Stranger Things 5 Finale Review: Netflix Show Succumbs to ‘Comfort and Happiness’ Formula With a Lacklustre Finale

Stranger Things 5 Finale Review: Everyone teams up one last time to defeat Vecna and destroy the Upside Down to save Hawkins. It’s the final attempt to end the nightmare that has been haunting the town for the past few years.

Stranger Things 5 Volume 3 Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Joe Keery, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Maya Hawke, Jamie Campbell Bower, etc

Stranger Things 5 Volume 3 Review: 10 Years of Mystery Unravelled (Contains Spoilers)

Today, Netflix’s most loved and popular show, Stranger Things, comes to an end. The final season stretched over two months, with episodes divided into three different volumes. With episode eight, The Rightside Up, the Duffer Brothers make their warriors fight and treat the show’s ardent fans one last time with a glimpse of the Upside Down and the terror it carries. However, despite providing a satisfying farewell to Hawkins, the series once again slips into a safer zone with minimal narrative risks and twists.

Imagine building a mysterious and deadly world for ten years and leaving fans curious to know who’s behind it. Imagine presenting us with a terrifying antagonist like Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), who is determined to destroy Hawkins and attacks children without hesitation. Over the past seasons, numerous questions were raised, particularly about who was responsible for everything and about Mind Flayer as well. What is Vecna’s true story, and what are his intentions? Why does he fear the caves, and is someone else pulling the strings behind all the miserable events Hawkins and everyone else are going through? So many lives were lost, so many were traumatised; so many childhoods were taken, and yet the makers hurried to wrap things up and gave one of the strongest antagonists an underwhelming ending.

Stranger Things 5 Finale Review: An Underwhelming Approach

It only takes an hour for Vecna to meet his end in the two-hour episode. During that hour, there is no real threat or sense of collateral damage that could derail the plan. After all, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) had already hinted at what she might do. So it ended up being a completely smooth landing for our characters to escape the Upside Down horror. The next hour shifts to the post-Vecna phase with a time jump, where the characters navigate different emotions. But here’s the thing: the pacing is so rushed that you barely feel any of it. No speeches or heartfelt conversations move you as expected, and it’s quite disappointing considering the show once made you emotional with how deeply the characters were affected by the plot’s tragedies.

Just like Volume 2, what makes Volume 3 dull is the overly cautious approach to both the characters and the storytelling. Hawkins no longer feels like the terror-stricken and ominous place it once was. The setting no longer evokes the same atmosphere that once enveloped the town in a cloud of horror, unless someone explicitly reminds them of the battle they have to fight. If that wasn’t enough, the performances didn’t elevate the experience either.

Stranger Things 5 Finale Review: Weak Performances, Rushed Emotions

The makers did include some crucial emotional moments in the final episode. Sadly, not all of them land as expected or leave a lasting impression. The writing and performances fail to evoke emotion in what should have been a heartbreaking scene between Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and El. The intention was to leave you feeling worried and questioning the fate of Mike and El. Unfortunately, the acting, especially Finn’s, doesn’t make the scene gripping. Similarly, there’s a sequence between Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and Robin (played by Charlie Heaton, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, and Maya Hawke) in the last 20 minutes. Even that feels like it was written just to tie loose ends; the same goes for our ‘freaks’ at the end. Will’s (Noah Schnapp) arc is completely sidelined. So it leaves you confused as to why he became such a central focus, especially with such heavy revelations in the seventh episode?

The reason these scenes fail to make a significant impact is that we’re never given a moment to feel the tragedy or loss. In the two hours, so many things occur, yet barely anything feels memorable. The loss that should matter in the end is ignored on screen. So, how are we supposed to empathise with and understand the characters’ struggles? I also believe that the two-hour duration adds to the sense that things are hurried and incomplete, even though most characters receive conclusions. But primarily, the show has succumbed to its writing and execution, as Season 5 feels like an entirely different zone and world from the first four seasons of Stranger Things.

Stranger Things 5 Finale Review: The Bright Side

Let’s now discuss the positive aspects of Stranger Things 5. As expected, we see Natalia Dyer’s Nancy shift into fearless mode and unleash her badass energy in the final battle. Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven/El wasn’t well used this season, and her powers weren’t fully showcased until Volume 2. However, the weak and hurried writing reduces the impact of a mind-blowing sequence between El and Vecna. Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), who played a pivotal role in the first two seasons, appears in another sequence that I absolutely adore. Joyce expresses that rage and grief quite well. Jamie Campbell Bower truly embodies both Vecna and Henry with such conviction, which is exactly why he remains the major villain fans wanted to learn more about. In whatever limited screen time Jamie got in the final episode, the actor genuinely impressed with his range: anger, terror, fear, and sadness. However, the finale underused the actor’s talent and poorly handled Vecna’s arc.

Stranger Things 5 Finale Review: Final Thoughts

All in all, Stranger Things 5 successfully concludes the story it started, and the final journey is sure to captivate fans. But as one of the characters says, “comfort and happiness”, and the show has become a victim of that in its final chapter. It seems like the approach the Duffer Brothers had, and hence we see barely any risks and an uneven narrative flow. There’s also a sense of betrayal, considering the worldbuilding was so intricate and deep, and the answers were revealed in such an abrupt manner.