What I have noticed is the variety of what people find appealing about it. There is an actual difference in what characters people enjoy. I think it is a good sign of a show's success if there is variety about what people like and dislike.
This is not actually good story telling, though becoming more common. Good story telling will build characters people can find something to like about them, not just add characters until someone is bound to like at least one of them. But even sympathy or likability is a shallow device.
More important is building empathy in characters people can understand and find a way to relate to them, so even if you don't personally like or inherently understand a character you still have some measure of understanding for them, which builds interest and the opportunity for those outside of inherent relation to find relatable aspects of the character.
Take Max. Her first season on the show people fell mostly into like vs dislike. Why? While some people could relate to her on inherent levels (the "I know what it likes to be a teenage girl with a dick older brother" effect) many other people felt she was just there only serving the plot, but not herself being an interesting, empathetic character we came to understand even if we didn't inherently relate to her situation.
It wasn't really clear who she was or why she was doing what she was doing. Or when we did get insight it was just throwaway tropes like troubled punky Brewster little sister. There wasn't a lot to like, and less to really understand, so she was left as an unsympathetic character relying on sympathy, so felt shallow and weak.
This last season, we started to get real insight into her character. Instead of the generic character relying on sympathetic tropes, we got complicated insights into why she is how she is. Instead of just moody brat teen, she became a complicated, nuanced character even people who didn't like her could empathize with, understand, and be interested in.
The problem is there is only so much space on the page or screen to do that. When you have a large cast, invariably other characters have to be demoted to unfocused, background characters. Sometimes the characters have enough legacy empathy to keep them interesting and relevant, like Steve, and it continues to be effective for a time.
More often you just end up with a bunch of characters who are just sorta there, who we either like or not for superficial reasons, but who are forgettable and make a story feel uneven or bloated or shallow when they get screen time.
Or it creates off-putting melodrama as empathetic characters like max are paired with (barely) sympathetic characters like, umm, the black kid who I don't even remember his name after years of watching a show... The character we understand and empathize with has dramatic interactions with a character we don't really understand or care much about, so it creates an unintended foil between the two characters and feels uneven and becomes melodramatic because they aren't evenly matched characters.
It's no secret Max went from generally vaguely disliked to interesting and relevant. And it's no surprise strong characters built on empathy like Steve still feel relevant and interesting. These characters can't be summarize so easily anymore by their sympathetic trope like "the bratty punky Brewster" or "the rich kid" because they were made into interesting, unique empathetic characters not so easily defined.
But the show is left with a ton of characters that are just their sympathetic summaries. The burnout stoner. The awkward gay kid. The black kid who is obviously athletic so nerds vs jocks amirite cuz 'member those 80s movies.
The problem with 11 is she was an interesting, empathetic character despite her powers, which were cool too, but not because of them. Then they relied too often on superpowers are cool but make her "different" and even left her character on the back burner too often, so she became less interesting the more they used those generic tropes as a sympathetic crutch rather than continuing to build her up through the specific empathy for her and what she's going through.
They really needed to keep the cast smaller (kill characters in a dangerous world where it makes sense if people die) or more focused (send characters away in a world where itakes sense if people run away, disappear or hide).
Instead they just kept adding characters, and it's hurt the show in the specific ways adding too many characters can. Even when some people like some characters, it's usually not compelling or in the best interest if a story overall.
It becomes like watching a gangbang, where there are just a lot of characters just standing around awkwardly waiting for their turn in the spotlight. It becomes distracting and weird.
Which is why Stranger Things has felt increasingly uneven and at times both too slow and too fast. Like a gangbang, there always seemed to be extra characters just sorta there awkwardly not necessary to the action (thankfully not keeping themselves fluffed). Or the action shifts to the less interesting parts, like the guys keeping themselves fluffed, and you're impatiently waiting for the camera to shift back to the action you and most people want to see, that wasn't dudes fluffing themselves in the background.
Seriously, even if you're into gangbang action, who the hell is like c'mon show the three dudes awkwardly standing nearby watching, I wanna see them half-heartedly stoke themselves to keep ready for their turn.
That's what Stranger Things became, a bunch of characters just sorta awkwardly fluffing themselves, waiting their turn, in case they're needed for a plot point or in action as a stunt cock to make a character look good that is actually getting relevant development or screen time.
It's not a great story telling technique, even if their is a varied cast so everyone can sorta like someone, for the same reason it's not great production to just keep letting dudes join a gangbang. Sure, a small number of people like it precisely because there are dudes fluffing in the background... But most of the time it's better to stay focused on relevant action delivered through a limited cast of empathetic characters.
But Stranger Things just kept inviting more dudes to a gangbang, and eventually it's basically gay porn at some point. Which is why Will is probably going to be the focus next season.
