The "Stranger Things" Finale Was Really Satisfying. Then I Made The Mistake of Going Online

The reaction has been an infected canary in a hateful coal mine (NOTE: SPOILERS)

The Boys. (Photo: Netflix)

Over 35 million people have tuned in to watch the Stranger Things finale since it dropped on New Year’s Eve, and I’m one of them. More series regular than devoted fanboy, I’ve been enjoying the quirky, wildly creative (and lovingly retro) Duffer Brothers creation for the last decade, so I was excited to see how it wrapped things up for the Hawkins gang in its two-plus hour denouement.

The sweet, somber final D&D game that unfolds with OGs Mike, Dustin, Will, Lucas, and Max was some beautifully written and acted bookending.

I’m happy to report that, while imperfect, it served up a thrilling, heartfelt, and deeply satisfying ending, which was generally upbeat, but resulted in torrents of tears around the globe. The sweet, somber final D&D game that unfolds with OGs Mike, Dustin, Will, Lucas, and Max was some beautifully written and acted bookending. The response from critics has generally been pretty positive (the final season has earned a Certified Fresh (83%) on Rotten Tomatoes), and everyone I’ve talked to dug it. It’s accurate to say The Duffers stuck the landing or at least came pretty close as far as fans and mainstream reviewers are concerned.

“Every time an unhappy shitbird lashes out at Stranger Things, we must drink.” (Photo: Netflix)

Unfortunately, whether on social media or YouTube, the online response has been predictably over the top shitty, with the negativity feeling less like genuine criticism and more like unhappy souls awkwardly projecting their biases and self-loathing onto a piece of entertainment.

Definitely not his mother’s basement.

Much of this seems a bit too aggressive and mean-spirited to be organic. It smacks of retribution and feels, in a word, gross. Some of them, no doubt, are the same insecure taintlords who engineered an IMDB ratings “review bombing” of a previous episode where Will came out as gay (we’d all known for years, by the way), resulting in the lowest scored entry in series history. (A massive % of the bad ratings came from India and Saudi Arabia, mostly from new accounts. Shocking, I know.)

They’re about to read the IMDB reviews (Photo: Netflix)

But, as we all know now, the online world is now jerry-rigged to most efficiently shock, trigger, anger, and disappoint. So it’s not enough to have a genuine disagreement with how a show wrapped up, which is perfectly reasonable. It has to be done in an aggressive, self-aggrandizing, fuck you style, as are many of the reviews on YouTube, Reddit, and social media.

But, as we all know now, the online world is now jerry-rigged to most efficiently shock, trigger, anger, and disappoint.

It’s a sad commentary on where we are as a society, and evidence of why finding common ground and ties that bind, both uniquely American themes, are nearly impossible in 2026.

Like Will, this podcaster likely lives with his mom and has never kissed a girl.

“Stranger Things made some unforced errors in its finale that missed the mark with me, and here’s how I would have closed up shop” has been replaced by “The woke Duffer Brothers shit the bed in their series closer, going for cheap sentimentality and pushing an on-the-nose gay agenda in place of the things that made it effective in early seasons. Make Stranger Things Great Again.”

“So, it’s basically a hat you wear with lasers that re-stimulates dormant hair follicles, and it’s only about $800.” (Photo: Netflix)

This wildly abrasive and over the top way of disagreeing has been happening for a while, but this is an exceptional example of just how bad it has gotten. There are folks who will spend 10,000 times more energy shitting on a Netflix series that doesn’t meet their moral purity test than pushing back on a criminal narcissist doing unspeakable things from the ultimate seat of power. Maybe that’s simply a learned helplessness, but it’s notable.

There are folks who will spend 10,000 times more energy shitting on a Netflix series that doesn’t meet their moral purity test than pushing back on a criminal narcissist doing unspeakable things from the ultimate seat of power.

I wish I had something optimistic or upbeat to say about all of this, but with the advent of A.I. and ever-increasing polarization in our society, unfortunately this seems to be a sneak peek into where we will continue to go.

(Photo: Netflix)

But maybe, just maybe, things can change.

Perhaps cooler minds will prevail and those pushing hate and divisiveness will, somehow, lose their megaphone. It’s a good thing to believe in a more beautiful alternative world, where things work out. As Mike and his besties all profess when talking about Eleven still being alive against all odds: “I believe.”

And that sounds like a pretty damn cool thing right about now.