Stranger Things, series five: ‘grander and gorier’ than ever

“We’re finally here,” said Vicky Jessop in London’s The Standard. Nearly a decade on from the first episode of “Stranger Things”, the Duffer Brothers are “finally bringing the curtain down on their blockbuster hit show. What a ride it’s been.”

The fresh-faced kids “aren’t so little anymore”, which is “appropriate because this feels like the most adult the show has ever been”. Series five veers into “much darker territory”: the town of Hawkins is now under full military quarantine and Demogorgons are “slashing people around like pinatas”, blood and guts flying everywhere.

Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery) now work for a local radio station, while Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is on the run from the armed forces who understandably see her as a “massive threat”. Meanwhile, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and his friends are helping Hopper (David Harbour) conduct “elaborate ‘sweeps’ of the Upside Down” to find and defeat the evil Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).

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From “dark humour” to “whimsy” and the “poetry of trauma and hard-earned resilience”, the show’s “trademark” ingredients remain intact, said Leila Latif in Empire. “Most reassuring of all is how quickly the show proves it has not lost its sense of fun.” The performances are “largely excellent”, and Nell Fisher as Mike’s little sister, Holly, is a “delightful” addition to the cast. “Grander and gorier” than previous series, the latest season proves that “both our heroes and their deadliest foes still have thrilling new tricks up their sleeves”.

But there are “plot snags” that “cumulatively eat away at our suspension of disbelief”, said Angie Han in The Hollywood Reporter, and the main characters “look very much like the 20-somethings they are, rather than the roughly 16-year-olds they’re meant to be playing”.

Some of the show’s elements are becoming “repetitive”, said Laura Martin on BBC Culture, and “surely even Kate Bush is exhausted by ‘Running Up That Hill’ by now”. However, this is “poking small holes in a giant televisual beast. No ‘Stranger Things’ fan is going away disappointed” from the first four episodes, which means “anticipation for the rest of the season”, when it drops over Christmas, will be “at fever pitch”.

Episode four, leading up to an “epic battle between the demons, the military and the people of Hawkins” is the show at its very best. With grenades, gunfire and “two explosive twists in the final minutes”, it’s a “thrilling” watch – and, if it’s a sign of how the Duffer Brothers plan to conclude the show, then we “are in for an all-time great TV ending”.