Look, nobody expected Stranger Things to stay that scrappy little ’80s love letter forever. The kids are basically adults. So here we are in 1987, Hawkins is one giant crater under military lockdown, and Season 5 kicks off looking less like a John Carpenter flick and more like the love child of Harry Potter and Wednesday Addams wearing a Members Only jacket.
The gang is still adorable, and the synchronisation is there. Eleven is out in the desert doing Jedi training with Hopper and Joyce, Mike and Dustin are building gadgets like it’s Mission: Impossible, and little Holly Wheeler gets snatched by Vecna, cue Home Alone-style chaos with Demogorgons instead of burglars. It’s fun, it’s loud, it’s emotional when it wants to be.
However, the CGI is a lot. The Upside Down is looking like a $300 million video game cutscene now, and some of the monster chases are feeling more like Transformers than The Thing. The show used to give off a handmade, somewhat dangerous vibe; now it feels like it has gone through the grind and focus-group testing.
Is it bad? No. Is it still a binge-watching comfort food? Yes, completely. It just doesn’t feel unique anymore, more like the last season of a franchise that outgrew its Walkman. Volume 1 is pretty good Saturday-morning popcorn with a few genuine heart-tugs, but the magic trick is no longer there. Let’s wait and see if Volume 2 can deliver the goods and make our Hawkins crew exit with some of that old retro glitter. Fingers crossed, nerds.
