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15 Thoughts on the Final Season of Stranger Things
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Stranger Things concluded this week with a two-hour finale that seems to be getting more good reviews than bad reviews. You’ll find both out there, but it’s not getting overwhelming love or overwhelming hate ala Game of Thrones or Dexter.
Here are 15 thoughts on season five, and the series as a whole.
(spoilers, obviously) –
1) I found myself fast forwarding through most of the dialogue scenes and fell asleep halfway through episode three. Some of these interactions were too long, others uninteresting. I think with three years separating seasons four and five, you lose some connection with the characters because it’s been so damn long since you last watched an episode. You need to first refresh yourself on everything that happened going all the way back to 2016 before you can settle in and focus on what comes next.
2) For that reason, I wasn’t watching season 5 because I was excited to watch it; it felt like more of an obligation to complete the series. It’s like you’ve invested all of these binge hours into the show and you feel like it’s your duty to see it out to the end.
3) The final battle was entertaining enough. Not entirely believable, but this is a fictional show about an alternate dimension, and the main reason we watched was to see Eleven do telekinetic battle with nasty-ass monsters. You want to see her put on a mean face and fling some demogorgons around. At the same time, Nancy was giving off big Ripley vibes from Alien with a little bit of Rambo mixed in. And Will learning how to tap into the hivemind and going nuts a couple of times was cool. You see his eyes roll into the back of his head and you know something gnarly is about to happen.
4) What was the point of Dr. Kay? That storyline just sort of fizzled out. If you’re going to cast Sarah Connor from Terminator, you should use her.
5) They could have removed the ambiguity of the final Eleven scenes. Did she survive or did she not survive? Sometimes we don’t want to decide for ourselves, we just want you to tell us, to wrap it up and put a bow on it.
6) This is consistent with the show never killing off any major characters. They wind up surviving as a big, happy family, but it does lower the overall stakes because nothing bad ever happens to anyone meaningful.
7) Will coming out as gay was clunky. Necessary or not, that scene could have been executed a lot better, or written into an earlier season. It was like he was holding a press conference or something.
8) Case in point: Robin’s coming out scene in season 3 was well done and generally well-received by fans. The Will scene was review bombed.
9) Brett Gelman’s character was low key one of the better ones in season 5. Murray had a really nice combination of wit and sarcasm and his interactions with Hopper stood out in particular. The rooftop improvised grenade scene was tight.
10) Sam thing with Priah Ferguson’s character. Every time Erica was on screen I found myself laughing. Something about the snappy delivery of her lines.
11) I’d watch a Dipshit Derek spinoff. And Nell Fisher did a great job playing Holly Wheeler. Honestly, all of the kids who were involved in the Henry scenes knocked it out of the park, and so did Jamie Campbell Bower. He was especially good in the finale scenes going down the mine shaft or whatever that was, with the guy holding the briefcase.
12) So… Vecna’s entire motive was that he was possessed and compelled by the mind flayer? That felt a little underwhelming. Flesh that out more in season 4? Next time.
13) Dumb scene with the demodogs in the hospital laundry room. They’re literally a foot away from the kids, then Mrs. Wheeler sneaks in with an oxygen tank and puts it in the dryer and blows them up? Come on, man!
14) Would have loved to hear Brett Brown pronounce “Vecna” in that thick New England accent.
15) It was cool to see Dungeons and Dragons get some renewed love as a result of this series going big. There’s so much lore in that world that has carried through the last three decades, thanks to video games like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, but to play a role in a smash Netflix hit is a nice combination of Gen X nostalgia and Gen Z pop culture renewal. The kids seem to appreciate D&D in 2025, which was not expected.
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Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com