On the Eve of the Upside Down

 Thoughts Before the Final Season of Stranger Things

Tomorrow the last season of Stranger Things lands, and it feels strange—appropriately so—to think back on just how much the show reshaped not only Netflix but the streaming landscape as a whole. When the first season appeared in 2016, it felt genuinely fresh. Not because it reinvented the wheel, but because it demonstrated convincingly that streaming services could deliver something more than filler content or TV reruns. It was stylish, character-driven, and confident in its storytelling.

In hindsight, Stranger Things wasn’t just a show; it was a signal flare. It told the world that Netflix wasn’t merely a library, but a studio capable of producing cultural events. And it worked—spectacularly.

Unfortunately, the success also triggered the scramble that ultimately splintered the streaming world. Suddenly every media company needed its own service, and we went from the promise of “everything in one place” back to something that looks suspiciously like fragmented cable packages. Add to that the flood of rushed “original content” commissioned in the hope of capturing a fraction of Stranger Things’ magic, and much of streaming now feels like endless noise—too much content, not enough worth watching. Ironically, the show that made streaming exciting also helped fuel the content glut that made the experience exhausting.

Why Stranger Things Worked (for Me)

A lot has been written about the nostalgia factor—the 80s setting, the analog aesthetic, the bikes and arcades and D&D sessions. And while I certainly recognize that appeal, it wasn’t what hooked me. I identified with the nerdy D&D kids, sure, but nostalgia was always just a bonus.

For me it was the worldbuilding, the atmosphere, the sense that something was lurking just out of sight. I’ve always loved stories involving parallel worlds, mysterious laboratories, and the thin membrane between our everyday reality and something stranger. Stranger Things stitched all that together with characters I genuinely cared about. In some ways it echoed the ensemble dynamic of the Scooby Gang from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though without a single central protagonist—unless you count Eleven, which you arguably could.

I binged the first season almost in one sitting. It had that rare blend of pacing and mystery that made “just one more episode” feel inevitable.

The Seasons in Retrospect

Season 2 didn’t land the same way. It felt repetitive, more like a remix of the first season’s beats than a genuine progression of the story. My interest drifted a bit, and it wasn’t until Season 3—helped along by my oldest son starting the series from scratch—that I found myself pulled back in.

What surprised me most was how much darker the show became, especially by the fourth season. Stranger Things had always dipped its toes into horror, but it increasingly embraced it. I was also taken aback that the veil between the real world and the Upside Down was lifted so openly. I had assumed the mysteries of the parallel dimension would remain hidden from the broader world, as is common in this type of story. Shows like The X-Files relied on that very tension, letting audiences imagine the strange events unfolding just beneath the surface of our own supposedly familiar world.

By breaking that convention, the writers removed a major narrative constraint. And now, going into the final season, the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been—because the world knows. There’s no putting the genie (or the Demogorgon) back in the bottle.

The Cast Growing Up

One practical concern is simply that the actors have aged out of their roles. This was already somewhat evident three years ago in Season 4. It’s not the first series to face this problem, of course—Harry Potter, Boy Meets World, and countless teen dramas ran into the same issue—but I’m curious to see how they handle it here. The emotional core of Stranger Things always relied on the cast being believable as kids confronting the unimaginable. That dynamic is more complicated once everyone is visibly an adult.

Looking Toward the Finale

Despite my grumbling about the broader state of streaming, I’m genuinely excited for tomorrow. Whatever flaws the show has accumulated along the way, Stranger Things has always remained ambitious, atmospheric, and oddly earnest for something so steeped in cosmic horror.

It changed Netflix, changed streaming, and carved out its own corner of pop culture. And even if the world it helped create is now far more chaotic than the one it was born into, I’m eager to see how it all ends before the portal finally closes.