⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Season 5 hits with a bang and doesn’t just raise the stakes it blows the doors clean off. It packs so much punch.
We jump right back in where we left off: Hawkins torn open by a massive rift to the Upside Down, now living under full military quarantine. Everyone knows Vecna is still lurking, so the gang launches regular “crawls” into the Upside Down to hunt him down. It’s all hands on deck Joyce, Hopper, the whole Hawkins crew… everyone except Eleven, who’s still missing while the military desperately searches.
Seeing the gang mostly reunited again feels surprisingly refreshing. One thing this volume does really well is leaning deeper into Eleven and Hopper’s father-daughter bond. And Mike, Will, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin finally feel like a proper unit again.
Dustin is still grieving Eddie (Joseph Quinn), pulling away from his friends in the process. Lucas is more grounded than ever but emotionally wrecked his days revolve around sitting by Max’s hospital bed playing “Running Up That Hill,” hoping she’ll wake. It hurts in the best storytelling way.
The callbacks to earlier seasons absolutely land, tying up loose ends and paying off long-running threads. We even get answers about why Will was taken in the first place, and it hits with the weight it deserves.
Robin, Lucas, Dustin, and Max are my unexpected MVPs this season. Their arcs feel like they’re on the edge of something huge, and if any of them die in the finale, I’m not going to handle it well. I really believe Max will play a key role in taking Vecna down for good and I’m holding out hope she survives.
The Duffer Brothers once again prove they know exactly what they’re doing. If you’ve watched the play, episode 4 suddenly becomes one big lightbulb moment. Joyce’s obsession with Oklahoma! threads through the season in ways I won’t spoil, though even Hopper can’t resist calling it “that stupid play of yours.” The parallels are clever, especially the echo between Bob hosting the radio in the play and Robin doing the same in Episode 1.
My one critique: some elements have started to feel a bit repetitive especially Will’s prickly-skin reaction whenever Vecna or his gruesome foot soldiers are close. It still works, but it’s a beat the show has hit many times before.
Still, this season reminded me why I fell in love with Stranger Things in the first place and honestly, why I fell in love with TV. Full-body chills. Every. Single. Episode.