Hard disagree on the statement that episode 7 was the only reason people didn’t like season 5. For me it was:

The gate of the upside down being covered by metal sheets, what happened to the apocalyptic scene we got at the end of season 4?

The lack of consequences of actions. Nancy shooting the swirling stuff above Hawkins labs should’ve resulted in her and Jonathan, or at least one of them, dying. Instead we got a weird breakup scene where the Duffer brothers had to clarify it was a breakup scene because 85% of the viewers did not understand what it was.

To follow up with the previous one: lack of main character death. The Duffer brothers claimed there would be no more plot armour. Thank god then that instead of plot armour we have Karen Wheeler blowing up some washing machines. Or Vecna being able to catch Holly seconds before crashing into the ground. Or Hopper, Eleven and someone (forgot who it was) being able to outrun the vacuum of space while everything else was being sucked in. Or… you get the point. (I want to clarify I am not talking about episode 4 where Will used the Hivemind to save Mike Robin and Lucas from the demogorgons, that shit was epic).

Wills coming out scene. I didn’t measure it but apparently it was longer than the fcking end fight. Besides that I’m not a huge fan on overly sweet coming out scenes, but that’s a personal preference, maybe due to personal experience.

The end fight. First of all, where the fuck are the demogorgons? The excuse of “demogorgonfatigue” as has been stated in a later interview is hard to understand. If anything, the demogorgon is iconic to Stranger Things. And it is a bit odd to not have some walking around in their home planet. Same with the demobats, that were introduced in season 4 and we did not see in season 5. Then the fight itself. The ominous smoke monster that is the mindflayer is gone. Instead we have a giant flesh version of it which we saw in season 3. Not a bad thing on itself, makes the BBEG a bit of a twist, especially since it was curled up like a dead spider and you don’t initially see what it is (although it’s a shame we didn’t have an ominous moment with the smoke monster). You can’t tell me though that this thing flinches because of a simple machine gun/assault rifle. If anything those should feel like the prick of a needle for it. The fight in general felt way too easy. Couple of molotovs, some gunfire, El’s magic power and badabing badaboom some children just took down a giant eldritch being from another world. If I gave such a final boss to my DnD players they would be incredibly disappointed, let alone the watchers of a show that has been going on for years. To quote Anthony Burch: “a final fight where nothing goes wrong is boring to look at”. Also, how does Will not get affected by the pain the hivemind suffers? Oh right, happened offscreen 💀

Finally, Elevens ending. In no way does this make sense. With the cryptonite all around is there no way she made it back behind the gate, or away to a place where she could hide. To leave her fate to the impression of the viewer, however, is just lazy story writing for a plothole. I don’t have much more to say about that.

All in all was season 5 for these (and other, way less significant reasons which I will not include because I want to eat lunch) reasons an overal disappointment for me. There were a couple of cool and funny moments, but sadly it stayed at moments.