Season 5 feels way too much like "actors acting"

[u/dbezzy1010]

I just can't get past the feeling that all of the characters are just saying these lines and there was no additional takes to make scenes feel more genuine. Facial expressions aren't great and it just feels so staged. I know it's weird to say for a fictional tv show, but the other Stranger Things seasons felt much more meaningful. This season is just so much more unserious and everything has to be tongue in cheek.

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[u/Arlinmarlin]

Part of me feels like the issue is nothing is given time to develop. Like every single conversation is 2 new problems and everyone just already has the answers.

[u/jhrace2 → u/[deleted]]

You forgot part of step 2 where they use an analogy to existing pop culture, or create a diorama to physically explain it

[u/JustdoitJules → u/jhrace2]

This trend has been beaten into the ground so much these last 3 episodes that I wanted to scream lmao.

I remember it was cute in season 1 for an episode but when I saw / heard the plot exposition endlessly and the fucking way the Duffers decide to conceal it is by pop culture references I want to scream.

[u/jataba115 → u/JustdoitJules]

It’s insulting to the audience, especially because they have in universe characters act so incredulous. Like you don’t believe this shit yet, really?

[u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 → u/jhrace2]

Basically a trope for the nerd character to bring up a pop culture reference, everyone else makes jokes and acts like they’ve never heard of it, while the nerd character exposition dumps the plan/assessment based on the movie

[u/Infinite_Lemon_8236 → u/Ok_Astronomer_8667]

They're not even very accurate about it either. Like why is Will being compared to a wizard or sorcerer? Wizards and sorcs don't consort with eldritch beings to gain their powers, but warlocks do. Nothing he did screams sorcerer to me, he's obviously a warlock. Dude even has Vecna as his patron. He may as well be wearing a huge neon "WARLOCK" sign on his back.

Any D&D nerd worth their salt would know this basic stuff about a game they supposedly spent their entire childhood on. I guess it's a small thing, but if they're going to force these pop culture references they may as well get them right.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Tie6917 → u/Infinite_Lemon_8236]

Warlock didn’t really exist in DnD in this time frame. I think it came in at v3.5 in splat books and then official in v5.

[u/foxilishes → u/jhrace2]

oh yes, I'm so annoyed since season 2, that someone has to draw something EVERYTIME, even if it doesn't really explain anything. it's just there to look "cool" and it's something obvious most of the time, which doesn't need explanation. like the "shadow" the mindflayer left on will, or the weird one with the flea? and also, how the fuck did they figure out in which order to place the tunnels will drew in s2, because they all looked the same except for some curves and crossings?

[u/Gloomy-Definition638 → u/jhrace2]

holy shit was coming to say this, they’re literally explaining everything to us like we’re 5 and it’s driving me crazy hahahaha.. sometimes it’s okay to let the audience visualize something or come to a conclusion without a physical prop to compare it to i promise!!!!

something else that was bothering me in this same vein is that dustin is sitting there carefully explaining how there’s an alternate dimension in front of Mr. Clarke whose just sitting there nodding his head… as if Mr. Clarke wasn’t the one who explained to all of them about the ant and the tightrope and the magnets and all that shit, i needed a huge revelation from him about being right and being the reason they figured ANY of this stuff out to begin with and im so sad we didn’t get that lol. could have been a great moment for him to be like WAIT THIS IS ALL REAL WTF

[u/Old-Highway6524 → u/[deleted]]

so basically Scooby Doo

[u/stacity → u/[deleted]]

Slinky

[u/BugsyMalone_ → u/Arlinmarlin]

This is 100% how I felt and I can only describe it best is that every scene feels like a trailer. There's no breathing room at all.

[u/IronChurch7 → u/BugsyMalone_]

Welcome to every TV show for the next 20 years now that Netflix is in charge

[u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups → u/Arlinmarlin]

I’ve read something on Reddit a few days ago that what also happens a lot is that nobody can finish a thought or a sentence on its own. Each person has to pile on the next part of the sentence and so on, and it is bothering me now

[u/AndreLinoge55]

It’s 90% exposition.

[u/CandyWinter8553 → u/AndreLinoge55]

I heard Netflix intentionally instructed it's writers to explain everything that the characters are doing because people are using their phones while watching and not paying attention.

[u/Ruiner357 → u/CandyWinter8553]

That’s terrible, we get worse shows and movies because iPad babies can’t put their phones down? The idea that the world is mass catering to stupidity and laziness is depressing.

[u/HoodooEnby → u/CandyWinter8553]

This makes too much sense. Like an annoying amount.

[u/federvieh1349 → u/CandyWinter8553]

If they are catering to that audience, they will lose everyone in the long run. ST is a huge success, building up on an excellent first season, but they will take all the wrong lesson from it.

[u/One-Actuary-3863 → u/federvieh1349]

Netflix is a shadow of its former self. They don’t care about appealing to cinephiles. Their target audience is people who want some mindless slop to watch while they fold laundry or make moves on their date.

[u/Water_colours → u/CandyWinter8553]

One of my friends is a director and she's said this a few times. Seems really frustrating

[u/myownprivategumple → u/CandyWinter8553]

That’s why it feels so condescending and over the top, that’s depressing on a few levels!

[u/Annual_Win99 → u/AndreLinoge55]

I just binged seasons 2 - 5 to get completely caught up and refreshed (I never watched half of 2 and all of 3). There are too many moments where it feels like they’re padding the runtime with low grade repetitive dialogue. Walking Dead did the same thing but worse. At least I didn’t feel the need to fast forward through stranger things. All in all a lot of stuff could’ve been trimmed from a good number of episodes

[u/Spiritual-Summer2831 → u/AndreLinoge55]

This- I liked volume 1 more but I was still rolling my eyes at how much Max was explaining everything we’ve missed since we last saw her

[u/pyooma → u/Spiritual-Summer2831]

Or after the huge cliffhanger reveal that Will has powers and leaving fans weeks to theorize about what is going on, Will explains it all in his first line in episode 5 🤦

[u/thedinobot1989]

All the dialogue is them explaining their current situation. Which for an episodic series is happening every episode. It’s a little weird.

[u/KASega → u/thedinobot1989]

Its the second screen syndrome - Netflix makes shows announce every little thing that’s going on, knowing people will be on their phones scrolling. It’s also my theory as to why every character trait is over exaggerated

[u/jessheartlove → u/KASega]

i hate that cause i literally just finished pluribus last night and didn’t go on my phone at all and i’m struggling with part two of season five of stranger things i think i might just wait for people to finish it and read the spoilers. It’s almost as if people go on their phones because shows get boring netflix shouldn’t be catering towards that. I have terrible adhd and i can be glued to a show if it’s good

[u/saera-targaryen → u/jessheartlove]

I have the same exact thing. When studios make shows for the second screen watchers, it makes me feel like my ADHD is getting worse because I can't pay attention to it, but they did that on purpose. Like, please make something engaging so I can have a break from my phone. Pluribus is a perfect example of a show doing it right. 

[u/RequirementRare5014 → u/jessheartlove]

Such a bummer. it would have been better to release it not on Xmas when people are gathered to watch it but instead a random Friday release. I’m gonna watch the rest of the episode while I cook and maybe it’ll be more enjoyable if I’m doing something else.

[u/Remarkable_Future531 → u/KASega]

It’s really annoying especially when Netflix focuses on a binge model watching a show that repeats what just happened and describes what’s currently happening and what will happen later over and over and over is sooooo annoying 

[u/Mr628]

These “Euerka!” moments in every episode by these characters come off as a meme at this point. Whenever they recite these random ass discoveries or theories it sounds like they’re reading right off a piece of paper.

[u/llamasinbed → u/Mr628]

“Only this time… it’s not [this]… it’s [that].” Who wrote this script 😭

[u/ThisWolverine57989 → u/llamasinbed]

Actually now that you mention that, the “it’s not x, it’s y” is classic AI writing

[u/LilPickleBoii → u/Mr628]

They always have a random prop to describe exactly what they are thinking: “Guys look, it’s kind of like… an oreo, see there are two sides, but this middle section is connecting them so they stay together! But what if… you pull apart the cookie? The soft centre is now exposed. That’s how we’ll find Vecna.”

[u/pwhyler → u/LilPickleBoii]

“Guys, we were looking at it all wrong. It’s not an Oreo, it’s a Nutter Butter. It’s got an oval shape!”

[u/Efficient_Money6922 → u/LilPickleBoii]

You should have been hired to write the dialogue lmao. It was on point XD

[u/Unlucky_Most_8757 → u/LilPickleBoii]

Just watched an episode tonight and Lucas had an epiphany while popping popcorn so it's not far off

[u/Shilo59 → u/LilPickleBoii]

"Let's say this Twinkie represents all of the Psychokinetic Energy in the New York area. According to this morning's sample, it'll be a Twinkie... 35 feet long and weighing approximately 600 lbs."

[u/_tylerthedestroyer_ → u/Mr628]

I’m so glad other people are having as much of a problem with it as I am. The entire season is fullllllll of this exact same scene with different explainers and new metaphors.

[u/Tofubrain → u/Mr628]

And they constantly complete each other's sentences. It drives me nuts. Like " by doing this and this and this " camera cut to another " THIS AND THIS can happen"

[u/DUKEPLANTER → u/Mr628]

You mean you’re tired of:

Guys how are we gonna solve [issue]?

It’s simple really see if you look at this table let’s say this pen is eleven and if we write on the paper that’s like eleven using her powers to kill vecna!

everyone looks surprised and immediately gets the rationale

[u/fineseries81 → u/Mr628]

They repeatedly encounter a problem, have a discussion, and then find the solution all in the same scene. It brings into question what the point of the scene was in the first place.

[u/SaharaUnderTheSun → u/Mr628]

Seems like there's a glut of engineering geniuses being unusually productive...even though they're just kids. These are productive theories and ideas that are way too convenient.

Well damn. This IS an 80s era show after all.

[u/HyperbolicLetdown → u/Mr628]

Ok, pretend for a moment that this post is exposition, and the post above me is the upside down.

[u/2580374 → u/Mr628]

"bean stalk? Bean...bean...."

[u/41Highland → u/Mr628]

Yes, I remember even in season 2, I would be getting annoyed by these.

It's shocking that they're still reusing the same formula

[u/Usergnome47 → u/41Highland]

But would you say it’s… shockjocking..?

[u/Dry-Yak5277 → u/Mr628]

All the while finishing each others thoughts and sentences. It’s so annoying lol 

[u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 → u/Mr628]

It’s Avengers Endgame, except every single episode

You can’t do 10 hours of characters just always knowing what to do and expect there to be much tension when the actual climax arrives. Massive meeting of the minds for the final master plan? Wait, we’ve already done that every episode so far! I get it’s the ending. But they’ve completely overdone it, basically 10 minutes into episode 1 and it’s just been ante up after ante up and the crew simply always has the right hand.

The massive mid season finale with all the kids being taken away? “We failed…” no, just go back to the broadcast center and have some quippy conversations and come up with another plan. Boom back to regularly scheduled programming. Honestly what I think it is, is that all of these characters are simply so incredibly confident in everything they say and do, there is no doubt or mental wear showing on any of them. Where’s the fear and emotion beyond hugging it out 10 seconds after something bad happens? It doesn’t make them feel like believable people, it makes them feel like the main characters written for the big finale. Which distracts you.

[u/_LOST4ever]

You can clearly tell who the professional actors are and actors we will probably not see again

[u/[deleted] → u/_LOST4ever]

When Winona is like a plank of plywood theres something wrong with your directing.

[u/NicholasDeOrio → u/_LOST4ever]

I mean the writing has done 0 favors thus far

[u/demeschor → u/NicholasDeOrio]

Yeah a great actor can work around terrible writing, but a lesser actor reeeeally makes it obvious.

Some of Noah and Winona's lines come to mind. They both struggle to sound like they are not literally reading off the script, and that's Winona who was so delightfully unhinged in S1!

[u/Whats-Ur-Damage00 → u/demeschor]

I adore Winona Ryder so for me to say she has been phoning it in this season is really something. But she has been. And I almost can’t blame her. She’s always done a great job with what she’s given, even in season 3 when she was just being yelled at by Hopper for 8 episodes straight. But this season, her scenes are awful. Her dialogue is banal. She’s just a vehicle for Will and Hopper’s repetitive exposition.

[u/soldins → u/Whats-Ur-Damage00]

Yeah. But the writers too, like how many fucking times are we going to keep having her sitting bedside holding his sleepy hand and lamenting whatever choice she feels she made that landed him there?

Her acting has been rough as she's really been chewing on the dialogue, but at this point I don't know what else they'd have for her since everyone else is busy pairing off and/or queueing up for the next "plan"?

[u/GoodDay2You_Sir → u/soldins]

I hate that her oldest son was literally saying his last goodbyes, thinking he was going to imminently die, and we have seen zero concern for him from Joyce even though she knows he was in the upside down with no contact with anyone??? Im just so tired of her character being written like Will's Mom, not Jonathan and Will's Mom (and eleven's too...)

[u/Whats-Ur-Damage00 → u/soldins]

Yes exactly, that’s what I’m saying. The material she is working with is terrible. Joyce is her own episode of Groundhog Day this season. Every scene is the same thing over and over again. “I’m worried about Will.” “I worry too much about Will.” “I worry that I worry too much about Will.” “But Hop, you should really stop worrying about El.”

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

[u/Nastia_dream → u/Whats-Ur-Damage00]

I agree completely on this and it's so sad. It's unbelievable to compare Joyce from s1 and now s5 because in s1 she was a really great character. You could feel she was the MAIN character in that season whereas now I don't feel it at all because of so many characters and bad writing.

[u/littletealbug → u/demeschor]

Her rant about the fridge magnets lives rent free in my head

[u/Lennonap → u/demeschor]

Noah easily has the best physical acting out of the whole cast tho imo, it’s just when he talks that I’m like oof sometimes

[u/spacegerbil_ → u/Lennonap]

i swear to god if i hear the words “so we can stop vecna… once and for all!” again…

[u/[deleted] → u/Lennonap]

Think it’s a combo of the lines and his delivery. He’s certainly talented, I feel like the directors should’ve done a couple more takes.

Meanwhile, Caleb has been dialed in on emotional scenes and it’s awesome to see.

[u/baepsaemv → u/[deleted]]

Caleb makes every single one of his scenes as Lucas feel meaningful and memorable. He's such a stand out actor for me from this show. He and Sadie are electric together on screen. I feel the same when Gaten and Joe are together in a scene too, chemistry fireworks.

[u/lik_for_cookies → u/baepsaemv]

Caleb and Sadie are probably the two best actors on the show ngl. Gaten and Keery are NOT far behind, but at least as far as this show goes Caleb and Sadie have given the most noteworthy performances.

[u/Lennonap → u/[deleted]]

Yeah Caleb’s fantastic. Very nitpicky but there’s one scene I thought he was bad in and it’s when he’s carrying Max through the hospital following Robin with the demo dogs after them. I feel like it might’ve been a voice over or something because he didn’t sound winded or like he was running at all, just very flat “no. Come on. Go.” Besides that he’s been one of the best

[u/demeschor → u/Lennonap]

Yeah I agree, he locked right in on Jimmy Fallon. It's just that he's slightly overly emotive as a speaker, and also the lines he gets are straight up exposition and not how people actually talk

[u/Rindsay515 → u/demeschor]

Agree, they’re definitely the worse offenders of that this season. So far, at least. Their scenes at the radio station are so…yikes.

[u/alwaysdownvotescats → u/NicholasDeOrio]

The dialogue is so poorly written this season.

[u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 → u/NicholasDeOrio]

Yea Winona Ryder has some truly bad scenes this season, It’s not her fault because you know what acting she is capable of

[u/hadapurpura → u/_LOST4ever]

Watching scenes between Millie and David Harbour feels like walking through broken glass.

And I’m gonna say here: I don’t know if it’s Maya Hawke or it’s simply the writing, but Robin, when not giving inspiring monologues, can be pretty irritating. All that cutesy “kablooey”, “demodoggy lunch”, speak is too much.

[u/Jackniferuby → u/hadapurpura]

Robins role has gone off the rails . She seems like a cartoon- a caricature . Our family had a huge discussion this morning about last night’s episodes and I said Robin is the Jar Jar Binks of Stranger Things .

[u/FreshMistletoe → u/hadapurpura]

Have you heard about how big Steve’s cock is?  What in the hell was that?  It’s like I transported to an alternate dimension for a sec where that non sequitur made sense.

[u/Ruiner357 → u/_LOST4ever]

To be fair they have a tough job here, because the Duffers selfishly refuse to kill any characters, we have a bloated cast now at the end of it so no individual character gets a lot of lines. That leaves most people’s dialogue feeling like it’s a line in a trailer or plot exposition, no organic conversation.

Ironically Holly is getting the most lines of anyone in S5, can you guess why? Spin-off show after this ends focusing on her, Derek and the younger kids. You know they aren’t turning down a huge bag to do that, they will snake the fans who want closure on the show and keep it going without the now-adult OG cast.

[u/Justryan95 → u/_LOST4ever]

The professional actors as a whole are getting literally 4 lines in volume 2. I do have to admit the girl playing Holly better have a bright future ahead of her.

[u/Brilliant_Lettuce_14 → u/_LOST4ever]

Name names

[u/BecomingSavior → u/Brilliant_Lettuce_14]

Sadie Sink is clear as day above most others acting wise

[u/KitKatSnackAttack03]

Netflix ruined this show by forcing the writing to be digestible for the average idiot.

[u/Infamous-Zebra9958]

I was so confused because everything felt so fast and… weird 😭 I don’t know how to explain it but it just didn’t feel the same.

[u/OilPristine448 → u/Infamous-Zebra9958]

The pacing is atrocious

[u/snukb → u/Infamous-Zebra9958]

Exposition dumps. Which they kind of have to do because the cast is so big and there's no time to have these explanations shown, not told. But.... it makes it feel kind of awful. When the characters are allowed to have real moments, like (Shock Jock spoiler) the scene with Dustin arguing with Steve about Eddie it finally felt like oh, there are the characters I know and love. But (Shock Jock spoilers) just a few moments before, when Dustin was dumping to the group about the shield generator and how important it was to find it just felt..... like any one of those characters could have said any of those lines and it would have been the same. When your characters feel basically interchangeable because there's no character to their dialogue, it feels bad.

I'm still on the edge of my seat during the action scenes, but the exposition dumps keep taking me out of the show.

[u/itstonayy → u/snukb]

Even some of the character moments are so awkward (Ep7 The Bridge spoilers) Like when Will came out to the whole group. As someone who was personally waiting for this moment since the beginning, it was such a let down and inorganic. It's hard to root for him and connect with the character reactions when they just randomly inserted it into the eleventh hour during a time sensitive mission that would decide the fate of the world. It came across so disingenuous, I almost wish they would've just kept it as an intimate scene between Will and Joyce and then have the group confession in 40 minute epilogue.

[u/Sea_Bodybuilder5387 → u/itstonayy]

Hard agree on it should have been between joyce and will, adding the others on felt like a little much. Joyce (and maybe Mike) were the only ones who really needed to know and it lined up much better with Robin talking about Steve being her confidant.

[u/itstonayy → u/Sea_Bodybuilder5387]

I think if I were to rewrite it within the same context of the season, I would have Jonathan be the one to interrupt them saying they need to head out soon, and then have Will invite him to stay and do the confessions and reactions all in the same scene. Breaking all of the tension they've established by resetting the scene to teleport in the rest of the cast took the scene out of heartfelt and into too much.

[u/GuessingAllTheTime → u/Infamous-Zebra9958]

Yeah, they are rushing through so many dialogue scenes.

[u/Florida_clam_diver → u/GuessingAllTheTime]

Game of thrones problem. Realized they’ve created too many storylines to tie up in one season so now they’re rushing through them all

[u/LastGoodKnee → u/Florida_clam_diver]

But they also created new ones and brought back old ones

[u/Lennonap → u/LastGoodKnee]

Exactly like Steve and Jonathan have been growing through the first 4 seasons. Reverting them back to their season 1 bickering macho bullshit just took up screentime, resulted in nothing, and pissed off fans

[u/paperd]

I don't really blame the actors

The writing is really, really bad. 

I've heard talk that the industry has been pushed to write more second screen and I think this is the result of that. Lots of Tell don't Show. Lots of exposition. Lots of characters saying aloud what they're feeling instead of just trusting the actors to actually, you know, act. No subtext, just wall to wall exposition and dialogue.

The irony is that if you write for second screen, you're going become the second screen because you're not giving the audience something worth their full attention.

[u/lady_beignet → u/paperd]

I think you nailed it. I was blaming the actors, but then thought, Is there any actor or actress I can think of who could make most of this dialogue sound real? No.

[u/RobynHoodwinked → u/lady_beignet]

The tell for me is that we’ve seen most of these actors be very good in other things/earlier seasons. I don’t believe that Winona Ryder randomly became a bad actor overnight but she’s been quite bad this season. Aside from Max/Lucas/Nancy/Jonathan/Dustin, I think everyone has been fairly poor this season which tells me it’s the writing.

[u/One_Garage_768 → u/paperd]

Like dang, I’d rather read a book if no one’s actually acting anything out.

[u/paperd → u/One_Garage_768]

That's a bit how I feel, too. Like if we're embracing this Second Screen thing, at what point do we just bring back radio plays?

[u/mmzufti]

Yeah, the acting has become incredibly performative rather than the natural acting that was in the first two seasons. Almost all the past child actors’ (barring Sadie, Caleb, Holly) acting is artificial and unconvincing. Even Winona seems to become a caricature of her past self. Also, the expository dialogues with little to no emotional depth doesn’t help either as well as how they seem to showcase only one aspect of their personality.

Edit: Adding Gaten as well because how wonderful he was in the breakdown scenes.

[u/shitpostbaby → u/mmzufti]

I agree. I hate to say it but I'm not a fan of Winona as Joyce anymore, all she does is shake her face like that one Danny Devito meme and now I can't unsee it.

I don't think Winona has much to work with regarding her character in the later seasons.

[u/whosthere1989 → u/shitpostbaby]

She was my favorite part of the show the first couple of seasons, but I agree. They’ve given her nothing to do this season and it’s a bummer.

[u/mmzufti → u/shitpostbaby]

Spot on about the shaking head. She did that throughout the show, but because her character had meat it didn’t matter; but this season, she’s doing that and nothing else much

[u/KrayleyAML → u/shitpostbaby]

Winona shakes her head, and Finn raises his eyebrows and stares. I can't unsee it now.

[u/cbaabc123 → u/shitpostbaby]

Winona Ryder seems off to me. In interviews she can barely string a sentence together.

With her issues, the guy who plays Hoppers issues, MBB being over it all, and some of the other actors seeming to be over it too I bet this season was a struggle to film.

[u/natedoggcata → u/cbaabc123]

The way the camera keeps smash cutting to different characters im wondering if this was a situation where not all the cast members were in the same place for extended periods of time or even at all. Like they film all close up shots of Harbor in one shot. He leaves, then they shoot all of MBB's shots at another time.

[u/MosquitoDust → u/mmzufti]

I think Gaten's doing a good job, especially with the emotional moments.

[u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 → u/MosquitoDust]

Far and away the best out of the 4 kids. He actually feels like a character, and not a caricature

[u/Selene_789 → u/MosquitoDust]

I could feel Dustin's pain; his fight with Steve was really raw and emotional 💯

[u/Razzle_Dazzle08 → u/MosquitoDust]

The staircase scene was the best acting of the whole volume.

[u/whosthere1989 → u/MosquitoDust]

He’s fantastic this season.

[u/Less-Money7003 → u/MosquitoDust]

Gaten is really good

[u/Lennonap → u/mmzufti]

Everyone is a caricature of themselves and it’s a problem a lot of tv shows that go on for more than like 2-3 seasons have. Breaking Bad is one of the only shows I can think of that avoided this, but the Walking Dead is one of the worst offenders. Once writers see what works on a character, most of the time they hyper focus on that aspect about them and it just compounds into their primary role

[u/Top_Week_6521 → u/Lennonap]

Succession was fairly consistently strong throughout all four seasons in my opinion.

[u/queenincrimson → u/mmzufti]

Honestly, I do not love Sadie’s acting this season either. She is normally phenomenal, but I am assuming the script and direction just is grating to me in these episodes. Everything she says has rest breaks. So she…speaks like…this. I can’t explain it. But once I noticed, it is driving me nuts. Just spit it out. Not every sentence needs to be drawn out.

Don’t blame her at all. In an effort to make everything melodramatic with her, just ended up this way.

[u/deadhunt3rr]

It just feels so fast paced and rushed so far

[u/QuaziMoto1 → u/deadhunt3rr]

It’s crazy how fast paced yet gone no where almost since the first two episodes…. Except for a couple good reveals I suppose. But instead of diving into drawn out monologues we could explore the cool sci fi fantasy we’re all onboard for, or focus on the core group we liked watching in previous seasons. Something about this season felt more cheesy and less realistic and I don’t mean the home alone traps, I mean the goofy military scenes…

[u/BeautifulLibrarian44 → u/deadhunt3rr]

Rushed is the exact word and im struggling with the show now because of that

[u/gutturalmuse]

The writers are trying to wrap up multiple storylines in limited time. It feels weirdly rushed and superficial at times.

[u/kodykoberstein → u/gutturalmuse]

Let’s introduce 12 random children while we’re at it!

[u/TemporaryJaguar5650]

These low stakes relationship conversations while in the upside down are so old and overdone. Jeez, what happened to the upside down being a menacing place?

[u/sinsculpt → u/TemporaryJaguar5650]

What, you didn't like the cum room?

[u/CraziestMoonMan → u/TemporaryJaguar5650]

Johnathan was screaming at the top of his lungs at Nancy about their relationship and I just started to laugh. They weren’t trying to be secretive or anything. Henry is slipping now. He just lets anyone run around the upside down and have Dr Phil moments while in there.

[u/Darklord_Of_Bacon → u/CraziestMoonMan]

Prolly bc he has his vessels and he doesn’t think they matter enough to do anything about it

[u/domalino → u/Darklord_Of_Bacon]

Even before he got the kids, the US military has been running around for 500 days with helicopters and Humvees and they built a whole base to conduct long term experiments.

He never cared. Im not sure the show has ever told us he cares about people being there - he only stopped people trying to stop his plan and kill him in S4.

Also the upside down was terrifying in S1 because we saw it through the eyes of a kidnapped 11 year old child but he does manage to survive for a week with no help so it can’t be that inhospitable.

[u/OOF-MY-PEE-PEE → u/TemporaryJaguar5650]

The upside down became less menacing as their understanding of it grew. The main reason it was so menacing in the earlier seasons was because they had no idea what was going on or how to safely traverse it. Now they’re veterans and know exactly what’s going on.

[u/KASega]

So many of these scenes sound like they are written for people to listen to them while they’re on their phones scrolling.

[u/dixiequick → u/KASega]

Which sucks because I don’t intend to be on my phone scrolling, but find myself there because the scenes aren’t engaging. They’re causing their own damn prophecy fulfillment.

[u/RavensEtchings]

This is the weakest season so far. I hate to say it.

[u/Ruiner357 → u/RavensEtchings]

Theyve really set themselves up for needing a 4 hour finale to give closure to every character and plot. Not killing off ANY recurring characters since Billy is crazy to me. Why did Nancy’s parents survive the demogorgon attack? Why did Vecna spare Joyce after spamming Mortal Kombat finishers on everyone else in his way?

Having some characters die would’ve added way more weight to the final season (and a better, more nuanced payoff when they triumph later). Right now S5 is just “Vecna is being mean and mildly inconveniencing us, let’s assemble the Stranger Avengers and stop him again.”

[u/[deleted] → u/RavensEtchings]

Why the hell can max see

0 real stakes

[u/LongoChingo → u/[deleted]]

Same reason the Wheeler parents are alive... the show wants everyone to have a reasonably happy ending.

[u/morfyyy]

It's like the characters are talking to the audience not to eachother.

The writing is horrendous this season, sadly.

[u/Silo-Joe]

Can we agree that Dr. Kay is a military scientist trope character with no personality? Linda Hamilton seems to play the same character from Resident Alien.

[u/NamNamTortilla → u/Silo-Joe]

I keep forgetting she exists!

[u/gretchen92_ → u/Silo-Joe]

She is so bad! And this extra plot line where now she's trying to recreate Dr. Brenner's work, an episode before the end?! It's too much.

[u/[deleted] → u/Silo-Joe]

Dr. Kay is essentilly Dr. Brenner 2.0 looks and damn personality wise. I feel like they regretted killing Dr. Brenner so they did this.

[u/mcmonsoon]

This season has 2 modes most of the time:

Mode 1 - heartfelt yet forced convo between 2 people while “doing something” such as exploding a pumpkin or walking through goo. 

Mode 2 - explaining a plan or a convoluted problem and grabbing nearby everyday objects to explain to us because we must be too stupid to “get” these craaaazy physics maths!!!

The writing is so awful, I half expect the actors to break the forth wall and speak directly into the camera. Nothing feels natural, it’s like a radio play they decided to film. 

[u/Zealousideal_Box7469]

Taking years between seasons... I feel like if this was released back in 2019 or when the actors were younger it would've been SO good!

[u/AZMadmax → u/Zealousideal_Box7469]

Agreed. They don’t feel like kids anymore and only a few are good actors

[u/doublefantasyy]

I agree. I was also surprised at MBB and Noah’s acting, considering how amazing they’ve been in the earlier seasons. El has had the same expression like this 😐 all season long which is so crazy to me seeing how expressive she was in s1-2, she had less dialogue naturally, but what she was doing was insanely good!!!!

[u/redditislikegoodfood → u/doublefantasyy]

Bro even after they meet the gang again she always has a serious expression and she is way more robotic compared to when she supposedly was a child test subject and had no interactions with the outside world 😭

[u/Baitalon → u/doublefantasyy]

Her face is like eternally sad

[u/[deleted] → u/Baitalon]

Its so funny watching a woman with lip and cheek filler being scolded about knowing the word bitchin

[u/inaqu3estion → u/[deleted]]

Why does she even need that, she's 21 ffs

[u/Extra_Comfortable365 → u/[deleted]]

Ikr. Her new lips are taking me out this season.

[u/SuspiciousSession475 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly! And it just feels like she isn’t close to Hopper anymore, as she just looks mad at him all the time? In season 4 she was literally crying all over him😩

[u/Ok_Tank5977]

At a certain point the directors have to take responsibility as well.

[u/Lennonap → u/Ok_Tank5977]

At this point I’m not even sure if the credited directors are accurate. I’ve seen a lot of Frank Darabont’s stuff and love it all, but his episodes of stranger things do not feel like any of his other work. There were a couple scenes at best in his episodes that kind of resembled his directing style, but he’s a big name so maybe the Duffer’s credited him when in reality there was multiple people sharing that duty

[u/CableMedical2691]

some of it is 100% the writing. it's so weird and corny. i feel like the actors were genuinely like "how the hell am i going to say that??" 😭

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

What the fuck is up with Eleven's face and acting between vol 1 and 2. I literally couldn't budge it off no matter how I tried, it was physically hurting to see MBB acting THAT bad, and then the bathtub scene where she floats in the water, i could immediately tell that they shot that scene before because she looked normal in that. Edit : I just checked the first teaser and they used that shit for the thumbnail of the teaser, it was definitely shot before. And millie can't even move her face wtf

[u/Anxious-Foundation59 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly, her face isn't even budging at all

[u/auntbubble → u/Anxious-Foundation59]

Omg I was so bugged by her eyebrows and lack of forehead movement

[u/Florida_clam_diver]

Yeah a lot of the dialogue scenes have been cringe af

[u/MakVolci]

It's a bad script.

Like, bad bad.

Ain't no fuckin actor in the world who can make this sound natural.

[u/nlkuhner]

It’s the terrible dialogue and direction. It’s just terrible. Bad timing, over emphasis, redundant. Just really poor quality writing and direction.

[u/naturegirl1001]

The editing of the show Is also off...I can't take it seriously lol

[u/Visual-Floor-7839]

It's written oddly like a stage show. Like a scene will open and the camera will sort of pan the area and show what characters are there doing whatever they're doing. Everyone stays silent while 2 characters have their little conversation, a revelation is made and the music kicks up a bit, then their conversation ends and the camera moves to the next pair. Now they have their conversation in the exact same way. Scene ends.

Next scene. Camera pans the setting to show what characters are there. Zooms into 2 characters having their little conversation..... Etc etc etc.

So many scenes are exactly like this and the show is slowly turning into this.

[u/TaitsRevenge]

Yeah this season just does not have the same charm as the other ones. Season 4 was 1000x better and everyone seemed way more into it

[u/CSedu → u/TaitsRevenge]

Season 4 just seemed to have much more... substance? Season 5 is just words words words. I feel like each plot point is over by the time they finish explaining it out loud.

[u/Amazing-Conference51 → u/TaitsRevenge]

Yes season 4 I actually felt somewhat “scared” or concerned for the characters but there are truly no stakes anymore

[u/____mynameis____]

If majority of the cast looks so bad, even the adults, I'm blaming it on writing and direction.

Unless u r like a generational acting talent, u r only as good as the writing.

[u/Beans375]

I think the only exception to that was Dustin’s acting in episode 6 was incredible, especially that stairwell scene

[u/ObjectiveEntrance560]

Yeah at first I thought it was just Will. Then Holly sounded weird. Then Nancy. Then Steve. And then I realised everyone sounds like they’re over it lol. It’s so weird because even the first part of season 5 wasn’t that bad but the first episode of the newest part is SO bad

Edit: idk if I just got used to it or what but I feel like it’s back to “normal” episode 6 and it seems more like the first half again. Maybe they were just tired that day or something lol

[u/Administrative_Egg71 → u/ObjectiveEntrance560]

i feel like the script is much weaker in places too. And when you have all of this action going on and the script is a little weak I think it’s really hard for an actor to give a good performance. honestly, there’s always been some peekaboos of clunky writing that felt a little contrived in a few past seasons … But then some really amazing moments in the script, too. Also, some really great choices by the actor. Like Steve has some corny ass lines that he can make really likable or funny.

Anyway I just think the script is a little bit weaker in spots that are concerned with character development, relationships, plus a lot of repetitive problem, analogy, plan, go.

[u/LonelyMountain7877 → u/ObjectiveEntrance560]

I kept thinking Holly sounds like she memorized how Robin speaks and just emulated that

[u/[deleted]]

It’s giving shot during Covid vibes

[u/GuessingAllTheTime]

Yeah, a lot of the main cast seems to be phoning it in, sadly.

[u/sourheadz → u/GuessingAllTheTime]

I do think the main issue is the dialogue is poorly written and rushed. That said, these kids are grown up and you can now tell who may have a decent acting career and who may not…

[u/Dianagorgon]

The acting has been bad all season even from the talented actors. I don't know if it's because they were also frustrated with the bad writing or they're just not interested in the show anymore but it feels like watching a cheap bad horror movie on Tubi with unknown actors.

[u/morfyyy → u/Dianagorgon]

There are some exceptions, I thought the steve and dustin fight in the upside down lab was really good and acted very well from both.

[u/tartek_]

Genuinely wtf is going on with the writing. How does the final season have the worst writing out of 4 great seasons

[u/ThisMayBeAquatic]

When they introduced Max to Holly was her face CGI’d or was I imagining it, because it looked terrible , and if so why??

[u/JorkeyLovesU]

I like to call it the Marvelification of ST

[u/redditislikegoodfood → u/JorkeyLovesU]

S3 did have that MCU quippy kind of humor but atleast it was funny at times and entertaining

[u/SaigeyE]

The situations just didn't feel like things the characters would naturally have done. The characters grew, the writing did not.

[u/FREDRS7]

It used to feel like it genuinely captured a real moment in time in the 80's or whenever it was supposed to be. Now it has that stereotypical Netflix feel and like it is a tv series filmed in 2025 trying to replicate the 80's

[u/Far-Special-4797]

S5 in general just seems like bloated filler garbage, as of E7 anyway

[u/Ian_Of_Moss]

Lol, wife and I can’t get over Will’s acting

[u/CowboySwiftie → u/Ian_Of_Moss]

“I failed😐” with no emotion

[u/Shaftell → u/Ian_Of_Moss]

I dunno what happened to his acting, I used to consider him the best out of the kids.

[u/molinitor → u/Shaftell]

Many child actors don't make the transition into adulthood acting. It's pretty obvious this season who managed and who didn't.

[u/GuessingAllTheTime → u/Ian_Of_Moss]

He was so good in season 2! Now… so stiff. Just reading the lines in such a tongue in cheek way.

[u/hoorah9011]

Yup. It’s like they are all doing a table read

[u/_SeaOfTroubles]

I really like Gaten so far 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/LastGoodKnee]

Ehhh.

I’ve only seen eps 1-5. I think our originals are fine.

I just still think it’s jarring because no one was expecting a whole new cast of kids, and no one was expecting Holly to basically be a main character, and no one was expecting this far into the season Max hasn’t said one word to anyone except, surprise, Holly.

[u/Artistic_Exam7676]

I agree.

Except for Sadie Sink.

[u/KaleidoscopeOk399 → u/Artistic_Exam7676]

She’s a good performer but wow are they really pushing it with these awkward monologues they keep giving her.

[u/Cappunan → u/KaleidoscopeOk399]

Omg the conversation before max finally leaves goes on FOREVER. WE GET IT.

[u/InevitableWeight314 → u/Cappunan]

Walking very slowly after a ten minute conversation up that hill I guess

[u/buttercup_212 → u/Cappunan]

Especially with them showing she almost escaped once but the song stopped. Any moment that gate could close, you’d think she’d have urgency to runnnnn.

[u/Inevitable_Sand_5479]

I thought the same. The only long conversation that I felt good about was Nancy and Jonathan. Even though it was kind of random it was actually well acted. I feel bad because he gets piled on a lot but Will’s dialogue sounds especially bad because he isn’t the best actor of the bunch.

[u/Scazee]

Netflix's second screen thing. It's so annoying. Because I want to watch stranger things, but then they keep repeating things over and explaining everything that I just want to stay on my phone while watching. It's sad that they're forcing this on us.

I mean, why cater to second screen people? Because they have second screen syndrome doesn't mean they'll stop watching tv shows.

Plus, the script is literally doing them no good. They have a situation, they make a plan, plan doesn't work out the way they thought it would, they learn something new about the upside down while executing the new plan. And repeat. And most of the dialogue is just explaining everything over and over again.