The fifth and final season of Stranger Things premieres this fall on Netflix. It’s been three long years since season 4 concluded, which would spell doom for a lot of shows. Even popular series like Wednesday, one of the biggest hits in Netflix’s history, had significantly fewer viewers in its second season than in its first, according to Forbes. That pattern holds true for other big genre dramas like House of the Dragon, The Rings of Power, and The Witcher. When shows go multiple years between seasons, how can anyone expect viewers to remain interested?
But I can confidently say that Stranger Things will buck the trend. The sci-fi show, about a group of kids battling dark forces in the sleepy town of Hawkins, IN, has grown in popularity every season; the show logged an insane 52 billion minutes streamed in 2022, the year season 4 hit our screens. And now, with the climax approaching, it’s bound to end stronger than ever.
But what’s most impressive is that, somehow, among all the shows that fall to the wayside and out of mind during multi-year breaks, Stranger Things is stronger than ever. There is just something about the pull of Hawkins that keeps us desperately waiting for more—and this is why.
Fans have grown up alongside the kids
Hello, old friends
Stranger Things has a big ensemble cast, but the core has always remained Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), a quartet of D&D-loving ’80s kids who just happen to live near a portal to a hellish dark dimension called the Upside Down. Those, plus Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), the psychokinetic telepath, are the focal points. The characters were around 12 years old in the first season and will be about 16 in the fifth and final, but the actors have grown from precocious tweens into young adults now hitting their early 20s. The show gets flack for forcing grown adults to play high schoolers, but seeing how much the actors have grown somehow just makes the show seem more sprawling. We’ve been on a long journey with these characters, and we get reminded of that whenever we look at their faces.
When Stranger Things was just starting back in 2016, creator Matt Duffer said he was hoping to channel some of the success the Harry Potter movies had with their cast of aging child actors. “I love watching kids growing up on camera,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “So the idea [of] seeing where these kids and these characters are one year later is cool to me.”
I think the show has nailed this aspect. As the lives of the core group have changed, so have the lives of the fans, and it’s been hard not to get attached. When we see them again after a long break, it feels like catching up with old friends. We’re curious to see what they’ve done in the meantime, even if it’s been a while.
That said, there does come a point when it starts looking ridiculous for an actor to play a much younger character. I think the Stranger Things kids are just on the right side of things, but they’re lucky the show is ending before any more time passes.
Ads aplenty
Netflix is famous for spending lots of money making tons of shows and movies, but its usual strategy is to drop them unceremoniously and hope they catch on by themselves. For instance, have you ever heard of Netflix shows like Marianne, Running Point, and Teenage Bounty Hunters? My point exactly.
After Stranger Things caught on in the first season, Netflix didn’t make that mistake. For season 3, there were Stranger Things-themed Whoppers, Nike shoes, and ice cream flavors at Baskin-Robbins. For season 5, Netflix is partnering with Target to sell products like Stranger Things cell phone casings and popcorn buckets inspired by the terrifying Demogorgon. Doritos is partnering with Stranger Things and hosting a fake telethon to raise money for the crumbling town of Hawkins, as shown above. And as the premiere date gets closer, I only expect more stunts like this.
Netflix is going all-out to remind people about Stranger Things season 5, just in case anyone forgot over the past three years. The irony is that Stranger Things is now so popular that season 5 would probably be a massive hit without any advertising at all. In the end, the show itself is the best ad possible.
Stranger Things is just that good
Strap in for the big finish
The ongoing era of peak TV has accustomed us to high-quality scripted programming with production values that were unthinkable a decade ago. Stranger Things was at the forefront of that movement, giving people a movie-quality experience in the comfort of their living rooms. The monsters from the Upside Down are as big and terrifying as anything on the big screen, the town of Hawkins felt real and lived-in, and high-profile acting talent like Winona Ryder (as Will’s long-suffering mom Joyce Byers) assured audiences that they were watching something special.
Of course, none of that would matter if the story didn’t deliver, but it did. The show has always done a good job of balancing the day-to-day lives of the characters — growing up, starting to date, etc. — with the knock-down, drag-out fights against creatures from the dark beyond. And the scope has expanded year over year. In the first season, the plot revolved around finding a missing Will Byers. By the fourth, the characters were traveling all over the world and ended the season watching as the Upside Down bled into our reality, possibly putting the entire planet at risk. How much bigger will the stakes be in season 5?
The consistency and quality of Stranger Things have generated enough momentum that fans can remain enthusiastic even in the long gaps between seasons. They know the show will be worth waiting for. Now all it has to do is deliver.
The Stranger Things finale is almost here
The final season of Stranger Things is divided into three chunks: the first four episodes will arrive on Netflix on November 26, the next three on December 25, and the series finale on December 31. Yes, the episodes are dropping on the day before Thanksgiving, on Christmas Day, and on New Year’s Eve. Netflix is so confident you’ll want to watch that it’s not worried about counter-programming against your family dinner.
There’s still some time left, and if you’re looking for shows like Stranger Things to watch on Netflix during this final stretch, we have you covered. There are also plenty of movies that don’t resemble Stranger Things at all, which you can watch on Netflix. The long gap is almost closed, and whatever you need to do to get through the rest, we support.
