Contains spoilers for “Stranger Things” Season 5, Episode 7 — “The Bridge”
Netflix’s hit series “Stranger Things” is coming to an end after nearly a decade … and even the show’s most diehard fans can probably admit to themselves that parts of the Duffer Brothers’ show don’t exactly hold water. Whether or not you agree with that, you should definitely check out our video above if you want to see some of the dumb stuff we just can’t ignore in Season 5, Part 2 of “Stranger Things.”
The final season of “Stranger Things” — a series about a fictional town plagued by supernatural occurrences named Hawkins, Indiana — has been released in a couple of batches by Netflix, with four episodes dropping for Thanksgiving and three more to celebrate Christmas. With the massive, movie-length series finale set to hit Netflix on New Year’s Eve (which bears the ominous title “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”), we should probably be honest and admit that some aspects of “Stranger Things” Season 2 Part 2 are just absolutely silly.
Take, for example, the lengths of these episodes. They are, to put it lightly, too long. Frankly, a lot of stuff that could have been wrapped up in this final season concerning our main gang — brothers Will and Jonathan Byers (Noah Schnapp and Charlie Heaton), siblings Mike and Nancy Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard and Natalia Dyer), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and parental figures Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper (Winona Ryder and David Harbour) — much more quickly. The episodes feel like they’re spinning their wheels, which just isn’t fun … so what else are we letting slide in the final season of “Stranger Things?”
There’s some seriously dumb stuff in Stranger Things Season 5 Part 2, and you can see it in our video
Something really puzzling about “Stranger Things” Season 5, Part 2 is how much the Broadway play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” comes into play, even though we’d wager that most people tuning into the final season didn’t get a chance to actually watch this stage show. For one, there’s a strange(r) moment in Episode 6 (“Escape from Camazotz”) where Max and the recast Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) encounter a strange vision, while they’re trapped in the mindspace of villain Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower), of a man holding a briefcase and a gun. Wondering what that’s about, but didn’t see “The First Shadow?” The show won’t explain it!
Plus, the show is also just repeating its own greatest hits. Not only are we treated to yet another sequence where Max escapes a harrowing situation involving the Upside Down and Vecna by playing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” but when Will tries to come out to his friends and family, he simply recycles Robin’s words to do so instead of getting a more original monologue. We’ve been waiting for Will to come to terms with his sexuality for several seasons of “Stranger Things” now, so what gives? Why mute this moment with rehashed words? Then there’s the Kali of it all. The character known as “Eight,” played by Linnea Berthelsen and not seen since that ill-advised Season 2 episode that sent Eleven on a road trip, is back; sort of feels like the Duffers needed to justify her showing up in the first place.
“Stranger Things” is still great, but there’s still some dumb stuff we have to overlook. The final episode airs on December 31 on Netflix.