Stranger Things Season 5, Part 1 (2025) Review

Stranger Things Season 5, Part I arrives with the weight of nearly a decade behind it, carrying a legacy few modern shows can claim. When Season 1 debuted in 2016, it was a lightning in a bottle phenomenon: a spooky, thrilling, Spielberg by way of King adventure powered by the undeniable charm of a young cast. Now, close to ten years later, those once middle school protagonists are full fledged adults playing teenagers, the world has changed, and the series arrives in a cultural landscape that has shifted dramatically. And yet, despite all that time and all those expectations, Season 5 manages to pull the audience back into its supernatural swirl with confidence, spectacle and surprising emotional warmth.

The most immediate talking point may be the actors. The main cast now ranges from mid 20s to early 30s, a far cry from the kids we met dodging bullies in Hawkins Middle School. The time lapse between seasons feels especially pronounced this time around. There is no denying the occasionally jarring effect of watching adults convincingly (and sometimes not so convincingly) play characters still meant to be on the cusp of adulthood. More than once, the season evokes the visual dissonance of Grease, in which John Travolta and Olivia Newton John made high school look like a part time job undertaken in one’s late twenties. Stranger Things does its best to smooth this over with careful styling, strategic lighting and grounded performances, but the age gap occasionally pokes through.

Oddly enough, though, this contributes to one of the season’s thematic strengths: the show now feels like nostalgia stacked on nostalgia. Season 5 is steeped in longing, both for the childlike innocence of its earliest episodes and for the neon soaked 1980s references that have always been its bread and butter. At this point, the retro aesthetic is practically a character of its own. Walkmen, arcades, synth tracks and Cold War paranoia are layered so densely that the series almost becomes a time capsule of the way pop culture remembers the 80s, rather than the decade itself. Sometimes it is subtle. Other times it feels like being hit over the head with an E.T. lunchbox. But the show has always thrived on its ability to blend those influences into something that feels charming rather than derivative, and Season 5 still finds that balance more often than not.

Story wise, the Duffers lean fully into the idea that Stranger Things is essentially a live action Dungeons and Dragons campaign. The supernatural mystery is now sprawling, with interconnected quests, shifting alliances, ominous rituals and enough lore to fill a campaign notebook. What should feel unwieldy somehow remains coherent, thanks in large part to the emotional through lines that bind the characters together. Even as the plot expands across Hawkins, the Upside Down and other eerie frontiers, the season consistently returns to friendship, love and sacrifice. This is the real magic trick of Stranger Things: the ability to make the end of the world feel intimate.

That said, the show’s faults are still present, and Season 5 does not shy away from them. The stakes have never been higher, at least according to the characters, but they do not always feel as high to the audience. The series has developed a habit of delivering massive peril while simultaneously signaling that things will probably be okay in the end. You might wonder if a beloved character will meet a tragic fate this season, and the Duffers certainly flirt with the idea, but Stranger Things has rarely committed to irreversible loss among its core cast. There is a sense that the show wants us to believe in the danger without fully leaning into it, and that tension can occasionally undercut the suspense.

Still, even with these limitations, Season 5 works remarkably well. The pacing is tighter than in previous installments, with a clear momentum driving each storyline. The visual effects continue to impress, balancing grotesque creature design with evocative imagery that feels pulled from both horror cinema and old school fantasy art. The Upside Down has never looked more unsettling or more alive. And despite the cast’s age, their chemistry has only deepened over time. They know these characters inside and out, and that familiarity creates a lived in quality that anchors even the most fantastical scenes.

The season’s strongest moments are the quieter ones, the reunions that feel overdue, the confessions that have simmered for multiple seasons, the small reminders that these characters have grown up alongside the audience. The Duffers may not be able to recreate the electric innocence of Season 1, but Season 5 finds something different and equally valuable: the melancholy joy of looking back. The show seems aware of its own legacy, its own era spanning impact, and it leverages that self awareness to create emotional resonance. In a way, Stranger Things is now as much about nostalgia for itself as it is about nostalgia for the 80s.

If Part I is any indication, Season 5 is shaping up to be a fitting final arc, a celebration of what the show has always done best, imperfections and all. The mysteries deepen, the relationships tighten and the groundwork is laid for a finale that promises to be both explosive and heartfelt. And yes, Stranger Things may now resemble a group of grown adults cast in a high school production of a supernatural epic. It may parade its 80s references with the enthusiasm of a mixtape made by someone who really wants you to remember The Goonies. It may tiptoe around its own stakes. But somehow, through all of that, it still captures the same spirit that made it a global hit.

In the end, maybe that is the strangest thing of all: despite the passage of time, despite the shifting landscape of television, Stranger Things remains irresistibly entertaining. Season 5 Part I proves that the Duffers still know how to conjure the magic, even as their world and their characters age. The show may never recapture the alchemy of its debut, but it does not need to. It has evolved into something richer, more self reflective and undeniably compelling.