Deep into the Upside-Down

Well, here we are: the end of some kind of era. Stranger Things is the NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). show. It’s not that it put Netflix on the map, or even that it was Netflix’s first huge, breakout series, but it was the first show Netflix produced that became appointment viewing without the need for a Marvel branded logo at the front. Yes we had House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, followed by Daredevil and Jessica Jones and all of that, and all those shows that Netflix’s streaming ambitions really could work. But Stranger Things took it all to a different level. Stranger Things became a phenomenon.

It’s also a show that feels like it came from a different time. Netflix doesn’t really make shows like this very often, with scaled down ambitions and shorter runs of shows. Stranger Things has somehow managed to make it to five seasons, and has a massive production budget (reportedly over $400 Mil for season five alone), which almost never happens on Netflix at this point. The next big show to truly catch the zeitgeist was Squid Game, and that show struggled to make it to three seasons. Stranger Things is at five, and while that’s still only going to be just over 40 episodes by the time the series is said and done, that’s nearly 30 episodes more than most shows on Netflix ever get.

The series also shows the cracks in Netflix’s armor, though. The streamer loves its “dump all the episodes at once” strategy, but this last season of Stranger Things has been broken up into three chunks, the first of which debuted for Thanksgiving. Four episodes now, three around Christmas, and then the final episode of the series on New Year’s Eve. It’s both dumped out but also strung along so Netflix can try and get the watercooler talk going that other, weekly released, shows manage all the time. Netflix wants to have cake and eat it too, but once this show is done… what’s the next thing Netflix can milk like this? And if they have to milk Stranger Things in this way, what does that say about their whole strategy to begin with?

What it does, though, is put Stranger Things in a weird place. It has to both have a cohesive, final season but it also has to deliver solid chunks of storytelling in three bursts. Do we review season five as a whole, or look at it through the lens of just these first four episodes so far. Considering this is all we have for a month, that’s what I’m going to look at right now, and, well, I just don’t know. So far this first chunk of the last season isn’t really hitting it for me. Sure, the show has felt off-kilter and a little wobbly for its last couple of runs, with season three and season four both struggling to match the storytelling power of season one and season two. But even in comparison to those later seasons, season five is a lumbering, stumbling mess.

The problem with the show, and this affects all the plotlines going on in this fifth and final season, is that it has too many characters that all, collectively, have far too little to do. Over the course of four seasons the show built up a huge cast of characters, most of whom have managed to survive all the tricks, traps, and monsters that the series has thrown at them. We have the original four boys – Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas – as well as their magical friend, Eleven, their older siblings, their parents, and even some random friends they’ve made along the way. It’s so many characters, with even more added this season as a new set of younger children are brought into the fold as well.

Occasionally someone is introduced that is then killed part way into the season (Barb in season one, Bob in season two, Eddie in season four) just so the show can illustrate that “anyone could die”, but that’s really a lie. The main cast has plot armor so thick nothing can penetrate, and it’s led to a season that is absolutely bloated with characters that don’t need to be there. Because there are so many characters, a lot of them spend time running around, doing tasks that, in the end, don’t amount to much at all. It leaves the first four episodes of this season feeling incredibly padded for no real reason.

We can illustrate this best by looking at the actual plot of the season so far. When last we checked in on Stranger Things (at the end of season four) all of the cast were back in Hawkins, Indiana, having just watched Vecna (the evil villain pulling strings from the alternate dimension, the Upside-Down) break his power out into the real world, causing cracks across town and raining ash and brimstone down on the world. Since then, though, the U.S. military has moved in, patching the cracks over with metal plates and somehow stopping Vecna in his tracks… for now. But our heroes doubt that Venca is done, not by a long shot.

Having watched the military, the heroes all know the schedule. They know when the military is going to make a convoy dive into the Upside-Down (which is something we’ll have to discuss in a bit) and they have a way to tag along for the ride and so “crawls” through the Upside-Down to try and look for Vecna. Hopper handles these missions, going in solo, while some of the crew rides along beside him in the main world, tracking him via transmitter. However, when the military convoy is attacked it leaves Hopper stranded in the Upside-Down, seemingly on his own without a way back. At the same time, Vecna has apparently been making plans to kidnap Mike’s little sister, Holly, and drag her off to the Upside-Down for some nefarious reason. He sends one of his demogorgon beasts in, kidnaps the girl, and it forces Eleven to run after it, to the Upside-Down, to try and track the beast and get the girl back.

Oh, and Holly isn’t the only kid that Venca wants. The team learns, from Will (who is somehow now deeply connected to Vecna’s demogorgon hive mind), that Vecna needs twelve kids to complete his plan, and this will allow the villain to do… something. So they have to protect as many of the kids as they can, preventing their kidnappings by the demogorgons, lest Vecna get the power he needs to do whatever it is he needs to do. Oh, and Max (who is also in a coma) is somehow in Venca’s hive mind and… well, we’re not sure what she can do just yet…

It’s both a lot to write about and yet not much of consequence really happens. That’s because Venca is the villain and he’s barely in these first four episodes. Each season of Stranger Things up until now would set up a mystery for the kids to solve, some nefarious thing going on in the Upside-Down, and the kids would all band together and save the day. Except here, despite the show trying to set up that same structure, it doesn’t actually work as well. We already know who the villain is (it’s Venca, spoilers), so the only mystery is what he’s planning… and after four episodes we don’t even know that. This leads to the characters running around a lot, trying to prevent something they don’t understand and, because this is only the first half of an eight episode season, they obviously can’t succeed because then there wouldn’t be anything else to do this season. It’s all filler.

Of the sprawling cast of easily fifteen-plus characters, only three so far really have any arcs. Holly, being the new kid the show focuses on, gets plenty of screen time and a decent amount of development. She’s essential to the plot of the season since she’s our gateway character into Vecna’s plot, whatever that may eventually be. Will is also essential as he’s the real world connection to Vecna. All the important information about the villain, such as why he’s stealing kids and what he plans to do, comes from Will. And then there’s Max, who doesn’t even show up until the last couple of episodes in the season, but she somehow manages to become essential because she, too, is tied directly into the Vecna storyline. These are the only characters that have anything resembling real actions, or real character arcs, this season.

That means that everyone else in the show, all those other teens, older siblings, younger kids, friends, and parents, could all effectively be removed from the series and the story would play out more or less the same. If you took away certain people, had other characters swap positions, and even pared down plotlines, nothing would really change other than the runtime being shorter. Dustin is sad that his friend Eddie died, and then gets into fights with bullies at school. Does this affect anything in the story? Nope. Robin helps run the local radio station and now has a girlfriend. Does any of this really matter to the story? Not really. The crawls for Vecna, the attempts to save kids, everything going on with the military… none of it actually matters, not in the long run. What matters is Holly, Will, and Max; everything else is background decoration.

That’s not to say this first part of the season is entirely bad, it’s just that once you’re done watching the episodes you are left wondering what any of it actually was for. There are entertaining moments, fun bits of banter, cool little sequences, but rarely does any of it really affect the story. It’s not about characters delving into a plot, this is action figures getting moved around a board. It’s a lot of noise, a lot of action, but little of actual substance, and it drags it all down. It feels like a season that was mandated to be eight episodes but the creators really only had enough plot for four, at best. These are not those four.

The bones of Stranger Things are still strong, with a great cast doing good work trying to elevate mediocre material. These first four episodes of this final season, though, fail to really capitalize on all the good things the show has going for it. It’s fluff and filler, meant to drag people back to Stranger Things so they’ll stick around for the real finale. But as far as four episodes of solid television on its own, though, this first part of season five fails to deliver. It’s all set up without any meat, most of which could have been excised and condensed down into (what I have to assume will be) the substantive episodes of the season to come. It’s the television equivalent of empty calories, which is sad considering how good this series used to be.