It appears even Netflix isn’t safe from the Upside Down.
When Volume 1 of the highly anticipated fifth season of Stranger Things premiered on the streaming service at 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, fans flooded social media, complaining that Netflix had crashed.
“NETFLIX FIX YOURSELF RIGHT NOW BRO, IVE BEEN WAITING THREE YEARS,” one user wrote on X, while another person added, “OH MY GOD NETFLIX PLS FIX YOURSELF I WANNA WATCH.” Hundreds of people also commented on Netflix’s most recent Instagram post about the Duffer Brothers-created show, asking for the app to be fixed.
The streaming service was seemingly back up and running a few minutes after the new season of Stranger Things dropped, and the official Netflix account on X retweeted a user’s comment that read, “STRANGER THINGS IS BACK EVERYONE STFU.”
Earlier on Wednesday, co-creator Ross Duffer shared on his Instagram Story, “Netflix increased bandwidth by 30 percent to avoid a crash.” However, that didn’t seem to be enough.
Netflix said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter following the crash, “Some members briefly experienced an issue streaming on TV devices, but service recovered for all accounts within five minutes.”
Set in the fall of 1987, the final season follows the Hawkins gang as they unite to find and kill the big bad Vecna as the final battle looms. However, their mission is complicated when their town is placed under military quarantine, which has also intensified their hunt for Eleven.
The season five cast includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Cara Buono, Amybeth McNulty, Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, Alex Breaux and Linda Hamilton.
THR‘s TV critic, Angie Han, wrote in her review, “Possibly (probably) Stranger Things will have to open itself up in the second half of its final season, as it prepares to send the characters off for good. For now, however, these children remain frozen in time and space, unable to move past our nostalgic memories of the people they once were. It’s just as well that Vecna’s curse is coming to an end sooner rather than later. It’s time to let these adolescents do as adolescents are meant to do: grow up and move on with the rest of their lives.”
Volume 1 of Stranger Things season five is currently streaming on Netflix, with Volume 2 dropping on Dec. 25 and the series finale on Dec. 31, which will also be playing in theaters. Check out all of THR‘s Stranger Things season five coverage here.
