The series finale of Stranger Things came to an explosive conclusion on Dec. 31. The 8-episode final season dropped in three batches: the first on Thanksgiving, the next on Christmas, and the finale on New Year’s Eve. This review includes spoilers from the show’s final season.
Before we dive into the Upside Down, let’s look back at when this show first aired. It was the summer of 2016, right before the election that threw our societal framework into radical disarray. I was fresh out of college, the same age as the actors portraying the “older kids” (Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan) on this new Netflix show called Stranger Things – a story about a group of weirdos searching for a missing boy in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. It was – both on screen and off screen – a simpler time.
Ultimately, this is a show about nostalgia and it’s easy to fondly reminisce on the good old days of season one while watching season five. I wanted to love this season and I tried, largely due to the way it made me feel when I first watched the show ten years ago. Unfortunately, nostalgia alone wasn’t enough to make up for a clunky script, fan service-y dialogue and a few underwhelming performances. Even Will Byers’s (Noah Schnapp) coming out moment, while a nice touch in theory, felt cheesy and forced.
Though it’s not all bad – the special effects are truly cinematic, particularly in the final battle scene, where no expense is spared from a production standpoint. Jamie Campbell Bower’s performance as Vecna / Henry Creel is also a bright spot. His physicality in each form is both menacing and heartbreaking. And his ending is fittingly delivered by Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) – a well-deserved and bad ass axe slashing by the mother who would go to any lengths to keep children safe. As a former Minneapolis resident, I’ll also give the show kudos for including not one but two Prince songs.
Overall, the final season of Stranger Things was the weakest of its five seasons – it was cringey and even evoked a few eye-rolls out of me. Dedicated fans of the show will still enjoy the story’s conclusion, particularly the heartwarming final scene in the Wheeler basement, where we wrap up everyone’s story with a bow. If you’ve been a fan from the beginning like me, it’s worth the watch, but don’t set your expectations too high for the final trip back to Hawkins.
