As the year of 2025 comes to an end, there are fewer and fewer shows to binge watch since most shows either ended months before or are coming to an end along with the year.
However, one show gave viewers one last opportunity to experience binge watching in 2025: Stranger Things!
The fifth and final season was released the day before Thanksgiving with its first volume including episodes one to four for viewers to enjoy. Along with its release, many viewers have expressed their honest opinions and left the question: Is this new season worth watching or has it lost its magic touch?
According to Nick Schager from The Daily Beast, he says, “For a series that’s been MIA since 2022, it hasn’t lost a step in terms of vibrant personality and PG-13 horror spectacle.”
And honestly? I agree. Although the fourth season ended three years ago, I became hooked on the first episode of season five and ended up binge watching the following three episodes in the first volume.
Tessa Smith from Mama’s Geeky says, “There is something familiar and comforting about knowing Eleven, Mike, Will, Robin, Steve, Dustin, Nancy, Jonathan, and Lucas are all training to fight this evil together. It is reminiscent of season one, but with much higher stakes this time around.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Compared to the first and second seasons, not everyone was as involved in the supernatural evil that threatened the wellbeing of Hawkins. Seeing how they’ve all come together in this final season to fight the threat makes this season much more enjoyable.
However, just as any series, this one has its own flaws.
Allyson Johnson from But Why Tho? expresses, “In Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1, it’s clear the Duffer brothers have lost the plot that made the series winsome in the first place.”
Johnson further explains her opinion on the new season: “It all comes down to their inability to write for television as they try to make individual, episodic movies. It’s something that’s plagued many streaming series as creators stumble to create something more overtly cinematic.”
Although I do enjoy the “episodic movies” of Stranger Things, I often find myself falling asleep and having to hit rewind on some of those longer episodes, so I can see where Johnson is coming from.
But to answer the question of “Is this new season worth watching or has it lost its magic touch?”: This season is undoubtedly worth watching!
Although the show is not flawless and could have been better, it never ceased to amaze me. Since its debut in 2016, Stranger Things has remained one of the most popular shows on Netflix and in viewers’ hearts for good reason.
So if you find yourself doomscrolling through every streaming service just to find that one show to cure your boredom, Stranger Things is the show for you to win that battle against the boredom bandit.