The OG Stranger Things party: Dustin, Mike, Lucas, and WillImage via Netflix
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Robert Brian Taylor
Published 17 minutes ago
Robert Brian Taylor is a Pittsburgh-based writer, editor, and critic. He is Collider's lead training editor and also contributes as a features editor. For the site, he's interviewed a number of actors and filmmakers, including Liam Neeson, J.K. Simmons, Shea Whigham, Kevin Smith, Alden Ehrenreich, Bruce Campbell, Robert Englund, and RaMell Ross. Throughout his career, his writing has appeared in an eclectic combination of newspapers, magazines, books, and websites. He’s written three 48 Hour Film Project shorts — “Hell of a Christmas” (2025), “Clockwork Curse” (2023), and “Uninvited Guests” (2019) — all of which screened theatrically at the local 48 Hour Film Fest. His fiction has been featured at Shotgun Honey, and his short-film script “Dig” was performed live after being named an official selection of the 2017 Carnegie Screenwriters Script and Screen Festival.
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Nine years ago, Stranger Things premiered on Netflix with little advanced hype and basically no star power, outside of a comeback role for Gen X darling Winona Ryder. The show, a quirky blend of science-fiction, horror, and fantasy tropes filtered through warm 1980s nostalgia, was an instant sensation and quickly grew to be one of the streamer's flagship series. Cut to today, when Netflix releases the first four episodes of the show's fifth and final season, and it's fair to say that fans will be tuning in with one big question in mind: Could Matt and Ross Duffer, the twin brothers who created and oversee every facet of Stranger Things, stick the landing?
We won't be able to make a final judgment until the full season is available, of course. (Three more episodes are coming at Christmas; the finale on New Year's Eve.) But based on the half of the season that drops today, the answer to that question is definitely tilting toward the affirmative. While not quite as electrifying or narratively compelling as the show's Vecna-introducing fourth season, these four, fast-moving episodes successfully land several huge emotional beats while providing thrilling action sequences far bigger than the show has ever attempted before.
What Is 'Stranger Things' Season 5 About?
Season 5 of Stranger Things picks up about a year and a half after Season 4 ended, with a giant gate to the Upside Down ripping through Hawkins, Indiana like a huge earthquake crack. In the time since, the U.S. Army has come in and placed the entire town under quarantine, largely fencing it off from the outside world and keeping its citizens trapped in their homes, jobs, and schools. The government is relentlessly pursuing Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who's gone off-grid and has been busy training with her adopted father, Hopper (David Harbour). The rest of the gang — the Wheelers, the Byers, and their extended friends and family — have knitted together to form an underground resistance force in Hawkins. They travel by tunnel, communicate through secret code via the Hawkins radio station, and spend most of their days figuring out how to track down and kill Vecna a.k.a. Henry Creel a.k.a. One (Jamie Campbell Bower), whom they believe has survived the battle that ended Season 4.
Though Stranger Things has always been a kaleidoscopic hybrid of all the Duffer brothers' influences, the show is at its very best when it functions as a compelling mystery. That's why the first season, which was structured around Will's disappearance, quickly became a must-watch sensation. And it's why the show caught a massive second wind with the release of Season 4, which gave the series a much-needed master villain in Vecna but only revealed his origin story in a slowly unraveling, seven-episode riddle.
Having reached its endgame and put most of its cards on the table, Stranger Things is now done with plotting out big-picture, series-driving mysteries, which leaves Season 5 at a bit of a disadvantage when compared to the show's best installments. That said, it does offer up some smaller mysteries this year — fun little guessing games that will play out for an episode or two before a big reveal cuts directly to an episode's end credits. Honestly, long-time fans who have rewatched the previous seasons and have paid close attention to what threads are still dangling will likely be ahead of the game with these. But, even if you don't find yourself surprised, you'll likely still feel a charge when the Duffers pull back the curtain and bring into clearer focus the shape of this final batch of episodes.
'Stranger Things 5' Keeps the Team Together
One nice thing about this season is that all of our primary characters operate as a single, unified team. Past seasons had a habit of breaking the cast into smaller subgroups and then sending them off on their own mini-adventures. (The one blemish on Season 4's record: Having to plod through the "Hopper in a Russian prison" storyline.) There's far less of that in Season 5. And even when characters are separated from the larger pack — like when certain groups split off to head into the Upside Down, an occurrence that's not exactly uncommon over these four episodes — they aren't disconnected from the overarching story at hand. There's not much else I can tell you about Season 5's plot without drawing Netflix's ire, but I think I'm safe to say that highlights include: Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve (Joe Keery) finding their bromance on rocky ground, Hopper and Eleven bonding over the fact that they're both a couple of "stubborn punk-asses," and Robin (Maya Hawke, at her motor-mouthed best) taking an interest in helping Will (Noah Schnapp) sort out some of his inner and outer struggles.
Vecna's still around, of course, and the Duffers deploy Jamie Campbell Bower in a way that seems optimal. (He's also gifted with the gnarliest kill the series has offered up thus far.) If we're being technical, only one new notable "kid" character gets added to this cast this go-round: Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, a prepubescent bully who gets unwillingly roped into our heroes' schemes. But, really, there's another character who also feels new this time out, even though she technically isn't. Nell Fisher steps into the role of Holly Wheeler, Mike and Nancy's younger sister, who's largely been a background player up to now, and she is brought to the forefront in a way that ties into several of the show's most secretive narratives.
'Stranger Things' Season 5 Is All About the Vibes, Man
Linda Hamilton looking like she wants to terminate somebody in Stranger Things 5Image via Netflix
While Season 5's story might resonate with some viewers more than others, it's tough to quibble with the show's vibes, and anyone who grew up watching the series will likely find firing up this season as comfortable as sliding into their favorite set of pajamas. The first episode opens with an updated, Stranger Things-infused version of the Netflix logo that directly targets the part of your brain that processes nostalgia, and the synthwave kicking in on the soundtrack will serve as a homecoming for fans who have stuck by the show since its debut. The Duffers and their team of writers continue to sprinkle in fun little references to the era in which the show is set, from the obvious (there's an episode with multiple Back to the Future shout-outs that ends with "Mr. Sandman" playing over the end credits) to the more obscure (Brett Gelman's Murray, who's now a smuggler sneaking items into the quarantine zone, uses the alias "Austin Millbarge," which is the name of Dan Aykroyd's character in the 1985 spy caper Spies Like Us). Still, these little '80s Easter eggs never take precedence over story or character — they just add a little fun around the edges.
Meanwhile, on more significant fronts, the Duffer Brothers have drawn new inspiration from A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle's 1960s YA fantasy classic that became a middle-school English-class staple by the 1980s. And I don't think the addition of The Terminator star Linda Hamilton as a high-ranking Army officer obsessed with tracking down Eleven is an accident, as these episodes' massive action sequences, which are overflowing with both characters we love and monsters for them to battle, feel like the Duffers pulled them straight from director James Cameron's playbook.
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"Over and out."
Posts By Amanda M. Castro Oct 30, 2025Nitpicks? I've only got a few. Reviving a worrying trend that's been an on-and-off concern since Season 2, Finn Wolfhard's Mike isn't given a ton to do here, and I really hope the Duffers have something special planned for him in the back four episodes. Also, Steve and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) bickering over Nancy (Natalia Dyer) proves irritating pretty much as soon as it starts. But these are minor complaints when you consider that (a) we've still got a half-season to go and (b) the Duffers and their team are doing so many things right here. They could have messed up the "Max in a coma" storyline, having her magically wake up 30 minutes into the first episode because they wanted Sadie Sink back in action ASAP, but they correctly decided to be patient and pay it off in more surprising ways. They also have wisely refused to give us a final season that appears assembled by fan committee. There are one or two reveals here that likely won't be universally beloved by the fanbase, but they feel right for the story, all the same.
Because of that, these four episodes make a statement that the Duffers are ending their series on their own terms, even while they serve as a culmination of everything that has come before. That's a good thing, and if Stranger Things can maintain that balance the rest of the way, the back half of the final season should be able to deliver the type of remarkable ending the residents of Hawkins and the viewers watching at home all deserve.
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Stranger Things
The final season of Stranger Things kicks off in rousing fashion.
Like TV-14 Drama Mystery Horror Science Fiction Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz Writers Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
7 Images
Eleven looking into an opening of the Upside Down with pink light in Stranger Things season 1
Jim Hopper (David Harbour) grabbing Jonathan's (Charlie Heaton) shoulders in Stranger Things season 1©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Eleven with cables all over her head in Stranger Things season 4
Vecna looking towards Will in the trailer for Stranger Things season 5 (2025)
Max and Eleven in Stranger ThingsNetflix
Stranger Things season 2, episode 2 "Trick or Treat, Freak".MovieStillsDB
The Upside Down in Stranger Things season 5Courtesy of Netflix Close
Cast
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Millie Bobby Brown
Jane 'Eleven' Hopper
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Finn Wolfhard
Mike Wheeler
- Stranger Things 5's action sequences are the biggest and most thrilling the show has ever done.
- The Duffers Brothers are fully committed to servicing the entire mythology as they kick off the final season.
- Though there's no grand, overarching mystery this season, smaller guessing games keep the viewer invested in the story.
- There's a lot happening, and some main characters feel better served than others. (Mike really better get something to do in the back half!)
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