The joy of Christmas night, sitting down with my Dad to watch Volume II of Stranger Things Season 5, excited and ready after Volume I. If you haven’t read my article on Volume I, all of my thoughts for the first four episodes are there. I thought overall Volume I was good, with the first two episodes being okay and the last two blowing my mind. After Episode 4 my expectations were HIGH okay, very high — and, sadly, I was kind of disappointed. Spoilers ahead!
Stranger Things is an amazing show. There has always been a good balance of exposition versus action, and the show has scary moments but also has a good amount of emotional connections between characters. However, this season I have to say there was too much exposition. I talked about how in Volume I there wasn’t as much of an opportunity for exposition this season because the characters already know almost everything and there aren’t as many mysteries, but Volume II flipped that around and now I feel like there isn’t enough balance with action versus exposition. New mysteries are introduced, but because there aren’t that many episodes this season, it felt dragged out and a little bit excessive. I’m not saying there needs to be death around every corner, but I feel like I wanted something more than Max and Holly talking in the cave, or the kids in the basement making plans. It was constant planning and not enough execution in my opinion.
My other major criticism of Volume II was the plot armor every main character has. I’m definitely not the first person to talk about this, but I feel like it took away from the show. Frankly when a main character is there, I’m not scared in the least because I know that they’ll survive. Tell me how the demodogs didn’t catch Lucas when he was playing music? Or how they’ll decimate military men in seconds but walk so slowly towards the main characters. It should build suspense, but I end up annoyed because there’s no real threat anymore. Stranger Things is a show where you expect some darkness, some death, love, and fear, but I got almost none of that this season in comparison to Season 4 when Eddie died in a big emotional moment. At this point Max has almost died like four times, but I was only scared in Season 4 because now it just seems like a stretch that anyone would die. I don’t have time to go into it, but I know we were all yelling at Max to run when she decided to do a twenty minute speech instead.
Speaking of characters and emotions, some relationships and scenes I feel like we need to break down are: Nancy and Jonathan, Dustin and Steve, and Will’s coming out scene.
Starting off with Nancy and Jonathan, I actually supported the decision for them to break up. We saw that they were having issues last season and their characters were definitely going in different directions. Nancy knows exactly what she wants, and Jonathan is still figuring things out. I didn’t appreciate teasing their deaths for both of them to come out of it, but I don’t have any issues with their breakup even though some found it confusing. Breaking up was probably best for both of their characters to truly grow.
Moving onto Dustin and Steve, I am so so happy that they’re back to being a dynamic duo. I understand why they were fighting, but I hated it the whole time. Their dynamic was adorable, and I know I’m not alone when I say those two are up there in my character ranking. The “You die, I die” is devastatingly emotional, and if something happens in the finale I will break down crying. On that note, I really hope that we get a significant death in the finale that truly means something to the audience.
For my last significant discussion of the season, I need to talk about Will’s coming out scene. There were definitely good and bad aspects, and it got clowned online a bit, but let’s break it down. I definitely think that, all things considered, this scene was necessary. The first four episodes demonstrated how much Will has grown as a character, and coming out to his friends and family was the last piece to fully accepting himself and growing. The flashbacks and speech had an emotional impact, and watching the other characters fully accept him was powerful. In addition, Will and Robin both being queer demonstrates good representation in media, which can be hard to find. Overall, the scene did have a positive impact. That said, the placement definitely threw me off. I mentioned it earlier, but part of the show having good balance between action and exposition or bonding scenes such as this one is the timing. In my opinion, you shouldn’t put a scene that is supposed to have a big impact smushed in between two action scenes. It throws the viewer off, and you lose some of that impact that you would’ve had if you had placed it earlier in the season.
In conclusion, Volume II was good but I had problems with it. I was left a little bit underwhelmed. This is supposed to be the best of all of the seasons, and Episode 4 of Volume I left me with high expectations. I feel like the show lost a lot of the good parts it had in the past. There is less attachment to the characters because I’m not afraid for them, there aren’t nearly as many 80s culture references, and the balance between the action and exposition is off. The show is still good, but I feel like this season had so much wasted potential. Talk to you soon for the finale!