Stranger Things season 5 review: Is the final battle for Hawkins worth the wait?

This review is based on Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 (episodes 1-4).

Hawkins is under military quarantine. Vecna has been missing for months. A child by the name of Jane Hopper is wanted by the powers-that-be. And, now, the final battle approaches.

It's been nine years since our first visit to the Upside Down and, since then, Stranger Things has gathered a worldwide audience, becoming one of Netflix's flagship series and making superstars of every single one of its young talent. Not just that, it's also paved the way for the streaming revolution and exemplified the monumental shift in the TV landscape over the past decade.

Now we've come full circle, in a season 5 that fans have been not so patiently anticipating for an entire three years. The real question is, was it worth the wait? The short answer is a resounding yes.

The first episode of season 5 wisely takes the time to reacquaint us with our heroes – after all, there has been an 18-month time jump, and some things are very different.

The gang of four are back together, with Noah Schnapp's Will Byers starting to have strange symptoms for the first time in months. However, something about it feels different this time. After years of having his mind invaded, he's learnt a little about what's happening to him.

Now, he's on the front foot and he might just have the knowledge needed to fight back. The first five minutes of the new season, made available by Netflix before release date, prove many of us have been underestimating Will. Now it's time for him to show what he can do.

After all, season 5 will see him not only facing his worst nightmares quite literally, but also coming to terms with who he is. Schnapp and the Duffer Brothers have indicated that this season will finally tackle topics including Will's sexuality, and the first episodes, at least, give the underdog of the group his time to shine in a very welcome switch-up from previous seasons.

Despite her strengthening powers, Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven is far from OK too. With the military searching for her, she's pushing herself to be superhuman – and seems on the edge of pushing it too far at all times, something adoptive father Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is desperately trying to prevent. While it's clear that their differing attitudes are causing tension between them, fans of the father-daughter duo will not be disappointed, as the pair face up to the end of the world together.

As for the long-absent villain? While our heroes methodically search Hawkins inch by inch for Jamie Campbell Bower's Vecna, we get a glimpse of what he's been up to all this time. While there's only so much we can say, it soon becomes clear that Vecna hasn't just been lying in wait. He's been plotting, and his masterplan is about to come to fruition.

But, if you're expecting all-out action from the very beginning, you might be a little disappointed. It takes a while for the real action to start building as, naturally, the main course is still being saved for volume 2 and the finale, which will be released on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve respectively. By the end of volume 1, we're certainly getting there – but fans are going to have to be patient.

That can make the enormous first episodes feel slow. Episode 1, for instance, clocks in at a whopping 74 minutes and, by the end of it, we've only progressed fractionally in terms of plot, which can be frustrating.

When the action comes, though, it's impossible to look away. We absolutely cannot give anything away about the 84-minute fourth episode (lest the Netflix snipers come for us!), but it's Stranger Things at its best, with a jaw-dropping final scene that will make the wait for Christmas Day feel like a year.

Beyond the action, though, what Stranger Things still excels at is the character development, with the complex dynamics between the characters still proving just as gripping as the final battle. There's a huge ensemble here to deal with, but the Duffers handle each character with care, giving us interactions and pairings we've not yet seen in the five seasons, while still doing the long-loved relationships justice.

The complications the characters face this season only serve to make those dynamics all the more interesting, whether it's parents and children struggling to understand each other's points of view, couples failing to communicate when they need it most, or friends trying to grapple with what's going on in each other's heads.

Yes, the visuals are glorious (you'd hope they would be, with each episode reportedly costing between $50 million and $60 million). The storytelling is still wonderfully crafted (albeit with a touch too much self-indulgence from the Duffers when it comes to those lengthy runtimes). The soundtrack is still a blitz of '80s bangers that complement the emotional journeys of each character (as for whether Kate Bush makes her return, we'll keep you guessing).

Ultimately, though, the depth of these relationships is what holds the show together and what will ground this season as the scale of the action reaches presumably spectacular new heights in the episodes to come.

The Duffer Brothers have had a monumental task in wrapping up this beast of a show and giving each and every character an ending that not only makes sense, but proves satisfactory after nine years. Many showrunners have tried to wrap up stories of this scale in style, and many have failed, and which camp the Duffers ultimately fall into remains to be seen.

But, if these first few episodes are anything to go by, we could be looking at a finale for the ages. It might be a bit too soon to tell for sure, but, as we've seen over the past decade, when it comes to this TV phenomenon, stranger things have happened.

Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 is available on Netflix now. Further episodes follow on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin TV.

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