The final season of Stranger Things has reached a new low for the show. Netflix will release the concluding episodes in stages: the first four on November 26, 2025, followed by three more on December 25th, and a final, extended episode on New Year’s Eve. Viewers haven’t reacted as positively as Netflix expected, and one episode has received the lowest rating of the entire series.
Recent data from Discussing Film shows that episode seven of Stranger Things Season 5, titled “The Bridge,” has received the lowest IMDb rating of any episode in the series, scoring a 5.7 based on 50,000 reviews. Previously, the lowest-rated episode was “The Lost Sister” from Season 2, which earned a 6.0 from 46,000 viewers. There’s a significant difference between these two and the next lowest-rated episode, “Suzie, Do You Copy” from Season 3, which received a 7.8 from 33,000 users. For comparison, the highest-rated episode is Season 4’s “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab,” with an impressive 9.6 rating based on 58,000 reviews from verified users.
Has ‘Stranger Things’ Been the Target of a Coordinated Review Bomb?
Image via Netflix
It’s unclear why the newest episode is receiving such low ratings. While many viewers and critics have pointed out issues with the overall direction of Stranger Things Season 5, specifically its repetitive writing, the sudden surge of one-star reviews immediately after the episode aired suggests someone may be intentionally trying to lower its score.
The seventh chapter of Stranger Things currently has the second-most user ratings on IMDb, surpassed only by the very last episode of Season 5. This is unusual because it’s a newer episode, yet it has more reviews than episodes that have been available for years. This likely indicates that some users intentionally left negative reviews to try and lower the episode’s score and create a misleadingly negative impression.
It’s unclear why episode seven, “The Bridge,” received so many negative reviews, but some speculate it’s connected to the scene where Will Byers comes out as gay. This scene has sparked a lot of debate, and the poor ratings could be because some viewers object to the inclusion of a queer character, labeling it as overly progressive or “woke.”
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Films and TV shows featuring LGBTQ+ characters often face a coordinated effort to lower their ratings through negative reviews. This practice, known as ‘review bombing,’ aims to create a false impression of poor quality and discourage creators from including LGBTQ+ stories in their work.
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2025-12-29 01:21