The credits roll. Millions across the world are sitting at the edge of their seats, waiting for something else. Anything else. Instead, the recommended screen pops up, signaling the end of the decade-long TV show Stranger Things.
Since its release in July of 2016, Stranger Things has continued to be regarded by audiences and critics alike as a cinematic masterpiece. It went from being an idea rejected by more than 15 different networks for being too risky to being one of the biggest hits Netflix has ever seen.
So what happened? Just a day after the final episode of the final season, Season 5, was released, the opinion shifted. Long gone are the days when the directors and writers of this iconic sci-fi sensation, Matt and Ross Duffer, known collectively as the Duffer Brothers, were praised for their unique and creative touch. Now, everyone seems to believe that this touch has been lost forever, along with our chances of ever receiving a satisfying ending to Stranger Things. The consensus is, ‘The finale sucked, it’s all their fault.’
Which is partly true. The only positive comments I heard about the show in the weeks after its wrap-up were along the lines of: “It wasn’t that bad.” That’s not a good sign. Various questions were left completely in the dust and unanswered as the over 2-hour-long finale came to a close. One that was very stark in contrast to other seasons was the perceived state of the Upside Down, a dark, decomposing mirror world of Hawkins, Indiana, the fictional town where this show takes place. All of a sudden, it didn’t seem so bad anymore. It lost its effect. Where were all the demogorgons? Where were the demo-bats from season 4? Compared to the scene from Season 1, in which Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) finds herself trapped and alone in this mirror world, hiding from a monster that has yet to be given a name or a face in her mind, this version of the Upside Down is paradise. And that is not the only plot hole that has been brought into debate by fans. Why didn’t the group get punished by the military in the end? How did Jim Hopper (David Harbour) explain coming back from the dead? It gets to the point where all these things can’t be explained by a creative choice from the Duffer Brothers to leave the ending open-ended.
And still, even without all of these massive unexplained occurrences, the show would still feel as if it were missing something: Good writing. It felt as if the Duffer Brothers were tiptoeing around the fans, trying not to aggravate anyone too much, not ending the season with any major deaths, and in the process making the most bleak and anti-climactic season of Stranger Things to date. The final fight scene between the villains and heroes felt about as intense as treading water. Every scene in which two or more characters just had a normal conversation felt incredibly forced, even leading to speculation about the possibility that the writers had used A.I. to write them.
And don’t get me wrong, some of the parts of this show I felt had real potential. The reveal of the true nature of the upside down, and then later the true nature of Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell), the villain of our story, both had me shocked and feeling as if the Duffer Brothers were telling the truth when they said that they had the finale planned out since season 2. And yet, both fell short in execution. I found that the best acting performance came from Charlie Heaton, who plays Jonathan Byers in the series. In every scene, you could see the emotion in his face, and you could feel the effort he put into performing every word. This was unlike most of the other actors, who kept their faces in a continual state of perplexity, as if posing at a photoshoot for Time Magazine.
And so, as the credits rolled on the last episode of the series that had virtually changed my life, I watched as illustrations flashed across the screen of iconic scenes from past seasons. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) flipping an entire van over a couple of kids on bikes, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) with a bat covered in nails casually slung across his shoulder, Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) running with the most gut-wrenching look on her face, a pair of headphones on her head, and Kate Bush in her ears; and all I could think was: Where have they gone?
