Netflix’s “Stranger Things” (2016-2025) is in the same lane as “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope” (1977) in execution. Initially, each started so strongly that they took the world by storm at their respective points in history.
The first season of “Stranger Things” wasn’t just a national phenomenon; it was a global sensation. The year 2016 was already one with notable releases such as Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” director Barry Jenkins’ Best Picture-winning “Moonlight” and the first season of Netflix’s “The Crown” yet “Stranger Things” outdid all of them in popularity.
The show about a missing 12-year-old boy, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), in a town with some major supernatural secrets, was what everyone was talking about during that summer. With the show’s early success, brothers Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, the show’s creators, decided to further the story with the characters established in season one.
“Stranger Things” went from a simple series set in Hawkins, Indiana, that evoked the same feeling of classic films of the 1980s like Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) and Richard Donner’s “The Goonies” (1985), to a show that completely lost its identity.
“Stranger Things” Season Five is an amalgamation of every wrong decision made by the Duffer Brothers and the rest of those in the writer’s room.
The second volume picks up after Henry Creel, or Vecna, (Jamie Campbell Bower) successfully captured a dozen children from Hawkins to use them as vessels to then merge planet Earth, the Upside Down and the Abyss all into one unique dimension.
All of the heroes, the adult group, the teenage group and the young adult group must use whatever wits they have to prevail over Vecna once and for all, without having one of their own perish amidst the chaos.
The second season of “Stranger Things” was, while flawed, a story that still felt like it was within the same logic as Season One. The inclusion of the Mind Flayer left viewers with a heavy dose of intrigue, with the audience pondering many questions.
However, that season was a telling of things to come for this show overall. Each season since the first has devolved in its creativity and writing. Recently, the Duffer brothers sat down for an interview with Collider and answered questions left open after the series finale.
In the interview, the Duffers responded to some questions with clear, detailed answers, but their responses to many questions highlighted Season Five’s lazy writing. The brothers were asked about what happened to the military presence in Hawkins after the destruction of the Upside Down.
“In that 18-month gap? I suppose there’s not much else to do,“ Ross Duffer said. “You can’t explore this other dimension. There’s no Eleven to chase anymore because she’s gone. So, my guess is they just sort of slowly dismantled operations and left town.”
This is only one of many examples where the script felt like a first draft with no extra time or thought. The military base was led by Maj. Gen. Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), who was built up to be a no-nonsense, cut-throat character that would do anything to get her hands on Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).
It makes no sense for Kay to let the heroes off scot-free with no mention of any sort of punishment for their disruption of the military’s mission and base.
It isn’t just a lack of consideration for important details like these, but the lack of commitment to established characters since season one. Nearly all of the main cast have a thick layer of plot armor around them, and the repetitiveness of dialogue and scenes is what hekped weaken Season Five.
Writing is everything in film and television, and the Duffer brothers' quality storytelling in their writing, which made their show work in the first place, was not evident in Season Five.
Even with the script issues in Season Five, the actors did their best with what they had. Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Bower as Vecna, of course, Brown as Eleven were all highlights with their performances.
The Duffers did manage to make a somewhat satisfying send-off come the show’s final episode “The Rightside Up.” But, it’s painful to devoted fans who have loved this series since the beginning that the rest of Season Five was so underwhelming.
After nine long years, Netflix’s “Stranger Things” finally concluded in what should have been a show with a better sense of direction.
Rating: 1.5/5
