I was 18 years old, entering my senior year of high school when Stranger Things dropped on Netflix. I remember the series being the talk of the town for months as it combines the coming of age charm of The Goonies with the science fiction mystery seen in The X-Files. The only other shows that I could recall being that much of a global phenomenon were Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Lost, and The Office. However, Stranger Things was different as it was one of the first hit shows to ever be produced by a streaming service, which forever changed the tide of film and television. Now almost a decade later, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things has finally arrived after countless delays. I won’t be lying as Stranger Things did lose me a couple of seasons ago, but out of curiosity and commitment I have stuck with the series over the long years. And as the episodes of the final season went by, the only thought in my head was not only how much the series has lost the plot, but how painfully safe it is.
Spoilers Ahead!!!!
It is not a lie to say that Stranger Things has lost the plot. The first season of the series was lightning in the bottle. What made the first season and to an extension the second season of Stranger Things so special was how grounded its narrative was. It wasn’t about the demogorgons or the upside down or the mysterious powers of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown, The Electric State). At its heart the series was a coming-of-age family drama about kids and their families navigating adolescence and tragedy in the 1980s. It was simple yet effective storytelling that resonated with audiences worldwide. However, the downfall of Stranger Things began the moment it became a world wide phenomenon. Soon everyone on the internet was demanding explanations to the mystery of Hawkins, Indiana. The Duffer Brothers, the creators of the series, were put into a difficult position. Do they end the series after its first season, ending it on a high note by letting mysteries be mysteries, or do they abandon the heart of the series in pursuit for pure spectacle, answers and money. Sadly, they chose the latter option which began the downfall of the series.
Despite what the Duffer Brothers have been saying, it is very clear that they have been making up Stranger Things narrative as it went along its five seasons. The second season of Stranger Things kept the dark atmosphere that lingered over the first season and its narrative was still character driven as it had a clear overarching narrative between seasons one and two. But what became clear in the second season was that the Duffers didn’t know how to tell their story differently as season two had the same basic plot as the first season. The portal to the Upside Down has been opened and creatures from it are terrorizing the citizens of Hawkins and it must be closed as soon as possible before more monsters come. This flaw became small stones that starts an avalanche of flaws that will eventually consume the series.
The third season of Stranger Things entirely abandoned the dark atmosphere of its two previous seasons and went hard into 80s camp and nostalgia. Not only was its atmosphere abandoned but its character driven, coming-of-age narrative was beginning to become a thing of the past as the series began leaning hard into spectacle over character driven storytelling. Which is ironic as the third season had the same basic plot as the first season. On top of these flaws, a new flaw began to emerge, plot armor. It became evident that the fan favorite character introduced that season would be killed off while the main cast will be unscathed by the ensuing conflict. I understand that killing off or gravely injuring favorite characters is difficult, but it is difficult for the audience to feel stakes if none of the main cast doesn’t feel like they are in danger.
As for the fourth season, the series brought itself back to its darker atmosphere, but all of the flaws seen in the previous seasons were even more present. Its character driven narrative was entirely abandoned as the series became focused on explaining the who’s, the what’s, and the how’s of the Upside Down. All of the characters became shells of themselves as they were turned into expositional mouthpieces. And it didn’t help that a good chunk of the ensemble went on autopilot the moment their characters lacked character. At the end of its fourth season, Stranger Things had entirely abandoned what made it so special in the first place and the worst part is that the series doesn’t care.
By the time the fifth season of Stranger Things had finally rolled around, it displayed its inherited flaws gleefully as the Duffer Brothers played it safe. And in that refusal to take risks, the writing gets messier and messier as internal logic, character motivations, and all sense of a cohesive narrative are thrown out the window in the name of pure, mindless spectacle and 80s nostalgia. While it is fine to like the final season of Stranger Things, if you think it is flawless you are out of your mind. The final season has more plot holes than swiss cheese.
The fifth season of Stranger Things picks up a year after Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower, Twilight Saga: New Moon) ripped a hole through Hawkins connecting the Upside Down to the real world. In the aftermath, Hawkins is under quarantine and military occupation led by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton, Terminator). In that occupation, Eleven, Hopper (David Harbour, Thunderbolts*) and the rest of the gang search for Vecna in the Upside Down. However, after a search goes wrong, the gang is in a race against time as Vecna and the Mind Flayer are about to make worlds collide, literally.
At the end of season four, you would have expected for season five to be an all-out war as the Upside Down has finally entered the real world. You would have expected to see Vecna, the Mind Flayer and their army of Demogorgon’s, bats and dogs wandering the streets, massacring anyone who gets in their way. Sadly, that war never happens as that conflict is wrapped up entirely off screen in a nice neat bow made of metal that covers the rift between the upside down and the real world. So what is the conflict we actually get? A conflict with world ending stakes that never felt like anything was at stake as the Duffer’s refused to put any characters on the line. And in that refusal they bend physics and the narrative of their world to make sure all of their characters survive without a scratch.
The stakes in the fifth season of Stranger Things are the highest that they have ever been. With mass child kidnapping, unethical military experiments, intergalactic travel, and an entity who wants to destroy the world by smashing his planet into Earth, the stakes are needless to say are high, yet the stakes were never felt. It is no secret that Stranger Things has a problem with killing its characters. While the series can easily kill characters outside of the main cast, like Eddie (Joseph Quinn, A Quiet Place: Day One) , Bob (Sean Astin, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Alexei (Alex Utgoff, Gladiator II) and more, the series has constantly held back on killing its main characters. But I was hoping for the series finale to finally kill a couple of main characters to give its story some meaning and show how much they sacrificed to defeat Vecna and the Mind Flayer. As expected, sadly all of the main characters survived without a single scratch on them. But that is what didn’t surprise me.
What surprised me about this final season of Stranger Things was how easily the gang defeated Vecna and the Mind Flayer. I would describe it like a bunch of Level 20 Dungeons and Dragons players going back to the Level 1 Boss Fight and cruising through it like a cake walk. Vecna was defeated by Eleven and by extension Will (Noah Schnapp, Hubie Halloween) by telekinetically pushing each other around in the heart of the Mind Flayer. While the Kaiju that was the ginormous Mind Flayer, who started off as a Lovecraftian Cosmic Entitie, was taken out by a couple of bullets, a flame thrower, a few Molotov cocktails and a couple of stabs from a spear. Are you kidding me!? We know that the Demogorgons eat bullets for breakfast, who were magically nowhere to be found in battle alongside the dogs and bats, and that Vecna is impervious to bullets. So please explain how a bunch of teenagers are able to take down a Kaiju on an extraterrestrial world with so much ease that all of the main characters walk away without a single scratch on them or even a drop of sweat. This season had 8 episodes to explore this battle, yet they chose to wrap up in less than 15-minutes. What is the point of having a world ending creature, if they are defeated that easily.
And as the finale tumbled through its final minutes, I kept waiting for the Mind Flayer to return, similar to the final boss taking a new form with a new, full health bar, seen in works such as Terminator, Aliens, and Dark Souls. Sadly, the Mind Flayer was killed, but the military is still there, that is another antagonist the gangs have to deal with. Yet again, the military is treated like tissue paper for our characters to kill with no consequence. And the moment the Upside Down is gone and Eleven is “dead”, they just pack up and leave like nothing ever happened. Five seasons of building up this huge battle, only for it to end on a massive whimper.
Then in the final hour of the show, the series finally remembered that it was a coming of age family drama about adolescence and tragedy. While the ending scene is great, no amount of manipulative flashbacks to the previous seasons could make me feel anything for the characters of Stranger Things. I sadly have felt nothing for the characters of Stranger Things for a long time as their plot armor is a mile thick and these characters haven’t felt like characters. The characters were the heart of this show, but Stranger Things abandoned them a long time ago in the name of spectacle.
While watching the final season of Stranger Things, I was not taken back by the spectacle of Vecna and The Mind Flayer being defeated but mourning of what this series could have been. It is no secret that Stranger Things lost the plot a long time ago. The characters became shells of themselves, the oppressive atmosphere was replaced by a sterile one, and all of the mystery was entirely lost. At every junction where the Duffer Brothers might have taken a genuine risk or push the story into unfamiliar territory, they have instead chosen safety and familiarity. The ultimate legacy of Stranger Things will not rest in the series itself, but in how it permanently reshaped the television landscape.
My Rating: C-
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