I truly cannot believe that the beloved Netflix Show, Stranger Things, is about to come to an end. Debuting in July 2016, this show has played such a huge role in my growing up, as I am about the same age as the actors who play the kids on the show. The series began when I was in middle school, and now, this holiday season, the finale season will drop as I am in my senior year of college.Â
Stranger Things has a total of 5 seasons, each released years apart, with distinct eras in each season. Season 1 was the original: Will Byers has gone missing, we are introduced to the Upside Down, and Joyce uses Christmas lights to talk to her son. I watched this season a few months after its release, and I remember thinking it was so scary but so incredibly well done! There is nothing like the nostalgia of that first season.Â
Season 2 was shockingly only released 1 year later, in October 2017. This was the last time seasons would be released so close together! It was the fall of my freshman year of high school, and man, the air was CRISP. My high school friends and I were so obsessed with this Halloween-themed season, and I even made the light-up sign in my room say, “The Snow Ball.” The storyline got even more intense as Will was possessed by the Mind Flayer, Eleven came back, and Bob became our hero.Â
It wasn’t until July 2019 that season 3 was released. The buildup for this season was huge! I remember it came out on the Fourth of July, and my friends and I had a release party the night it came out. We had Eggo waffles, board games, Stranger Things sweatshirts, the whole nine yards.​​ This was the summer between my sophomore and junior year, and it truly was our 80s. I’m talking “VSCO girl” summer, scrunchies, hydro flasks; the vibes were just the best. The season itself was also set in the summer and featured the brand new Starcourt mall, where Steve and Robin worked at “Scoops Ahoy!”. The gang discovered a secret Russian base, Alexi stole our hearts, Eleven lost her powers, and the kids fought off “the flayed.”Â
Season 4 was the longest wait yet, coming out in two parts: Volume 1 in May of 2022 and Volume 2 in July of 2022. This season saw the biggest changes as Hopper was a prisoner in Russia, Eleven and the Byers were now in California, and we met Vecna for the first time. This season came out at the beginning of my college career, when I was living at home doing junior college online. My dad and I were so invested in this season, and we bonded as he loves to point out the accuracies and inaccuracies of the 80s motifs (he was the same age as the kid characters in the 80s). Some of my family, friends, and I even got to go to one of the “Stranger Things Experiences” in San Francisco later that year.Â
All of this has led up to Season 5, with the tag line “One Last Adventure.” This season is releasing in three parts, the first of which just dropped last week on November 26th. Volume 2 is being released on Christmas Day, with the finale coming out on New Year’s Eve. As I am writing this, I have just finished Volume 1, which, of course, I watched with my dad over Thanksgiving break. Before I continue, I want to say Spoiler Alert!!! In this new season, we see the gang continuing to fight Vecna after the events of season 4. Hawkins is now under a town quarantine, and the group now has to work all together to save the kids that Vecna is abducting and stop him. The Volume 1 finale gave us our biggest twist of the series– Will is now able to tap into Vecna’s powers when he is close enough to him, meaning they might just have a fighting chance to save the town once and for all.Â
I cannot wait to spend the holiday break seeing how the rest of this 10-year series comes to an end. I am so emotionally invested in the storyline, as I grew up with these characters, and have grown to make so many connections with people over this show. I know that the Duffer Brothers (the creators) did not take this ending lightly, so I am sure that it will be a series finale that will make history and be discussed for generations.Â