Jack Posobiec calls out Netflix over Stranger Things pedo programming

Jack Posobiec used Thursday night’s Thoughtcrime episode to call out what he described as an unmistakably sexualized and inappropriate sequence in Stranger Things Season 5, arguing that Netflix has pushed its most popular series into territory that parents were never told to expect.

Posobiec laid out why viewers are reacting so strongly to the new season. The show is “Netflix's number one show worldwide,” Posobiec said, built on years of 80s nostalgia and marketed heavily to families. “You hear the synth music. It’s kids riding around on bikes,” he said, adding that the series originally served as a way “for a lot of Gen Xers and elder millennials, Gen Yers to be able to sort of share the 80s with their kids.”

Posobiec says the new material breaks sharply from that foundation, saying “They've gone and they've been making the show gayer and gayer as the seasons go on,” he said, before describing the expanded flashback involving Will Byers’ abduction in Season 1.

The new sequence shows Vecna restraining the unconscious boy and forcing a tentacle-like appendage into his mouth. The tendril pumps alien parasite organisms into his body while Vecna speaks to him. “What you're seeing here is them reestablishing something… from season one that they’re only showing you now,” Posobiec said, noting the new version is longer, more explicit, and foregrounds Byers gagging and losing control while the creature touches his face.

“To me, I watch this… this is very clearly representative of a gay scene,” Posobiec said. “And that’s crazy that nobody is calling out Netflix for this… This is their keystone show.” He rejected claims that he was exaggerating, saying, “No, no, that’s really, really what it’s representative of… It was more horrifying than I realized.”

Posobiec also pointed to other scenes in the unreleased portion of the season that imply Byers has been “romantically, sexually attracted to his best friend all along,” framing it as a retroactive rewrite of the character. “It’s like they're going back and recasting the entire show to be about child abuse… this weird pedophilic scene with gay Darth Vader… and now just about embracing gayness,” he said.

The context of the sequence supports that the scene is explicitly constructed around a forced violation within the Upside Down storyline. In Season 1, a brief version showed Vecna implanting an alien slug-like organism into Byers’ body; Season 5 expands this moment into a graphic, extended portrayal with added dialogue and physical detail.

The controversy arrived the same week Netflix confirmed a sweeping $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros., HBO Max, and associated properties, describing the merger as a “cultural milestone.” The company has also faced recent criticism for inserting gender ideology into content marketed to younger audiences, with some public figures urging parents to reconsider subscriptions.