Stranger Things has been hit by a wave of review-bombing following the release of Season 5 Volume 2, with audience scores for the final season plummeting to series lows.
The second set of episodes from the fifth and final season was released on 26 December, setting the Netflix series up for a bumper finale on New Year’s Eve.
The release of Volume 1 in November saw the streaming giant record its biggest premiere week ever for an English-language series.
But the audience scores for the hit science fiction series have dropped sharply since. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it stood at 56 per cent at the time of writing, down from over 70 previously.
This is the lowest rating for any season of the series. The first season holds a 97 per cent audience score, the second 94 per cent, the third 89 per cent, the fourth 90 per cent.
The lowest-rated episode right now is episode seven, The Bridge, according to ratings on IMDb. The Bridge is rated 5.4, while the other episodes in the season sit between 8 and 9.5.
The Bridge is the lowest rated penultimate episode pic.twitter.com/oG6k9FOvN9
— al | lɐ (@overandoutnerd) December 26, 2025
The Bridge has drawn an unusually high number of ratings. More than 104,000 users have rated the episode on IMDb, compared with an average of about 50,000 for other episodes this season. The only exception is episode four, which has 80,000 ratings and is the highest-rated episode of the season at 9.5.
The Bridge is now the lowest-rated of the entire series, surpassing the second season’s The Lost Sister, which previously held that position with a rating of 6.
The Lost Sister introduced Linnea Berthelsen’s character Kali, also known as Eight, a former test subject, like Eleven, who had escaped the Hawkins Lab. The episode was widely criticised at the time for what many felt was sidelining the core ensemble and disrupting the momentum of the primary storyline.
While fans have criticised the fifth season broadly for poor writing and too many plot threads, a significant share of the backlash has focused on a scene in The Bridge in which Will Byers, played by Noah Schnapp, comes out as gay to his friends and family.
“Stranger Things fans are criticising a character for coming out as homosexual in the season finale, calling it completely unnecessary for the plot. The culture is changing,” one person said on X.
Responding to them, X owner Elon Musk wrote: “It’s completely unnecessary and forced on audiences who just want to enjoy some basic sci-fi.”
It’s completely unnecessary and forced on audiences who just want to enjoy some basic sci-fi
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 28, 2025
Woke ruins EVERYTHING…
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) December 27, 2025
Netflix decided to RUIN their most popular show of all-time, Stranger Things, by focusing their final season on Will coming out as a homosexual, promoting the propaganda that Will’s superpowers are because he’s “embraced his sexuality” & the villain… pic.twitter.com/bYp1XtbXor
Many have been quick to defend the scene, explaining that Stranger Things hasn’t turned “woke” overnight but has put out these character cues in previous seasons.
“Will being gay has been a part of the show since Season 1. Was literally the first thing mentioned between Joyce and Hopper at the police station and has been something Will has been coming to terms with the entire show. His powers have nothing to do with him being gay. But coming out in the Eighties was not an easy thing to do and Vecna latches on to YOUR WORST FEAR to control you,” one fan explained on X, responding to The Bridge’s low rating.
Fans have continued to call out the multiple open threads and plot holes, and have been complaining that the lead characters all seem to have been sidelined.
“Everything has gone off of a cliff. Writing is terrible. Nancy finds an M16 somehow and shoots trained military and mercenaries like they are fish in a bucket as a child. Huh? Vecna uses Mike's fear of being gay against him, but doesn't do the same with Max and her interracial relationship? (Both were taboo in the Eighties). The entire breakup scene is ridiculous. We're going to die, let’s break up?” one commenter wrote on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Awful writing, ridiculous plot armour, too much time spent on irrelevant characters, weak plot. Stranger Things is seemingly joining the long list of great shows finishing poorly,” wrote another on X.
Stranger Things is the definition of things getting worse as they become more popular.
— KlawWrld (@kawhi_ring) December 28, 2025
The massive budget and popularity made the show overdramatic with lazy writing, and the actors don't give a fuck anymore. 5 stars episodes is crazy pic.twitter.com/ZC1gAzQg7K
don't think the "netflix second screen writing" thing has been more noticeable than it is in stranger things 5
— claypot.blue 🪴 (@_claypot) December 28, 2025
nearly every scene has the same point repeated multiple times or has a character explaining what just happened. like every few minutes
The final episode of Stranger Things will stream on Netflix and hit theatres on 31 December.
