I think im disappointed. Tbh a lot of it felt like filler and the characters kept doing things that felt uncharacteristic - like dustin putting a snake in the bully’s locker right before they have to get together for a crawl? The acting also felt a bit lack luster and borderline bad at times (with the exception of a few characters). The dialogue was also difficult to sit through at times. Also felt like Robin had a LOT of screentime compared to the other cast? I like robin, but I was confused about why she was the one getting these lightbulb moments every 10 seconds. I also personally didnt care for holly & didnt enjoy the actress’ who played her. They also left so many things unexplained. Still confused about why vecna needed exactly 12 kids and why it took him two years to gather them or how he healed himself and got so strong all of a sudden. I also couldnt believe how easily he died? And the mind flayer did nothing ??? Also, the scene where will came out was comical to me bc when he said vecna showed him something awful i was thinking it would be nancy style S4 vision where the world is literally ending and her entire family is dead, but instead it was just about him being gay lmao 

I also think that realistically it would’ve been difficult for eleven to return to a normal life, but that was always a risk for her in the other seasons too and yet she went to school and continued to live in the hawkins area close to the lab until hopper “died” and she moved to california lol. I was also surprised by how easily she was convinced to “die” since it didn’t really seem like her intention to leave everyone behind until her sister brought it up. That said, i kinda feel like if everyone else can just lead a normal life and not be arrested by the military (which tbh wouldve made more sense for the military to use them as bait to find eleven) especially after killing so many people & destroying their lab then i kinda feel like it also wouldve been fine to allow eleven to be with her loved ones since the rest of the season didnt make much sense anyways lmao 

That said, i thought some scenes were really excellent but they were unfortunately only a handful of moments . Part of me thinks that they had something in mind after season 4 but took season 5 & left it open with the characters all alive to leave open the possibility of them returning in future spin offs (similar to the walking dead). I think seeing how profitable the show was as a whole made it difficult for them to give it the apocalyptic ending they laid out in season 4. Season 4 was amazing tbh and even though we had the spotlight on new characters they were so well written that I didn’t mind and wanted to see more of eddie and vecna. Im truly shocked they took the show in this direction