The Netflix powerhouse Sci-fi/Horror/80s-Nostalgia series comes to a close with an underwhelming fifth season.
Stranger Things burst onto the scene in 2016, instantly becoming a pop culture juggernaut. The sci-fi/horror mixture of Steph/vens Spielberg & King was highly steeped in the 80s, with utterly impeccable casting of kids who felt like they were flash-frozen in 1983 and thawed specifically for the show. It had an undeniable drive and hook, while partly nostalgia-based, Stranger Things had fantastic characters, writing, and worldbuilding. That was 9 years ago. In the time since it gripped the world, we’ve had an additional four seasons (and other media), culminating in the series ending Season 5, closing out 2025.
I came into Season 5 as I did the others, cautiously, hopefully to retain or regain the magic of the start. Season 2 was a lesser copy. Three started incredibly strong, but utterly fell apart by the end. Four has a lot to love, but it is so incredibly stretched that it was painful. Even with the issues, the show was very watchable for th reasons above. Unfortunately, Season five is an empty, toothless nostaliaga-bait that, while it has moments, amounts to a whole lot of nothing, showing the issues of the increasingly large cracks in the storytelling of the series.
Speaking of cracks in the world, it’s been nineteen months since Vecna opened the final portal and ripped Hawkins at the climax of four, opening the Upside Down to the human world. It sure seemed like everything was going to change! Ooh, leading up to a whole town aware of the horrors a sliver of them have faced. The stakes can’t be higher as it all comes to a head.
Or not. Goddammit. Look, I’m used to cliffhangers not following through (Welcome to Derry, I loved you, but you did this too in so many episodes), but this is ridiculous. The obvious terror under the ground is lampshaded by giant plates, and the town gets quarantined, but then it’s pretty much business as normal for everyone else outside of our core group. I cannot fathom a whole town just shrugging it off like nothing. All of this “let’s catch up” sets the show on the wrong foot by awkwardly ladling out a lengthy, cringe-inducing exposition by Robin to the town (which makes it a “hey Bob, remember that thing you know”) to tell us what we should see. Dammit, Duffers and writers, build that resistance on screen, set up the pieces with storytelling.
It’s all a stretch. Turning what should be continued from the cliffhanger into more lackadaisical storytelling is frustrating. In many ways, based on the end of season 4, season 5 should lead directly to essentially a third act of the series, with stakes and drive. By resetting, all the bite is gone as it has to reestablish everything and everyone; what they do get to do is so stretched out.
Coming into the finale, I was a little confused about how I had quickly watched nine hours of material for season 5. It doesn’t feel like it. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I guess that means the pacing is great. But with so many people running around, it’s easy to fly through. How much actual plot and character is in those 9 hours? Not a lot, honestly.
With an incrsingly large cast, now adding a Linda Hamilton, absolutely wasted with a nothing of a character and subplot as a military leader, a scene-stealing Jake Connelly as school kid Derek, and making Holly Wheeler (aged up to 10, played wonderfully by Evil Dead Rises’s Nell Fisher) into the main chararacter, so much time is spend just watching each whatever group is moving forward in inches.
It’s obvious how much the Duffer brothers love these characters. I do, too. But they can’t let any of them go, except Barb, Bob, and that sweet russian scientist in season 3. So we’re left with far more people than the plot needs, with so many just setting around. Joyce, earlier the compelling adult, exists. I think they forgot that Jonathan is also her son. Poor Mike, he doesn’t get to do much. Or grow at all. But no one does; these folks have basically stagnated, coasting on their character set-ups after the first few seasons. I’d go so far as to say the only character with actual growth is Vecna, the villain! Jamie Campbell Bower is great, so yes, please more screen time. Just wish it had a better explanation of the villain to make it worth it. An aside: speaking of growth, yes, the actors have all grown, in a weird way, to think they’re 15 in the show and decidedly not any longer (flashbacks to season 1 show how tiny they were! It’s jarring, but it hits the nostalgia button the Duffers are pressing. Of course, the issue with this season is the overuse of the said button. But let’s not forget Grease or other flicks with “teens”. It’s part of the media, just shrug it off. I hate the amount of time we have to wait for a handful of episodes, but that’ not their fault.
That leaves it as an unquantified mess. Too many people running around, forcing moments. Many characters straight up vanish for a long time or forever. It’s a lot of wandering. It just leaves from plot point to plot point, shooting from one to another. Occasionally stopping to have whatever pair is locked away somewhere to discuss their issues, so we can pretend to have character growth but really just talk exposition, telling us what we already know. There’ve been criticisms that the writing this season is made for those second-screening (scuttlebutt says Netflix forces this on their property’s writers). Some of those talks go on interminably forever. DAMMIT, MAX, RUN. I did enjoy a talk by Nancy and Jonathan that turned around the standard setup. Anytime Steve and Dustin have a moment is magic. Joe Keery and Gaten Matarazzo have such chemistry. If Stranger Things is going to be spun off as much as it’s been said, give me Steve and Dustin hitting the road. I’m in. Because the world is talking about it: Will’s coming out scene is important, but it’s oddly placed and incredibly uncomfortable in the writing and performance (Noah Schnapp’s cry face is as awful as Will’s bowl cut). And it’s a prime example of the show-stopping in its tracks to tell the audience and characters what they already know, just in case Tumblr took your attention away too long.
It’s very stethed out. Frankly, there hasn’t been anywhere for this to really go for a while. There’s an attempt when expanding Vecna’s plan, but I still don’t like an overall mastermind. It didn’t work trying to tie Craig’s bond together, and it doesn’t work here. Spinning wheels, repetition, whole new things that don’t make sense with what we saw before. The explanation for the Upside Down is terrible. Nothing really of the whys and hows adds up. With each expansion of the story, each season of “what new layer will be peeled away” makes it all make less sense, and have more plot issues snap open. I have questions, so many. Just one here: When did the upside down become not dangerous?
Yet for all my complaints, it’s still engaging, maybe because of lingering nostalgia, maybe just used to these guys after 9 years. But let’s talk about those good parts, the ones that were worth saving if this is cut down to a more manageable length with the plot that matters. I loved the goopy melting lab, that after an Annihilation-like soldiers in the wall.. That was awesome. The line of pregnant women, and the implications (goes nowhere). Giving Bowers more time as Vecna and his history, out of costume, is great. Sadie Sink is still the greatest actor on the show; you can see her growth in each season. She’s been a breakout; she has great chemistry with Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas, and she plays off the aged-up Holly. There is incredible chemistry in most of the cast, though it seems to have vanished from Millie Bobby Brown. They all seem a little tired of it all, but she’s just checked out, as she increasingly has done so from season to season. I’m frustrated that Mr. Clarke is given a big moment and vanishes. And Frank Darabont gets to direct two of the episodes! Hell yes.
Something is charming, interesting, and fun mixed in with all the waste. I love these characters, but they had little time to be just that. Part of me is sad to see them go. The other half of me feels it would have been better to say goodbye in 2016. Or at least have them shift to a whole new story instead of making one to the breaking point. IIRC, there was talk of making it an anthology originally. That’d be cool.
BTW, I never want to hear anyone complain about Return of the King’s endings again. The coda was nearly half the finale. Might have played better at home, but in the theatre it was excruciating. But again, we’re talking the Duffers and the audience letting go of these people we’ve loved and enjoyed for nearly ten years.
All in all, Stranger Things Season 5 couldn’t hold the weight of what culture expected of it. It’s a testament that it becomes stretched and safer over time, leaning into trying to appease everyone in the audience with character moments that don’t add up when making a cohesive story.