It’s been a decade stranger things The event began, and the Duffer brothers had plenty of time to prepare a strong ending to their breakout hit series. But the beginning of the show’s fifth and final season feels like a frantic race to the end.
Whereas stranger things While this wasn’t Netflix’s first breakout hit, it propelled the streamer to a new level of pop cultural prominence by telling a wildly captivating story that got everyone talking. 80s mod nostalgia never really went away, but stranger things A new wave of shows and movies began that made it feel like other studios were doing everything in their power to recreate the Duffer Brothers’ success. stranger things It was a groundbreaking event that didn’t show many signs of losing enthusiasm during its first few seasons.
However, by Season 4, new episodes of the show were being released at a very slow pace due to production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. while big stranger things The franchise was growing with plans for a stage show and an animated spinoff, after even more delays due to a 2023 writers’ strike, it seemed like Netflix might have a hard time getting everyone excited about returning to Hawkins for the final season of the core series.
in the first four episodes of stranger things 5You can feel that the Duffer Brothers were trying to address past production issues that were beyond their control, while also exploring narrative ideas they had hatched long before the series began airing. Although this season picks up right where the last one left off, it’s packed with details that emphasize how much time has passed in the real world since we last saw these characters.
The young actor looks and feels older in many ways, which can’t really be attributed to sudden growth. And the characters have a tendency to talk cheekily to each other as if they know that people who need to refresh their memories are watching them. those elements of stranger things 5 Call for suspension of disbelief which seems reasonable given all the outside factors that kept this season from getting off to a more rapid start.
Although much has changed about Hawkins in the months since it was almost completely torn down by the Upside Down, most people are still able to go about their everyday lives. Everyone remembers how the interdimensional energy that shook the Earth completely opened up the roads. But they try not to think about what has happened now, because the damage has been mostly covered up by huge sheets of metal.
Apart from mandatory medical checks and military-enforced quarantines that prevent citizens from leaving the city, things seem relatively normal to those unfamiliar with Vecna.
(Jamie Campbell Bower) and his many Demogorgons. But for Eleven/Jane (Millie Bobby Brown), Hopper (David Harbour) and the rest of their crew, the unnatural peace is a sign of how much more dangerous things are about to get.
To remind you how this winding story began and what kind of monsters it focuses on stranger things‘ The heroes face off, with the new season spending more time with Will Byers (Noah Schnapp). Will insists on playing a bigger role in the teenagers’ plan to take their fight to Vecna in the present, but the show also goes into the past to find out what happened to the boy when he was dragged into the Upside Down in the first season. As disturbing (in a good way) and impressive as many of this season’s supernatural sets and VFX are, the Will-centric flashbacks featuring a new child actor with Schnapp’s aged face undermine some of the show’s imagination. Similar to previous experiments in de-aging the show’s rapidly aging stars, the effect doesn’t quite work on a visual level. But it makes you realize that the Duffers really want to make this season feel like it’s bringing some of the characters’ stories full circle.
You can feel the same desire at work, when the show shows a missing child poster of a young Eleven, before revealing that she’s actually hiding in the woods with Hopper and training to use her powers in battle. Hop – who was originally introduced as an alcoholic in Season 1 – learns that his adopted daughter is no longer a little girl. Both he and Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) understand that Eleven may be their only hope of defeating Vecna once and for all, but they find it difficult to accept her willingness to risk their lives.
stranger things It’s always had a big cast of main characters and done a (mostly) solid job of weaving its plot together in ways that felt natural. But because this season is so focused on giving Everyone In the last hurray, the show soon starts to feel a little too busy for its own good.
The season bounces between Hopper family drama, school troubles for the other remaining members of the Hellfire Club (Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Priah Ferguson), and a fraught love triangle between some older teens. Events like the growing friendship between Will and Robin (Maya Hawke) have to move forward relatively quickly because the show only has so much time. And things get even busier stranger things 5 Gives new prominence to Mike’s younger sister Holly (Nell Fisher) and her foul-mouthed classmate Derek (Jake Connelly).
Whereas stranger things 5 While it attempts to further empower some of its players, it often feels like the show is predicated on the assumption that you still know these characters and love them so much that simply watching their storylines unfold is enough to create a satisfying story. However, after so much time spent in the pipeline, what stranger things The need to actually stick the landing is a final chapter that works as its own compelling narrative. The show might be able to do that in its final four episodes if it slowed down and really leaned into the kind of emotional drama that built it stranger things Such a knockout in his first season. But this season is already half overstranger things 5 Going to finish his work for this.
stranger things 5 It also stars Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Brett Gelman, Cara Buono, Amybeth McNulty and Linda Hamilton. The first four episodes are streaming now, with the next three beginning on December 25 and the final premiering on December 31.
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