As long as we are not treated as harshly as Game of Thrones. According to actor Finn Wolfhard, that thought was on everyone’s mind during the making of the last series Stranger Things. “I think everyone was quite concerned,” told him this fall Time about possible online reactions to the end of the Netflix mega hit. Scathing comments like the one at the end of Thrones would be a nightmare scenario. That epic fantasy series, made famous by its bloodbaths, was slaughtered on social media and internet forums, especially after the final episode.
A week after the launch of the 125-minute final episode ‘The Rightside Up’, Wolfhard and makers Matt and Ross Duffer can breathe a sigh of relief. If we look at reviews from voters on the large film and series database IMDb (Internet Movie Database), a Game of Thrones-like settlement among the fans is out of the question. Not that the Duffer brothers escaped completely unscathed. The fifth and final season of the science fiction horror series receives an apparently excellent rating: a 7.9 (based on 642,000 votes). Absolutely no shame, but a lot lower than the previous seasons.
If you zoom in and look at the rating of individual episodes, it appears that the decline this season is mainly due to one episode: ‘The Bridge’. But the question is whether this actually has anything to do with quality. In this episode, one of the main characters comes out of the closet.
This seems to be partly the case review bombinga conscious attempt to lower the scores of specific films or series as far as possible. There are many examples of this in films, series and games, often from franchises such as Star Wars, Marvel and Lord of the Rings. This usually concerns titles with important roles for characters who are queer, female or non-white. Opposite trade magazine Variety Matt Duffer said that the negativity and homophobic reactions to him and his brother surprisedbecause according to him the series had been working towards it for almost ten years. “Ross and I are many things, but we are certainly not subtle.” A light-hearted response, probably also to take the sting out of the situation as quickly as possible.
The season is covered by the media, including NRCalso less well received than the previous series. That lack of subtlety, the abundance of characters, the lengthy prolongation of episodes and the way in which the Duffers mainly try to please is less well received by reviewers and some fans. But overall, those fans don’t seem dissatisfied, the broader IMDb data shows. The final episode also generally receives excellent scores on the popular social film platform Letterboxd. The so-called ‘audience score’ on Rotten Tomatoes is lower again.
Other series
In any case, it was not a disappointment, like the end of the series Dexter for example, it was. In it, serial killer Dexter Morgan staged his death and started a new life as a lumberjack. Some rehabilitation came later through spin-offs such as the sequel series Dexter: Resurrection. Something that in all likelihood will not happen with House of Cardsa series that, after the sudden dismissal of Kevin Spacey due to accusations of inappropriate behavior, had to continue without a leading actor and hastily stumbled to the end: the fifth season still received an 8.1, the sixth and final season plummeted to a 4.2.
The already announced spin-off of Stranger Things will probably get a lot of viewers, just like Game of Thrones-series House of the Dragon (the third spin-off of that franchise, A Knight of the Seven Kingdomsstarts on January 19). And while the final season of Thrones finished with a measly 6.4. In the IMDb list of scores for the best series ever, that series is in thirteenth place. At the top of that list Breaking Badan iconic crime series that received a better rating each season. ended with a 9.4. That is a lot higher than another ultimate series classic: The Sopranos.
For now, the Duffer brothers will be happy that the pressure is off and will focus on their next big challenge: making cinema films for Netflix rival Paramount.
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The conclusion of ‘Stranger Things’ has too many characters in too many places in too many storylines
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