Stranger Things 5 - The Final Episode Review

all

right happy new year everybody welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and we have arrived

to the final episode of netflix global phenomenon stranger things we have wrapped it up finally finally wrapped

everything up like i said happy new year's to everybody this is the first review of 2026 here on the kb radio network but it is the final

episode of stranger things i hope that 2026 brings everybody a prosperous and joyous year even more than what you received in 2025 uh stranger things stranger

things has been a wonderful fascinating frustrating exhausting experience over the last i'm about to say 20 years but it's been 10 years

and five seasons and it's been it's been joyous for me you know going on this nostalgic ride that the duffer brothers have uh presented to us over on netflix i

i can honestly say that i find this show to be one of my favorite all-time shows is it absolutely perfect from

episode one to this final episode that premiered on uh new year's eve no no you had some episodes uh that weren't up the snuff you even had a couple of seasons that weren't up to par but

overall it is totality i think this show did its job it in one of the biggest questions going into

new year's eve before we crossed over into this new year can the duffer brothers can this cast can uh netflix deliver on a season finale or a series finale that is worth

its weight in gold i can say me personally i think it did i think the season finale of this show or the series for that i keep saying season It would

which is the same thing,

really.

I think it delivered.

I think this show wrapped up exactly how it needed to wrap up.

I went to the theater to see it.

I didn't stay at home and watch it on Netflix.

I decided,

me and the family,

we all went to the theater to experience it on the big screen.

And that may have played a part into my enjoyment level of the...

series finale because i i had a wonderful time in the theater watching it uh it was very cinematic you know it wasn't just a tv show they threw on the big screen it felt cinematic

it felt like it deserved to be on the big screen you know scale and story everything was right from from where i City.

And so I felt

A little extra.

with this episode or movie because it was two hours long it was it was it was a good experience plus you had a communal experience as well because uh we had to go to the nine o'clock show because of the seven o'clock shows they were all sold out they were filled and

so we couldn't go to the seven and we just put our phones down for two hours to avoid spoilers and went for the nine o'clock soon.

I came into this after volume two,

which didn't really land for me on Christmas day.

I thought it was decent,

you know,

but,

and let me,

let me apologize off front.

If you hear banging and popping in the background,

nobody's shooting at me.

At least I don't think so.

But it's,

it's fireworks and firecrackers all in the background.

Everybody in the neighborhood is going crazy.

Because it's New Year's.

It's 1 o'clock in the morning,

so everybody is going bananas with the New Year's celebration.

So if you hear that,

I apologize.

I tried to soundproof as much as I can,

but it is what it is.

I wasn't going to wait.

I wanted to give a fresh review here.

But

Volume 2.

Volume 2,

it just didn't land.

You know,

it didn't really set up.

the finale for me you know i wasn't excited going into this final episode too many questions were raised it was too many questions raised in uh volume two and dad i felt like man there's no way they can wrap all of this up in

one episode even a two-hour movie it feels like something was going to be left out you know uh introducing the wormhole

element introducing the uh possibility that vechner isn't the big bad he's actually a puppet or vessel you know how are we going to address that how are we going to address the

11 and collie um decision that was made and how hopper is going to address it how uh is uh holly's

story gonna you know come to a head here you know it was a lot that was going on that felt like man there's no way they can find a way to wrap this up and wrap it up to make sense but they did and my hat's off to the duffers man they they i mean this is their story you know they they know what they were doing good

on it it still doesn't add any points to the volume two

Volume 2 still is the weaker of this season.

This final season as a whole wasn't really all that good,

just to put it plainly.

It just didn't deliver as a final season.

Now,

the final episode did.

This final episode was,

I mean,

everything that I wanted.

You know,

it was action-packed.

It was story-driven.

We had...

your emotional moments you had your frightening moments you had your uh the plan didn't go right moments and having to pivot all of that was there in this final episode and man they did a marvelous job with it um

my takeaways from this final episode positive wise i think the young actress who plays Holly,

I think she is going to be a star.

I think out of

all of this cast especially the young cast and i'm including our group you know uh with mike and will and lucas and dustin i think that out of everybody holly

is the one that's going to shine i don't know what it is about her and her the way she portrayed this character it tells me that she's going to be a big thing

And I'm not talking about in the Stranger Things universe because it's over.

I'm talking about her as a performer.

Really,

really enjoyed her performance throughout this season.

If it wasn't for

Holly's arc,

her story in this final season,

this would have been a horrible season to me.

Because everybody else's story,

I didn't care about.

Honestly,

I did not care about Eleven who took a backseat this final season.

she had more to

chew on in this final episode but as far as the season is concerned

11,

she was in the back seat.

Our group with Mike and Lucas and Will and

Dustin, I didn't care about them.

Now,

Will,

yes.

Will,

because Will had a big arc.

Will,

he was due.

He was due because for four seasons,

the first four seasons,

he was nothing.

He was more of a

MacGuffin.

You know,

Vecna took him over,

kidnapped him in season one,

you know,

so everybody's trying to find Will.

Season two,

he really didn't do much.

It was more,

he was just a vessel,

you know.

He was the conduit,

if you will,

for this entity to really invade Hawkins.

And finally,

we get more of him having something to do and him as a character,

you know.

I know everybody is

up in arms one way or another about him coming out and all this here but you know it was long overdue it should have been happening but hey better late than never i guess but it was good to see that he had something to do this season um

mike i really didn't have nothing to connect with mike i never did i don't mike was never on my list of oh man i gotta see what's happening with Mike.

in this in this show never he never connected with me he was actually kind of annoying to me and i like finn wood part i think he's an excellent actor loved him when he went uh and did it he was awesome in it he

was amazing in it i liked him i liked him in um um ghostbusters but uh on this show where he made his name i just did not connect with that character it wasn't him it was that

character it didn't work for me this episode i did i finally had a connection with him i actually liked him in this episode i'm talking about the character mike it was he was humanized you know he was he was he was somebody i can actually get behind i never could get behind him but

they did it this they did it this go around so good on him um dustin i love dustin i love dustin wit

steve you know dustin outside of steve i could care less but dustin with steve sign me up my other takeaway of my uh other than holly is henry vekna himself the actor uh uh jamie bowers i

think his name is uh jamie uh campbell buyers awesome awesome need him need him and more stuff

If they were to announce the date that he was going to be the Joker in the DC universe,

you would not hear an argument here or any villain in that regards.

Or we can change it up,

give him something else.

You know,

he doesn't have to play a villain because he was humanized.

And I was kind of worried in this episode,

like they were going to.

turn him like you know try to redeem vechna for a minute there and i was like oh we can't do that don't do that don't ruin this show by redeeming the villain that's the one thing that killed me with star wars you

know uh i'm talking about the latest ones with uh kylo ren that drove me insane when they turned him and redeemed him and he's

Ben Solo now.

Now he's fighting for good.

Now I know Darth Vader did turn but he turned at the end of

Return of the Jedi.

He turned at the end to save his son.

We get that but not

Kylo Ren.

That ruined everything for me.

And they would have ruined it for me here if they would have turned Vecna.

But when he told Will no.

no uh i am with it yeah yeah he's using me but we we we need each other you know and i was like yes i think i was the only one in the theater that cheered who

cheered at that moment because i was i was excited like i'm so happy keep him the villain do you know that forget that uh uh redeeming stuff he's too he's too far gone at this moment he's done

too much to redeem himself and so uh i did enjoy that but i loved uh the performance i loved

uh how calm how how centered this character is and is through the performance of uh uh jamie he was just phenomenal in this role phenomenal

he's one of the most chilling villains you would ever see or rather is on television or finn find me one this dead chilling i mean he doesn't you can Scribble Wee.

the magical element of his character and he would still be creepy he was still uh uh exact fear in you by his looks by his his the way he stands how calm and uh proper he is you know what i'm saying he's he's just the perfect villain

and i i would never take that away that's the best quality of this show.

was vechner and he is a worthy villain for our foes man because a villain like that you imagine going up against a dr strange in mcu not against five kids in indiana you

know and so it it just adds that much more attention to it but yeah that was my biggest uh positive takeaways of this episode.

As far as everything else,

it's not that it was bad,

because like I said,

I really did enjoy this episode.

I thought it was a worthy ending to this story.

But yeah,

it was sappy.

It was very cheesy,

you know,

but that's what Stranger Things is.

And I get a kick out of people who actually complain about that.

I'm saying that,

but it's not a complaint.

You know,

it's the show.

It's been like that from the first episode.

And they kept that all the way through.

So it's really par for the course for this show.

But yes,

it is cheesy.

It is campy.

You know,

you get those moments in these tense situations where the world is literally about the end.

And you get a break with these emotional monologues.

between characters and that kind of breaks the tension.

And what makes the show special is the fact that,

yeah,

it kind of breaks the tension,

but the tension is still there.

It is not really broken.

It's more like bent.

It's not a broken tension.

It's bent tension.

And it's as soon as the monologue is over,

you're back in this tense situation.

And it's,

it's.

It's rare.

You don't see that in most movies.

And when they normally break,

tension is broken.

And it'll take about another two or three scenes to get it ramped back up again.

But no,

it really keeps pace with the tension.

Something that

I know a lot of people are probably going to complain about with this final episode that I didn't have a problem with personally is the...

rainbow and sunshine ending it's the it's everybody got a happy ending ending to this show i know a lot of people gonna be upset and part of me is upset i

thought throughout that we were gonna get a sacrifice i thought somebody was gonna gonna die for the cause you know gonna to lay down a life for the cause.

My theories were...

uh steve i thought steve was gonna go down uh he did i thought that maybe maybe will would make the ultimate sacrifice but he did you know everybody lived uh

the 11 aspect of it i knew that she didn't die at the end you know making that big sacrifice i knew something was off because it just didn't make sense because we had already

received a fake out earlier with the uh vegna messing with hopper's mind and and causing him to shoot the tank and we thought that he shot 11 now if it would have happened at that moment it would have been epic i

i was all in at that moment i actually got emotional and got mad when i found out it was a fake out but uh yeah if they would have did it then

it would have made sense but once they did that fake out there i knew that it wasn't going to happen and you know they weren't going to quote unquote kill her twice so uh that was that now

uh with hopper and joyce getting engaged okay that's cute uh everybody going off and pursuing pursuing their dreams and all this here the kids graduating and going off and doing what they do uh

living happy lives together that's well apart really uh yeah that's all fine and good you know it's sappy it is bubble gumming uh

uh rainbows man it is truly a sappy ending but you know i guess it kind of needed to do that and i'm not mad at it i would have preferred something different i would have i would have preferred a more realistic kind

of ending whereas like i said somebody sacrificed themselves maybe the town was more receptive and knew what was going on and and that's the one thing

That kind of bothers me with this show.

Outside of the kids and their parents,

or at least some of their parents,

everybody is oblivious to what is going on.

Still,

even at the end of this show,

the whole town has no clue of what took place.

Even though the world literally split into four,

and you had a military presence,

and you had all this freaky stuff going on.

the town and nobody believed that uh the upside down or it any anything out of the norm was taking place around him it just mind because you go back to uh uh volume

two when uh robin was talking to her girlfriend and

She was trying to explain what exactly is happening,

you know,

with Vecna and the Demi Gordons and the Upside Down and all this other stuff.

She didn't believe her.

She was like,

oh,

you're on drugs.

Are you living in Hawkins?

Do you not know what's going on?

Children are coming up missing and all this other food.

None of this is weird to you?

Make you think that something is off?

It just blew my mind that nobody in the town is freaking out or is celebrating these kids for literally saving not only their town,

but the world.

And

I don't know.

That's my biggest bugaboo with the show.

My only thing.

Is it a nitpick to a degree?

It might be.

It may be a nitpick,

but I don't.

I just don't.

I just can't get over it.

I don't know why it just bugs me.

I know that's a lot of story you have to dive into.

You need probably need a little more time to kind of flush out the rest of the town folk there.

But

I mean,

come on,

at least have the parents address it.

The only parents that address it is the wheelers,

you know,

Karen and her husband,

because they were literally attacked by a demigod.

It is so deep.

They experienced,

but up to that point,

they didn't know,

you know,

but whatever.

Like I said,

nothing that's going to take away from the show for me.

That doesn't really take away.

It's just something that.

I just don't understand that portion of the show because it's the whole town.

Literally,

the whole town was under quarantine with the military and all this other dark and freaky stuff that's going around.

Another kind of a,

I guess you could say a personal pet peeve.

I felt that Linda Hamilton was wasted.

Linda freaking

Hamilton. Sarah Connor,

man.

I felt she was wasted.

Now,

when she was on screen throughout this season,

it was money.

It was beautiful to see her on screen.

It was beautiful to see her a part of this show.

I think she fit the show.

Her character fit the show,

but nothing came of it.

You know,

that was the one open-ended thing that kind of came and went at the end of this episode.

It was the military.

It was her presence.

Like,

what happened?

Oh,

they just left?

And that's the end of it?

I guess that's what it is.

They just left.

Once 11 quote-unquote died,

they had no reason to be there.

And the upside down was blown up.

But once again,

that goes back to the town folk.

Oh,

well,

the military left.

Everything's fine and good now.

You know,

there's nothing being addressed there.

But,

ah.

I felt Linda Hamilton was wasted.

I think she could have played a bigger role.

And when you think back on episodes throughout this season where she wasn't present and we got these long,

drawn out hour and a half long episodes where nothing really was happening.

You could have had a little bit more of her character.

But maybe it's just me.

Maybe it's just me.

I could be.

uh reading into it too much or just have a a crush that i've been having on linda hamilton since 1984 so it is what it is but any in any event other than that i really enjoyed it i enjoyed the action in this uh final episode where everybody got a chance to shine uh when they were in this other

dimension or whatever it was

uh fighting the mind flare but that was cool it was cool to see the final showdown with 11 and vechna that was cool um joyce uh renona rider being

the one that to finally give the final blow on vechna was so poetic and awesome it's it just is no way i can say this was a bad

ending just because of that you know because it all started with her it all started with her not giving up looking for her son after vechna uh uh kidnapped her uh will and uh

all that she went through and it just her being there for will throughout all of this and fighting uh just being the one to give the final blow or blows

to Vecna was so poetic.

I just,

everybody in the theater just clapped,

you know,

they didn't clap for nothing else,

but they,

they clapped for that because it was well-earned and deserved.

that was,

that was beautiful.

And that's pretty much all I can say about it.

I did like it.

I liked all of that.

um,

the emotional moments hit,

all of it landed for me.

it was a good ending and it needed to end these kids these kids are eligible for

AARP at this point you know it's time to move on to bigger and better things

I think the job was done and it was wrapped up nicely with a bow

Stranger Things 5 the final episode

gets a letter grade of a b plus yes i i enjoyed it as far as the entire series as a whole it also gets a b plus i like i said i'm gonna miss it i'm

gonna miss it i was emotional i stayed at the end i know it wasn't a post-credits scene but i just wanted to soak in because i know this was it even though i can always go back and watch it all over again but it's nothing like

experiencing it for the first time or in this case the last time and

knowing that this is it well it was it just it was just a beautiful moment it was it felt good to kind of soak that in uh and and know that you know this is where i was at the end and and not watching it at home and being in a theater it it just made it a little bit more special and

like yeah i went and saw the final episode in the theater in in the biggest

glorious way it could ever go out and it just made it more special that's all i can say to that but i want to know didn't you enjoy stranger things are you sad that is ending are you happy that is ending like oh it's about time 10 years in

10 years my kids were kids did you know now they're grown they're around the same ages as the cast so you know it's it's crazy to think

that uh starting off watching i remember i started off watching it by myself uh this was when netflix just started doing the streaming thing or it started ramping up in this show uh

you know around that time i really wasn't on the internet that much so i didn't get a you know the the viral vibe from it i just started watching it

I'm like,

oh,

is it set in the 80s?

I'm an 80s baby.

Let me start watching it.

I watched the half of the first season,

and I was like,

man,

pretty good.

And then the next day,

I started watching the other half of that season.

I'm like,

man,

this is awesome.

I really did enjoy that,

you know?

And it was on from there.

And then I finally told my wife about it.

And I think she started watching it.

Yeah,

she started in season two.

But she went back and watched the first season And then collectively

We watched season 2 together And it was on from there So um

So I want to know,

man,

I really do.

Are you going to miss it?

And what are your plans for this new year?

Do you have any big plans for 2026?

I don't have any.

I don't have any as of now.

But,

you know,

things change as the days go on.

But email the show.

Let me know.

Talk to me.

KBRadioPodcast at gmail.com.

You can also search for the show on all social media platforms.

Just search for the KBRadio Network.

Also,

don't forget about YouTube.

Subscribe to the KBRadio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind.

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the concession stand here on the kb radio network everybody thank you so much for joining me for the stranger things finale review thank you all for 2025 support and

i expect you all to come back for 2026 because we're not going anywhere we're still here we're not doing the stranger things this isn't the finale this is barely the beginning and so everybody

thank you so much have a happy new year i want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you all be blessed

Stranger Things 5 - The Final Episode Review

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