Overview
- The season’s Rotten Tomatoes audience score has fallen to roughly 56–57%, marking the show’s first Rotten rating after a surge of low user reviews.
- The penultimate episode is now the series’ lowest-rated on IMDb at about 5.4/10 following a widely discussed, lengthy character moment.
- A Change.org push for “unseen” material has drawn hundreds of thousands of signatures, while actor Randy Havens publicly rejected claims of an alternate cut.
- Showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer said the pivotal scene underwent unusually extensive writing, and Noah Schnapp described filming it as emotionally taxing and lengthy.
- The two-hour-plus series finale debuts Dec. 31 on Netflix with limited theatrical screenings, with its reception expected to shape the season’s legacy.