Landing stuck. Mostly. (Review: 'Stranger Things 5')

 They came. They saw. They conquered...

(Spoilers galore below) 

They had a rather long epilogue.

I watched the feature-length finale this morning - I was hardly going to watch it at 1am when I was already tired from ringing in the new year. I'm writing this without reading any other comments on what happened, to make sure that these are my own thoughts and not anyone else's.

So, here we go.

1. I found most of this story highly engaging, being kept rapt to the screen. For those complaining about catering for the second screeners, this was not a show I was going to "second screen" and I mostly followed the plot throughout. Recaps are useful for those who will not be watching this all in one go.
2. Operation Beanstalk was very much a team effort. Everyone played their part and played it very well. Most of the time. There were arguments that seriously jeopardised the mission on occasion, but they were natural and worked well.
3. Nancy ending up with neither Steve or Jonathan was the right outcome. She's more than just a man's accessory at the end of the day and her ending, dropping out of college to become a journalist, is right for the character, breaking away from the conformity her mother ended up in.
4. Speaking of her mother, Karen Wheeler attacking a Demogorgon with a bottle of wine was great. Blowing three up with an oxygen cannister and a tumble dryer? Epic.
5. Will's coming out is the one that got the most criticism for the way it was handled. He didn't have  much of a choice in how he did it and many people in that period had far worse experiences. He deserves to be happy and he played an absolutely pivotal role in taking down Vecna.
6. It was a good thing that the attempt to bring Vecna back to the light side a la Return of the Jedi didn't work, but Will had to try it.
7. Joyce hacking Vecna's head off was a slow process, but that's realistic and for everyone pretty cathartic.
8. Linda Hamilton as Dr Kay was a bit of a disappointment. She gets no grand defeat and she just disappears at the end of the story, probably in a massive sulk.
9. In the end, the only death was Kali, who wasn't going to be particularly missed. Eleven faking her death and going off somewhere is thematically right, showing how far she's come as a person since Season 1.
10. Sadie Sink's performance as Max is possibly going to attract some awards attention and she's got a big career ahead of provided she doesn't end up getting some bad roles. I must admit I wasn't expecting the glow-up in the epilogue though!
11. I figured there was an epilogue, but I didn't think it would be as long as did. It gave everyone an ending that felt right and closing things out with two Dungeons & Dragons games was a great thematic way to bring things full circle.
12. The final credits sequence was rather Marvel-esque, reminding us of the full epic we have just witnessed.
13. One wonders what the live-action spinoff will be as the story of Hawkins has reached a definite full stop.

Conclusion

There were some flaws here and there, perhaps some further trimming might have been in order, but this show will go out as a classic of the first quarter of the 21st century.

9/10