9 Stranger Things Characters The Show Completely Wasted

While Stranger Things has featured some great characters over the years, the Netflix hit has also wasted a lot of promising supporting stars. Although the hit series has a huge fan base thanks to its great cast, not all of the performers get a chance to shine. Stranger Things season 1 set up a memorable core group of characters as the show flitted between Dustin, Lucas, Mike, Will, and Eleven, their older counterparts Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve, and their adult guardians, Hopper and Joyce.

However, the series started to protect this central group a little too much as it wore on. From season 2 onwards, Stranger Things started introducing equally likable new characters only to then kill them off without harming the main cast. The advantage of this approach is that elevates the principal characters and gives each of them their fair share of strong moments. The downside, though, is that many great Stranger Things characters not crucial to the plot don’t get to linger in the spotlight for very long.

9 Bob

Joyce’s Love Interest Deserved Better

Stranger Things season 2 introduced Bob as a charming love interest for Joyce Byers who couldn’t have been less like Hopper. While a lot of viewers assumed that Hopper and Joyce would eventually be paired off romantically, Bob was an authentically sweet character who was easy to root for in spite of this. This made it all the more brutal when he was gruesomely torn apart by Demodogs while the rest of the cast escaped with their lives.

8 Barb

Stranger Things Infamously Mistreated Nancy’s Friend

While Stranger Things addressed #Justice 4 Barb in the show’s second season, the show’s handling of this social media phenomenon only added insult to injury. Barb was Nancy’s short-lived friend who fell victim to the Demogorgon when the show’s heroine left her alone during a house party. Barb’s kindness toward Nancy meant her death felt like a betrayal and her character’s untapped depths left this death feeling like a rushed, unnecessarily mean-spirited twist. As such, when Jonathan and Nancy tried to get justice for her a season later, it was too little, too late.

7 Jonathan

Will’s Brother Was Forgotten In Later Seasons

Speaking of Jonathan, Nancy’s love interest received a compelling character arc in the show’s first season when he went from a creepy loner to a brave, surprisingly resilient support for his missing brother. However, Stranger Things has wasted Jonathan since then, unsure of whether to make the character a comic relief figure or a brooding antihero. This issue reached its zenith in Stranger Things season 4, wherein Jonathan was inexplicably reinvented as a listless stoner who could face down numerous interdimensional monsters but balked at the thought of telling his girlfriend that he changed his mind about college.

6 Chrissy

Vecna’s First Victim Didn’t Need to Die So Soon

Chrissy was introduced in the first episode of Stranger Things season 4 and her first interaction with local drug dealer Eddie Munson made her an immediate fan favorite. Chrissy sought drugs from Eddie as she was plagued by horrific nightmares about a shadowy figure, but it was her tentative flirtation with Eddie that made her screen debut so memorable. Memorable enough that fans might have even forgotten about her nightmares until the end of the episode saw Stranger Things pay homage to Nightmare on Elm Street as Chrissy suffered the show’s nastiest death ever before her character could be fully fleshed out.

5 Mayor Larry Kline

Cary Elwes Was Wasted In Stranger Things Season 3

After years of playing roguish antiheroes, Cary Elwes pulled an effective reinvention with his role in Stranger Things season 3. Elwes had a blast as Mayor Larry Kline, a corrupt public official responsible for many of the shady goings-on throughout Hawkins, Indiana. However, although the character was consistently funny and a perfect human villain for the show, he was lost in this overstuffed season. Elwes barely had an opportunity to make an impression in his handful of scenes before the Mayor was seemingly fired off screen, an ignominious end for a truly loathsome villain who deserved a more memorable fate.

4 Karen

Mike and Nancy’s Mom Deserved More Focus

While Stranger Things season 3 made Billy a bigger character, the show never really delved into the older woman that he unsuccessfully attempted to seduce. Karen Wheeler was surprisingly open to Billy’s flirtations and even almost met up with him the night that he was attacked by the Mind Flayer, but she lost her nerve and didn’t go through with this extra-marital affair at the last second. Stranger Things never explored what drove Karen to infidelity or what stopped her from going through with the deed, which was a disappointing letdown after actor Cara Buono imbued the character with believable humanity.

3 Eddie

Eddie’s Stranger Things Story Was Way Too Short

Eddie’s eventual death was a heartbreaking moment for the series, but the real tragedy was the fact that Stranger Things failed to introduce this character until season 4. Eddie was a great friend to Dustin, a figure who challenged Lucas to reconsider his identity, and a role model for the show’s young heroes as they attempted to navigate high school without hiding their nerdy passions. While Eddie’s tragic death could technically be undone in Stranger Things season 5, this still wouldn’t fix the show’s failure to utilize this character beyond a single season.

2 Billy

Stranger Things Season 3 Wasted A Great Villain

Dacre Montgomery’s Billy is arguably the best villain that Stranger Things has introduced so far, but the show never gave his story the level of complexity that it deserved. Billy’s racism and his brutally violent bullying prove that he was far from heroic, but his abuse at the hands of his stepfather did explain his outbursts and his mistreatment of his stepsister Max. While Montgomery’s performance hinted at the humanity under Billy’s bravado, Stranger Things season 3 dropped the ball by failing to reveal his tragic backstory until moments before his sacrifice.

1 Kali

Eleven’s Lost Sister Story Was A Stranger Things Misstep

Eleven’s lost sister Kali is the worst instance of Stranger Things setting up an intriguing character only to waste them completely. While Stranger Things season 5 might redeem Kali with a plot that properly integrates her character, her first appearance on the show was bogged down by a needlessly convoluted plot that took Eleven out of Hawkins and introduced a slew of new test subjects to the show’s heroine. If Kali and Eleven had worked together instead of Eleven briefly meeting her sister before leaving her again, this Stranger Things subplot could have succeeded, and this potentially great character might not have felt like a misguided afterthought.