Stranger Things – Season Five Part One Review

It’s been a minute since we last visited Hawkins, Indiana to check up on how the denizens of the town were dealing with the incursion of The Upside Down – and its terrifying mayor, Vecna (or Henry Creel or One, depending on which point in time you’re dealing with him). In the three years since the end of season four of Stranger Things, life has churned onward. Those precocious child actors we met way, way back in season one? All adults, over twenty years old. Heck, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) is married with a baby. There’s also a prequel play playing on the West End and Broadway, further fleshing out elements of Henry Creel’s story – something that gets a bit of a reference in this season (although it remains to be seen if any of the – minor, but interesting – revelations in the play actually come into play in this final season, or if those of us who saw the play just shelled out cash for a relatively pointless addition to the mythology that was covered a great deal in season four). But now that part one of this final season is here – the second part will drop at Christmas with the series finale airing on New Year’s Eve – we have a bit more understanding as to what the final battle for Hawkins will entail. Even if every single “kid” in this series has clearly aged beyond any semblance of being a kid.

I won’t dive into any spoilers here – just in case you spent your holiday watching football and not demogorgans – so rest assured you can read this review without fear.

So, what went right in these first four episodes of the season? Well, for one, the Duffer Brothers know who in their cast can handle the heavy lifting and who is best relegated to the sidelines for most of the hard stuff. They’ve also learned which actors can elevate the performances of those around them (Maya Hawke’s Robin, Sadie Sink’s Max, and Joe Keery’s Steve are three of their top-secret weapons, and they are each deployed in some interesting match-ups throughout the four episodes). Hawke, in particular, has a some of the season’s best work, pairing with Noah Schnapp’s Will in long stretches as well as Winona Ryder’s Joyce (this duo, in particular, is a ton of fun). The much-discussed aging up of Holly Wheeler (now a precocious ten-year-old played by Nell Fisher, who reads as older than that) works well, especially once we discover how she fits into the larger season arc.

So, we have some strong performances and expanded roles for characters who tended to be more siloed in the past. And, since the action this time around is wholly confined to Hawkins and The Upside Down (thank god – no Chicago trips or time spent in Russian gulags), the story feels significantly less choppy. Yes, the passage of time throughout these four episodes feels a bit wonky at times (in one episode it’s the middle of the night, the next it’s suddenly already morning with no real explanation as to what characters got up to while on their various missions in-between). But the story generally flows well, characters get time to breathe a bit, and while there are some gnarly exposition dumps that strain the bounds of what people would really say to one another, I found myself mostly enjoying things.

Sure, the Duffers telegraph almost every “surprise” they bring out. While watching with my sister while the Thanksgiving turkey was cooking, we successfully called out every twist before it happened – sometimes episodes in advance. And yes, these episodes are far too long – and yet, somehow, some characters get shockingly little screen time compared to others. These four episodes do clearly set-up what the ultimate final showdown needs to be (and I’m betting every fan knows exactly what it will be). If there is one thing that doesn’t quite work this time around, it’s the Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Brown) relationship. The chemistry that once linked the two back in the early days of the series is strangely missing this time around. You just can’t quite believe that Eleven is the most important person in Hopper’s world – that he would move heaven and earth to keep her safe. Instead, it feels almost like he’s intentionally putting himself in harm’s way as some sort of death wish. As if he’s just tired of it all and more than ready to shuffle off this mortal coil. With this being the final season, character plot armor is more or less gone (thankfully), so that might be the direction this story is heading for him. But at least let us have one final season of Hopper caring about his surrogate daughter.

But if you’re a fan of the series, I suspect this season will have a lot for you to like. There are some fun character moments, some moments of tension that actually crackle, and some interesting new friendships that emerge. And Schnapp’s Will is finally allowed to do something more than cry, roll his eyes back in his head, or whine. So, that’s a win in my book. And lest you worry, there really isn’t a cliffhanger ending, so while you’ll want to know what’s going to happen next, you won’t be on pins and needles over the next month as you wait. And that might be the thing to be most thankful about this Thanksgiving weekend.

The first four episodes of Stranger Things’ fifth and final season are now streaming on Netflix.