This is what critics are saying about Stranger Things season 5
The first four episodes of Stranger Things season five are streaming on Netflix now.
The first four episodes of Stranger Things season five are streaming on Netflix now.
Almost ten years on from season one, and the Stranger Things clan are back for one last outing into the Upside Down for the fifth and final season. It’s been three years in the making – season four debuted in 2022 – but was it worth the wait? Yes and no, say critics.
Spoiler alert! This article includes spoilers for Stranger Things season five.
The premise of season five is, in essence, remarkably simple. The beloved group of friends, including Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) want to find, and ideally kill, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).
As the first four episodes of season five drop on Netflix though, fans have swiftly learned that – as expected – the final battle won’t be that simple. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Hopper (David Harbour) have had to go into hiding, Max (Sadie Sink) is missing, and Kali Prasad, aka Eight, (Linnea Berthelsen) is back. There’s a lot to cover – hence the season’s bumper-length episodes – and a lot for fans and critics to dissect.
Now that the first four episodes are out, critics have drawn their conclusions, and it’s fair to say the response is fairly mixed.
What are reviews of Stranger Things season five saying?
There’s a lot to love about the first few episodes of Stranger Things season five, according to the first reviews, including the “thrilling” and “bombastic” fourth episode which culminates in a big twist for fan-favourite character Will Byers.
Writing in The Guardian, Jack Seale described the fourth episode as a “flame-throwing, bullet-dodging spectacle that makes good use of what looks like a virtually limitless effects budget”, adding that fans of the sci-fi smash will be left “standing on their chairs and hollering joyfully”.
Laura Martin of the BBC agreed, writing that “no Stranger Things fan is going away disappointed from these episodes,” particularly episode four, which she describes as “Stranger Things at its best – 81, presumably very expensively produced, minutes culminating in an epic battle between the demons, the military and the people of Hawkins”.
In another positive review, Leila Latif in Empire suggested that “all the trademark elements” of the show are there, including “the dark humour, the whimsy, the poetry of trauma and hard-earned resilience.”
atif added that after five seasons and nearly ten years, Stranger Things has still “not lost its sense of fun”, and praised the cast of young actors for their performances – particularly Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas, whom the writer described as “now entirely convincing as a hench leading man”.
Yet its not all warm words for the Duffer Brothers’ juggernaut Netflix hit. While Latif argued that the show “cleverly sidesteps” the fact of the show’s cast all aging beyond their characters with a “seamless time jump,” other critics have stated that the cast’s aging is – in the words of Seale – “a problem”.
Writing in Variety, Alison Herman stated that Stranger Things season five has not “reflected its stars’ obvious maturation with an accompanying complexity”.
“By declining to enrich its characters as they age, Stranger Things traps itself in arrested development. When you get bigger without going deeper, you end up stretched thin,” Herman added.
It’s a point agreed by Slate critic Sam Adams. “Stranger Things’ cast has grown, maturing into actors more than capable of carrying their own projects. But the show hasn’t matured with them,” Adams wrote in the publication.
“Like Netflix’s other reigning auteurs – the Russos, Zack Snyder – the Duffers have been given free rein to indulge, and have used that freedom to repeat themselves, over and over again.”
The repetitiveness of the Stranger Things formula is another point raised by several publications, with Seale suggesting that it’s time for the show to “switch off its boombox” – though not before “indulging it one last time”.
“The same pieces are on the board, in only slightly different configurations,” agreed Herman, while Martin, too, wrote that some of the show’s elements have become “repetitive”.
Still, the mixed reviews will likely not make a dent in the inevitable success of Stranger Things season five. The show’s fourth season is the third most-watched Netflix series in the streaming giant’s history, and as season five is the epic conclusion, it seems likely that the new season will rise even higher.
The first four episodes of Stranger Things season five are streaming on Netflix now. The next three episodes will premiere on Christmas Day in the US and 26 December in the UK, with the big finale airing on New Year’s Eve in the US and New Year’s Day in the UK.
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