So it's over, after ten long years - which surprised me as it must mean I've had a Netflix subscription for a very long time. Stranger Things ended with Series 5 a short while ago, and as usual the Internet has done its usual job of shitting all over a piece of work that - though far from perfect - could not realistically have ended in any other way.
Various "think pieces" and social media commentaries have been universally damming of the way the series ended, citing terrible dialogue, a lot of unanswered questions and a general "phoning it in" approach to finishing off something that has existed in our lives for a very long time. As it was with Game of Thrones before it, Stranger Things is now held up as an example of everything that's wrong with modern dramatic storytelling.
But wait, let's just cool our jets for a second. Was it really that bad?
As I said, really it couldn't have ended in any other way - and any fight between good and evil comes with the anticipation that good will always win, and that any evil, no matter how ridiculously powerful, can be overcome. A message of hope then? Maybe, but maybe more than that. Maybe a message that we (as humans) need to change, and certainly need to change the way we consume our entertainment.
The real issue is with the modern state of television. Back in the day (particularly in the UK where we only had 3 terrestrial channels for a VERY long time), television shows had a massive audience but largely limited to each specific region or country. Now and again we'd get stuff from the US, but always way later than the original air date.
Now with modern streaming platforms, global releases are commonplace (give or take the time difference between regions) and of course way back in the day the only critics you heard a peep out of were the various pundits who wrote about TV and film in the newspapers, or had their own shows on telly to talk about that stuff. Now everyone with an internet connection has become a commentator, and given the state of the world and the state of people's mental health (or lack thereof), opinions truly are like arseholes, everyone's got one and loves nothing better than to let it sound off as frequently as possible.
Back to the Duffers and Shaun Levy (who should also shoulder some responsibility for 'sexing up' the Stranger Things finale). Imagine trying to write something from day one that would pan out ten years hence, having an absolute idea of how the plot would change, evolve or even cope with the other modern blight of streaming platforms - the 'cancellation without notice' culture that modern shows have when their viewing figures or numbers of streams fall way below expectation. We've seen Netflix in particular kill off a number of shows (sometimes even excellent shows with meaty cliffhangers - yeah I'm still fucking sore about Lockwood and Co) before those shows had a chance to find their feet and shine, and though I'm sure Stranger Things was never in that kind of danger, it must've played on their mind from time to time (to be honest I seriously thought Season 4 would've actually been an OK place to leave it and sometimes it felt like the show was being written like that too).
So what happens next? Was there really a false ending? Will there be a spin off? Is this the end for the inhabitants of Hawkins? I kinda hope so because I'd hate for there to have been some kind of bait-and-switch shite going on. The stars are getting a bit long in the tooth to continue playing kids (and Eleven now balances her acting career with being a mum herself). So yeah, leave it there, don't try to flog that dead horse.
As far as toxic fandom goes though, fuck those clowns. Most are incapable of stringing together a sentence without making it sound like they ate a brain tumour for breakfast, their opinionated asses can toot or tweet all they want, after all no one's making them watch the damned stuff!
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