By JJ Ledewitz, Senior Arts and Culture Editor
This article may contain spoilers for “Stranger Things” Season 5. I’ll try to avoid it, but who knows? Stranger things have happened.
After five seasons and 10 years, Netflix’s biggest show is over. And honestly? It’s about time. The series premiered back in 2016, becoming a viral hit within a matter of months. Every few years since, another season has come out, introducing new layers to the story — whether it be characters or lore — while its group of diehard fans grow bigger and bigger. Every season led to another month of discussion, spoilers and memes. In this way, Stranger Things is something that will never be replicated. But now that it’s over, it’s clear that the series had its issues. And the final season, the long-awaited culmination of it all, let down both casual and loyal fans in almost every way it could, leaving a stain on the entire series.
The various plotlines of the final season are pretty hit or miss. The primary storyline centers around the vanishing of Mike Wheeler’s younger sister Holly, and the discovery of Vecna’s final plan (which are not quite spoilers because they happen pretty early on in the season). It is an interesting way to tie everything back to the beginning, drawing parallels to the vanishing of Will Byers in season one, and showing that although the characters have grown out of the roles they served back then, the issues they confront will still haunt the next generation. Nevertheless, the focus on Holly is generally uncompelling. Holly was always a minor character, and the audience never developed the sufficient attachment to her that would justify her newfound abundance of screen time.
Another weak element of the last season is the role that Joyce, Will Byers’ mother, plays — or rather, doesn’t play. Season five is the first season where Joyce truly has nothing to do. It really is a shame, because ever since Winona Ryder’s fantastic performance in the first season, Joyce has been cemented as one of the best and most courageous characters in the show. While she does have some deep conversations with Will, she doesn’t get a fleshed-out season-long arc like the rest of the main cast. Thankfully, Will comes out of the shadows this season and finally takes center stage, something he seemingly hasn’t done since season two. Will’s connection to Vecna proves to be powerful, and the show takes it in an interesting direction — a direction that is sometimes ambiguous and seems to change a lot, especially in the finale. The suspense of this plot line keeps building until the end, when the show almost completely sidelines it and the consequences of its existence.
Eleven and Mike are a great pairing in the show, which makes it all the more baffling that the Duffer Brothers decided to split the two of them for the majority of the season. Still, Eleven does get to spend time with Hopper, which leads to some pretty emotional moments. Lucas and Max are still going strong — or as strong as they can manage, considering Max was put into a coma at the end of season four. Max and Lucas’s relationship fully outshines Eleven and Mike this season, resulting in a lot of tears and a lot of Kate Bush.
Steve and Dustin now hate each other. Dustin is depressed and rebellious after Eddie’s passing, while Steve has a strange reaction to it, a reaction that makes it clear that the Duffer Brothers clearly just wanted them to “break up” and then “get back together” for the hell of it. Eddie’s death was bound to destroy Dustin, but the way it affects him this season is seemingly only used as a gratuitous plot device. Jonathan and Nancy finally get a chance to clarify their relationship. The Duffers let this happen in a cathartic scene that invites some of the best acting in all of Stranger Things from Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer — only for the scene to end in a way totally antithetical to the entire conversation that has just been had. Both actors try their hardest and, perhaps accidentally, make the viewer think the complete opposite of what the script is trying to communicate. It’s pretty strange.
The standout performance of the season is Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna. He is back with a vengeance and even more menacing than he was in season four. Not only is he scary, but he’s surprisingly good at pretending to be a good guy around children. He is truly a monster inside and out — and he gets some of the coolest scenes in the entire series.
I say all of this to bring your attention to the fact that the cast is big. I didn’t even mention Robin, Erica, Murray, Karen Wheeler, Mr. Clarke, Vickie and the new characters Dr. Kay and Derek Turnbow. There are way too many characters in this show, and it seems to be for one big reason: Stranger Things doesn’t know how to get rid of characters. Yes, it has killed off characters before, but it ultimately plays it safe when it comes to the main cast. This makes the show feel all the more artificial.
There are, of course, some genuinely great aspects of this season. The visual effects are incredibly impressive. Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, directed two episodes of season five, and he goes all out. Episode three and episode five are two of the best in the season. Nevertheless, the conclusion of the series is where it is clear that Stranger Things truly failed its own premise: a small group of kids and adults investigating a strange sci-fi mystery in their tiny town. The scale of the show widened with the cast, turning it from something truly unique into something more akin to a Marvel movie.
Thankfully, by the end of its final episode, it sends the characters off in their own directions — to college, work or marriage — which is done in a truly emotional fashion. One fan-favorite character, however, has their future — and their fate — left ambiguous, leaving it up to the viewer to interpret what exactly happened to them. This is the biggest mistake the series could have made, as the ending of a show like this works when the now grown-up kids moving onto real life, totally separate from their D&D games — a life full of answers, a life full of life and death. Ambiguity is something left in stories; life includes the hard truth more than D&D does. The ambiguous nature of this character’s fate goes against what the Duffers set out to do with Stranger Things. This misstep sours the impact of the entire finale.
I believe that Stranger Things is a very solid show. Still, the entire final season rubbed me the wrong way due to the weird character choices, subplots that go nowhere and a bloated cast that even grows for some reason. But while certain decisions by the Duffers may have estranged me from the final season, I will say that the show will still be remembered for what it did well, not what it didn’t.
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