Is It Really So Strange?

[setsuled]

Watch on YouTube

The bravest citizens of Hawkins assemble once again to fight the threat of Demogorgons from the Upside Down in Stranger Things, season 5, the first four episodes of which premiered last week. They start good and finish strong with a couple wobbly parts in the middle.

They really should've moved the time period up to the '90s. These are clearly not kids anymore, which is hardly a surprise given that the show first premiered nine years ago. The first episode of the new season begins with a flashback to season one Will in 1983 before cutting ahead to current Will, supposedly just four years later but the guy we see looks like he's cleared a decade at least. At least the show acknowledges that the little nerds have all sprouted into surprisingly big guys when three of them stand up to some bullies tormenting Dustin, who's still kind of short.

Dustin has a dust up with the bullies that built tension really nicely and I was sorry that the subplot evaporated by the third episode. The third episode seems almost like an alternate universe, everyone is so different in it, and then I realised it was probably because it was not written by the Duffer Brothers but by Caitlin Schneiderhan. The auteur effect is real, folks.

The highlight of the four episodes is an action sequence at the end of the fourth. Will finally figures out something I think everyone in the audience saw coming a mile away but it's satisfying nonetheless.

This season's '80s guest star is Linda Hamilton as the villainous Dr. Kay, who's stationed within the Upside Down with a bunch of troops. One of the possible plot holes this season is that, while we see guns have basically no effect on Demogorgons, somehow this base in the Upside Down is perfectly secure and holding a bunch of specimens. It's nice to see Hamilton and it made me immediately switch over to watching Terminator 2 on Amazon Prime.

Stranger Things is available on Netflix.