"Stranger Things Season 5, Part 2": Beyond the Horror

Contents

The end is near. In the face of impending apocalypse, the moment arrives when people look into each other's eyes one last time and finally say what has been on their minds for years. Doesn't that feel good?

Yes, it does. However, constantly fulfilling long-prepared key moments can itself become tiring. "Stranger Things" lives on nostalgia – and towards the end of the series, that also means many things unfold pretty much as they have been doing since the 1980s. Some punchlines are more modern, but anyone who has watched reasonably attentively up to this point won't be surprised by them anymore.

Chronic Nosebleeds

After four and a half seasons, "Stranger Things" can still repeatedly show how well it understands its own references, how fluidly it can switch between genres and narrative threads. This is extremely entertaining, and it is once again carried by a large and well-rehearsed ensemble. However, watching it also inevitably makes you look forward to the end. Slowly, it's enough.

The signs of fatigue are hard to avoid given the runtime. Each individual episode of the season feels overly long with a runtime exceeding the hour mark. After various more or less averted catastrophes, pretty much everything has already happened in "Stranger Things." When characters bleed from their noses or eyes, when the villain Vecna once again slithers around and plugs poor children into his sinister plan, it's only incidentally disturbing. All these images were once more effective. Here, they are just a quote of a quote.

Out with the Trauma

The obvious, big ending that Mike, El, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Holly, and an ever-growing ensemble of resurrected side characters are heading towards is overdue. However, that's precisely what works for the series. Even the young main roles are remarkably well-played: Nell Fisher as Holly and Jake Connelly as Derek are convincing even in the most outlandish situations. It repeatedly feels believable when the heroines and heroes of the story, together with the audience, have had enough and understand that it is precisely the unspoken fear that allows evil to win.

And then they take a deep breath and finally say what has been obvious for years. These moments occur again and again, between different characters, and therefore feel both overdue and overused. "Stranger Things" has always revolved around nostalgia, and even if it's occasionally turned inside out or reinterpreted here, in the end, exactly what you expect has to happen.