came for many of the show’s protagonists. Millie Bonnie Bongiovi, who played Eleven, has been the main character in many new movies and shows.
Joe Keery, who played the notable Steve, has a popular band named Djo and has many popular songs, including End of Beginning. Finn Wolfhard, who played Mike, has also decided to head into music. Sadie Sink, who was Max, is now going to star in the new Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. David Harbour gained most of his fame through his acting in Stranger Things. Since then, he has been in Gran Turismo, Thunderbolts, and will now star in Goat. Caleb McLaughlin will also be the voice of the protagonist in the new movie Goat.
In my personal opinion, the only good season of Stranger Things would be season one. After the first 3 seasons, the show’s writing started to slowly decline, with basic mistakes, like a few plot holes and forgetting the character development of the main protagonists on the show.
Season five of Stranger Things, the new last season that came out in late November, was one of the worst seasons. Season four had ended on an amazing cliffhanger. It had left everyone in 2022 excited and nervous for the next season. Instead of starting where the cliffhanger had ended, there was an 18-month time skip. The 18-month time skip did no justice to the show; it gave no depth but only added new characters. The last season felt rushed.
Before the last episode aired, many people online had created theories on how the show should and would end. There were many great ideas, and dare I say, there were better online theories on the ending than the actual ending.
After the episode had aired, there were many positive and negative reactions. For some, the final episode was amazing, but for many, the episode was not what the Duffer Brothers had promised fans. Fanatics of the show online even made a rumor named the ‘Conformity Gate’, which was rumored to be released on January 7th, although nothing was ever released. Another online rumor made was that Ross Duffer had written the bad season because of his divorce from his wife. It was also rumored that his wife had also written the first few seasons and not the last two. All of these rumors were a way to cope with the ending that the Duffer brothers had given us.
In the end, Stranger Things was an amazing show that many of us grew up on. It was one of the best shows, even with all of the plot holes on Netflix. Its ending was not what fans expected, but it summed up the series well.
