REVIEW: The Duffer Brothers Write Beyond Their Capabilities In ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5

It’s been a while since a series has so wildly misunderstood its own charm as Stranger Things Season 5 does. And yes, the writing has been on the wall. It was clear from the end of Season 2 that the series was never going to be able to recapture the small-town charm of Season 1. That said, it doesn’t make the final result any less disappointing especially when it’s clear that so many of the most egregious missteps might’ve been avoided with tighter writing and if the creators, the Duffer Brothers, hadn’t attempted a late in the game, Marvel-ification of a story that was always best when it cared about the characters first, the lore, second. 

The worst part? Some moments work – a lot. Some elements speak to the early days of the series and scenes that are moving because we do care about these characters and their stories. It would be so much easier if Stranger Things Season 5 were an unmitigated disaster with no charm or warmth. A lot of it is rough and nonsensical, and there are a few major decisions that nearly ruin any shining moments the series is still capable of. But those moments with the characters and the sweeping, emotional scenes are enough to make us want to bend ourselves over backwards to try and forgive the worst of it all. 

But unfortunately, those glaring issues are unmissable. And the worst of them all is the decision to swap the lead characters, shoving Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to the background of her own series in favor of Will (Noah Schnapp) and an ensemble that is too big to handle, who chip away at the screentime the rest of the regular and original characters deserve.

The series forgets that Eleven is the main protagonist, and it throws the pacing off course.

Eleven becoming a witness to her own story is the most frustrating, though. Brown is stiff this season, no longer possessing the easy, unaffectedness that comes with younger actors. And while at first, at the start of the season, it feels like a deliberate, if poorly selected, decision, by the end, it feels more like a side effect of bad, sloppy, and dismissive writing. Her big moments – in particular her emotional scene with Mike (Finn Wolfhard) in the series finale – see the echoes of her greatest moments. She’s still capable, but the writing lets her down. 

Meanwhile, Will gets some of the most character-driven writing on the show. He undergoes a true hero’s journey that transforms him from a victimized kid into someone who can weaponize his past scars to save the day. He gets the last word, not Eleven. And it is good writing, but his scenes are nearly unbearable because Schnapp lacks the ability to emote. His scenes are stiff and shallow, dousing any hint of spark with a wave of apathetic line delivery. 

It makes the decision to write Will as the new de facto protagonist all the more perplexing. But it’s not just Will who steals the spotlight from worthier characters. While Holly Wheeler drives a major part of the plot of Stranger Things Season 5, and Nell Fisher does a commendable job of both leading the story and emulating Wolfhard and Natalia Dyer to play a believable sibling, it takes away from other characters who, somehow, despite the bloated runtime, are somehow shortchanged. It’s the same with Kali (Linnea Berthelsen). Yes, she brings about some interesting moments, but her arrival only stretches the ensemble thin. 

Sadie Sink, Gaten Matarazzo, and Caleb McLaughlin prove why they’re worthy breakouts.

The best moments of the final season revolve around the characters who have consistently been the strongest. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve (Joe Keery) have two wonderful sequences that highlight the growth of their dynamic, punctuated by a final cap where the evolution is best on display. And while Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) has often been the easiest way to suck the air out of a scene, he and Dyer shine in a fantastic, emotionally charged conversation, infused with the chemistry other interactions lack. 

Other definite standouts are Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin, whose reunion in Volume 2 is genuinely moving. We buy their mutual affections, and the sequence is surprisingly sweet and understated despite the life-or-death circumstances that lead to it. There’s feeling behind it – emoting, behind it – and it’s that ability to tap into something tangible that elicits the tears. They’re just kids happy to have found one another again. 

It’s those moments of intimacy and community that Stranger Things once thrived on. We didn’t necessarily care about the whys and hows of the Upside Down. We cared instead about a group of kids stumbling upon a girl with powers and their attempts to befriend her, which took away her loneliness. The fondness stemmed from unlikely heroes like Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve, who worked together despite their differences, and from Steve and Robin (Maya Hawke) developing a surprising yet deeply felt bond, not from their time in a secret Russian base under a mall. 

Stranger Things Season 5 is at its best when it remembers its character-driven roots. 

It’s why the best, most impactful moments of the finale are when we’re reminded of these friendships. From deliberately timed (if a bit manipulative) flashbacks to the characters’ first meetings, to call backs to previous declarations of friendship (“you die, I die”) and a final DnD campaign that hints at the characters’ future, these are the moments the series is grounded on.

It’s why we care. And yes, Matarazzo, Sink, McLaughlin, Keery, and Dyer are the real standouts of the cast this time around. Still, even the others who struggle to reach the depths of their characters’ emotional turmoil are aided by these sequences of camaraderie. 

It’s why, at the start of Season 5, the best moment was the gang working together to build a trap for one single demogorgon because it brings the story back to its more simplistic, character-driven roots. 

The writing makes what should be an epic closer stumble into a convoluted mess. 

Jamie Campbell Bower is terrific in the role, but the lore for Henry/Vecna is so overindulged in by the series’ end that it doesn’t really matter that he’s delivering a strong, nuanced performance because it becomes clear, quickly, that the Duffer brothers have lost the point of their plot.

It’s annoying to be someone who nags about loopholes in series and films. Don’t be that person. But there’s no doubt that, while watching Stranger Things Season 5, things become confusing not because of what’s been overlooked, but because the writing is convoluted in a way that makes for disorganized plotting. 

You can see it in how much has had to be explained after the fact if it isn’t clear what has happened and why, with room for some ambiguity, then the writing has failed. 

Eleven deserved better, and the writing for her character sours the otherwise moving epilogue. 

Eleven’s decision at the end simply sours the whole production. Yes, the closer works to a degree, because, again (and again), we care about so many of these characters. We want to see them have their moments of catharsis as they grieve and grow and move on from their childhoods and embark on adulthood, away from the pain and trauma they endured.

But, notably, just one character isn’t offered the same grace in a move that both undercuts the show’s seemingly early intentions about healing from cruel childhoods and finding friends who foster chances for growth, and cheapens the entire ending. There’s an interesting note buried in the finale. A note about the pains of growing up and the melancholy induced when we must let go of our childhoods to face the new paths that open up to us. But the writing takes the long way there. 

Stranger Things Season 5 is a messy, emotional, sometimes enraging close to a series that has undergone countless highs and lows. The series never regained the triumphs of its first season. Perhaps it never was going to. But the way in which the Duffer Brothers went out of their way to trample on the spirit they fostered remains confounding. There’s affection for the characters and their time in Hawkins, and some of the actors do real, genuine work to ensure we care about them until the very end. It’s just a shame the creators couldn’t put the same effort into it. 

Stranger Things Season 5 is out now on Netflix.