In my opinion, I think Mike is WAYYY over-hated. Don't get me wrong, I feel like the third and fourth seasons definitely missed the mark on Mike when it came to leadership, but I feel like people treat him so awful even though he's just a kid.
Stranger Things 1 - Almost perfect. He's a leader, he's funny, and he has equal love for all of his friends (Lucas and Mike reconciling, rescuing Will, telling Dustin he's his best friend and jumping off a cliff for him).
Stranger Things 2 - Here I think is where the discourse for Mike began, because he was designated to either be shackled with Will for half the season, tell Max he hates her, or misses El. I think they needed to deep dive on how much Mike missing El affected him, especially seeing that meltdown with Hopper, since Karen mentions how he was acting out at school. I think he was good, but I remember a lot of people complaining that "All he does is care about Will." and that complaint aged like fine milk.
Stranger Things 3 - I thought the shift between caring about Will to caring about El was interesting, but again, they don't explore how it affects Mike. He definitely still shows how he cares for his friends, saving El from Billy, warning Max to get away from the door. Yeah, he's a little jerk to Hopper, but he's a teenager, I feel like people act like they weren't entitled little dicks as kids.
Stranger Things 4 - He's not awful, but not great, he's good. I wish his arc wasn't dedicated to just being "a good boyfriend", but him saying I love you to El was very sweet. Him and Will were very interesting, it seems (and I hope) that they're setting up for them to be closer in Stranger Things 5. I also noticed people not liking Mike because he wasn't reciprocating Will's feelings (which is totally not cool), and because he didn't defend El getting bullied and reacting negatively when El smashed Angela's face, even though El had been lying to him.
Again, he can definitely be improved, but I think Mike gets shat out a lot more than he deserves. It goes by season in terms of best character, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4, but I don't even think 3 and 4 are bad, and I think it helps because Finn Wolfhard is so charming!
