By Tristan Young
The show that took over our Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day has finally come to a close. Stranger Things, which premiered in July of 2016, has stretched five seasons over ten years, gaining a huge budget as well as multiple years on actors. The six child actors brought on in the early seasons are now in their mid-twenties still playing teenagers, and it is quite apparent. From Noah Schnapp’s bowl-cut to Millie Bobby Brown’s filler, the audience has seen it all. The last season of the show was in 2022, leaving the viewers a three year gap to build tension.
The fifth and final season of Stranger Things was a huge disappointment. This show, which has had such calculated and strategic plots, was too busy giving fan service and not spending enough time making a good script. This season, scientifically and logically, makes zero sense; any time they would try to explain something that was happening it fell flat and sounded like an attempt at a creative theory that would not actually work.
The entire plot of Henry/Vecna being the one who created the upside down… or was it Eleven? That was not clear – what was the deal with the rock? The idea of Vecna being the overarching villain is a plot point just to connect two stories that had nothing to do with each other, and honestly I think it just made the two clash, horribly. The first sequence with Will as a child being told a plan (if you have to straight up tell a character in a show what’s going on so the audience will understand, I would rethink your script) was just absolutely insane, and not in a good way. I just don’t believe that Henry/Vecna created the upside down, and I think the whole draw to the ‘upside down’ was the fact that it made no logical sense. Henry/Vecna was an awful villain and did not scare me one bit – the stakes were not high enough to be having the global consequences that were expected. (Also metaphorically what would have been so bad about the world merging? The monsters and bad things are still able to get into the real world through the ‘upside down’/wormhole so what’s the big deal?) The monsters in this season were not scary; what happened to the ‘upside down’? You couldn’t even enter the area without a hazmat suit in season one! Why are we suddenly able to breathe and not be worried about being attacked? The demogorgon was by far the best monster and Vecna completely pales in comparison.
What was really disappointing was the immense lack of characterization in the last season. Joyce, the main and most badass of them all, barely did anything. They made Nancy’s entire arc about Jonathan and Steve just for her to end up alone? Mike was the best upgrade, Will was a disaster (just like Noah’s acting) and Lucas became a vessel for Max, and what once was such a lively character became an outlet for another, practically diminishing his character. Please don’t even get me started on Dustin and his arc-the trenchcoat, stupid shirt, and hair are enough but him obsessing over someone he knew for approximately five months (maybe less?) was absurd. I understand missing someone and grieving, but please can we get the old Dustin back? Sadie Sink as Max was phenomenal as always, she carried the show on her back entirely. Eleven and Hopper are an interesting battle, because all of Hopper’s decisions just seemed out of character, and I feel like he was written in a different and worse way. Eleven on the other hand seems weaker when she is quite literally the catalyst for power in this show – as a ten year old she was flipping buses and snapping peoples necks simultaneously and now she can’t even go into the ‘upside down’? Please. I didn’t see the interest in adding new characters – Holly was cool but the show could’ve functioned without her. However seeing and diving deeper into Karen’s character was a great decision. Bringing back Kali was an interesting, and in my opinion, not needed decision, as she was in a one off episode that notoriously no one cared for; all she did was lack faith and bring unwanted tension. And of course, they added in Barb at the last minute; Nancy, who was such a pinnacle character for feminism, her storyline with Barb and with Emerson both dropped off and destroyed for a story about a love triangle – pisses me off!
A couple nit-picks: I absolutely despise Will’s gay storyline. It did not add or take away from the show at all. All it was was fan service. Speaking of, why was this entire season built on the backs of other people’s ideas of what should have happened? Max should’ve died! Eleven should have died! Steve probably should have died! Why are we all of a sudden scared to create an uproar? If we are getting fan service, they couldn’t have included any Stancy? This was a really hard watch, and as a fan of ten years now, I will most likely pretend the show stops after season three. There are good bits in season four, but with the wrapped in a bow conclusion that season three had, there was absolutely no need for two more seasons. I think the montage at the end was sweet and I liked that we got to see the kids in the basement playing DnD again-that was really special. But also, why were Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Jonathan hanging out at the end? They don’t like each other. There was a lot of good in this season, but also a lot, a lot, of bad.
It speaks to me when an entire show community is trying to draw invisible strings to the conclusion that there is a secret ninth episode of the season. When fans are so desperate for an extra episode, not even just for the show, precisely for a better ending, I think that is a thorough enough explanation of this show. This is an ending to the show, but absolutely not the ending we deserve.