Stranger Things

Type: TV Show

Score: 8/10

Date modified: Jan 5, 2026

This is the fourth time I'm writing about Stranger Things here, and since after almost a decade of following this show it has finally wrapped up, I think it's about time I formulate my thoughts a little more clearly.

I've seen a lot of recent discourse around this show, and a lot of it is talking about how it has gone fully off the rails in season five. While I'm not going to say that's entirely untrue, it's really not thaaat bad, guys. To be honest, I even preferred it over season two because while it's not great, it's at least memorable. When this show first came out, it felt so fresh. To be fair, I was like ten when I saw the first season, so just about everything was fresh; however, even now I still think it holds up. It had a great premise that was easy to follow but still had a mysterious air to it that built upon. This is something only possible to be done so well with the great foundation they had set up of a very likeable main cast of kid actors and a great supporting cast of older teens, even if most of them have changed pretty significantly since the first season. The show even gave me 80s nostalgia, and I was born two decades after the 80s. I also quite enjoyed the way the show used horror; the entire starting sequence and Nancy's first time in the Upside Down are absolutely unforgettable. The smaller scope this season had helped the story feel compact; the characters felt believable, and had it ended here, it'd probably have been one of the best shows ever made. However, Netflix execs must've had big dollar signs in their eyes when they found out how many people watched it and gave the Duffer Brothers as much money as they needed to keep this going. Usually that's a bad idea, but I'm actually happy that was the case because that led to my beloved season three coming into existence.

After season one, you could definitely feel that Stranger Things knew just how popular it was. The budget was higher, and that meant no more shoddy green screening or needing to hide demogorgons in darkness. On top of that, they seemed to understand the pull they had and that they could write longer-running stories spanning between seasons. However, there were some growing pains that came with Stranger Things's growth. The creators seemed to get a little overzealous in expanding the world and caused much of the second season to feel disjointed. The infamous “The Lost Sister” episode comes to mind, but this problem was apparent throughout the entire season. Compared to the carefully crafted first season, they seemed a lot more heavy-handed in revealing new settings, which really damaged the small-town vibe they were trying to build up to this point. Despite this, season two made some pretty brilliant choices, especially near the end, like the escaping of the Hawkins lab sequence. The tension of watching a relatively disposable but likeable character like Bob navigate the really sick overrun lab was so incredible and a high for the show. I'm still pissed off at how Bob died, though. How did he not think they could break through doors?

The upward trajectory near the end of season two only continued into my favourite season of the series, season three. It introduces my favourite character, Robin, pushes that cunt Mike to the side and reins in the show's scope, which really helped make the story feel focused. This choice also helped with pacing, which was actually good this time, unlike season two, where they made the brave choice to add a random throwaway arc of Eleven going goth. It felt like season three embraced some of the more over-the-top, colourful aspects of some 80s media, and while it certainly made it less believable of a show, Steve got to yell at a young girl about dying in a Russian elevator because she wants to drink bright green goop, so it was probably worth it. The flesh Mindflayer was sick as hell; the hospital fight was too, as well as the mirror maze fight. They even made Billy slightly likeable (though it did weird me out how people forgave him online instantly). Like, this guy is a racist who tried to hit a group of kids with a car. Chill out a little. My only actual issues are that Will, who has been a pretty central character until this point, is put on the sidelines and that the two plots feel too disconnected. I'd also have loved if there was less of knockoff Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Season four was when I felt like the show began buckling under its ever-growing weight. It wasn't a terrible season; I liked how they gave Lucas a larger role; I liked Argyle and Jonathan's slapstick much of the time. There were a couple sweet scenes between Jonathan and Will, which really let Noah Schnapp show off his acting chops despite Will being sidelined for most of this season. Vecna is a great villain too, even if he didn't look so menacing if you could see his torso. Unfortunately, this show's pattern of adding a loveable character just to kill them made me instantly peg Eddie as dying, so I could never get emotionally invested in him like I did with Alexei and Bob, despite him having way more screen time than them. His death was pretty stupid too. He really had no reason to kill himself there, and he didn't even really help anyone by doing that. I appreciate Steve commenting on it in season five though, but that just improved Steve's character, not Eddie's. I guess it could've been Eddie realising he'll just live the rest of his life on the run even if he made it out, but I still didn't love it. It felt cheap. This season also, bizarrely, had a road trip. It didn't help that I still didn't like Mike this season, and the Russians are getting pretty tiring by this point. It did like Yuri though. The scene at Susie's house was a super jarring choice too because it fully just felt like a different show. I'm not sure what vibe they were trying to go with, but it can't have been that.

The last season of Stranger Things was, to be honest, pretty weak, but that doesn't mean it was bad. I'll talk about the good at the end, but first I'm going to rattle off some of my scattered thoughts on what I didn't like. Everyone this season talks like they're in a movie trailer and spend too much time explaining things to the audience. I'd have preferred if they'd just let some things speak for themselves. Let my mind and the insane visuals do the heavy lifting. I'd also have preferred to have never found out what was in the scientist's briefcase that gave Vecna his magic. It didn't help that despite this season being long as hell, they also somehow still don't have enough time in each episode and cut conversations unnaturally, like some sort of YouTube Short. Maybe if they'd killed off a few more characters earlier, they wouldn't have this issue. Characters like Murray and Robin got kind of flanderised, and to be honest, Murray should've disappeared after season three, as his story with Alexei felt like a natural conclusion for his character. They've just kept him in to say random silly lines, and Robin doesn't have half the charm she's had until this point this season. I could've done without ever seeing Eleven's sister again too, as well as Hopper, who should've died in season three, and Mr Clark, who only seemed to return for fan service. They could've also pretty easily killed Mike's parents as well, and honestly, it'd have made more sense because what are the odds you survive a demogorgon attack, but I guess they might've wanted to avoid piling on Mike further. They probably shouldn't have shown his parents getting attacked by the demogorgons at all because this season the demogorgons are in a weird state of being both weak and strong. When they're up against normal people, they're actual monsters, but if it's a main character, all bets are off. Why could Mike's mum stand up to a demogorgon? Why did the demodogs attack soldiers but not Robin and Vicky? Why did the demogorgons wait long enough for Will to use his powers to attack? We'll never know, I guess. The CGI did not help the situation either. How did the demogorgons somehow look worse despite a budget of half a billion dollars? These fuckers looked like Play-Doh during the first couple of episodes. The CGI for the white sludge liquid Nancy and Jonathan almost drowned in was pretty bad too; it looked like some shitty Blender liquid preset. At least the Vecna CGI was an improvement; the flesh monster looked sick too. Story-wise, I thought it was also an odd choice to overcomplicate the Upside Down further. I was pretty fine with Henry just being able to do magic; I didn't need an explanation. There was also good in this season though. I appreciated that they gave Will a more active role, especially because, again, Noah Schnapp is a really great actor even if they kind of dragged the whole him coming out and picked the worst time for it. I also really liked the conflict between Steve and Dustin; it felt pretty natural considering how they were kind of just going through the motions last season, and the performances of Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery really sell their scenes together. I really hope to see them in more stuff after Stranger Things. The same goes for Nancy and Jonathan; that scene when they thought they were about to like drown in white goop was genuinely pretty emotional, and their breakup felt really natural and was the best possible way to wrap up their story. I think it'd have been completely against Nancy's character for them to stay together at that point after the events of seasons three and four. Jamie Campbell Bower also continues to do great both as Vecna and Mr Whatsit, with one of the best performances of this entire show. The actors playing Holly and Derek do a great job, especially considering their actors' ages, and Derek steals the show every time he's on scene. Stranger Things felt like it wrapped itself up pretty well too, and Eleven dying to Purple Rain was unexpected but a great choice. I'm pretty sure she's actually dead, and Mike's story was just wishful thinking. If she's really alive, that'd be an awful choice and completely undercut the ending, so I hope they don't prove me wrong with some spinoff. The way the show ended with a new group of kids playing DND in Mike's basement was pretty sweet. They even played the (proper) Heroes for the final credits, which was fire.