Boy, you can surely tell the budget went up for this season. There is so much happening and every shot seems to be an expensive one, either because of the practical or digital effects.

I liked this season, but it has serious issues.

First and foremost, everything seems to drag on forever, which creates a feeling I'm eating an overstuffed turkey. Whether it's the rainbow room segments, The Sovjet storyline, all scenes seem to take up too much screen-time.

It feels as if the extra long episodes were a requirement and now suddenly the writers and director had to fill up the extra time they've been given.

Also, some characters are there but don't have a lot of interesting things to do. Will Byers and Mike Wheeler for example are plain annoying and the conflicts they have feel forced, which the directors mask by sprinkling melodrama. I've had to roll my eyes in several occasions and ask myself when the hell they were gonna shut up.

It doesn't help they've grown up. At least as kids they were cute and their actions were perceived as the ones of kids. Now they seem to act younger than they really are. But you can't really kill them off, now can you, dear directors?

I recommend the directors to reduce the episode duration to what it was before and avoid us having to sit through a single episode in multiple sessions, which also forces them to write, direct and edit with rigor.

Luckily, many of the cast members are consistently entertaining and they can still carry the show. Production quality is excellent.

Having said that, 5 seasons is plenty. We've enjoyed the show for several years and it's time to bring it to a conclusion before the overstuffed turkey burns in the oven.