‘Stranger Things 5: Volume 1’ review: The Duffer Brothers recapture the magic

Stranger Things 5: Volume 1 arrives more than three years after Season 4 with a ton of pressure on it as the conclusion to a story that began almost ten years ago. Volume 1’s four-episode batch kicks off the season on a high note as the Duffer Brothers recapture the magic of the early season of Stranger Things by getting the gang back together.

That magic also comes from focusing on what the show has always done best: centering the bonds between its characters as they deal with the increasingly strange happenings that threaten them and their community. It’s impossible to know whether Season 5 will be a fitting conclusion, but these first four episodes are a promising start to the final season.

“Chapter One: The Crawl” has a lot of heavy lifting to do, opening up 18 months after the conclusion of Season 4 and the Upside Down finally spilling out into Hawkins. “The Crawl” spends most of its run time bringing us up to speed with the new normal in Hawkins. The Duffer Brothers do well to get through as much of the exposition as possible in fun ways.

Heading back to Hawkins.

There’s the kinetic training sequence with Eleven, Hopper, and Joyce, and the scene of the Byers’ new living arrangements with the Wheelers. One very successful tactic deployed by the Duffer Brothers is to use the extremely charismatic Maya Hawke to deliver exposition as quickly as possible.

Hawke is the MVP of these four episodes. She handles everything the Duffer Brothers throw at her with ease and charm. Exposition, comedy, romance, or heartfelt conversations, she can do it all, and she’s excellent at all of it. The early scenes with Robin and Steve at their new base at the radio station have the same zany energy as their first scenes together at the ice cream store.

Hawke and Keery always have great chemistry, and it’s so enjoyable to hang out with them again. Having everyone back in Hawkins brings back all the classic pairings, like Eleven and Hopper, or Mike and Will, but also opens the door to new ones, and one that really shines is Will and Robin.

Change is good.

One of the main through lines in this batch of episodes is Will’s and Mike’s friendship.  As Will struggles with what to do about his romantic feelings for Mike, he discovers that Robin is also gay. Robin figures out why Will is hesitant to talk about seeing her and Vickie together, and she reaches out.

The buildup of Robin and Will’s friendship is lovely. It’s terrific for Will to get support from someone who can understand what he’s going through firsthand. As nice as it must be to have Jonathan’s support, it’s another thing to know that Robin truly understands how he’s feeling.

Part of what makes this thread work so well is that Stranger Things takes the time to show Will and Robin come to understand each other. From the first episode, Robin demonstrates that she sees Will as an active participant in their situation. Joyce is happy to push back against Hopper’s reluctance to have Eleven join him in investigating the Upside Down. When it comes to Will, though, she treats him like he’s made of porcelain.

Rockin’ Robin.

When Will expresses his desire to try to find a way to make his connection to the Upside Down helpful, Robin supports him right away. She even goes out of her way to trick Joyce and allow Will to step into the action and finally gain some agency. All of the history we have with our childhood friends and our families is essential. It can also lead people who have known us the longest to overlook how we grow and change.

Relationships with new people can help us feel seen in a new way. There’s no baggage there. Robin and Will’s newfound friendship culminates in a beautiful speech from Robin to Will.  She describes her own journey and how accepting yourself completely might be scary, but also freeing. Hawke’s performance is so full of empathy, and her delivery is perfect.

When everyone Will cares about is in grave danger, he recalls Robin’s speech. Will looks back at the time when he felt loved not just by his brother or his best friend, but by himself. Having that be the key to unlocking this new power within himself is precisely the kind of moment that catapulted Stranger Things into the massive hit it became.

We need the entire party.

While Will’s story is the high point of Volume 1, there are other wise choices on the part of the Duffer Brothers and their writing team that make this a promising start to the final season. Stranger Things has always excelled at introducing new characters. Robin and Max were not part of the original cast, but it’s impossible to imagine the show without them now.

Max, in particular, had the most affecting story in Season 4, so it’s a bit of a shame that she is still out of commission for the majority of Volume 1. On the other hand, it makes the moment she enters the season quite thrilling. Sadie Sink is one of the strongest performers in the cast, and it’s brilliant to pair her up with the newest member of the party.

Little Holly Wheeler has been around since the first season, but is thrust into the center of the story now. As Lucas points out, Vecna, and by extension the Duffer Brothers, are drawing parallels between Holly and Will. The Duffer Brothers use the time jump to age Holly up to around the age Will was in Season 1.

Welcome to the party.

This drives home the parallels when Vecna chooses her as his new target. Side note: the three-year gap between seasons does a lot to paper over the fact that the math ain’t exactly mathin’ in regards to Holly’s age. Put one single point in the pro column for the extended production time, I guess.

Bringing Holly into danger allows for a few things. It ups the stakes as Mike and Nancy can no longer shield their family from everything going on with the Upside Down. It also spotlights how the young kids at the party have grown into protectors in their own right.

Mike has a lovely scene with Holly where he tries to assuage her fears. It’s a great reminder that he was the party leader. After Vecna takes Holly into his realm, Max showing up as her Obi-Wan Kenobi is a satisfying turn for Max’s story and sets Holly up to find her own strengths as they work together to escape.

Unfinished business.

Stranger Things Season 4 ended with a bunch of open questions, and they can’t all be answered in Volume 1. One of the saddest developments that remains unresolved is Dustin’s new attitude. Haunted by Eddie’s sacrifice, he refuses to move on in any way.

While the other boys feel a little too uninterested in engaging with Dustin’s efforts to keep Eddie’s memory alive, Dustin has allowed it to consume him entirely. He goes from a goofy nerd spouting off the occasional quip to being sullen and sarcastic.

Dustin is determined to be miserable, and it’s painful to watch him interact with Steve. Their banter used to be fun, old-married-couple bickering. Now they’re real arguments with venomous insults thrown both ways. Dustin never moves out of this register, and it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to. Sadly, the person who would be most disappointed in him is the one he’s mourning. Hopefully, Dustin will remember before the end of the series that Eddie once made him promise to “never change”.

The beginning of the end.

Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve, along with Lucas, don’t have as much time devoted to them in this four-episode run. Consequently, there’s not much to glean regarding their characters. There are places where they might be expected to play larger roles. However, there’s still not enough time, even with the supersized runtimes of Volume 1. Likewise, Eleven and Hopper don’t have anything interesting to do. They see plenty of action but otherwise just retread old ground.

Eleven has leveled up power wise and is doing her best Luke Skywalker on Dagobah impression. That’s still not enough for Hopper to loosen the reins. The retread hits a particular low with an egregious fake out death for Hopper. It’s so painfully obvious, that it has no sense of danger at all. There’s a glimmer of potential near the end of Episode 4, “Sorcerer.” A fun reveal has the potential to open up new avenues of storytelling for Eleven.  However, that will have to wait until December 25 at least.

Overall.

Stranger Things 5: Volume 1 hits the type of highs that we know this show can produce and does well enough to deal with the extended absence of the show. Netflix and the Duffer Brothers certainly put all of the reportedly huge budget on screen. This season hits the ground running. Immediately, there are excursions into the Upside Down and more Demogorgon attacks than you can throw a D20 at. Stranger Things 5: Volume 1 is as spectacular as the show’s ever been.

Volume 1 contains signs that the Duffer Brothers may be able to pull off a satisfying conclusion. They aren’t putting all their focus into the action set pieces. However, there’s still plenty of those to go around. Stranger Things 5: Volume 1 centers on the climactic moments around what these characters mean to each other, particularly after years in the trenches together. Fingers crossed that that remains true for the final two volumes of Stranger Things.

Stray Thoughts:

• Couldn’t figure out where to address perhaps the most polarizing new character: Derek. He might surpass Barb as the most polarizing character on Stranger Things. Personally, he really worked for me. He has a catchphrase! He’s more competent than the entire military force occupying Hawkins and rightfully gives them shit. You love to see it!
• It’s cool to see the inspirations for the show branching out to include works like A Wrinkle in Time and Alice in Wonderland. I’m sure checking back in with those stories will have some clues for how Holly and Max’s story will play out.
• We get some good old-fashioned DnD references again! Including Chekov’s Dimension Door.
• The most harrowing part of Dustin’s plot line? The fate of poor Jake the Snake. No more pets for Dustin! Ban him from all pet stores!

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 is streaming now on Netflix. 

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Images courtesy of Netflix.