Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Final go-round has intense violence, product placement.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Stranger Things: Season 5
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 8 parent reviews
Based on 16 kid reviews
Kids say this season is the most violent yet, leading to mixed feelings about its darker themes and character developments. While some praise the emotional depth and performances, others express disappointment over the handling of queer representation, rushing story arcs, and character treatment, ultimately revealing a divide among fans regarding its overall reception.
- violence intensity
- character treatment
- queer representation
- emotional depth
- divided fan reception
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5, the last chapter in the Stranger Things saga, begins in the fall of 1987, 18 months after the events of last season, with all of our characters reunited in Hawkins. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and Will (Noah Schnapp) are negotiating life in Hawkins High after the "earthquake" that ended the last season. It left rifts all through Hawkins, which the U.S. government has stapled over with vast metal plates. The military, under the lead of the enigmatic Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), has put Hawkins under armed quarantine and established a base over a portal to the Upside Down, and she's looking for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who's holed up with Hopper (David Harbour) while both train for the Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) clash they think is coming. Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Robin (Maya Hawke), and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) work at a local radio station in order to pass coded messages to their friends to plan "crawls"—explorations of the Upside Down during which Hopper hopes to find, and kill, Vecna. But when a Demogorgon smashes a hole through reality and into the Wheeler house, abducting Holly (Nell Fisher) to align with Vecna's grand evil plan, the Hawkins gang has a whole new reason to hunt the Tentacled One down and kill him once and for all.
Is It Any Good?
As the final season of Stranger Things debuts, things are looking pretty familiar, with the Upside Down bleeding through reality and the old gang teaming up once more on separate quests. It's hard to escape a feeling of sameness when watching Stranger Things: Season 5: Isn't this what happened in Seasons 1–4? A monster emerges, everything's terrible, in small teams our characters try something crazy (that just might work!), and voilà: A gate is closed/a monster is vanquished/everyone's back safe and alive. The only one missing is the season's official sacrificial lamb (spoilers!): Bob (second season), Billy (third), Eddie (fourth). In earlier seasons, viewers' love for the characters Stranger Things has built, and the exceedingly telegenic actors who portrayed them, made it easier to glide over the increasingly blah supernatural scenes. But most of the show's characters have now solidified into tropes: Nancy, Mike, and Dustin will always do something brave and foolhardy; Robin and Steve are the comic relief; Eleven raises one hand just in the nick of time and things go fly-and-smash. It's also distracting that our high school characters look like the 20-something adults they are, and Holly, who should be about 7, is and looks years older.
Thus most viewers will probably be feeling pretty glum in episodes 1, 2, and 3, when the season looks to be shaping up to be entirely predictable. And then, Episode 4 takes a left turn, pairing up two characters who haven't shared screen time before, in a place we haven't seen before, delightfully upending our expectations. We don't want to spoil anything; let's just say that mining Madeleine L'Engle's classic 1962 book A Wrinkle in Time is a stroke of genius, as L'Engle's book builds an extraordinary world that's never successfully been realized on film. The Duffer brothers come the closest so far in capturing the book's cerebral and trippy vibe, and when they do, Stranger Things: Season 5 comes alive. At the same time, Will, a character who for seasons has just existed to sense menace at the back of his neck, unexpectedly deepens into a hero, Sam Gamgee style, giving us someone to root for. Just like on the show, it was looking pretty bad for a while there. And Stranger Things: Season 5, it sounds crazy. But it just might work.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Long-running TV shows often introduce younger characters when their current characters are aging out of certain storylines. Does Stranger Things: Season 5 do this? Who are the younger characters? Do you think it adds or detracts from the story?
When a TV show is headed toward the end, showrunners try to heighten the action so that the show goes out with a bang. How is Stranger Things: Season 5 heightening the action?
When Stranger Things began, its youngest characters were 11 to 12, played by actors a year or two older. In this final season, the former tweens are now playing 16- to 17-year-olds even though they are each 5-plus years older than their characters. Is the age discrepancy distracting? Can you suspend your disbelief long enough to watch the show?
TV Details
- Premiere date : November 26, 2025
- Cast : Millie Bobby Brown , Noah Schnapp , Sadie Sink , Finn Wolfhard
- Network : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship , School
- TV rating :
- Last updated : January 7, 2026
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate