No, ChatGPT Did Not Write The Stranger Things Finale, Even If It Feels Like It

Ever since the Stranger Things finale went live on New Years, there have been a lot of…theories floating around regarding why it turned out the way it did. A lot of people were displeased with it (this fan included), but it’s led to the kind of conspiracy weirdness that would come out of Murray Bauman’s thick beard. Let’s not lose our minds…let’s debunk one of them.

The Season 5 making-of documentary, One Last Adventure, went live a couple days ago and among other things, nitpickers examining every screen found something they considered sus: ChatGPT tabs open in some browsers. The conclusion: A CHATBOT WROTE THE SCRIPT! Obviously!

Folks, this is not a smoking gun and it is in fact quite the leap. ChatGPT serves many purposes besides getting you out of doing your job. I want you to look at your browser right now and tell me which tabs are open at the top. Don’t lie to me.

The question is, can anyone who was really there confirm as an eyewitness that a chatbot was used for the script? Martina Radwan, who created the documentary and was around for the full season’s production, had this to say to THR: “No, of course not.”

“I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation. People think ‘writers room’ means people are sitting there writing. No, it’s a creative exchange. It’s story development. And, of course, you go places in your creative mind and then you come back [to the script]. I think being in the writers room is such a privilege and such a gift to be able to witness that.” According to her, no one used a bot to cheat.

What we CAN confirm is this: rumors of the finale shooting without a finished script are true, because the doc fully admits that. And….the results speak for themselves. Why they would still have an unfinished finale at deadline after three years to ponder it over is beyond me. Why they would introduce a place allegedly “worse” than the Upside Down at the last minute and then make it so underwhelming is beyond me. Why they would have this awesome midseason scene of Will eviscerating so many Demos and then NEVER have him do it again is beyond me. And don’t get me started on what they did to El.

You can’t blame a computer for this one. It was simply human folly. Also, the majority of Stranger Things is still really good; it just crashed its landing. Many other shows have turned sour well before then. I still love the show, which is streaming on Netflix now.