‘Stranger Things’ Finale Blues: Netflix Megahit Got Too Big for Its Own Good | Commentary

After a five-year wait, divided into three parts with increased running times, “Stranger Things” finally came to an end.

The Duffer brothers’ love letter to ‘80s sci-fi was given a grand sendoff with a 125-minute long final episode that brought an end to the tyrannical reign of Vecna and the prison of the Upside Down. So far, reviews have been mixed to negative. Fans on Reddit have lamented the number of plot holes and rushed nature of the final confrontation, while some critics called the show out for playing it safe. Such quibbles may not matter in the grand scheme of things, of course. Netflix put a reported $400 – 480 million into Season 5 (making it one of the most expensive seasons of TV ever made), and chances are the ratings numbers will prove that decision right.

From a business perspective, “Stranger Things” has been an unmitigated success for the streaming giant. Creatively, however, it’s a familiar tale of a promising concept gone awry thanks to time, money and vaulting ambition.

In the Summer of 2016, the arrival of “Stranger Things” was an unexpected surprise for audiences whose popularity Netflix did not predict. Here was a show with one major star in its roster, a pair of unknown showrunners, and little pre-release hype in a summer where bingeing an entire season of TV was still a novelty. It’s a brilliant season of TV, a proud slice of nostalgic sci-fi that wore its many inspirations on its sleeve: Stephen King, John Carpenter and Hughes, “E.T.” and “Dungeons & Dragons” and the Burton-esque goth chic previously defined by its star, Winona Ryder.

While it could hardly be accused of originality, that wasn’t the point because “Stranger Things” still felt vibrant and utilized its nostalgic lens so efficiently. Looking back on that season, it’s remarkable how tightly plotted it is. So much is fitted into a remarkably short period of time, including the fleshing out of the town of Hawkins and its dynamics of class and suspicion. Here was a real town full of people whose interpersonal relationships gave the story sturdy foundations for its jaunts into the supernatural. And it ended so satisfyingly, albeit with that sequel hook that felt extremely King-esque.

In hindsight, its mega-success seems predictable, but nobody saw it coming, least of all Netflix. And the streamer eagerly milked the series that formed arguably its most reliable and profitable IP. “Stranger Things” grew into a merchandising machine, from toys and board games to KFC tie-ins and a Broadway prequel play. It is, to put it bluntly, the MCU of Netflix. And like that franchise, the need to be ever-expanding hindered its creativity.

The Duffer brothers initially planned for the second season of “Stranger Things” to be a limited series installment with its own arc independent of its predecessor, but Netflix encouraged them to fold all of their ideas into the wider arc of their now megahit. Looking back, you can tell, and it’s painfully evident in the final season, where the push to make everything bigger and more complicated led to the wheels flying off the overburdened vehicle.

Many of the problems in Season 5 are, in hindsight, rooted in Season 4 Episode runtimes became unwieldy and bloated, making it near-impossible or desirable for audiences to binge-watch as they had previously done with such zeal. The expanding cast split into fragments and moved to various locations with their own tedious subplots, such as Hopper (David Harbour) being stuck in a Soviet gulag for what felt like decades. Exposition dumps made up most of the dialogue and did little to provide life or stakes to the world the Duffers created. The grounding appeal of Hawkins was gone and the glut of expanding mythos excessive. The overreliance on nostalgic beats and “Hey, I recognise that thing” moments provided some verve, such as the use of Kate Bush and Metallica music, but it also drove home the issues of relying on reminiscence over storytelling.

So much of the final season felt like a cycle on repeat. We got bloated episodes largely made up of scenes featuring lots of people in rooms talking about what they were going to do about Vecna, usually featuring a character utilising a random object or ‘80s-specific prop to illustrate their plan, then ones of various people talking about their feelings mid-action. Moments where people, in the midst of abject danger, paused to have a heartfelt chat in the Upside Down felt like parody. There were too many characters and not enough focus, so moments that should have been intimate felt like house parties where the camera couldn’t decide who to focus on. What was missing was the hangout quality of that first season, where friends had cozy moments amid the drama that added real pathos to the fantastical backdrop. Needlessly protracted scenes of growth, like Will Byers (Noah Schapp) coming out as gay or Jonathan and Nancy’s breakup, eschewed authenticity in favor of therapy speak, which is more convenient for pacing but ill-fitting within everything else. It all just got too big too fast.

It’s a common side effect of both franchise filmmaking and of many TV series trying to aim for the stars without a safety net. Watching “Stranger Things,” it’s easy to think of “Game of Thrones” or “Lost,” two beloved speculative shows with grand ambitions that knew they could never pay it all off and left things floundering in their final seasons. Granted, with “Game of Thrones,” we had a show where the writers ran out of source material and tried to wrap up potentially thousands of pages of story in one season. Yet the parallels are obvious.

The more popular each series got, the bigger their budgets became, alongside the showrunners’ canvases. The world expanded and the stakes got higher, going beyond the creator’s capabilities. There were too many characters to check in with and they’d lost the various dynamics and motivations we’d previously loved them for. Like “Game of Thrones,” the battle scenes became repetitive and dominated by poor-quality VFX — it’s remarkable how cheap this season looks, despite reportedly being one of the most expensive in the medium’s history. Most of the actors look checked out from the drama. And it all ends with a “that’s it?” climax that feels as though it was rushed out to make a deadline.

When a show like “Stranger Things” builds itself up to a size that is impossible to maintain, it is perhaps inevitable that its conclusion should feel not only so overwhelming but utterly joyless. It’s a far cry from that first season, which was ruthless in its efficiency and an unfiltered blast to watch. But how could it have ended any other way? Netflix didn’t want their mega-hit to end, so they put more money into it, let the showrunners go as big as they dreamed and knew it would be a ratings smash without fail. When there are so many wheels to turn, just keeping them all turning becomes good enough, and in its climax, “Stranger Things” knew that being serviceable was all they had to do.

What a letdown from that fevered summer of 2016 when we saw something worth getting excited about, but business is business, and Netflix succeeded on every count.

“Stranger Things” is now streaming on Netflix.

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