‘Stranger Things’ recap ahead of season 5
Catch up on “Stranger Things” before season 5 with key plot twists and epic showdown details
For the ultimate “Stranger Things” fans, maybe this is enough.
Maybe, after four seasons and nine years, it is plenty satisfying to just see all the (remarkably aged) characters from Netflix’s hit horror series on one last bicycle ride, logic and storytelling be damned. Maybe the appeal has always just been flash, bangs and very moist monsters.
Because what the fifth and final season of “Stranger” (Volume 1 now streaming, subsequent episodes streaming Dec. 25 and Dec. 31, ★★½ out of four) has going for it is in its spirit: it certainly feels like the “Stranger” we’ve come to know and love over nearly a decade. But it is a distinctly imperfect final bow; the season seesaws between thrilling and annoying, from emotionally satisfying to logically baffling.
But it’s unlikely that most viewers will be bothered by the nitpicky details that come up short. “Stranger” has always been a contradiction of good vibes and exciting set pieces mixed with ambitious failures and listless filler. Its final season, of which critics have been able to watch the four-episode first “volume” so far, is more thrilling than it is stilling, and will likely satisfy its most ardent fans. Could it have been better, sharper, more narratively focused and judicious with its plot twists and deus ex machina magical solutions? Absolutely. Do the emotions feel right even as rationality flies out the metaphorical window? Most of the time.
The biggest enemy of “Stranger” in its final season is not villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), but time itself. It’s been three years since the fourth season, and while the first few episodes try to artfully fill the audience in on what’s been going on in the not-so-idyllic town of Hawkins, Indiana, it initially feels like watching through a haze. Paired with the jumpscare-worthy amount of aging the young cast has experienced, it takes a bit of time to get back into the swing of things as a viewer. (The series claims only four years have passed in the story timeline, but the “kids” are now full grown adults, some of them married, and they often resemble Steve Buscemi trying to sneak into high school.)
But when you adjust to it all, you’ll find everyone is in a holding pattern in the military-controlled town, all torn up after Vecna’s Season 4 attacks. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) are all just going to school. Eleven (Mille Bobby Brown) is training for her eventual final battle with Vecna. The older “kids” − including Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) − are running a radio station, because why not. Lovebirds Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) are waiting for things to get worse for their endangered children. Max (Sadie Sink) is still in a Vecna-induced coma.
Things start to go wrong almost immediately, with help from a new kid for the cast, Mike and Nancy’s little sister Holly (Nell Fisher), and a couple of old fashioned “Demogorgon” attacks. Our scrambling heroes are not aided by their antagonistic new military overlords, led by Linda Hamilton as this season’s requisite 80s superstar in the cast.
There are moments in the four episodes that feel quintessentially “Stranger,” including a sequence in Episode 3 where the gang sets up a trap for a demogorgon with barbed wire, lighter fluid balloons and a chainsaw. It’s all very akin to the Christmas lights on the walls and the baseball bat studded with nails that became such iconic images from Season 1. Little Holly Wheeler is a fun new addition, even if it’s extremely unclear how old she is supposed to be (wasn’t she a toddler just last season?). The fight scenes remain action-packed and heart-palpitating. The big bro/little bro relationship between Dustin and Steve is still the series’ heart, and its most believably complex.
But there are deep cracks in the series as well as the ground of Hawkins. The vitality of the characters has been quashed; the cast has become so large and unwieldy that the sparkle of individual personalities has been flattened for the sake of narrative expediency. The teen romantic chemistry, once the crux of the series back in Seasons 3 and 4, has extinguished. A scene between Mike and Eleven, meant to be lovey and sweet, reads as two aliens trying to feign emotion. The world building of Hawkins under martial law makes little sense. Kids are snatched from their homes by military police, but Steve and Dustin drive a rigged-up BMW through people’s yards in the middle of the night and no one notices. Vecna attacks with a pace that is exceedingly convenient for our heroes to beat back.
But if you love the show enough, you’ll be able to get over these flaws. They are, admittedly, much smaller problems than you might find in more infamously disastrous final seasons of popular series (yes, I’m talking about “Game of Thrones”). There are still more than five hours of story left in the season where the Duffer brothers could fumble, or really flourish, before the finish line. But if the first four episodes are any indication, “Stranger” will be just good enough. You’ll laugh, you’ll cheer, you’ll gasp. Maybe you’ll even cry.
But I think it’s unfair to reduce this juggernaut of a TV show − which has led to untold amounts of merchandising, live “experiences,” a Broadway show plus board and video games; inspired a generation of new Dungeons & Dragons players; brought Kate Bush to the top of the charts four decades later; and launched a bunch of little rascals into A-list Hollywood careers − to less than the sum of its aesthetic parts. When the story, characterizations, music, and yes, all those red-and-black CGI effects, worked together in harmony, the series could make fantastic, stunning television. When we watched Max Mayfield run up that hill, it was breathtaking. When the demogorgons attacked, our hearts pounded. When Eleven saved the day, we felt saved.
There are still a few chances left for “Stranger Things” to take our breath away. I want us all to expect that kind of greatness from a show as expensive, influential and far-reaching as this one.
Good enough shouldn’t be enough.