Stranger Things Season 5: The Duffer Brothers’ Messy Conclusion

I have been a fan of Stranger Things since the very beginning, and I was quite excited for the final season to be released. Not only to see what the future holds for the characters that I’ve grown to love, but to see how the Duffer Brothers were going to wrap the whole story together.

After eagerly waiting for the New Year to roll around to watch the final sections of the last season. I didn’t hate it but, I am slightly disappointed.

One point I keep finding myself circling back to is the fact that the show’s plot is supposed to be taking place over the span of four years, yet the show has existed in real time for over a decade.

Normally, this wouldn’t really bother me as long as there is an effort made to conceal the actors changing.

So when Eleven comes on screen serving face with her lip filler, I can’t help but notice. They didn’t help Millie Bobby Brown enough to look like a 16-year-old in 1980’s small-town Indiana.

This is not to blame any cast member in particular or even anyone in general. I think this is more of a reflection on the production and writing teams, considering the Duffer Brothers admitted to not even having the finale’s script finished by the start of filming Season 5.

That, to me, was the most disappointing part of this entire experience. Because what do you mean? You had 10+ years to prepare some ideas for the future of the show.

This highlights the lack of explanation of many seemingly important points throughout the show. This is the final season, you have the highest budget for any Netflix show ever (roughly $450 million), and you still left your fan base with so many questions.

Why was Nov. 6 so important? What is the correlation to the same date being on the Playbill 20 years before Will’s disappearance? Why did Will talk about getting milkshakes from the drug store his mom worked at?

Who was that guy that Henry encountered in the cave, and how did he gain possession of the mind flayer? How did the mindflayer even get to Earth?

Why were there no demo-bats/dogs or demogorgons in the upside down or even Vecna’s world in Season 5? Did they disappear just in time for the entire cast to waltz right through the upside-down and kill an immortal sorcerer-demon-evil warlord? And with little-to-no trouble?

Overall, if I could rate it out of ten, I’d say it’s a seven. I have been through the finale of Game of Thrones, and I don’t think the Duffer Brothers fumbled nearly as hard as Benioff and Weiss.

There were wholesome moments that felt like closure from the cast, an amazing soundtrack, as always, and it did feel very final for the characters, which I count as good things.

Unfortunately, the poor and lazy writing was too apparent while watching.

The Duffer Brothers didn’t want to hurt their fans by killing anyone too important off, but they did? Then they said she didn’t die?

I understand the concept of leaving it up to the fans to decide, but there should have just been more. I’m sure it has to do with one of the many fan theories; divorce, or sibling rivalry, or even Netflix wanting to hold onto the opportunity to continue to capitalize off of the original show with spinoffs, sequels, prequels, the whole shabang.

SNL said the other night, ‘Netflix found their Star Wars,’ and I couldn’t be less excited to see CEOs and executives milk every little bit out of the show.

Noah Schnapp, left, as Will Byers, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler and Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers in Season 5 of “Stranger Things.” (Netflix/TNS)