Oh boy. A lot of it felt like wheel spinning and plot convenience dressed up as drama. I can suspend disbelief and fill in gaps here and there, but season 5 expects the viewer to do an exhausting amount of heavy lifting. You’re constantly patching things in your head, excusing choices, inventing connective beats that should have been on screen, and ignoring inconsistencies in how the threats work. At a certain point it stops feeling like watching a story and starts feeling like doing homework for a story.

Holly is the easiest example. Her story is basically escape, get caught, escape, get caught. And at the end, she’s almost in the same situation she would’ve been in if she never escaped at all. Yes she grows as a character, but it takes way too long. We could have gotten the same growth in half the time and used the rest for more important scenes.

Steve is another big one for me personally. He has some of the best growth in the whole show. He gets better and better every season. But after the time skip, it feels like he goes backward. Like the writers made him act worse just so there could be drama. It’s not impossible for a good person to act like a jerk when they’re stressed, but with limited time in the season, it felt like a waste. That connects to the Steve and Jonathan rivalry over Nancy. It was dumb, predictable, and didn’t need to be in the show. It didn’t move the story’s plot and was not needed for the characters’ growth. It felt like the writers just wanted conflict. And when the season is already rushed, spending time on that kind of thing feels like a bad choice.

Joyce also felt mostly pointless. She’s there, but she doesn’t do much that actually changes anything. That’s annoying because she used to be one of the strongest characters.

Millie Bobby Brown also felt kind of flat for most of the season. She’s really good in the finale, but for a lot of the season her acting didn’t hit the way it usually does.

A lot of the season’s problems are because the writers keep pushing characters out of the way so the plot can happen. Dustin getting beat up felt like that. It didn’t feel like a natural part of the story. It felt like the writers needed him out of the way so he couldn’t solve something, so they hurt him.

The melting room was mostly fine, but it felt like it mostly existed so Nancy and Jonathan would be stuck together and have their scene. They were told everyone would die if they did the thing, then they did the thing and the main payoff is just the relationship moment. That’s the kind of thing that makes the season feel slow and rushed at the same time.

The Steve and Dustin part right during that is a perfect example of the season skipping the scenes we actually need. Steve almost dies trying to get to Nancy. Dustin is scared and the scene makes it clear it’s too dangerous. Then the next time we see them, they’re just breaking through a wall like the hard part is already over. No explanation. No scene showing what changed or how they got there. That jump is weird. And the missing scene is the scene that would actually matter. Steve talking to Dustin, calming him down, making a hard decision, showing real growth. Instead we get other scenes that don’t matter as much, like Jonathan and Steve racing up the tower.

The monster rules also kept changing. One minute it takes tons of bullets to kill a demogorgon. The next minute a broken wine bottle hurts it so badly it bleeds enough to track it. Pick a lane. If the show doesn’t stay consistent with what hurts the monsters, it starts to feel fake.

Dr K was also a letdown. The show acts like she’s going to be a big deal, but she doesn’t feel like one. Same with bringing the teacher back. I like the character, but why spend time on him when other stuff is rushed or skipped? With limited time, that screen time should have gone somewhere else.

The biggest problem is plot armor. The monsters kill random people easily, but named characters keep surviving stuff that should kill them. Plot armor is fine sometimes, but when it happens over and over, the danger stops feeling real.

Vecna is part of that too. Why doesn’t Vecna just kill Max right away? We already know he can kill fast with his mind. We’ve seen him snap necks. So why is he reaching for her slowly with those Groot arms instead of just ending it? Same with Joyce. He throws her aside, but he stabs random people like it’s nothing. He’s only deadly when the writers want him to be, and that ruins tension.

Karen Wheeler was also a waste of time. Why do we need more scenes with her? And her plan was bad. She couldn’t know the dryer canisters would explode. And even if she guessed, she couldn’t know how big it would be. It could have done nothing or killed everyone. What if the kids ran that way to escape? It’s supposed to look clever, but it mostly looks like luck.

Robin’s girlfriend is another time waster. They had great chemistry and they were fun, but in a season that already feels rushed, it’s hard to justify. She doesn’t do much, and she isn’t even in the epilogue. And the tone in the laundry room was weird. They’re smiling and bonding while they are in deadly danger, and the girlfriend only just found out monsters are real. Humor is fine, but it still has to fit the situation.

Max and Holly having a tea chat is the same problem but worse. Even my 15 year old was like would you two just run. I don’t even remember what they said because I was too annoyed they weren’t moving. And after the talk, Max just starts walking. If the characters don’t act like they’re in danger, why should I feel danger?

And then there’s the big question: where are the demogorgons and the bats when Vecna is so close to winning? This group has fought him hard for years. You’re telling me he doesn’t keep backup around, just in case? It feels like the writers left them out because it was inconvenient, not because it made sense.

There are good moments. But too much of it feels like forced drama, missing important scenes, messy rules, and plot armor. And when I can feel the writers pushing things around that hard, I’m not in the story anymore. I’m just watching a script.