Title: Stranger Things
Release Dates: 2025
Season: 5
Number of Episodes: 8
MILD SPOILERS IN THE SUMMARY/REVIEW BELOW THE TRAILER
Summary/Review:
Ten years ago, Stranger Things debuted and it was one of the great seasons of television in the streaming age. It was a pastiche on 1980s horror and thriller movies but also an original story of multiple generations in small-town America coming together to face a supernatural threat. The young cast of the show quickly became stars while veteran actors had a career revival. Subsequent seasons of the show were hit and miss, but interesting enough to keep me interested in the ongoing plot while being charmed by the talent of the actors bringing their characters to life.
And so the final season, much like Return of the Jedi, doesn’t have to be perfect as long as it allows us to see how these characters changed and grow so their able to finally overcome evil and have a happy ending. And this season, for the most part achieves this. It begins close to two years after the end of Season 4 when an “earthquake” ruptured Hawkins, Indiana. The town has been placed under quarantine (relatable) and military occupation (very relatable). Our core group of characters have made Hawkins’ radio station there home base, where Robin has taken over as DJ.
As the season begins, they’ve been conducting crawls – stowing away on military excursions into the upside down – in order to find and kill Vecna (a.k.a Hendy Creel). Meanwhile, the military is now lead by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton, who in the time this was set was starring in the TV fantasy series Beauty and the Beast) is intent on capturing El to use her to create more children who can be weapons. And Vecna has a plan to to abduct 12 children whose energy he will use to destroy the world, starting with Mike and Nancy’s little sister Holly Wheeler.
The early episodes are a bit wobbly. There’s a lot of dialogue that’s just exposition. Also, because Holly is essentially a new character (played wonderfully by Nell Fisher) a lot of time is spent establishing at the expense of the main characters. In fact the whole season has to deal with juggling with so many characters. Some of the more interesting side characters don’t get much to do (Erica, Mr. Clarke, Kali). On the other, the show’s most annoying character, Murray, while not as prominent as in the previous two seasons still gets more screen time than he deserves.
I did not like that our core group have effectively become a heavily-armed militia which seems like a lot for ordinary people. I also thought the mystery of the Upside Down was more interesting when it was ineffable, before the revelation of Vecna as a monster who threatens our heroes with pithy sayings. Of course, these are 80s references respectively to Rambo and Freddy Krueger, and it could have been a lot worse.
The show improves as the season goes along and there are several great moments. These include Holly joining with Max in “Henry’s mind” and becoming a leader on her own as well as Will’s discovery of the powers he got from Vecna (which is nicely tied in with his coming out story). The final episode allows each of the characters to contribute to their ultimate victory in a satisfying way. The epilogue of the story jumps forward 18 months where we see how things turn out for each of the major characters. This could be self-indulgent, but after spending five seasons with these characters it feels deserved. The show ends perfectly by coming full circle with a final game of Dungeons & Dragons.
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