Cast of Stranger Things in Season 5Image via Netflix
By
Amanda M. Castro
Published 21 minutes ago
Amanda M. Castro is a Network TV writer at Collider and a journalist based in New York. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Amanda is a bilingual Latina who graduated from the University of New Haven with a degree in Communication, Film, and Media Studies. She covers the world of network television, focusing on sharp, thoughtful analysis of the shows and characters that keep audiences tuning in week after week. At Collider, Amanda dives into the evolving landscape of network TV — from long-running procedural favorites to ambitious new dramas — exploring why these stories matter and how they connect with viewers on a cultural level.
Sign in to your Collider account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recapStranger Things returned after a three-year break — the kind of hiatus that usually wrecks finales for prestige giants like Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Sherlock, and True Detective, among many others. Long gaps tend to crush momentum, fracture fanbases, and turn finales into score-dropping spectacles. Yet even while holding the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score among them right now, Stranger Things still managed something rare: A finale debut that stayed embraced, steady, and surprisingly unified in a scoring environment that routinely destroys shows on impact.
Hiatuses have always inflated expectations, but modern fan culture adds rocket fuel. The longer a show is gone, the more viewers mythologize it. They’re not just waiting for a new chapter; they’re also constructing an idealized version in their heads. The finale then gets judged against that imaginary masterpiece, not the actual story onscreen.
How Long TV Hiatuses Create Impossible Expectations for Finales
Vecna has the upper hand on Will in Stranger Things 5Image via Netflix
Game of Thrones is the most transparent case. The two-year pause before Season 8 turned the final season into a cultural showdown. Fans dissected every frame of promotional footage and wrote endless theories. By the time the season arrived, audience expectations had ballooned beyond what any production could match. Ratings collapsed under the weight of that gap-fueled pressure. In the same vein, Sherlock is another example. The three-year wait before Season 4 landed the show in a different fandom climate entirely. Years of meta, headcanons, and Tumblr theorizing built a version of Sherlock that the writers never planned to deliver. When the show returned, many viewers had already moved on emotionally — and the ratings reflected it.
True Detective: Night Country had even more time working against it. The five-year break let nostalgia harden. Fans treated Season 1 as a fixed ideal, and anything that deviated from its tone or structure was dismissed before it had a chance. The revival didn’t just face comparison. It faced a memory of what the show “should” be, and that’s a nearly impossible target.
Stranger Things walked into the same minefield — years of theories, shifting fan culture, and a long silence that could’ve made the return feel stale. But unlike the examples above, it didn’t implode on impact.
How Binge Culture, Social Media Hype, and Review-Bombing Create Brutal Scoring for TV Finales
The OG Stranger Things party: Dustin, Mike, Lucas, and WillImage via Netflix
Rotten Tomatoes scores don’t behave the way they did a decade ago. Today’s scoring environment is immediate, reactive, and shaped by social platforms that lock in narratives before an episode airs. Binge culture makes this even sharper. Fans can finish an entire season in a weekend, which means early scores come from the loudest and most extreme reactions. Those first waves set the tone for the entire conversation, and latecomers often fall in line.
Long hiatuses only heighten this. While a show is gone, online discourse doesn’t pause. It builds pressure. Phrases like “They better stick the landing,” “The show’s past its prime,” or “If the ending isn’t this one particular thing that is highly discussed and/or theorized in fandom, I’m done” become the default conversation. By the time a finale premieres, it’s already being graded against a set of demands shaped by years of fan debates, nostalgia, and frustration.
Review-bombing is also a predictable part of final-season culture now. It’s almost routine for a long-awaited finale to drop into a scoring environment that treats backlash as part of the entertainment cycle. A final season isn’t simply judged — it’s treated as a referendum on the entire series.
Related
Dungeons and Dragons Was Originally Not Supposed to be a Big Part of ‘Stranger Things,’ According to Creators
Matt and Ross Duffer say fans are in for a cathartic end to this long journey.
Posts By Tamera Jones Nov 18, 2025And yet Stranger Things managed to stay intact within that climate. Even with heightened expectations, a three-year wait, and a fandom that had years to harden its preferred endings, the Season 5 finale debut held steady. It didn’t delight everyone, but it didn’t collapse, fracture the fanbase, or trigger the instant score freefall that took down its predecessors.
That stability matters. It shows that a show can weather a massive hiatus without losing its grip on viewers. It also proves that even in a hyper-reactive streaming culture, some final seasons can still unite an audience rather than split it into camps.
Stranger Things entered the same expectation trap that crushed other prestige shows — long waits, intense theories, and a ruthless scoring environment — and still landed without breaking. In an era where finales rarely survive the return from a long hiatus, that alone sets it apart.
Stranger Things
Like TV-14 Drama Mystery Horror Science Fiction Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz Writers Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
7 Images
Eleven looking into an opening of the Upside Down with pink light in Stranger Things season 1
Jim Hopper (David Harbour) grabbing Jonathan's (Charlie Heaton) shoulders in Stranger Things season 1©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Eleven with cables all over her head in Stranger Things season 4
Vecna looking towards Will in the trailer for Stranger Things season 5 (2025)
Max and Eleven in Stranger ThingsNetflix
Stranger Things season 2, episode 2 "Trick or Treat, Freak".MovieStillsDB
The Upside Down in Stranger Things season 5Courtesy of Netflix Close
Cast
See All-
Millie Bobby Brown
Jane 'Eleven' Hopper
-
Finn Wolfhard
Mike Wheeler
Expand
Collapse
-
Game of Thrones
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Be the first to post Images Attachment(s) Please respect our community guidelines. No links, inappropriate language, or spam.Your comment has not been saved
Send confirmation emailThis thread is open for discussion.
Be the first to post your thoughts.
- Terms
- Privacy
- Feedback
4 days ago
'Stranger Things' Reviews Turn Upside Down as Rotten Tomatoes Score Reveals a New Low
5 days ago
'Landman' Season 2' Spirals With Some of the Lowest Audience Ratings of Taylor Sheridan's Career
16 hours ago
10 Harsh Truths of Rewatching 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' On Disney+
21 minutes ago
One of the Most Hated Horror Movies of the Last 5 Years Heads to New Streaming Home
What To Watch
July 20, 2025
The 72 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
Trending Now
This 81% Rotten Tomatoes Sci-Fi Hit Is a Forgotten Gem and Your New Comfort Show
Move Over, ‘Gilmore Girls’; This Netflix Drama Will Get You in the Perfect Fall Mood
This Perfect Crime Masterpiece Changed Cinema Forever, and Now You Can Watch It for Free