‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Volume 1 Review: The Franchise That Outgrew Its Own Charm (Netflix)

In the blender of references, quotes, homages, and outright thefts from ’80s pop culture that is Stranger Things, it often feels like there’s room for absolutely everything. But there’s one thing the ’80s didn’t have—something the Duffer Brothers now use in increasingly extravagant, borderline unhinged amounts: digital effects. In fact, the years in which the show is set (the first season takes place in 1983, the fifth in 1987) were the last moments before what we now call CGI even began to take shape beyond the experimental stage. As the seasons rolled on, a distinctly digital, contemporary sensibility—in pacing, aesthetics, and narrative mechanics—took over the show’s architecture. And what once felt like a charming, nostalgic, genuinely “retro” series has morphed into yet another franchise: a 2020s mega-production set four decades in the past, and not much more than that.

Yes, the songs, production design, costumes, references, and assorted ’80s gadgets remain. But beyond the surface, Stranger Things today isn’t all that different from any other fantasy-tinged series or film centered on teenagers—from Harry Potter to Wednesday to the recent It: Welcome to Derry. It no longer makes much sense to chase its connections to Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, or Stephen King. The show has folded all those influences into a self-replicating mash-up that echoes throughout the industry, to the point that the things that once made it distinctive have almost completely vanished. Establishing a storytelling model for serialized genre TV might sound like a win for the Duffers, but on some deeper level it may be a loss: what once felt unique is now standardized.

The only option, then, is to set all that aside and focus on what the show still does well nearly a decade after its debut—and what it no longer does. The cast members are now all in their twenties, long past adolescence (only four years have passed in the story, but nine in the real world—and those are years in which the changes are very noticeable). It’s increasingly hard to picture them as characters meant to be ten years younger. The Duffers prefer not to mention it, assuming we won’t notice. And in a perversely practical way, they’re right: after some initial disconnect, it stops mattering. Whether they’re 27 playing 17 is irrelevant because, at this point, they function as archetypes.

Across the four episodes that make up the first of the season’s three parts (four now, three more arriving December 25, and the finale on December 31), Stranger Things continues as a blend of fantasy adventure and teen dramedy, that combination pioneered and patented in the ’80s by films like The Goonies and practically anything carrying the Amblin logo. And once again, the most intimate, personal moments are the ones that still work best—the ones most connected to the show’s original spirit. The other side of the show—the more metaphysical, Stephen King–ish realm of A Nightmare on Elm Street and similar ’80s horror—is now almost indistinguishable from anything else on the market, thanks to its digital Demogorgons and rubbery action sequences.

The most interesting part of Stranger Things, something that returns here in small but crucial doses, is still the way it directly links adolescent fears and anxieties to the high-stakes action that follows this group of kids as they try to decode and destroy the underworld that has been tormenting them for years.

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 AND EPISODE 1 OF SEASON 5

The story picks up a year and a half after season four’s finale, where the villain Vecna left the town of Hawkins literally split in two, earthquake-style. Officially, that’s the explanation everyone has been given. By 1987, the town is under siege—militarized, quarantined, impossible to enter or leave without checkpoints. Armed to the teeth, the military studies the Upside Down while hunting for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who is hiding and training with Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) as they try to track down Vecna’s location. Meanwhile, the rest of our intrepid teens—via codes, maps, and assorted technical hijinks—attempt to help them break into the Upside Down and finish off their seemingly unbeatable enemy. But one of their exercises fails, the dreaded Demogorgons escape, the military (led, no less, by Linda Hamilton) goes on the offensive, and chaos explodes once again. The real twist—the engine of this fifth season—is the kidnapping of Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), the young sister of Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer), part of a new and sinister plan from Vecna that the group desperately tries to stop.

The four episodes unfold through multiple parallel plotlines aimed at rescuing Holly and discovering why Vecna targeted her in the first place. As you might guess, it’s not easy: their attempts involve ridiculously elaborate plans—one feels like a direct shout-out to Home Alone—, a new group of younger kids, and several action sequences that unfold on both sides of the split between worlds. Beyond that, little more can be revealed. By episode four, aside from a few key emotional beats, everything accelerates into pure action: violent confrontations, last-second escapes, a handful of surprises, the return of certain characters, and an ending that leaves everything wide open for what will presumably be the big final showdown.

The richest moments—when the show forgets its A-Team-style case-solving rhythms—come from the characters and their internal conflicts. This season, two of them take center stage: Will (Noah Schnapp) and, surprisingly, Robin (Maya Hawke), both wrestling in different ways with their sexuality. Eleven takes a step back, and the same goes for several members of the original group, including Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Steve (Joe Keery), and Nancy herself. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) get a heavier load, mostly on the planning-and-strategy side of the rescue missions. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), meanwhile, spends most of his time playing “Running Up That Hill” on cassette for Max (Sadie Sink), who remains in a sort of coma.

When Stranger Things taps back into its personal, intimate side—when it brings its characters’ fears and insecurities into play—the show deepens, becoming richer in detail and emotion. But those moments are scarce. Across the four-plus hours of Season 5, Vol. 1, most of the running time is devoted to plotting plans that tend to fail or unravel in some way. Fortunately, unlike last season, which kept the characters scattered across distant locations, this time they’re all in the same town (Hawkins), even if split into different groups and missions. The constant reshuffling of those groupings eliminates the more static, repetitive blocks that weighed down Season Four.

At this point, there isn’t much left for the show to invent, and the Duffers don’t seem particularly interested in doing so. The challenge now is simply to stick the landing with enough dignity that it doesn’t feel like all the excitement built over the years—plus the long gaps between seasons—was for nothing. At best, one could say that the fifth season of Stranger Things—or, well, its first half—doesn’t undermine what the creators have achieved so far. At worst… you could say exactly the same thing. It all depends on the eye of the viewer…