Who knew that a series in 2016 about a group of very larger-than-life characters dealing with weird things in their town would be the start of such a phenomenal show? It has been three years since the jarring cliffhanger of Stranger Things Season 4, and the show is now coming to an end with its final season. Will it stick the landing, or will it unfortunately become another Game of Thrones situation?
In terms of what this season does well, I enjoyed that Will actually has a lot more to do. Despite being a very important character in Seasons 1 and 2, he sort of had little to nothing to do in Seasons 3 and 4. He also has a proper bonding moment with Robin that I genuinely enjoyed and found very heartwarming. Jonathan was a character butchered in Season 4 by turning him into a lame pothead. His and Nancy’s relationship seemed to be in trouble, but this season actually gives their story a nice resolution. The moment where they finally communicate honestly about their relationship was a great moment. It is also quite nice to see how different Nancy is compared to who she was in Season 1. She is cool and quite badass this season, almost to a ridiculous degree, but oh well.
In terms of the new characters added this season, Derek is easily the best one due to how hilarious he is. He is one of the new kids who joins the group, and I was shocked at how much fun his presence was in the story. Linda Hamilton joins the cast as the human villain, Dr. Kay, and I do find her to be a menacing character for the cast. Every new actor who joins this season does a great job with their performance. The last 30–40 minutes of the final episode were also an incredibly heartfelt epilogue. Seeing how the characters move on and where their endings lie genuinely made me tear up. It was handled wonderfully.
That said, some characters are definitely forgotten in the epilogue. It is weird that Murray, who has been a prevalent ally, even in Season 5, has no epilogue dedicated to him. For some reason, Vickie, Robin’s girlfriend, is not in the epilogue either. They also seem to have forgotten about certain supporting characters from previous seasons. Dr. Owens, who was an important ally in previous seasons, is nowhere to be seen in Season 5. Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie is not even mentioned once, Argyle, who went with Jonathan and the others to Hawkins, is just gone, Max’s mum doesn’t appear even once, and they even seem to forget about Dr. Kay for some reason.
It doesn’t help that this season seems more interested in adding new characters, which is insane considering this is the final season. Holly Wheeler, who was an extremely minor character in previous seasons, is suddenly one of the main characters this season. It is difficult to care about or invest in these new characters, and Holly, when we have just been introduced to them and barely know them. It hurts even more because they take up valuable screen time from the original characters we already know and care about. On that note, the performances from the OG cast feel very phoned in. It genuinely feels like they are sick and tired of the roles now, which is understandable considering they’ve been playing them for almost 10 years. This is most noticeable with Millie Bobby Brown, who just doesn’t really deliver in any of the strong moments.
What really brings this season down, though, is the writing. This season feels far too long, with way too much filler and padding. There are so many scenes of characters delivering long exposition dumps, often inserting movie references to explain things, and they do this multiple times throughout the season. A lot of this exposition focuses on the Upside Down. They explain far too much about its origins and how it works, which I found awful, as the Upside Down used to feel like a scary, mysterious place. Now it’s completely ruined by over-explanation and, if anything, just feels lame.
The characters are also arguing constantly just to add meaningless drama and padding. Hopper and Eleven, Joyce and Will, Nancy and Jonathan, Jonathan and Steve, Steve and Dustin, all of them are arguing all the time. Steve is a notable disappointment this season, as he is seemingly reduced to chasing after Nancy again to create a pointless love triangle, while also being on bad terms with Dustin, even though their friendship was a major highlight of previous seasons. Vecna returns as the villain, but he is a huge downgrade this time around. Once a menacing Freddy Krueger–type threat who killed people in gruesome ways, he is now just a character kidnapping kids and being incredibly boring. They try to make him sympathetic, which was a mistake, because it only makes him dull.
Season 3 is notable for having one of the best coming-out scenes with Robin. Season 5 attempts something similar with Will, and it is easily one of the worst coming-out scenes ever. He is, for some reason, coming out to characters who barely even know him. It is meant to be a big emotional moment, but it just feels weird, awkward, and goes on for far too long. Season 5 also begins with a 19-month time skip and seems to completely ignore the blatant cliffhanger of Season 4. Season 4 ended with the Upside Down seemingly invading Hawkins, but by the beginning of Season 5, everything is somehow fine. They are under military quarantine, and none of the citizens even mention the time when the sky and ground were literally changing. Why write a cliffhanger like that and then completely ignore it?
The final season is also filled with stupid moments. Characters constantly make dumb decisions, such as not killing villainous characters when they clearly have the chance. A Demogorgon is somehow immune to bullets but flinches when a main character swings an axe at it, or when a mother stabs it with a broken bottle. A Demodog is sensitive to sound, yet can’t sense a music player simply because it’s being used by a main character, pure plot armour. The final battle is also incredibly lame. For some reason, the big epic boss is easily hurt by Molotovs, spears, and bullets. Yes, Demogorgons are weak to fire, so I can somewhat accept Molotovs, but the final boss is massive, literally the size of a tall building. A small Molotov shouldn’t do much damage, and spears and bullets definitely shouldn’t. It’s also incredibly weird that the final battle includes no Demogorgons, Demodogs, or Demobats. It once again feels like the writers completely forgot about Vecna’s abilities. There are no stakes at all because it’s painfully obvious that the main characters have extreme plot armour.
Overall, this final season was a massive disappointment. It is very clear that the writers never had a fully thought-out plan for how to end the series. All the previous seasons felt incredibly charming, heartfelt, and genuinely scary at times, but this season lacks almost all of that, until the epilogue. It’s not Game of Thrones Season 8 levels of bad, as the epilogue in the final episode is genuinely quite good. However, the rest of the season is a complete mess, and the writers seem unwilling to add real stakes. It’s a shame that a series as wonderful as Stranger Things ended with such a lame final outing that ultimately did not stick the landing.
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