We’re finally here. Almost a decade after the first season premiered – and we were introduced to the world of Hawkins – the Duffer Brothers are finally bringing the curtain down on their blockbuster hit show.
What a ride it’s been. The kids, first introduced as fresh-faced little 12 year olds, aren’t so little anymore. They’re all grown up, which is appropriate, because this feels like the most adult the show has ever been.
Whereas the earlier seasons took inspiration from a generation of 80s high school films, this one (the first batch of episodes, at least; with the rest dropping on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, respectively) veers off into much darker territory. It’s the end game: one in which Hawkins has been sealed off from the outside world by the US military, Demogorgons are slashing people around like pinatas and blood and guts are flying around like so much confetti (one scene towards the end featured possibly the most gruesome surprise death I have ever watched. Be warned).
For those who remember, season four ended on a cliffhanger. Fresh from almost killing Max (Sadie Sink), Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) had torn open a rift between Hawkins and the Upside Down.
Cue some pretty apocalyptic looking end-of-days scenes, but a few months later and things seem pretty normal. Yes, Hawkins is basically in quarantine, but the rift has been patched up with metal sheeting and people are getting on with their lives.
Or not quite. Mike, Will, Dustin and Lucas are back in high school, but they spend their evenings conducting elaborate ‘sweeps’ of the Upside Down, hunting for Vecna. Robin, Steve, Jonathan and Nancy have somehow wound up running a radio station, while El (Millie Bobby Brown) is in hiding from the US military, who (understandably) see her as a massive threat.
Those are already some pretty explosive ingredients, but in addition to that, kids around Hawkins have started going missing. Does Vecna have something to do with it? What do you think.
Soon enough, we’re flipping between the Upside Down, present-day Hawkins and a mysterious other dimension as the plot races towards the finish.
At this point, the number of characters in play is huge. The central cast alone comprises around eleven people, which makes it hard to give each of them their moment to shine – but the script juggles this pretty nimbly, mostly by pairing them up in new ways.
Thus we get the amusing, chest-beating scenes where Jonathan and Steve attempt to outdo each other for Nancy’s attention (honestly, Nancy should ditch them both), and some very sweet mother-and-son bonding time between Will and Joyce. Winona Ryder doesn’t have much to do for most of the show beyond look scared, but she’s especially good in these snatched moments, where Joyce is trying to wrestle with the fact that her baby boy is all grown up now.
Perhaps my favourite, though, is Will’s time with Maya Hawke’s fast-talking Robin, where she essentially takes him under her wing like a sort of gay mentor. Will’s sexuality has only been addressed slant-wise up until now, so it’s refreshing to see it getting some proper screen time here.
Given how sprawling the story is at this point, the Duffers do a pretty admirable job of keeping things on the road.
Yes, there are quite a few plot holes – a particularly gaping one surfaces in episode three when the gang drug and kidnap an entire family just to keep them ‘safe’ from Vecna – but it’s easy to overlook them when the action is so propulsive, and so cartoonishly enjoyable. Plus, there is genuine menace here, especially in earlier episodes, which boast some classic horror jump scares and manage to make the monsters feel the most threatening they’ve ever been.
At this point, we’ve spent years with the cast, but it’s still exciting to see them evolve in new ways, and none more so than Schnapp’s Will. Written off for pretty much the show’s entire runtime as a liability, he finally gets his moment to shine here, via a jaw-dropping plot twist that had me squealing at my TV screen.
It’s classic 80s adventure fare, in the best way: kids outsmarting adults, lashings of humour and a surprising amount of heart. I gulped it down – more please.
Stranger Things Season 5 Vol 1 is streaming now on Netflix; Vol 2 will follow on Boxing Day
