Stranger Things Season 5 Aussie Review
I really like this show. I watched it with one of my teenage sons and it was one of the few TV shows we've ever watched together. As a child of the 80s and 90s, I can appreciate the nostalgia of it, the good old fashioned values and togetherness of the friends. I never played D&D but I am a fantasy novelist and a gamer who has played World of Warcraft since day one (one of many digital evolutions of D&D).
Click the above image to download my free Stranger Things Season 5 wallpaper.
My friends and I were more into watching movies and playing Nintendo 64 at sleepovers, but the principle was the same. A cozy space with no adults allowed, snacks, cubbies and recreational entertainment. As for the biking all over the neighbourhood, that was something I did (or ride my horse), but my friends didn't have such affluence and usually walked everywhere.
They would have loved Stranger Things, but as a youngster I avoided anything remotely horror or thriller. It wasn't until at least 14 that I started to appreciate science fiction, which started with Star Wars and Star Trek. The Matrix came out in my final year of high school, which may be why I see it as one of the most significant movies I have ever loved. My 18th birthday party had a Matrix theme. My 21st was Stargate SG-1 (I even had a giant stargate for people to walk through).
So, I am a big fan of speculative fiction and Stranger Things ticked a lot of boxes, for me. As a writer who plans the story and plot of The Psion Saga extensively, however, I don't appreciate when things seem rushed or illogical. I am a strong believer in internal logic within fantasy and scifi. You can have the most imaginative and out there world, but the whole text seems ridiculous when you lack internal consistency. I try to put science and logic into my worlds and I am often disappointed when something doesn't make sense in a TV show or movie. This happens less often with books as they have the proper space to world-build.
The Planets Colliding
Take the collision of Earth and the alien planet in Stranger Things Season 5. We got so close together that children standing on top of a 1980s radio tower could jump from one to the other. That didn't fuck up the orbit of the Earth, the moon, the tides, the weather, the people standing right underneath it? I was yelling at the TV by that point, but of course I decided, Meh, just go with it. You have to do that when you watch Stranger Things.
The Emotions
Spoiler alert
Was Stranger Things Season 5 directed at an audience that loves drama more than science fiction? I always thought it was supposed to be a sort of horror-thriller-scifi mashup. Season Five was almost a daytime telly soap, they felt the need to wrap up so many of the relationship arcs before the final ep. I am OK with a bit of K-U-M-B-A-Y-A, but we need to keep some things real with so much fantasy going on around us. A lot of that hugging and making up stuff felt really over-the-top to me.
I felt that I could see the strain on the actors to make it work. They all did a fine job, in my opinion, but did the Duffer brothers and their team of writers really write all this? Is there a dial somewhere that a big picture person simply turned up after declaring, 'Make it more tear-jerking!' Was any of the dialogue in this script AI generated?
The characters are compelling, don't get me wrong. I loved seeing Mike's mum and Holly actually do something. There was much less emphasis on the boys and men in Season 5, and it was far more about the women kicking butt. Nancy is the showstopper on that front, coming forward with her dead-eye shooting ability from earlier seasons to become some sort of female Rambo action hero. She looked too tiny to be able to carry all that weaponry, but I support a gutsy heroine, nonetheless.
Everyone had their role to play, which was nice storytelling. I'm always impressed when a piece of fiction can juggle so many different characters, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, desires and mindset. I just felt that there was too much crying, hugging, admitting one's faults and making up. Does anybody really do this? Are we really expected to believe that these cocky young adults would become so self-deprecating?
After Steve and Henderson's fisticuffs it soon flipped around to fear of loss of his new best friend. Come again? This boy did not even give a shit about Henderson being bashed up by bullies so badly that he lost consciousness! He was angry at him for not showing up (while unconscious), blaming him for the actions of the bullies because he did things like wear a provocative T-shirt! Those bullies never featured again, after such a big set up, which smacks of a cut, to me. Then again, it isn't trite like The Never Ending Story.
I cringed a bit when Will came out to everyone, but it really was a big thing to do, back then. Nowadays, I am not sure it would be, but I do live in secular Australia, not the right-wing USA. Will never really draws a lot of attention to himself, so it was nice that he got some growth moments in Season 5. These were times when even his over-protective mother was forced to stand back and admit the need to let him loose on Vecna. If it wasn't for Will, they would not have overcome him.
Ultimately, even Will's compassion did not redeem Vecna, who turned out to be a boy possessed, just like he was.
One's Backstory
The background of boyscout Henry was sad, but a bit confusing. If you think about the previous seasons, it seems like they just changed their mind for Season 5 and rewrote his backstory. It was originally the case that Henry was inexplicably born with psychokinetic powers, wasn't it? Now, he actually was a sweet little boyscout who was willing to risk his own life to see if a voice in a tunnel came from someone needing rescuing.
A mysterious case contained some kind of alien stone that transferred the Mindflayer's consciousness into young Henry, creating the psycho-psychic killer we know as Vecna. I am not sure why such a powerful alien being would need a human vessel. It has the technology to possess other beings, create wormholes, move planets, become a meat monster on Earth, become a weirdly colossal 13-legged spider on its own planet and to control hundreds/thousands of lesser alien animals (with hive-mind-level dominance). Why did it need Henry, again?
Becoming one with such a fragile little sinew-man created its ultimate weakness and provided a way for other tiny humans to slay it. This by (a) impaling Vecna on a conveniently dangerous bone-spike inside its own heart chamber, to keep him from moving, and ultimately by (b) Joyce chopping Vecna's head off. I am glad Joyce got the triumph of finally killing this monster, as she was and always will be my favourite character and actress in this series. Winona Ryder has been absolutely convincing in this role from day one. Perhaps it's because I'm a single mother of teenage boys, myself, that I relate so much to her.
The Mindflayer
I love a good monster. By that, I mean anything large, vicious and creative. The behemoth-sized Mindflayer spider in the end of Season Five prompted a 'Cool!' and an 'Awesome!' from me, but my hopes were soon dashed. Sure, all our heroes were finally together, working in unison using all their strengths to overcome it. Sure, Eleven was inside fighting Vecna, who had both a physical and a psychic link to the creature (their heart literally beating as one). Sure, the puny humans outside had flamethrowers and guns and stuff.
But come on! The unfurling of that weird fortress, with the upwards facing spines turning out to be legs. That was something... but that gigantic beast died within minutes. Minutes! I know CGI is expensive, and our heroes are awesome, but really!? A small one of those wouldn't be easy to kill and it was the size of small town.
I loved the way they tied it to the shadowy psychological form of the Mindflayer that appeared earlier in the series (and the meat monster version of it). I was like, OK here is the real thing. The real monster.
But then they killed it. Without anyone getting killed or even seriously hurt. I mean, those asshole bullies did more damage than this thing...!
In 12 minutes.
There wasn't even a suggestion that this was just a screen representation of a much longer fight. It was literally all over very soon after it began. This being was nothing to them. A bug to be squashed.
There aren't enough truly terrifying big monster fight scenes in movies and TV shows, because everyone is always in such a hurry to wrap things up. It is a story-telling problem for the medium, so I digress.
The Ending
Spoiler alert
Did Eleven really die, or did she live?
Kali (Eight) was the one trying to convince Eleven to end her life, so it makes no sense that she would then save her life. This would require her to believe that a fake death would be just as effective at preventing her from being captured and bled, like she herself was. Furthermore, Mike's reference to the use of the jamming devices stopping Eleven from using her powers made no sense to me, because Eleven didn't even use her powers right then. She was just standing in the blast zone of the bridge (the Upside Down) when the bombs went off.
Mike's new fantasy about El going off to a town in Switzerland with two waterfalls was just that. A self-soothing fantasy he can believe in, rather than face the death of his beloved. I am nobody to judge about using fantasy to cope with mental anguish. But that's a tale for another post.
AI disclosure: While I did not use any AI tools to write this article, I did research using them for a few of the spelling or plot points I wanted to double-check. The planet collision and crying poster graphics were generated using Bing Copilot.
Disclaimer: This article reflects my personal views and interpretations. While I strive for accuracy, any errors or omissions are my own. All referenced media, including images from or inspired by Stranger Things, are used under fair dealing for the purpose of review and commentary. Stranger Things is © Netflix
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