After three long years, people across the globe held their breath as the world of Hawkins, Indiana and the Upside Down were finally back on our screens. Although almost a decade has passed since the show’s beginnings, the Netflix show “Stranger Things” has withstood the test of time, and its popularity has only grown, culminating in the highly anticipated first installment of the show’s fifth and final season, which was released at exactly 8 p.m. EST on Nov. 26.
As avid “Stranger Things” fans since the very beginning, this season was a long time coming. That being said, we had very high expectations for the show’s storyline, acting, and visual effects. The release only consisted of four episodes because the executive producers of the show, the Duffer Brothers, decided to torture us by releasing the final season in three volumes, the second releasing Dec. 25 and the finale showing both on Netflix and in theaters Dec. 31.
If you have been living under a rock for the past nine years, “Stranger Things” is a TV show that blends science fiction with horror and centers around a group of friends — Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) — in the 1980s, who unite over playing the storytelling game, “Dungeons & Dragons” (D&D). After Will mysteriously goes missing in the first season after one of their D&D campaigns, his friends and family rally together to search for him. Along the way, the children befriend a young girl named Eleven (Millie Bonnie Bongiovi) who has supernatural powers. Together, they uncover the secrets of a dark dimension they call the Upside Down, while also aiming to close the gate to the Upside Down opened by scientists at Hawkins Lab.
Ever since the show gained traction when it first aired in 2016, three other seasons have followed and the storyline has unfolded, bringing new characters and challenges to the table. The fifth season is the final battle between the usual suspects of monsters from the Upside Down and Vecna, also known as Henry Creel, (Jamie Campbell Bower), who uses his powers to kidnap and kill humans to fulfill his still unknown goals.
Introduced in season four, Eleven banished him from the real world to the Upside Down to keep him at bay and protect Hawkins. It was a lot to take in last season, especially with the introduction of Vecna, but nevertheless we loved season 4. However, we did feel that the storyline was a bit scattered at times and I think this new season has definitely improved on that.
The season’s first scene begins with a flashback to season one when Will initially vanished into the Upside Down. This immediately hooked us as it provided a response to a long unanswered question: what happened to Will when he was there alone? In order to bring this scene to life, the production team used a combination of a body double, digital de-aging technology, and performance capture to emulate a younger version of Will. It was definitely uncanny (at best), but at least it was an improvement from season four’s recreation of a younger Eleven.
After the show’s nostalgic intro music and title screen, we were brought to the story’s present time of 1987, an 18-month time jump following the end of the fourth season. Seeing all of the characters once again was very exciting and felt almost like a long awaited reunion, especially since we have gotten to know these characters so well in the last 10 years. Although, they all looked way older than their characters should — especially Dustin, who is supposed to be a junior in high school but it is clear that he’s college-aged. Despite this, we think they played their roles excellently. Some standouts were Wolfhard and Maya Hawke who plays Robin Buckley.
The premise of the season, so far, is centered around the disappearance of the youngest Wheeler, Holly. This was definitely a surprise to fans considering she has totaled a whopping two minutes of screen time across the entire show. Nevertheless, prior to her kidnapping, her character meets a mysterious figure that she references as Mr. Whatsit, but those around her deem it to be her strange imaginary friend.
We thought it was cool for the Duffer Brothers to make the decision of focusing on Holly. Considering how, in previous seasons, it was shown that she was the only one outside of the show’s main group that saw the monsters from the Upside Down when others turned a blind eye.
The colorful aesthetic of the episodes also caught our attention, conjuring up the ’80s effect that we have grown to love over the past four seasons. From what the characters were wearing (aside from Eleven’s outfit, she needs a wardrobe change) to the vibrance of the world around them, the show never failed to amaze us, and we truly felt like we were transported back in time.
This season, we were also introduced to new characters, specifically the Turnbow children. We loved “delightful” Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly) who plays the classic role of a bully in Holly’s class. At first, his bratty personality was extremely annoying, but as he started engaging with the group more and began helping with the main mission, he quickly became one of our favorites.
We also finally got to see his older sister Tina, who has been mentioned before as being Erica Sinclair’s (Priah Ferguson) best friend in previous seasons. After hearing about Tina and Erica’s friendship, especially in season three with Erica’s iconic line, “Just so you nerds are aware, I’m supposed to be spending the night at Tina’s, and Tina always covers for me,” actually putting a name to a face was very fun, and lived up to our expectations.
One of our biggest critiques for the last season was how the main characters were split up into different sub-plot groups across the “Stranger Things” world. In these four new episodes, we finally got to see them all together again in Hawkins, which was refreshing and exciting. Though they did separate at times, it allowed us to see relationships form between characters that we had never seen interact before.
A standout was Robin and Will’s relationship, with Robin acting as Will’s supporter and mentor, almost as a big sister figure for him. Their friendship culminates into the major plot twist at the end of episode four, where it’s Robin’s inspirational words that brought out the full potential in Will.
Despite the new dynamics this season, one iconic one that unfortunately fell short for us was the one between Dustin and Steve Harrington (Joe Keery). Over the past seasons, they had grown into the best duo with their bubbly personalities, hilarious one-liners, and heart-warming friendship. But this season, both are disappointing. Dustin, whose personality is usually happy-go-lucky, is now somber and aloof. In his defense he is still reeling from the death of one of his close friends in season four, but his demeanor just feels entirely off. It seems as though the Dustin that we had grown to love has faded away.
In Steve’s case, he hasn’t changed his personality but has seemingly lost it altogether. When he’s not needlessly pining over Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), he picks fights with people, especially Dustin, for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Instead of feeling concerned or sorry for the characters, it just feels annoying and completely out of character for the both of them. We hope that in the next two volumes, their original, loveable dynamic is revived.
For the second half of the season, we hope to see more development of Vecna’s character, giving more insights to the seeds planted in episodes one through four. Seeing aspects of Vecna’s life as a high school student and what happened to him in the cave we learned about in episode three are high on our list. Also, we can’t wait to see what methods the protagonists take to overcome Vecna. Online, there have been several fan theories about time travel, and considering all the references to the book “A Wrinkle in Time,” they seem very likely.
All in all, this season is already working out to be one of the best in our opinion. Even with a few shortcomings, it’s without a doubt that this season so far for us is an 11/10. Although the episodes are crazily long (each episode averaging an hour and 20 minutes is insane), it never felt dull, boring, or too heavily complicated with all the action. Each side-plot is engaging, which was a big improvement from season four. We can’t wait to see what is in store for the rest of the season!