The wait is over. 3 years after season 4 was released, season 5 volume 1 was dropped on the 27th of November for everyone to begin the last season of what many call the greatest Netflix original show.

The show jumps a year into the future and takes place in 1987, and Hawkins is a very different place. It gives off major Stephen King vibes with the town under quarantine and the kids making a plan to fight back. This makes sense, as King was a big influence on the show, and this comes into the criticism.

Season 5 kicks off with showing the new marshal law town and what has happened since the climax of season 4. The place is a shadow of what it once was, and the teens and adults are still working out plans to find and stop Vecna once and for all. There’s no slow build to the new mystery, no what’s going to happen; we are dropped off into the thick of it and see Eleven training, what Mike, Will, and Lucas are up to, Max is still in a Coma, Robin, Steve, Nancy, and Johnathan are hosting a radio show that gives updates to the others through the music.

This season, just like the last one, feels different to the previous 3 seasons. It feels different, every one is more grown up, having more grown up problems. Gone are the days of kids riding bikes and facing creatures they name after DnD villains. That is what a lot of people are saying they dislike about the new seasons.

Like I said, Stephen King was a big influence on the early seasons focusing on young 12-13 year-olds fighting evil while hiding it from their parents. Many called the first two seasons as having a somewhat John Hughes vibe too and that’s what made them popular. It wasn’t showing what it was like growing up in the 1980’s, it was taking that nostalgia that people have who did grow up in that decade and splatter it across the screen. You couldn’t go an episode without seeing some retro furniture or clothes or having 80s music being played to you and giving that throwback vibe even more power.

No, the last two seasons feel less like Stephen King’s IT and feel more like Under The Dome and The Stand. A darker take and more death and gore while being isolated in a town, but still, even as it changes, King’s influence is still there.

But, some people think that’s what made the show as good as it is and taking that away has harmed the show. A lot of people I see online are saying it is not the Stranger Things they fell in love with. They say it has lost its magic and it is not as good.

While I agree with them that it is difficult, I don’t agree that it makes the show any worse. What we are seeing is much needed character development. If the characters stayed the same for all this time then yes, it would feel the same, but it would be so boring and stale. Characters need that development so they are not just one dimensional. They grow as time goes on and the audience gets to see that. It makes sense that things are different to season 1, in universe that was 4 years ago. People change a lot in 4 years and the storylines matured as the characters do. It is all part of filmmaking, and life.