Stranger Thingshas amassed to one of the most popular shows Netflix has ever produced. After four seasons of heartbreak, reunions, and downright awful circumstances for Hawkins, the show has gathered tens of millions of fans and billions of hours of watch-time. Although the Netflix series displays eye-catching graphics, an exciting storyline, and offers tens of hours of binge-watching, none of these things are the most compelling reason to watchStranger Things— it’s the characters. Not only do we get to watch our beloved Hawkins children grow up into full-blown teenagers, but we get to see each character in a different light every season.
AsStranger Thingsprogresses, each of our characters, at some point, are struggling with something.Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown)struggles with her distrust of people and functioning in normal society. Will (Noah Schnapp) struggles with change among their friendship groupand his sexuality. Max (Sadie Sink) struggles with gaining friendship in Hawkins, eventually struggling with her brother Billy’s death and the way her family changes. Hopper needs no explanation, as he does nothing but struggle, but this makes him thebest character inStranger Things. Through the show’s incredible story-telling, we get to experience each character’s worries, bravery, and sacrifice. This was a great thing for our fellow Hawkins boy Mike Wheeler — until it wasn’t.
InStranger ThingsSeason 1, we can’t help but love Mike for his compassion and understanding. He loves his friends, and he open-heartedly accepts Eleven when he first meets her in the woods, even though Dustin and Lucas are skeptical, if not completely put-off, by her presence. He takes her in during a time of need, and tries to get his friends to accept her. Fast-forward to Seasons 3 and 4, we have a different Mike entirely, and not in a positive sense. So, why is he now borderline theworst character in the series? Why is Mike in dire need of an attitude adjustment?
He’s Insensitive to His Friends
In the first two seasons ofStranger Things, Mike is a nice-enough boy who cares deeply for his friends. But even in Season 1, he takes advantage of his unspoken role as the leader of the group, often being extremely insensitive. Dustin and Lucas voice their clear distrust of Eleven early on, especially with Will missing, and Mike does not take their feelings into consideration. He simply welcomes Eleven into the group regardless of how they felt. Yes, it turned out to be a wonderful addition, but at the time, the boys had no way of knowing that. This led to a huge fight between Lucas and Mike, where both boys were mutually wrong. But the underlying issue is: Mike never experiences any consequences for his actions.
He never apologizes to any of his friends for his crappy behaviors at times. Later on, Mike put way too much of his focus on Eleven when they became an item. Yes, it is normal for a teenage boy to focus on his new love interest, but in the process, he completely forgot about his friends and stopped caring what they were doing unless one of them was in danger. Additionally, he was absolutely horrible to Will as a whole. To be fair, Will was traumatized. He spent a long time in the Upside Down in horrific conditions, not knowing if he would ever get out. Once they finally rescued him, and he tried to live a normal life once more, he was followed around by a dark shadow that was giving him literal panic attacks and making him think he had gone crazy. That is a scary time for anyone, much less a young boy.
Although Mike was there for Will in his beginning stages afterThe Upside Down, later on, he completely stopped supporting Will or checking in on him and focused solely on El. When Mike coupled with El, Lucas and Max became an item, and Dustin had his long-distance relationship with Suzie, Will was left by himself. Mike didn’t have time for his friends anymore and often reminded Will that things were different than they used to be, and he didn’t want to sit around and play D&D all day with them. To make things worse, he shoved it in Will’s face that he was the only single one, knowing that Will was struggling with his sexuality in the prejudice of the 1980s. Not to mention that once the Byers and El moved away to California, Mike only ever wrote to El, never calling or checking in on Will the whole time he was gone.
When Will brought this up to Mike once he arrived at their house, Mike became frustrated with Will for, in lesser terms, being needy and wanting to hang out with him. Then, Will presented Mike with a painting of their D&D group, with Mike as “the heart”. Proving even more that he didn’t deserve Will, Mike brushed off the gesture and never showed him any appreciation. In all actuality, Mike was a horrible friend in Seasons 3 and 4, continually showing us how unkind he was to those who cared for him for years.
Related:Stranger Things Season 5: Why There Should Be a Time Jump
He’s Hypocritical & Selfish
Let’s face it: Mike is problematic. Being the unspoken leader of the group went to his head a little too much. Back in Season 1, he brought El into the group with the expressive disproval of both Lucas and Dustin. Obviously, Will wasn’t there to vote on the matter. So, knowing he did this, why did he get furious when Dustin and Lucas tried to welcome Max into the group? Because he is hypocritical and selfish. Because he thought he lost El, he was not willing to allow any other girl in the group if it wasn’t her. We know he was missing her, but that didn’t mean his friends couldn’t enjoy the company of a girl in the group. He fought and instigated anything he could to keep her out of the circle, even though she was new to town and had no friends.
Once he could no longer keep her away, he made sure he expressed his disproval and isolated her any chance he could. No matter that Max had never done anything wrong to him, he took all his frustrations of El’s disappearance out on her. As we touched on in the earlier section, Mike had a tenancy to be selfish. He didn’t respect anything his parents wanted from him and was often kinda crappy to his sister for no good reason. Yes, at the beginning, she was a frustrating character. But after she helped with Will’s rescue, she became an ultra-cool sister and Mike would never show her any appreciation or love, despite her efforts to display her love for her little brother. He often only cared about his own interests.
Additionally, when he joined the new DND group with Lucas and Dustin, he was completely selfish about Lucas making the basketball team and his games. Lucas would often try to invite Mike and Dustin to watch his games, but Mike cared more about staying in the group than supporting his friend. When Lucas would be unable to make it to the DND matches due to a basketball game, Mike would become upset with him and treat him as though he was not allowed to have any other interests outside what Mike set up for them to do together. Overall, Mike was enjoyable in the first season, but ever since then, he has become quite intolerable.
