By Danielle Cherry
It happened. “Stranger Things” season five is finally here after four painful years of waiting to see what happens next. With the mind flayer in the distance and Will Byler’s iconic hand-on-neck sensations, fans correctly predicted that season five would only go deeper into the Upside Down.
Production quality for the final season skyrocketed, and the plot only dives deeper into the connection between Will and Vecna. Eleven (Mille Bobby Brown), now with her restored abilities, trains hard to prepare for her final encounter with Vecna, hoping to truly, and epicly, defeat him once and for all.
There are so many touching and heart-pounding moments in this season that I don’t dare describe, for fear of spoilers and because cinema has a way of speaking for itself. Stranger Things season five truly is cinema, meeting every expectation of drama and tension.
Speaking of tension, I found myself weeping during scenes because of their intensity. Performances are raw and emotional, immersing the audience skin-deep into the Upside Down. A magnificent score and actor performances grip you, making you feel like you are standing right in the middle of desolate Hawkins with them.
I’ve got to say it: Will Byers stole my heart this season. He was always endearing and lovable, but Noah Schnapp’s raw performance brings a new side to Will’s character that fans never knew they needed. Schnapp has a way of gripping the audience with subtle motions and gazes, yet he excels in the dramatic moments just as much as the quiet ones.
“Stranger Things” has held up to its title, as every season gets stranger. I shouldn’t be surprised by the incredible twists in the plot, yet I am, and that is a testament to the Duffer Brothers’ intricate writing. Season five blew me away with the connections and callbacks to previous seasons, leaving no small detail unmissed.
Plot only drives a show so much, as what really brings people back is the characters. I have yet to find a show with more iconic characters than “Stranger Things.” Pairings like Steve (Joe Keery) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Eleven and Hopper (David Harbour) bring out the unique personalities of the actors, drawing on their strengths and humor to show real love in a very strange world.
A new pairing that I fell hard for was Robin (Maya Hawke) and Will. While Will has been through the wringer in the Upside Down, Robin’s carefree spirit brings out a boldness in Will that is unexpected. Both characters see themselves as outsiders and that brings them together in a dynamic no other pairing has.
For a show classified as a soft horror, “Stranger Things” is awfully funny. While tensions are high, you can count on line delivery of panic and sarcasm to land every time, something Joe Keery and Charlie Heaton, who plays Jonathan, excel at this season. Their fight for Nancy’s affection is hysterical, and while it is not a major plot point, it never ceases to entertain me.
We have to take a minute and congratulate the visual effects and graphics team on making this season what it is. The strangeness really comes from the eerie atmosphere and terrifying CGI monsters. Demogorgons have never looked more realistic than in season five and Vecna (Jamie Cambell Bower) became even scarier, which I didn’t think was possible.
Jamie Bower’s talent is unmatched. His creation of the Vecna voice comes completely from his own voice without any use of voice changers. His presence is utterly terrifying, and his delivery as Vecna stands in stark contrast to Vecna’s alter ego, Henry. While Jamie’s character goes by many names, Vecna/Henry/One, Jamie brings out unique features in each persona that make him all the more terrifying for his incredible switching between soft, timid Henry and scary, terrorizing Vecna.
Vol. 1, episode four steals the show, being the highest rated episode in the whole series. The scale of this episode alone is so vast that it would play beautifully on a theatrical screen.
Yet the joy of the show extends beyond Netflix’s borders and into social media. The community of “Stranger Things” fans is full of enthusiastic viewers, rooting for the characters and plot. Scrolling on TikTok for two seconds reveals edit after edit of people loving the characters and proposing many, many theories about what will happen next.
Christmas is either going to get a whole lot better or a whole lot worse for the Stranger Things characters, depending on the story the Duffer Brothers have the audacity to tell in Vol. 2’s release. Theories of character deaths are making me think the Duffers have some not-so-jolly twists planned. Regardless, you can find me cowering under a blanket raving about “Stranger Things,” and praying things turn around for all its characters.
“Stranger Things” Vol. 1 is currently streaming on Netflix with Vol. 2 set to release on Christmas day.
Danielle Cherry is a sophomore communication major and writer for Cedars A&E and Sports. She is a Missionary Kid from Germany and loves to travel, play volleyball and has been making it through exams simply because of Will in “Stranger Things”
Images courtesy of Netflix and 21 Laps Entertainment
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