Stranger Things has been a beloved show for a variety of audiences since July 15, 2016 when its first season came out on Netflix. Intriguing audiences with a sci-fi mystery theme with a nostalgic twist as it takes place in the 80’s and has a strong focus on pop culture of that time including the game Dungeons and Dragons (DND).
The Duffer brothers, Matt and Ross, originally came up with the idea of Stranger Things by looking back on their favorite childhood movies like The Goonies and E.T. Whether it was Stephen King, Steven Spielberg or even popular music from the 80’s, the Duffers used their childhood to take inspiration for the show.
Ross Duffer stated, in an interview with Esquire, “[Stranger Things has] allowed us to Peter Pan it a little bit just for 10 years.” continuing with, “We just get lost in this world, which is a reflection of what it felt like growing up.”
The first season follows a group of 12 year old boys; Mike Wheeler played by Finn Wolfhard, Lucas Sinclair played by Caleb McLaughlin, Dustin Henderson played by Gaten Matarazo and Will Byers played by Noah Schnapp in Hawkins Indiana, 1983. When Will mysteriously goes missing while on the way home from playing a game of DND at Mike’s house, during the investigation, Police Chief Jim Hopper played by David Harbor, looking in the case on the urging of Will’s mother Joyce played by Winona Ryder. He discovers that there is a mysterious girl named Eleven (El) played by Millie Bobby brown with telepathic powers running around Hawkins. During the search for Will, the main characters uncover a terrifying truth; under Hawkins is a dark alternate dimension, the Upside Down, which holds dangerous monsters. El closes the gate to the other dimension, rescuing Will. Though the presence of the monsters still linger at the end of season one
Set in 1984, season 2 tells of how Will is now having visions of the Upside Down that are becoming more realistic by the day. While he’s struggling with this, a new girl comes to school with Mike, Will, Lucas and Dustin named Max Mayfield played by Sadie Sink. Will becomes controlled by a monster from the Upside Down that the gang calls the Mindflayer. Will is then used as its spy. The gang fights off Demodogs through tunnels while El escapes Hopper’s cabin to search for answers about her past, eventually returning to close the gate and defeating the Mindflayer.
Season 3 follows the gang over summer break in 1985. The new Starcourt mall in Hawkins has become the local hotspot, as well as a hiding place for a secret Russian base that has opened a gate back into the Upside Down. The open gate allows the Mindflayer to possess the townspeople of Hawkins called the Flayed to create a giant form of itself. Billy, Max’s older brother, ultimately sacrifices himself to kill the Mindflayer while Joyce and Hopper close the Russian gate. During this process, Hopper is killed in an explosion caused by the gate. After El has lost her powers while fighting against the Mindflayer, the Byers and her move out of Hawkins to California.
Season 4, set in 1986 introduces the all-powerful villain Vecna played by Jamie Campbell who controls the Upside Down and is killing kids in Hawkins to create gates to the Upside Down. We eventually learn that he was a worker at Hawkins Lab known as Henry Creel that tried to help El escape but turned out to be evil and killed the other children in the lab. While El tries to get her powers back in California, Joyce and Murry go to Russia to rescue an alive Hopper from a Russian prison who contacted them via a Russian nesting doll. The season ends with a big battle between the gang and Vecna where a character Eddie who is the leader of the schools DND club is killed and Max goes into a coma after battling Vecna. Hawkins and the Upside Down have begun to merge.
The show’s final season was said to release in separate volumes on November 26, December 25 (Christmas Day), with the finale following on December 31. All released at 8 PM ET.
With this being the final season of such a significant show, millions of fans were anticipating the release.
The new season has eight episodes: The Crawl, The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler, The Turnbow Trap, Sorcerer, Shock Jock, Escape From Camazotz, The Bridge and The Rightside Up. Each episode is around an hour, with the final episode being 2 hours long.
Season 5, Volume 1 of Stranger Things jumps ahead about a year and a half after the events from last season and shows the Hawkins gang dealing with the fallout of Vecna tearing open the Upside Down. The town is now under strict military control, and the friends are split up as they try to stop Vecna’s growing power. Will becomes a key focus, forming psychic connections to Vecna and the Demogorgons and beginning to uncover abilities of his own. Meanwhile, Vecna plans to use 12 children as hosts to remake reality, building toward a huge final showdown. El also discovers her “sister” Kali in a secret lab run by Dr. Kay in the Upside Down.
This first volume already captivated audiences. The concept of more episodes to their favorite show had many fans at the edge of their seats as it was revealed that Will himself had powers.
Leaving the fans anticipating the coming of the next episodes that they would have to wait another month for, made the first volume even more special.
The first volume did a great job at introducing what was now going on as well as bringing new plot twists to the story that left the audience shocked and wanting more
Volume 2 of season five is even more revealing of the history of the Upside Down. From the first introduction of Operation Beanstalk, which has the team use a radio tower as a “beanstalk” to reach the Abyss, allowing El to attack Vecna while others infiltrate his lair. Using twelve kidnapped children, including Holly, as vessels, Vecna plans to merge the two worlds as the Upside own is revealed to be a worm hole to a different dimension. This is what allows the gang to reach the other dimension. Dustin reveals the Upside Down is scientific, linked by dangerous exotic matter, Will connects to the hive mind to fight Vecna, but is later used as a spy and needs rescue. Emotional moments unfold—Dustin and Steve bond, Nancy and Jonathan part ways, and Max awakens from her coma—as the looming threat builds toward Vecna’s final move on November 6th, the anniversary of Will’s disappearance.
This volume also included Will’s coming out scene which was very emotionally intense in the best way possible. The issue that most people had with it was that it was to a very large group of people rather than just his closest friends, which I can agree with. Apart from that, the scene truly brought a sense of happiness as Will was embraced with love and acceptance from his friends and family.
Many fans were critiquing the fact that no one of importance died in the second volume as it was expected to happen based off of previous seasons. One fan even stated their frustration on Reddit, “Nobody dies, nobody gets hurt, everyone has infinite plot armor!”
This could come off as strange in the sense of “why would you want one of your favorite characters to die?” However It could have added more emotional challenges for the group that would make their urge to kill Vecna more intense. Other than that, the second volume was amazing cinematically and creative
The final episode of the season, and Stranger Things as a whole, was a high stakes and eventful 2 hour long ending that shocked audiences. The Duffers described it as a movie finale, stating ““The series finale will be over 2 hours long — basically a mini-movie!”
Eleven, with the help of Kali, enters Vecna’s mind to fight him mentally while the rest of the gang attacks a physical form of the gigantic MindFlayer in the other dimension. Joyce uses an axe to deliver the final blow to Vecna, decapitating him and killing him. The gang leaves the Upside Down, leaving a bomb that will explode and destroy the Upside Down. However, when they try to leave, the military stops them in hopes to kill/capture El leading her to sacrifice herself and stay in the Upside Down as it gets destroyed. The rift between the worlds closes, and we see a time jump to eighteen months later where the original gang (Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max) are graduating. We see them play a final game of DND, where Mike tells a hopeful story of how Eleven is alive and escaped. The final scene cuts to Holly and her friends continuing the tradition by playing DND.
The ending was heartwrenching and happy at the same time by leaving the audience to decide for themselves what actually happened to El.
While the final season faced many critiques the overall ending was a wonderful closure for the show and left many fans with tears in their eyes. Whether it was the music choice or the original cast putting their DND books on the shelf for the last time, the Duffers definitely know how to pull on the fans’ heart strings.
The Duffers choice of music for the final season and even previous seasons has always been a fan favorite part of the show. The final episode using Landslide by Fleetwood Mac when the kids are graduating to further emphasize the idea of growing up was truly heart wrenching
The final season was a solid 8.5 out of 10 in my opinion. It still had a few problems but now that the most popular English language Netflix series of all time is over, the world will definitely miss waiting to watch the new episodes.
