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You may not have noticed amidst the brain fog of sleep deprivation, forced socialisation, Indiana Jones re-runs and excessive alcohol consumption that typifies the Christmas festivities, but Stranger Things season 5, volume 2, episodes 5-7, Chapter 37, Paragraph 4, bullet point ii dropped down our chimneys late on Christmas Day (or early Boxing Day if you’re British).
But is this three-episode gift from Netflix the present we asked for, or merely coal?
Seeing as this is what I asked for, what do you think?
The volume 1 review is here.
We’re Busy Doing Nothing, Working The Whole Day Through
We pick up the story immediately after the mid-season finale. The extensive cast is scattered to the four winds in five different groups and FOUR different dimensions. Each group of characters engages in some kind of side quest that seems like busywork a lot of the time.
Stranger Things has always excelled at balancing multiple story threads, with each strand complementing and building on the others as the teams work towards a common goal. It might just be me, but this time the quests seem disparate and hairbrained. No group knows what the others are doing, and the fact that one group’s actions benefit another at exactly the right time the plot requires it to is purely coincidental.
The constant on-the-nose exposition grates as well. The show is frantically hurtling towards its conclusion while introducing new, science-heavy information about the precise nature of the Upside Down. But the revelations are more confusing than jaw-dropping, so the writers have to keep explaining it with diagrams and dialogue.
Take A Breath
On the plus side, Stranger Things season 5 volume 2 still finds time for some quality action and character beats. But there’s so much going on that nothing lands quite as well as it has in the past. Again, it might just be me, but I felt there were too many distractions to properly focus on any one character, relationship, or plot point.
For example, Kali’s revelation about ongoing Government experiments to create more people like Eleven should be a major plot point that raises the stakes. And maybe it does, kind of, but it gets muted in the mix.
Episodes 5 and 6 are the worst culprits for this. Episode 7 steadies the ship somewhat by bringing everyone together to take a breath and formulate a plan for the final battle. It’s another hairbrained scheme, but at least it’s clear (or at least as clear as a plan involving wormholes and preventing the imminent convergence of two dimensions can be). Everybody knows what they need to do, and the final showdown with Vecna can begin.
And then this happens…
Big Gay Will’s Big Gay Coming Out Party
I joked in my season 4 review that I expected Will to have a coming-out party in season 5, but I didn’t expect them to actually do it.
Will’s big moment in episode 7 has already become a meme, and that can’t be a good thing. The episode is the lowest-rated instalment in Stranger Things’ history. Harsh, in my view. Some will cry homophobia as the reason, but I’m not so sure.
The problem is it’s needlessly shoehorned in with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face. Will being gay has been obvious for a very long time. Why make a big song and dance about it now? Especially in the penultimate episode, when the characters should be focusing on saving the world. Sorry, guys, we just need to grind the narrative to a halt for a few minutes because THIS IS IMPORTANT!
It doesn’t help that Noah Shnapp, who plays Will, appears to have run out of talent. What happened to the fantastic young actor from seasons 1 and 2? He struggles here, in a scene that reportedly took twelve hours to film.
Oh, and let’s not forget the uncomfortable optics surrounding the idea of a young boy turning gay after being kidnapped and abused by a monster.
All that said, I think the criticism of episode 7 has been blown out of proportion. It isn’t a bad episode at all (yes, even the coming-out scene) and nicely sets up the finale.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends. The final episode of Stranger Things will land on New Year’s Eve/early New Year’s Day, depending on your time zone.
Don’t be Game of Thrones. Don’t be Game of Thrones.
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