Ep. 2: This Is a Thing

If you do two episodes, it's actually a thing. Your hosts Melissa Vegas and Scott Roeben get into it, again.

In this episode of the "Excommunication" podcast, Scott Roeben and Melissa Vegas dive deep into the cultural phenomenon of "Stranger Things" and its controversial final season. What begins as a discussion of the show's finale quickly turns into a spirited debate about storytelling, fandom and whether the series stuck the landing after five seasons.

Scott, who recently binge-watched the entire series after previously abandoning it, argues the finale worked emotionally and wrapped up the story's major threads. Melissa, a longtime fan, takes the opposite view saying the show peaked in Season 4 with the introduction of Vecna and that the final season failed to live up to the expectations it created.

Along the way, the conversation veers into everything from fan theories and the psychology of villains to Hollywood writing culture, binge-watching habits, and the challenges of ending a beloved series. There's also plenty of classic "Excommunication" tangents about pop culture references, soap-sharing etiquette and the evolving way audiences consume television.