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Today is the ninth anniversary of the release ofStranger ThingsSeason 1 on Netflix. It’s hard to believe it’s been less than a decade since the series first premiered, taking the streaming service to heights it never could have imagined.
While the company had original hits before – Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards – Stranger Things took over the mainstream in a way nothing else from Netflix had done before – or since. And now, the debut trailer of its final season is here, putting Netflix at a crossroads.
The teaser trailer forStranger Things Season 5is as big and bombastic as you might expect, given the never-ending, world-crushing stakes at hand. It’s also bittersweet, though.
The Worst Thing About TV Ending Is Losing Your Character Friends
When the first season premiered, we were introduced to a group of kids with practically no life experience. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will were nerdy middle schoolers who played Dungeons and Dragons, rode their bikes everywhere, and were each others’ ride or die no matter what. Nancy was torn between two guys – a creepy kid and a jerk. Their problems were all so trivial. Then, of course, the Upside Down exploded into their world, Will disappeared into the scary mirror dimension, and things have only gotten more and more dramatic since.
We’ve watched these characters grow up to become fully-formed humans, even adults – well, sort of. While the cast playing the roles may be adults, the younger characters on the show remain children. In that time, audiences have grown to care deeply about the people that inhabit the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.
While growing close to and loving your favorite TV character is by no means a new concept, it hits differently with Stranger Things. The closest possible comparison in recent memory would beGame of Thrones, which was also a smash hit with global audiences that saw a young cast grow up into powerful adults, and many of us matured alongside them.
The difference here is that Game of Thrones thrived on trying to make its characters inherently unlikable. Sure, there are some that remain fan favorites, but that show could really stretch the concept that even good people do bad things by unleashing some truly horrific moments. (Don’t even get me started on how it turned out Dany was the villain all along.)
Peak TV Changed How We View Characters
Essentially, Game of Thrones is about showcasing how nobody is perfect. Everyone is flawed and has the potential for causing destruction. This isn’t a new trend, as the past 20 years have seen a litany of shows where everyone is sort of a villain by the time the final credits roll, or at the very least an antihero of sorts.
The dawn of what has become known as peak TV – the rise of high-budget, more ‘artistic’ prestige programming that started with The Sopranos – also meant morally grey characters like Tony Soprano, Jax Teller (Sons of Anarchy), literally anyone on Succession (Succession), and, of course, Walter White (Breaking Bad) became mainstream. For so long, the most acclaimed shows have largely been about bad people, which can be exhausting.
We’ve become a far more cynical world over the last two decades, and the entertainment on display deeply reflects that. That’s what makes Stranger Things so special. And special means it’s by no means perfect. Stranger Things has had its fair share of missteps. Remember when Eleven had a sister in Chicago?
Stranger Things Is A Bright But Scary Beacon In A World of Dark TV
What Stranger Things does well, however, is constantly show these characters we’ve grown close to attempting to do the right thing, even if that means they have to make major sacrifices. They care too much about the people they love and the world around them to stand by while the Upside Down lets its slimy tentacles leak into our reality, turning everything into what looks like the final fight scene fromZack Snyder’s Justice League.
Isn’t that the sort of message we can all use right about now? To not give up. To fight the good fight. They are heroes, battling until they simply can’t anymore, and then managing to battle a little more. While this is commonplace in movies (has anyone told you about comic book movies?), it happens far less in the dark world of peak TV – especially with an audience as large as Stranger Things’.
In doing so, it hasn’t shortchanged how horrifying doing something good can be. What we’re left with is a love letter to ‘80s horror movies with a big, bleeding heart and the whimsy and imagination you’d expect from a group of kids sitting around a table, plotting out their next Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Even when bad things are happening, you ultimately feel good because you know Eleven and the gang aren’t going to let it slide. And we know that regardless of how they might try, no adult figure on the show will be able to outsmart them.
When those final episodes reveal themselves over the next several months, leading into the series finale on New Year’s Eve, I’m going to be sad. I’ll be excited for how the co-creators, the Duffer Brothers, wrap this story up and what room they leave for a continuation series, and I’ll be on the edge of my seat waiting to find out which of my beloved Hawkins residents will actually make it out alive.
Realistically, some of them are going to die. That’s just the nature of these sorts of shows with these sorts of stakes. It’s also the nature of being a hero, which is central to Stranger Things: Finding your inner hero and beefing them up until the job of saving the world can be done – or sacrificing yourself in the process to help the rest of the group. RIP Eddie Munson.
When it’s gone, Netflix will keep making shows that will continue being immensely popular. The first season of Wednesday remains the most-watched season of TV on the service, and more episodes are on the way. It’s hard to believe it’d exist without Stranger Things leading the way, though.
