Stranger Things, Season Five (2025)
There was absolutely no way that Stranger Things’ final season was going to answer every question and solve every mystery to everyone’s satisfaction. In many ways, the series was a victim of its own success following a near-perfect first season, with the Duffer brothers expanding their mythology, introducing more and more characters, and so on. It’s easy to nitpick the fifth and final season, be it Netflix’s strange (npi) decision to chop it up into three volumes, the military side plot that wasted Linda Hamilton and ultimately felt like a non sequitur, or the ambiguous ending that’s currently igniting debates across social media. (For the record, I’d like to believe Mike’s version but it does require some pretty hefty suspension of disbelief. If you know, you know.) That said, the final season still delivered those emotional touch points that have always been my favorite part of the series, secret government conspiracies and psychic warfare notwithstanding. Stranger Things’ emphasis on friendship above all else might’ve been too earnest for its own good at times, but it was also a welcome respite from the cynicism that floods our world these days. Plus, the finale’s focus on the end of childhood and the inevitable loss that growing up and moving out into the world entails lent it a bittersweetness that, all other criticisms aside, rang true and proved quite affecting.
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