Final eve amid controversy for Stranger Thing: many fans didn’t like the conclusion of the last episode streamed on Netflix for Christmas in which Will comes out with a long monologue in front of his mother Joyce Byers and his best friends.
Too ‘woke’ for some, too long for others, but above all not a surprise at a time when most viewers were expecting a heart-pounding development capable of keeping the tension high in view of the episode airing on Netflix on New Year’s Eve in which the Hawkins boys will clash with the monster Vecna, determined to destroy the world with mind control weapons and his army of Demogorgons.
The show from twins Matt and Ross Duffer had already received criticism upon the release of ‘Volume 1’ in November with an audience score of around 70%, lower than previous seasons which had averaged 86% or more. Some fans had complained that the script of the fifth season was not up to par, accusing the various characters of talking over each other amidst constant bickering, all immersed in very dense layers of special effects.
It got even worse after the Christmas epilogue of ‘Volume 2’ which, predictably, did not please Elon Musk: “Totally unnecessary and forced on an audience who simply expected science fiction”, tweeted the owner of Tesla and Space X after Will’s coming out.
But regardless of opinions on gender politics, other fans didn’t care that Will came out as gay: it had long been known that, as he admitted to friends, he doesn’t like girls. The criticisms instead arise from how the scene was treated, too long in the midst of an escalation of intertwined crises that lead to a heart-pounding finale. “It’s not about Will being gay. No one is offended by that. But you don’t have to stop the apocalypse to explain character traits that everyone has already understood,” wrote the website The Liberty Line.
In the meantime, however, the wait is growing for the resolution of the drama that the Duffer brothers and the director have kept in store for the grand finale: to begin with, the number of North American theaters in which the last episode will be screened has risen to 500 – from around 300 – to allow fans a collective experience of two hours and 5 minutes on New Year’s Eve.
The event is accompanied by a commercial partnership with Lego which has created a set of 2593 pieces complete with figurines of Henry and his Mr Whatsit version, Mike, Robin, Will, Max, Lucas, Vecna, Holly, Eleven, Dustin with the Hellfire t-shirt, Nancy, Jonathan and Steve with his BMW.
In Italy the finale of Stranger Things will be streamed on Netflix starting at 2am on January 1st: many Italian fans have organized themselves to watch it together on New Year’s Eve or in the early hours of the new year.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
