Extreme spoiler warning for “Stranger Things” Season 5 Volume 2
The first season of “Stranger Things” is some of the best television I’ve ever watched. Told through the lens of an America tense with Cold War animosity, the story navigates the grief of a mother, a child abused by systems of power and the fear of the unknown. Using the medium of horror to underscore its messages of friendship, love and overcoming trauma, the premiere season of “Stranger Things” solidified itself as a masterclass in how to leverage genre for emotional themes.
The Upside Down is a terrifying place, symbolizing both government failure and the terror of the uncanny or not-quite familiar. Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown, “Enola Holmes”) existence as an experiment meant to spy on the Soviet Union, visualized with a numbered tattoo on her tiny 11-year-old wrist, is a painful reminder of the consequences of a government run on paranoia, willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead of the enemy. Despite its sci-fi themes, Season 1 manages to feel grounded, meticulous and, above all, deeply engaging.
By the end of Season 5, it’s revealed that Eleven’s initial discovery of the Upside Down wasn’t an unintended consequence of the government tampering with forces beyond their comprehension, but instead the direct reason for her existence. Since the beginning, Eleven’s powers were actually the product of transfusing her with Vecna’s (Jamie Campbell Bower, “Witchboard”) blood in order to reach Dimension X, the true residence of the Mind Flayer. In fact, the Upside Down was never just an eldritch parallel world to ours but a wormhole leading to Dimension X. And, of course, Season 5 reveals how Henry Creel’s powers were gained by touching a magical stone which gave him a telepathic link with the Mind Flayer, sparking the government’s interest in interdimensional powers.
So how on earth did we get here?
“Stranger Things” Season 5 feels like the final nail in the coffin for Season 1’s reputation. Gone are the days when the audience can expect a solid narrative, plot-relevant characters and reasonable stakes; now, fans are served hot garbage on a platter and expected not to notice the difference.
From incessantly using cheap metaphors to explain simple concepts, to creating a nauseatingly bloated ensemble cast, to character assassinations that ruin their pre-established arcs, the finale of “Stranger Things” was doomed from its conception to be a stain on the otherwise beloved Netflix original.
Season 5 isn’t just a narrative disappointment with a ridiculously long runtime; it fails to deliver on nearly every level. One of the season’s cardinal sins is its amnesia towards its genre: This season of “Stranger Things” forgot to be properly scary.
The season repeatedly threatens the audience with major character deaths, but almost never has the balls to commit. Too many times do show creators Matt and Ross Duffer use their characters as blackmail to keep audiences watching. And yet they are perpetually unable to kill off a fan-favorite lest it deter viewers from caring enough to finish the series. After the fifth time a character is seen in the clutches of peril, the gimmick grows stale.
The finale — more than two hours long — wraps up the series with a neat bow, horror genre be damned. Joyce (Winona Ryder, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”) and Hopper (David Harbour, “Hellboy”) get married, every teen graduates and even the only main character to die is speculated to have survived with their own happy ending. You almost forget you’re watching a show about child-eating monsters from another dimension.
This isn’t to say Season 5 was all groans and headaches; there were a few standout moments that deserve their applause. Gaten Matarazzo (“Honor Society”) as Dustin absolutely nailed every character beat, making me nearly shed a tear during the scene when he grabs Steve (Joe Keery, “Free Guy”) and begs him not to play the hero. Nancy (Natalia Dyer, “Yes, God, Yes”) and Jonathan’s (Charlie Heaton, “As You Are”) near-death confessions were also a phenomenal moment that left me gaping at the authenticity of their performances.
However, it would be foolish to believe impressive acting and emotional character beats could save Volume 2. There is no saving this mess.
Truth be told, the failure of Season 5 was a long time coming. Since Season 2, it was clear the Duffer brothers had no solid plan for building up a cohesive, series-wide narrative for their show. From introducing Demo Dogs, to the Mind Flayer, to Eight (Linnea Berthelsen, “Devs”), to Henry Creel aka Vecna, the show has consistently attempted to raise the stakes with no regard to an overarching plot.
The messy retroactive interconnection of season-wide storylines was made strikingly clear in the first episode of the new season, when the show retroactively changed its initial inciting incident: Will (Noah Schnapp, “The Peanuts Movie”) was not just kidnapped to the Upside Down by an unthinking Demogorgon, but by a methodical Vecna whose plan was to use children as the key to an interplanetary takeover. And we’re supposed to believe this was clearly laid out since the beginning. Unfortunately for the Duffers, no amount of retconning can save the hole they’ve dug themselves into.
“Stranger Things” will always be remembered as one of the greatest sci-fi thrillers of our generation. While its first season was the strongest in content and stakes, the next three were earnest attempts to continue in the footsteps of the original story. I will look back on Season 1 fondly and with high regard. It’s a tragedy that Season 5 threatens to burn that legacy to the ground.
TV Beat Editor Ana Torresarpi can be reached at atoressa@umich.edu.
