Stream It Or Skip It?

Believe it or not, the fourth season of Netflix’s megahit Stranger Things dropped almost three-and-a-half years ago. It’s gotten to the point where it’s almost become a side gig to monitor just how not-teenagery the teen characters now look, given the fact that most of the actors playing them are well into their twenties now. But, after five seasons over nine years, the Duffer Brothers are promising an epic final season. We just want a season that has everyone where the series began, in Hawkins, Indiana.

STRANGER THINGS SEASON 5: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “November 12, 1983”. A young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) tries to keep himself sane while in the Upside Down. But he’s chased by a demogorgon, and despite trying to escape, he gets caught. He meets Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) for the first time, and the demon starts to merge his consciousness with Will’s.

The Gist:  “November 3, 1987.” About eighteen months after the schism created by the battle Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and the gang had with Vecna, we hear from the new WSQK (“The Squawk”) DJ “Rockin’” Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) that the entire town of Hawkins has been put under military quarantine, with the miles-long schism being covered by metal plates. Her engineer is Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), who still competes with Jon Byers (Charlie Heaton) whenever Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), who runs the station, is around.

In the meantime, Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) is still wearing a Hellfire Club shirt, and is constantly being bullied by Andy (Clayton Royal Johnson) for it. Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) defend him, but they’re thinking that, in their quest to find Vecna, they should all be laying low and not attracting attention.

That’s what the gang has been doing these 18 months; utilizing intelligence given to them by Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) to enter the Upside Down when the military does a burn. The person going in is Hopper (David Harbour); during these “crawls,” he stays in radio contact with Will and Jon’s mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) and the rest of the gang via a complicated transmission setup. So far, though, Vecna hasn’t been found. Eleven has been training to go in, but at this point Hooper will only let her access the Upside Down via sensory deprivation.

In the meantime, Mike and Nancy’s tween sister Holly (Nell Fisher), keeps talking to a man that no one else sees; she calls him “Mr. Whatsit.” She thinks he’s there to protect her, and Mike encourages her to be brave in the face of the unknown. But it also seems that there’s a reason why she’s seeing this Mr. Whatzit.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? At this point, it’s hard to compare Stranger Things to other shows; in fact, over the last nine years, there have been a ton of shows hoping to catch the vibe of Stranger Things with similar storylines.

Our Take: One thing we can say about Stranger Things as it starts its final season is that the Duffer Brothers had the good sense to conceive of a way to keep the gang in Hawkins as the action begins. Seasons 3 and 4 had everyone so spread out that the idea of this gang of teenagers can outwit both the demons and the government got lost. At least at the beginning of Season 5 they’re all in one place, even if that place is pretty much under martial law.

There is still a governmental element to the story, as Eleven is wanted by a new and mysterious government scientist, Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), who is studying the demogorgons and any other creatures found in the Upside Down. Eleven has eluded capture so far, and insists she can physically handle fighting Vecna. But Hopper is just as cautious about sending her in as Joyce is about having Will do any heavy lifting during the crawls. He’s becoming more physically affected as the crawls progress, and neither he nor the gang know if that means they’re getting closer to Vecna or not.

We haven’t mentioned Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) because she’s still in a coma after her run-in with Vecna. How she’ll integrate back into the gang is going to be interesting, but we’re pretty sure she will do it.

The tone of the fifth season definitely starts our more serious than the beginnings of previous seasons, but the gang is up to serious business. Can the show still get messy as it barrels towards the feature-length series finale that’s coming out on December 31? Absolutely. But we were pleasantly surprised at how focused the season is at its start.

Performance Worth Watching: Linda Hamilton was a great “get” as Dr. Kay. We know that she can play a tough-as-nails character whose morals are likely compromised. Plus, she somehow manages to rock the same hairstyle as Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) had.

Sex And Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Holly sees a demogorgon for the first time, but we bet it won’t be the last.

Sleeper Star: We can all joke about how old all of the “teens” are on this show — Brown became a mom right before this season came out! — but the chemistry that they all have after nine years is still apparent, which is why we like it when they’re all in one place.

Most Pilot-y Line: Robin jokes to her candy-striper girlfriend Vicky (Amybeth McNulty) that she was able to afford a fancy dinner by stealing money off the dead guy that was just in the room where they were talking.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re cautiously optimistic that the Duffers can conclude Stranger Things in a way that revives the spirit of the early seasons, even if that is transformed by the sheer scale of what they are now trying to defeat. The first episode tells us that they’re off to a good start.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.