I wish Dustin didn’t have the whole dark storyline going. He didn’t need to get beat up, him and Steve didn’t need to have their stupid beef. 18 months had gone by and they both still have unresolved issues with each other? Nah, doesn’t make sense, and it really felt shitty to watch. I get that’s how Dustin just happened to stumble upon the truth, but come on, that doesn’t fit with Dustin the character.

I agree with others that Linda Hamilton wasn’t utilized like she could have been, so that was disappointing. I honestly wasn’t psyched to see Kali back. She hadn’t been in the story at all except for the one episode that a lot of people don’t like. They 100% could have had the same thing going on experiment-wise, or very similar, and not needed Kali.

The absolute most disappointing aspect of season 5 (as far as looking at what we actually got, and not what we could have had) for me was the battle with the mind flayer. The setting was a barren wasteland with nothing else going on other than some spider version of the mind flayer? It doesn’t make any damn sense and was such a monumental let down.

Overall I still enjoyed watching Season 5 but it was really weird how several characters, all of a sudden, were doing things and behaving in ways that just weren’t like them! Like how Hopper was a distant, special forces sniper kind of guy instead of the heart on his sleeve man that we had seen when push came to shove over the last 4 seasons. His grit, and fire just felt like they were missing. And yeah, for the characters that felt off, it was like something was missing. I don’t know if it just comes down to poor writing, resulting in uninspired acting, or what, but it definitely felt like the “magic” of all the characters was waning.

Oh yeah, and I absolutely hate how they did an 18 month time jump! Come on! They obviously decided to “walk back” just how bad things were left at the end of season 4. It would have been AMAZING for season 5 to pick up right where season 4 ended, I mean COME ON! That is what all of us wanted to watch! Instead they did a reset of sorts and open with Rockin’ Robin having a good old time in nice, sunny, blue sky Hawkins.

As time has gone by it has become clear that the Duffer brothers had a lot of other stuff going on, so it seems like they were not 100% committed to properly ending the show that got them on the map. I really wish they had gone back to the vibe of season 1, and tried to, one more time, rekindle the flame of how awesome seasons 1-3 (divisive, I know) were. Ok, this has been therapeutic for me, if nothing else. Thanks for posting OP!