Synopsis
In 1980s Indiana, a group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, the children unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries.
Stranger Things
When I originally watched, it was new, and it was exploding into the phenomenon it would become all around us. Retro fashion, toys, terms, and even foods got the Stranger Things treatment. I certainly wasn’t immune either. This was back when everyone was posting and saying “friends don’t lie,” and it wasn’t considered corny or meant as a joke. This show really took off and had people mesmerized.
Since the end of GoT I’ve had this theory that if I watched it all start to finish, without the years-long wait for the final seasons, that I would have taken it in more positively. I have had people argue that idea, but I have yet to take it for a spin myself. So when season 5 was on the horizon, I decided that Stranger Things was my experimental guinea pig. I will say that the release schedule for S5 was also an absolute turn-off. I think split releases and especially holiday drops are heinous. If your show has never been weekly (my only other acceptable process), stick with what people have known and loved.
Below, I will detail my experience with each season, all of which, save for S5, will have been rewatches. I can only speak to my feelings on the seasons, and I will try to be as spoiler-free as possible. I will, for the most part, not even run through the plots themselves unless it pertains to my actual opinion.
However, spoilers beware, and also be forewarned at just how eclectic I expect the below to be…
9/10
As stated above, I did fall victim to the global explosion that was S1. And it’s okay to be honest, it was awesome! It has nostalgia, deep friendships, great references, and even a somewhat morally grey take on the superpower boom brought on by the MCU.
But on the rewatch, it was interesting to take the show in while S5 was airing, and the social media script had flipped. Since airing volume 1, I have seen nothing but negative reviews, bashing commentaries, and upset fans. So to watch from the beginning, re-seeing everything I have come to know and love, it did offer a different lens, as so much of the fanbase has turned to hate. To be fair, as a fan of Star Wars (for example, and to keep some continuity in the show’s/my references), as so many of us are, you’ll be no stranger to the absolute filth people can spew when things don’t stack up to their head-canon. And while I am in no way imagining S5 will be perfect, I still feel safe assuming that this is what has happened to Stranger Things as well. I do know of more than one FanFiFam member who enjoyed it, which gives me hope, but the negativity is always so much louder.
So this season itself? Still such a rad set up, cast, and idea. I was never a Dungeons & Dragons person, so I don’t personally have any experience to attach to their naming things, but I do think the idea of 11-year-olds trying to make sense of the unthinkable, and naming them after things that have become commonplace, makes a lot of sense. I did, however, eat up the Lord of the Rings references and am happy they continue through the show.
I think the show is pretty solidly written. On a rewatch, I have noticed how much they continue to introduce with so little explained, and in that sense, I think it’s less tightly plotted this time around, but it’s still so enjoyable. I’ve read a bit about what they supposedly based the show on, how they originally wanted it titled ‘Montauk’, and I think that adds to why it was successful. Taking governmental testing (that may or may not have been real) and adding layers of sci-fi and horror on top really blend together well.
I think S1 has some good performances too. On this rewatch, I realized it was just little boys with high-pitched screaming all the time, and while they are annoying, they are acting and behaving exactly how their age does. Gaten in S1 is so endearing and cute as the glue of the group, and such a good choice. Hopper perfectly encapsulates the frustration over all the bickering and manages to keep it funny, too. I think Wynona, as the stressed-out mom, was stellar too.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like when this originally aired Steve was considered the enemy? I know he makes an ass of himself, and fans are meant to root for Nancy and Jonathan together, but like, he acts like an idiot and then tries to make up for it in a single episode?—Of course on a rewatch I know that this rolls over into the rest of the show, but still, people hated on him, right?
I think the Upside Down was really the main villain of this season. With its toxicity and little explanation, it gives me the creeps while making me want to know more. The demogorgon is a creepy antagonist too, and it coming from the wall of the Byers’ house really grossed me out the first time I watched it. As it was a great season and almost everyone wanted more, I think the cliffhanger with Will was great, and of course, with Eleven too.
Stranger Things 2
8.5/10
Season 2 sees the introduction of Max, Billy, Bob, demodogs, the Mind Flayer, and more. I remember thinking the additions were a good idea, as they broadened the world while allowing much of the plot to be a rehash of the first in many ways. With that being said, we begin to learn more about the Upside Down, Eleven, and how Will is connected to it all.
I think the Mind Flayer, being this giant spider-like being that is also made up of just swirling particles, was really cool. It felt like understanding that there was actually a Big Bad the whole time. The opening of the season was super well done, too. What a draw in for the season. I loved this coming-of-age kind of horror show giving us a Halloween opener. The pumpkin fields rotting, as well as Will being hunted with almost Upside Down-type flashes, was eerie and made me want more even on a second watch.
Dustin being the one to find the demodog allowed him to have a bit of a side plot where he wasn’t just trying to keep everyone together. And while I understand him just wanting to protect something small and seemingly innocent, fans definitely recognized how much the baby version resembled the grime Will spit up at the end of season 1… it also allowed for Dustin to rope in the help of Steve, who once again has made an idiot of himself, even if it’s more lovable this time. This friendship continues through the show and is endlessly endearing.
I think the performances remain solid and the added cast is up to snuff. I really liked Dacre Montgomery in the Power Rangers reboot (the film itself not necessarily so much), and to see him embody a character so polar opposite really impressed me, even on my rewatch. He has these snippets—especially around adults (more in S3 too)—where he switched into this effortlessly charismatic person that I think was really well done. He’s creepy and off-putting, and then out of nowhere, he’s this guy your mom would bake for. I just think it’s a bit of range the show had lacked before. Sean Astin, who is a national treasure, proves that again as Bob. He’s the tech-nerdy and ultimately safe choice for Joyce Byers, and yet by the end of the season, he proves just how much of a hero he can be.
The kids in the cast have grown as well, and that allows them to take on more personality, more depth. And I liked the inclusion of Max. Although on a rewatch, I think the setup for Lucas and her is super obvious, so I was more confused about why the Dustin triangle was kind of pushed. Still, she adds another female to the core group, she adds to the show’s secrecy as none of them can tell her what’s really going on, and she stands as someone who won’t let the boys push her around, which will be important for teenage Eleven. It also created a nice parallel to Lucas’ jealousy of Mike and Eleven from S1 that led to them physically fighting, where now Mike is the one who’s jealous and rude, excluding Max as a way to take out his loneliness.
His loneliness plays a large role in the season as Hopper has sworn Eleven to secrecy and kept her survival from everyone. We get scenes of Mike using his walkie to try to reach out for her, and we find out she’s been checking on him as well. This builds to a really well and tensely directed reunion where Mike starts beating at Hopper’s chest until he’s finally pulled in for a hug and sobs. It’s one of the layers that makes Hopper such an unlikely hero and likable guy. He gets stuff, and he cares, even if he shows none of it.
I did notice in this one that there is a shift in the core group. In 1, Dustin explains to Mike that he knows Lucas is his best friend, and how he showed up in the 4th grade, so he understands he came later. But then 2 really pushes Will as Mike’s best friend, with him being the one Will confides in most. Now this could have just been because Will was missing in 1, and Dustin and Lucas are distracted, but on a rewatch, it did feel like a missed detail.
Now this episode hit me like a ton of bricks, so I feel like I have to mention it. Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister feels like the Duffer Brothers experimenting. New ideas, no colors, completely new plot lines. The only problem is that it comes out of nowhere. I guess when I watched it as a new season, it didn’t stick out as much (although FanFiFam Bill tells me it did for him and many others), but on a rewatch, it slapped me. It halts the storyline, the character arcs, and crushes the momentum, which was building to a seriously well-done atmospheric propulsion. It also seems to contradict the deaths in S4, which they otherwise entirely ignore?
The ending of the season sees Eleven going back to the base to try to close the gate into the Upside Down that she accidentally opened as a girl. It’s tense, it’s thrilling, and it continues in the format of each group getting stuck into their own kind of trouble. Truly could have been a near-perfect season if not for the weird episode.
Stranger Things 3
7.5/10
With the addition of the Starcourt Mall, viewers not only get the nostalgia and craze of the weekend shopping mall, but also more of the 80s neon coloring and clothing style. With more of the 80s bleeding through, though, fans also get the most Cold War influence as well. While mentioned in the last two seasons, this one features Dustin’s walkie intercepting an actual Russian transmission, which is then a huge impetus for a mainstay in this season’s plot.
This season once again adds on to the cast, which I think is overall a good thing, as this season really is just season 2 done a second time. Robin, played by Maya Hawke, is a quirky and lovable character who has befriended Steve at their job working for Scoops Ahoy. Steve, donning the laughable sailor’s outfit, has officially dropped the macho, cool-guy attitude (even if he hasn’t realized so yet) and fully entered our hearts as the semi-hopeless, yet continuous babysitter of the younger cast. Not to mention the definitely idolized best friend of the years-younger Dustin.
Lucas’ sister Erica, while not a new cast, is finally of an age where she is brought over into the actual group, and she’s fantastic. “You can’t spell America without Erica” remains one of the best lines in the entire show, and Dustin’s reaction to realizing it’s true is a favorite part as well. She also has the fundamental role of showcasing how little power and control Steve has as the “babysitter,” and while he does do his best to keep everyone safe, he’s kind of a pushover.
Max and Eleven are hitting it off and for some reason that’s not a good thing for Lucas and Mike. Hopper telling him to lay off it a little has made Mike lie to El in fear, and friends don’t lie. Lucas is just hopeless apparently. As they are teens, they act like all of this is the end of the world—of course while facing the actual world-ending threat.
Billy has officially been infected by the Mind Flayer, and as he is a somewhat less than kind guy already, he completely loses control to it. This gives it an earthly (Rightside Up) foundation to wreak havoc, as previously it was consuming rats (then side characters). I feel like this was a step up in the horror direction; the melting flesh of the rats, the murderous hive mind, and even some more gore than the past season. It also made the stakes feel higher, more real. The chase scene in the hospital with Jonathan and Nancy is perhaps one of my favorites in the entire series.
And with those heightened stakes, this season gives us some deaths that hit pretty hard. Not that I didn’t feel for the loss in season 2, but that was definitely borne from a love for the actor more than anything. There is a redemption piece inserted that works very well, even if it’s quite brief. If you can’t tell, I am trying to skip over being super spoilery, but the finale includes a pretty serious character death (ehh…).
It does, however, lead to a really meaningful and heartfelt send-off for the character. On my rewatch, I realized how perfect it was; it absolutely felt like they thought they were closing up shop, and if it had ended here, I wouldn’t have been all that mad.
The fact that it did not end, though, cheapens the entire letter-reading scene and isn’t helped by it leading into a pretty divisive season 4. Not that others haven’t done a goodbye scene and then carried on to be fair—hell, even Toy Story did it—it’s just that I’m on the fence on whether or not they should have stayed dead.
Stranger Things 4
7.25/10
Perhaps the season that should never have been, but we’re back. And dare I say…stranger than ever? This season, due to the send-off in season 3, is the first time we spend significant time outside of Hawkins. California with the Byers, a new lab in Nevada(?), and even Alaska and Soviet Russia. While the new settings did offer up some needed newness to the series, it did feel out of place to me. A little less like the show I’d come to love.
One of the greatest things this season did was introduce me, and many others, to Joseph Quinn. Eddie is the D&D-loving metalhead that many in the time period started to worry about as a ‘member’ of satanic panic. Still, I felt like he is as weird as he is charismatic, drawing you in quickly and earning your trust with how he looks out for the young cast.
This season brings us into the past, which I don’t mind, other than the pretty awful CGI for Younger Eleven’s face. It’s pretty jarring, sadly. Regardless, it introduces the friendly orderly, or as we come to know him, Henry/Vecna/One, who is offered up to fans in three ages/forms. Two of which are performed by Jamie Campbell Bower, and the fact that he offers up such drastically different voices is impressive. One’s also charming and manipulative, while the other has this deep and dangerous creepiness.
This is also one of the creepier seasons in my opinion, with the eerie clock chimes, the over-the-top snapping bones and bloody eyes, and the mysterious mastermind behind it all. Every season levels up a bit more and more, and this one was pretty solidly graphic. After the bones break, the bodies being allowed to just crumble where they may is really dark.
It does revive the long-dead ‘Running Up that Hill’ by Kate Bush as well, a song that I have no need to hear again for as long as I live. It is evened out by the inclusion of ‘Pass The Dutchie’ by Musical Youth every time Argyle comes on screen, which manages to be funny every time, though. He’s the quintessential stoner, and the setup for conflict with Jonathan smoking to escape. Nancy is “too busy” to visit him, and he’s distant from Will.
It really focuses on the relationships, as we know by now, they are the driving force of the series. Max is tormented by the loss of Billy, pushing away her friends and even Lucas. But they won’t give up so easily. Mike, Eleven, and Will are at odds, even though he’s visiting. Steve and Eddie have this great scene in the Upside Down where the jealous Steve gets told how annoyed Eddie is with how obsessed Dustin is with him. And I think one of the things the Duffer brothers have handled consistently season after season is the layering of conflict. (The resolution…not so much, ehh).
Stranger Things 5
6.75/10
As this one will be a first-time watch, I figure I might comment more per episode than the other seasons, and that will lead to more spoilers, I’m sure. While I didn’t remember everything from the finale of S4 (a surprise), this is still the first Stranger Things episode that I haven’t seen before in several years. I’m going to try to keep that excitement instead of letting the loud negativity dictate my enjoyment.
Episode 1 brings back our fan favorites. As I started it a day after finishing S4, it wasn’t as much of a wait for me. I liked the opening of the episode in the past. If Will was in the Upside Down for so long and the Big Bads were there, then how did he avoid them? Well, simply put, he didn’t. And while this is, in a way, a retcon, I am kind of happy they were able to do it. When a show develops and expands each season, it can be hard not look back and think “well, how didn’t this come up before?” and this feels like a quick way to rectify that feeling. Not to mention the CGI of the face is far better than Eleven’s in the previous season.
Although I will say that the show says it starts in 83 and season 5’s present is 87. While they never did too much in the way of saying their ages and how the show progresses them and the years, it does watch as if they go from 11 to at least 18, so it’s a bit confusing. The additional time jump at the end to graduation made me feel like they were in their twenties.
After Vecna caused the earthquake in the last season, the military has come in and quarantined Hawkins, trapping everyone left inside. I do feel like this could have been shown to have a much more horrific impact as the townsfolk go from looking for loved ones to trapped, but you get what you get when you have to set up quickly…or at least that seems to be how the Duffer brothers work.
The team has been sneaking into the Upside Down to try to track down the injured Vecna. This is in no way their slapdash forays of the past; this is a well-practiced and at least semi-professional operation they’re running behind the military’s back (or so it seems up to this point).
As for tension, Max is still in the hospital, Eleven and Will are being overprotected worse than ever, and Dustin is both haunted by the loss of Eddie and obviously resentful of the others taking the loss easier. On top of that, they’re trapped in what has essentially become a military compound, and Eleven is public enemy number one.
Episodes 2 and 3 continue the team’s crawl-gone-wrong. The Demogorgon has once again done the really creepy thing where it comes through the ceiling. Holly, the younger sister of Mike and Nancy, is now old enough to have a bit more screen time and personality. This is not a good thing for her. It turns out that Vecna’s new idea is to attract the younger children left in Hawkins to grow his power. All while Hopper and Eleven are trapped in the Upside Down with soldiers and demos abound.
All the while, the story is obviously building toward several possible (but probably major) blowouts with the gang. Hopper, in his attempts at being protective, is doing that thing where he is super rude and annoying again to Eleven. Jonathan and Steve are at odds (and possibly each other’s throats) over Nancy, and Nancy is very onto them and over them. Dustin is taking his frustration out on Steve, who is equally as likely to take his Jonathan/Nancy issues out on him, and Dustin very well may go after the other guys, too, in his anger.
And finally, Will saw Robin with her girlfriend, and he’s intrigued for—what has been clear on a rewatch—obvious reasons. I haven’t been able to dodge the million spoilers of this online, sadly, but I am interested to see how it actually plays out. In season 1, Will is clearly more attached to Mike. In a following season, they argue over how distant they’ve become and how Mike only wants to ‘suck face’ with his girlfriend…to which Mike fires back, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.” And then in the 4th season, it is very obvious that Will seems more sure than ever, and Jonathan even tells him he’s his brother no matter what in a touching scene before the action picks up. The seeding is so clearly there throughout the series; it just depends on how they land it all.
And personally, I think they did land it. Not only has Will always been ostracized for going missing—being called ‘zombie boy’ and freak by others at school—but he’s not sure if anyone will want to be around him if he tells them the truth. And while the main objective of the show is not to go into the actual times, I feel like, in the context, it is implied that a concern could be how it is during the aids epidemic. We may not fully live within the show’s time period at all times, but they do. I personally feel like most people who take issue with it have never had to struggle with who they are, who they feel like inside, or how someone else may perceive them. And while some of Noah’s deliveries are a little bit wooden, I don’t think all of his acting is actually bad. And didn’t the kid get into the college he wanted to go to, and hasn’t been acting as much as the others? God forbid. I personally think that all of the Kali sequences were bad acting, close to ruining scenes, and wtf was she not British?
Will’s long-awaited and increasingly well-deserved (at least in my mind) powers were a great “twist.” If he is so connected with the hive mind, then wouldn’t some of that rub off on him, too? Vecna/MF have plagued him for years; he’s kind of been a fan punching bag, too, so why not give him a little bit of a lift? I personally think the shot of him wiping the blood off his nose like Eleven was great.
As I pretty much guessed above, all of the lingering/building tension comes out over the season. Every single guess. Nancy and Jonathan are unhappy; they just haven’t been honest. I think a near-death scene to get them to say it all worked well, and it was a unique scene with melting reality from Exotic Matter. Dustin and Steve have an all-out battle, and I absolutely loved how Steve redirected and pushed away Dustin instead of hurting him. And the eventual breakdown of Dustin was the closest I got to crying the entire season. Gaten’s delivery was fantastic.
I think that Vecna’s final form was pretty cool, at least from the shoulders up. Otherwise, it bordered a little too much on the edge of looking like Groot, especially his now extendable clawed arm (although this does give us a brutal scene where his hand goes through a dude’s head). Also the fact that it felt way more CGI than season 4 did stick out like a sore thumb. We did once again get some great sequences of the demos, them ripping through random places to pop out was so cool, but even then, some of it took on this almost stop motiony feel, kind of like how The Hobbit movies looked.
The finale was both awesome and a letdown? I guess my initial feeling was enjoyment, but after sitting for a bit, there are some major holes for me. Partly due to the fact that time and time again, the stakes are proven to not matter. Everyone is safe, nothing costs anything, and everyone lives. More often than not, the few side characters we do lose don’t actually matter all that much. I remember during one scene Dustin says over the radio that the team took a beating…and I actually said “when?” out loud. They sprint and get thrown around, and that’s about it. To be fair, if anyone was going to die, it would have been Steve, and I can’t say I’d actually want that at all; it just would have made sense. Also in the context that the Duffer brothers created, the Upside Down, the bridge, the other world all get snuffed out, and BOOM, the hive mind dies…so shouldn’t Will have? Will for sure, but like Max too? The other connected kids?
We needed them to write what happened, and we weren’t given it all. At the end of 4, the entire town splits. This season, it’s all just covered in steel plates. The show ends, and bam, no mention of rebuilding, no commentary on the military departing, being shut down, possibly even facing criminal charges? Also wow, not that I think the point of the show was necessarily anti-army, but the five seasons kill more soldiers than a war movie. Also, Dr. Kay, who is pretty much Sarah Connor in Papa’s wig (whom I started unaffectionately referring to as Mama), is in the show for absolutely no reason other than the fact that they stupidly decided to kill the other guy? She just disappeared into nothingness? I sound angrier than I am, though honestly…
The graduation sees Dustin doing exactly what Eddie wanted to do, which was very touching. I liked the older kids agreeing to meet up and keep the friendship alive, but I did find Steve to be a bit out of place, like they didn’t know which group he should be in. I think he should have been with Dustin, but we do get a scene of them at the end, so okay. The scene of their last D&D campaign together, where Mike tells them his theory of what really happened to Eleven (sans the part about no stakes), was nice. The end of innocence, where they all stack up their binders, as well as Will watching the passing of the veritable torch, was an appropriate send-off. However, as author E C Greaves pointed out to me on Twitter, the ambiguous ending where Eleven disappears but they hold out hope that she’s out there is literally the ending of season 1 already… it must be really hard to end such a popular show, but even ten minutes of buttoning stuff up would have made it stronger for me.
Overall
This may shock some, even upset others, but personally, I would still put the show somewhere around a 7.5 or 8 overall. The idea, the cast, and the relationships are all just too good.
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5
6.5/10
Of course had to roll right on into this. I think it’s important to mention that the final season was so divisive that it spawned an entire online debate over a false ending that became known as Conformity Gate. The general gist of which was that the plot holes and inconsistencies found in the season, and especially the finale, were actually planted on purpose by the Duffer Brothers. That there was another, secret, yet totally real final finale. This was further cemented in people’s minds when the date for this was announced… and wow, can you imagine how it must feel to see so much online hate that people think you were faking them out? As a writer myself, I cannot even imagine how that would hurt. With that said, if Conformity Gate had turned out to be true, and there was another entire episode hidden that could not have been made in such a short time, it could have perhaps solidified ST as one of the greatest TV shows in history. Alas, it was not to be (and if they do it now, people will just hate on it and say they did it because of backlash).
Aside from all that (wow), this felt a lot more like DVD behind the scenes stuffs than any kind of actual documentary. With that being said, what really worked for me was seeing the cast’s involvement, enthusiasm, and interaction with what was being created. Not to mention a finale table read, with many people bursting into tears, really hit home how many of them really cared about it all.
The elephant in the doc, though, filming the Duffer brothers’ computer screen with multiple Chat GPT windows open, was a huge letdown. I read the theory that Ross got divorced, and not only was his wife (Leigh, the director of Fear Street) in the writers’ room, but that she may have been quite the influence. Whether or not that’s true, I have seen many people online say they felt like the finale was just missing something…and that happens when you tend to rely on a robot to give you ideas. And while we never really see them using it (correct me if I’m wrong), it’s there…
I will say in defense of the brothers, though, that I saw a lot of hate around how the crew said they were filming the finale while it wasn’t even written. That’s kind of unfair out of context, as they literally say they had to pivot filming because so much of the finale is during summer, so therefore they needed to film during the actual summer. I think that makes sense, and as filming without a set script is a Marvel norm (not saying it’s a smart or good practice), I think the hate on that is a stretch.
I also really loved how this highlighted how much practical effects were used. These towns and even huge set pieces were created practically and only had CGI worked over them, and that is a dying breed. Personally, that and the cast saved this for me.
Leave a Reply