REVIEW: ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Volume 1 Can’t Reclaim Its Old Magic

Stranger Things has often been a tough series to love since its premiere season. While (most) of the characters and (most) of the performances have remained steady, and the story remains effortless to watch, the series struggles with a central, constant flaw that tries to bludgeon the triumphs on all fronts: the writing.

Or, to be more specific, the guiding hand of the creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, who, since that first season, have grown more enamored with themselves, evident in episodes going from reasonable runtimes to each being well over an hour in Season 4 and, now, Season 5. In Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1, it’s clear the Duffer Brothers have lost the plot on just what made the series winsome in the first place. 

It all comes down to their inability to write for television as they try to make individual, episodic movies. It’s something that’s plagued many streaming series as creators stumble to create something more overtly cinematic. The result is often a bogged-down story that fails on two fronts. In the case of Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1, the effect is further ruined by the bloated, exposition-heavy writing that forces characters to stand around and info-dump to drive the plot forward, ultimately grinding it to a halt. 

It’s not so much unwatchable as it is a frustrating example of a series missing the point on all fronts. The 18-month time jump from Season 4 is a smart decision that both helps deal with the pushback against the aging cast of “teen” characters while also allowing space for fresh material.

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 misses the point. 

And listen, many of us grew up watching The O.C., where Adam Brody and Ben McKenzie were starting the show at 24 and 25, playing 16-year-olds. And while the series ended when the characters (well, most of them) were in college, McKenzie and Brody were both creeping up on 30. Too-old actors playing younger characters is a TV time-honored tradition. But it’s all about how you play it. 

The series picks up with our group of misfits and outcasts as they try to track down Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), following his disappearance in the Season 4 finale. While Max (Sadie Sink) remains comatose from her last battle with him, the rest of the Hawkins crew are dealing with a military lockdown.

They are barred from leaving the town, as a battle is waged in the community surrounding them, which they are ignorant of. When Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) little sister, Holly, is seemingly targeted by Vecna, who is masquerading as her imaginary friend, the group realizes a new, insidious plan is at work.

It’s unfortunate, though, that so much about Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 concerns itself with lore and world-building when that has never been the strength of the series. Vecna/Henry/Number 1’s backstory is of little interest. Sometimes, it’s okay for a big bad just to be a Big Bad with no greater backstory. The series works best when the characters face off against monstrous, faceless creatures, working together to defeat these otherworldly beasts. 

Eleven and Hopper struggle in the Upside Down amid monsters and poor lighting.

It’s why, of the four episodes released in Netflix’s bid to keep viewers subscribed for at least another month, Episode 3 is the strongest installment. It remembers why we first loved the series: the characters.

Watching as Mike, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton,) Nancy, Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke), Joyce (Winona Ryder), and Erica (Priah Ferguson) work together to create a brutal trap for an incoming Demogorgon is the most fun the series allows itself to have in the first four episodes of the final outing.

Conversely, it’s why the show also stumbles depending on who and how the series breaks the characters up. Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) struggle with their storyline as they’re separated from the rest of the cast early.

At the same time, they try to gather information in the Upside Down. Similarly, the Joyce, Will, and Robin team fares poorly because the center is uninteresting, tying the story together only with the arrival of Lucas and Mike. The winning team is Dustin, Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan, especially when, at the tail end of Episodes 3 and 4, the combined impulses of Steve and Nancy launch the group into the Upside Down as well. 

Season 5 is at its best when it remembers the series’ heart: the character dynamics. 

In those groupings, it’s easy to see where the cast’s strength lies. Brown, once the series highlight for her powerful performance, suffers from some awkward writing and a character who has seemed to have regressed since Season 4.

Schnapp, meanwhile, who has been asked to carry much more of the story since his more pivotal role in Season 2, has lost all of the naturalism that made Will so sympathetic. Stiff and charmless, his performance is all the more glaring now that they’ve given him a power boost that makes his character much more pivotal. 

His underacting alongside Hawke’s overacting makes for a frustrating duo. The story and pairing would work so much better with stronger actors. There is something fascinating about two characters in the ’80s getting to be themselves around each other, especially with Robin’s own relative comfort with her sexuality allowing Will to see the world through new eyes.

But the two aren’t the strongest actors on the show, and Schnapp struggles with deeper storylines, making that final reveal all the more troubling as we realize how much more he’ll be at the heart of the story moving ahead. Not to mention how it adds an additional layer of lore to a series already struggling under the pre-existing amount. 

Natalia Dyer as Nancy remains an underrated MVP. But even she can’t save Season 5 Volume 1.

Meanwhile, actors like McLaughlin, Matarazzo, Dyer, and Keery maintain an ease and comfort in their roles. While Dustin’s grief is believable and aggressive, Matarazzo is such a likable presence that it makes his abrasive attitude as he struggles with Eddie’s death all the more palatable. McLaughlin, as always, needs more to do while Dyer quietly maintains the emotional center of the series, her doe eyes working in contrast with the shotgun Nancy so readily brandishes. 

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 is messy, frustrating, and, more frustratingly still, watchable despite its many flaws. Netflix can rest assured, I’ll be tuning in for the final episodes. Stronger, concise writing and a better focus on the characters and their relationships would have been a start.

But Season 5 also needed improvements on the technical scale. Things like an editing team to bully the creators into shorter, episodic-length runtimes, and better lighting in the Upside Down. But none of it matters as much as the need to refocus on who and what the heart of the series is. Instead, it’s like we’re accepting scraps, simply happy to see some of these characters again. 

Struggling under the weight of the Netflix-ification of TV aesthetics, a bloated plot, and some rote, emotionless, and checked-out line deliveries, Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 fails to reach the heights of Season 1 or Season 3. But with lovable characters whom we’ve watched grow for nearly a decade and enough intrigue to keep us watching until the end, it’s more of an expected disappointment with some secondhand embarrassment than abject failure. When it works, it works. It’s just that those moments are becoming harder won as the ending nears. 

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 is streaming now on Netflix.