Netflix's New #1 Show Officially Confirms The One Thing Stranger Things Was Missing

While the Duffer Brothers’ first show since Stranger Things, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, is a huge hit on Netflix, the psychological thriller sadly highlights what was missing from that earlier hit. The ending of Stranger Things was highly divisive among the show’s large fandom, to say the least.

Even the most generous defenders of the finale’s ending were able to admit that some of the show’s character arcs were left feeling unfinished, and some of its plot threads were left dangling. Meanwhile, the tone of Stranger Things season 5 was criticized for feeling too light-hearted and silly in comparison with earlier seasons of the series.

Although the first Stranger Things spinoff, the animated series Tales from ’85, won’t arrive until April 2026, March’s new hit Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is also produced by Stranger Things co-creators the Duffer Brothers. Sadly, the critically acclaimed series only highlights what Stranger Things season 5 was missing, especially in in the new show's daring ending.

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen Is The Duffer Brothers’ Darkest Project Yet

Without giving anything away, suffice it to say that Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is dark, and its daring ending only makes the preceding show’s scares all the more intense. Focused on Camila Morrone’s reticent Rachel, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen chronicles the week before this troubled heroine’s intimate wedding.

As Rachel’s mother died years earlier, and she has a difficult relationship with her father, it is almost entirely her fiancé Nicky’s family who join them for the festivities. Of course, since Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is a psychological thriller series, Nicky’s family owns an isolated set of cabins deep in the woods.

The couple decides that this remote, snowy setting is the perfect place for their nuptials, and it is not long before things get creepy. Quite literally, in fact, since Nicky and Rachel encounter a gruesomely killed animal in a public washroom, a seemingly abandoned baby, and a creepy man who peers in on Rachel using a different public toilet before they even reach their destination.

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s first episode is an extended exercise in ratcheting up tension, but the rest of the season is no letdown. Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s story eventually explains what’s going on and why Rachel and Nicky’s partnership seems so cursed, but the show’s limited, engimatic explanations don’t make the series any less terrifying.

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s Biggest Risk Proves Stranger Things Season 5 Should Have Been Darker

If there are two words that sum up Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s story, they would likely be “Scary” and “Bleak.” The show is also disturbing and unsettling, and although there is some catharsis at its conclusion, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen certainly isn’t about to become a comfort watch for anyone.

Sadly, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s success and its attendant critical acclaim prove that the show’s producers should have been more daring when it came to their last project. Stranger Things season 5 jettisoned the darker elements of season 4 entirely in favor of a tone that felt more like a Marvel movie than a Stephen King adaptation.

However, the best-received outings of Stranger Things, seasons 1 and 4, were both unapologetically dark and grim, with the latter featuring numerous gruesome deaths thanks to Vecna. In contrast, season 5 was cartoonish-ly upbeat and almost childish. Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s popularity proves that sticking with a more daring tone could have succeeded.

Season 5’s tonal shift was the basis of the entire #ConformityGate fan theory, which effectively said that the outing’s cheesiness meant it couldn’t possibly take place in season 1’s grounded universe. This fan theory claimed that much of season 5 was all an illusion that Vecna used to lull Mike into a sense of security.

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s Netflix Success Makes Netflix’s Stranger Things Franchise Future Worse

While many of the show’s own creators and stars went on to debunk the idea of a secret second finale, there is a reason that the #ConformityGate fan theory resonated with so many fans online. After years of dark and gritty storylines where things didn’t always pan out perfectly for the show’s heroes, Stranger Things season 5 offered an absurdly optimistic ending.

While Eleven’s fate was admittedly left uncertain, Stranger Things season 5’s entire cast emerged otherwise unscathed. Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, Max, Erica, Hopper, Joyce, Steve, Robin, Nancy, Holly, both Wheeler parents, Murray, and even Derek survived the finale, which made it feel like the series stopped just short of giving Vecna a last-minute redemption arc.

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s Netflix success proves Stranger Things season 5 should have been darker. Sadly, the franchise has already shown that it is heading in the exact opposite direction.

As if the show’s animated format didn’t already imply this, Tales from ’85’s trailer confirms the spinoff will be lighter and more family-friendly than even season 5. Thus, it is clear that the Stranger Things franchise is getting more PG than ever, just as the Duffer Brothers’ Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen proves how much the series needed its dark origins in its final chapter.