The return of Stranger Things gives chills and thrills to some critics, but leaves others lukewarm

The first half of the latest season of Stranger Things has taken viewers by storm, with many critics giving the hit Netflix show’s return rave reviews, although others said it’s past its prime.

The first four episodes of the fifth season are “highly entertaining stuff with appropriate stakes and plenty of excitement,” Ed Potton wrote in a four-star review in the Times.

Another four-star article, written by Jack Seale in The Guardian, declared that “this luxurious final tour will have you standing on a chair, screaming with joy.”

But not everyone was so enthusiastic. The show “waves between exciting and annoying,” according to Kelly Lawler of USA Today, while Sophie Gilbert of the Atlantic described most of it as “largely sad and bleak.”

Netflix briefly crashed when the four new episodes premiered on Wednesday in the United States and early Thursday in the United Kingdom. The streaming service told Variety that normal service resumed within five minutes.

Three more installments will be released on Christmas and the final one on New Year’s.

With the popular sci-fi show nearing its climax, the end may also be near for the brave inhabitants of Hawkins, Indiana, as a showdown looms between the (now mature) teenage heroes and the evil Vecna.

“It’s a classic ’80s adventure, in the best sense: kids outgrowing adults, lots of humor and a surprising amount of heart,” gushed the Standard’s Vicky Jessop. “I swallowed it, more please.”

The Times added: “Volume One doesn’t rewrite the manual, but why would you want it to?”

Leila Latif’s four-star review of Empire said it “remains a show that knows exactly what it is and reminds us that youth can be precious, but getting older can still be exhilarating.”

She wrote: “All the signature elements are intact: the dark humor, the fantasy, the poetry of trauma, and the hard-won resilience. Most reassuring of all is how quickly the show demonstrates that it hasn’t lost its sense of fun.”

The “great” fourth episode is Stranger Things “at its best,” according to BBC Culture’s Laura Martin.

“It’s exciting; and if it’s a precursor to how the Duffer Brothers plan to conclude the show… then viewers are in for an all-time great TV finale.”

In the Telegraph, a three-star review by Ed Power wrote that Stranger Things “remains top-notch comfortable viewing.”

“For now, despite a slightly slow start, the signs promise that it will be better than Game of Thrones and will offer a send-off that will live up to audience expectations,” he said.

The Guardian also had some caveats in its positive review.

“Stranger Things definitely needs to turn off its boombox, hang up its catapults, and admit it’s too old for these shenanigans, but it’s worth indulging one last time,” Seale wrote.

The show’s fifth season has a healthy score of 86% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, although some critics weren’t completely enthused.

“The cast keeps growing, but the show doesn’t,” Sam Adams said in Slate.

“It’s not just Hawkins who feels cut off from the world. It’s Stranger Things itself, a show now sealed in an impenetrable, airless bubble of stagnant characters and a tangled story.”

Others also noted the advancing age of the central characters.

Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter said, “It’s time to let these teenagers do what they need to do: grow up and move on with the rest of their lives.”

Variety’s Alison Herman wrote: “By refusing to enrich its characters as they age, Stranger Things gets stuck in arrested development. When you grow without going deep, you end up stretched thin.”

Ben Travers of IndieWire stated that the fifth season “leaves you wanting less”, while Michael Walsh of Nerdist agreed that less could have been more.

“The beginning of Stranger Things 5 ​​is a lot,” he wrote. “Very, very much.

“While very little of these four overly long episodes is outright bad on its own (with one important exception), too much story, too many characters, and too many complicated/convoluted developments keep Volume One from being great.”

The next three episodes will be released on Christmas Day in the US and Boxing Day in the UK, with the finale arriving on New Year’s Eve in the US and New Year’s Day in the UK.