When the highly anticipated first volume of the fifth season of Stranger Things premiered on Netflix at 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, fans flooded social media, their complaints echoing like a cacophony of discontented souls. "NETFLIX FIX YOURSELF RIGHT NOW BRO, IVE BEEN WAITING THREE YEARS," one user wrote on X, while another added, "OH MY GOD NETFLIX PLS FIX YOURSELF I WANNA WATCH." Hundreds of people commented on Netflix's most recent Instagram post about the Duffer Brothers-created show, their collective voices a testament to the show's devoted fanbase.
Fortunately, the streaming service seemed to recover within minutes of the new season's drop, and the official Netflix account on X retweeted a user's comment that read, "STRANGER THINGS IS BACK EVERYONE STFU." Earlier on Wednesday, co-creator Ross Duffer shared on his Instagram Story, "Netflix increased bandwidth by 30 percent to avoid a crash," but even that didn't seem to be enough to quell the frenzied anticipation.
Netflix issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter following the crash, stating that "Some members briefly experienced an issue streaming on TV devices, but service recovered for all accounts within five minutes."
Set in the fall of 1987, the final season follows the Hawkins gang as they unite to find and kill the big bad Vecna in a final battle that looms like a dark cloud over their town. However, their mission is complicated when their town is placed under military quarantine, which has also intensified their hunt for Eleven.
The season five cast includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Cara Buono, Amybeth McNulty, Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, Alex Breaux, and Linda Hamilton.
THR's TV critic, Angie Han, wrote in her review, "Possibly (probably) Stranger Things will have to open itself up in the second half of its final season as it prepares to send the characters off for good. For now, however, these children remain frozen in time and space, unable to move past our nostalgic memories of the people they once were. It’s just as well that Vecna’s curse is coming to an end sooner rather than later. It’s time to let these adolescents do as adolescents are meant to do: grow up and move on with the rest of their lives."
Volume 1 of Stranger Things season five is currently streaming on Netflix, with Volume 2 dropping on Dec. 25 and the series finale on Dec. 31, which will also be playing in theaters.
