looking back at s5 now, it's really almost funny just how ridiculously bad it was
bc we've had mid to bad seasons like s3 where they fumble some characters and the original vibe, sure, but there's at least Something there
i'm not a huge fan of the season, but there Are some real fans of s3 out there. because at least shit is happening there, you've got the summer slasher vibe, a bit more of the kids hanging out than usual, the slight mystery in the beginning of just how bad Billy is etc
but then s5 in comparison is just a whole bunch of nothing to a comedic degree
supernatural department? mega bust. the UD is a wormhole, no further elaboration. big bad was some mystery rock all along though, you care about that? too bad, won't tell you anything else about it. mindflayer? dies because of explosion and gunshot, L O L. you liked the demogorgons? you get exactly one scene where they're an actual threat and it's at the midpoint of the season and lasts about 5 minutes, hope you liked that because you're never seeing them again. literally. the UD and their home dimension are just completely deserted
government plot? Owens evaporated, there's some new lady you don't need to care about. if Anyone cared about the russia plot (debatable) that's gone now too, which, while i've said not wasting time on that would benefit the show before, i did nawt mean dropping it like it's hot and never ever mentioning it again. you started it you need to at least pretend to finish it. also if anyone cared about the mkultra thing and how bad the us government is, well... dropped that too
cared about the characters? half the seasons runtime goes to establishing Holly as a new main character, if you for whatever reason cared about any of the other almost 20 characters with open character arcs and pre established plot threads you're kind of fucked, sorry. can't even say anything else here because i honestly struggle to think of a single character that had an actual semblance of a completed character arc, or closure of any kind. they were so busy patting themselves on the back and writing a passing of the torch storyline they somehow seemingly forgot they hadn't even finished the original story yet and still had a dozen characters waiting in line to get an ending
interpersonal relationships? lol. lmao even. half these people never get to interact, and when they do it'sssss not great. ever wanted the joyce jonathan relationship to get addressed? wanted to see Mike react in any meaningful way to his parents almost dying? not happening, of course. when the first time El and Max got to talk to each other after the whole coma thing happens during El's 'badass'(corny) walk through the void and they greet it each other with a casual 'hey' i had to genuinely pause the show because it's so unserious
and that's not even touching the ships. Jancy closure? i don't even know what happened there. managing to write a break up so bizarrely that the audience read it as both a breakup and a Proposal is wild. byler? the writers baited it so good in the first half they convinced new people to like the ship and expect it to be canon and then shit all over that too. you can't make the 'friends? no... Best friends.' line up either, had to pause the show again because, again, laughing. who came up with that, i'm convinced someone was just taking the piss at that point. also even if you liked mileven, El dies and she killed herself with Mike's bomb, yippie. how did literally no one win here, how did they DO that?
hell even Robin and Vicky had to bite it, and that wasn't even a ship that i think anyone thought was on the chopping block. they just axed it off screen in the epilogue for the hell of it, why did they nuke every single ship except Jopper (which didn't get any nice scenes either, they just kind of survived)
like... it's just a bit fascinating how s5 manages to fall flat on literally every front
the supernatural plot is lame. they're so busy handing out rat poison to their ships that they forgot about the government plot and what the themes of that were. all while hit and running the characterization and interactions between the characters because they were so focused on writing circle jerk planning scenes where every character gets to say two words about what cool thing they'll do in the next scene while the camera spins in a circle for two minutes
and not even the visuals are good
there's not any interesting shots or camera work which is a downgrade to the past seasons sure, but if that wasn't enough the entire final battle gets the hollywood "we're in the middle east" colourwash and it just Looks Like That the whole time
