My Thoughts on the Stranger Things Finale

It's taken me about a month to write this, mostly because it took that long for negative reactions to Stranger Things content to finally flush out of my algorithm on Twitter or Instagram. Man, was it a constant stream those first two weeks of the year when every other post that got fed to me was around it. But it's time to put some thoughts in writing.

Let's start by saying I've generally been super pro-Stranger Things. Granted, many of us were that first year, long back in 2016 when it came out on NETFLIX with no real promotion. It was aimed as nostalgia-porn for a generation taht I;m barely a part of - given it much touches on the 80s and I was born in 1991. But still, it was fresh, it was layered, it was dark where it needed to be, mysterious where it needed to be, and funny, touching, loving where it needed to be. Season 1 was a masterpiece. 

Season 2 wasn't as good, but had a ton of great moments and episodes, and also came quickly, airing in 2017. Then came the relative troubles, needing two years until Season 3 in 2019, and that season being just a touch off - with teh addition of more characters there were more disconnected plots, more bloat, a touch too much zaniness, color and light (despite a fairly good scary central premise). The dials were a bit off.

And then was Season 4. A lot of people started fully jumping off at that point, be it the movie-length episode run times, the even more disconnected plot (Hopper and Joyce in Russia!?) or the now getting comical age gap between the actors portraying the main kids and the characters they were portraying. You know what, though - despite these very fair critiques, I still loved it. I named Stranger Things Season 4 my favorite TV show of 2022. I don't regret that at all. To me, Season 4 was a true masterpiece, even more than the initial Season 1.

It added a layer of mythology that worked so perfectly in teh slow reveal of Vecna being Henry Creel, and more so, being "One" to El's "Eleven". It was a perfect mystery unwrapped bit by bit in great detail. The final episode with the merging of Eleven vs. Vecna, the Robyn/Steve/Nancy crew in the upside down with a bunch of guns shooting at Vecna, and "Running Up That Hill" playing was all so perfect. Again, I was more in on Stranger Things than most. I was the mark, the person ready to give them the benefit of the doubt.

That all said - Season 5 was a huge disappointment, particularly the last three episodes, and more particularly the finale. That was a letdown. So many issues, so many shortcuts, so many weird decisions, so many departures from what made earlier seasons great. So much to unpack here.

**two quick asides:

1.) Despite me not liking it, people saying this was a "Game of Thrones Finale" level disaster is way overstating things. Nothing will come close to Game of Thrones throwing away more goodwill than maybe any show in 20 years in one fell, stupid swoop.

2.) Nearly none of my criticisms will touch on the first four episodes that came out near Thanksgiving, which to me were generally quite good and with the final bit being Will realizing his powers was in theory setting things up really nicely.**

So where to begin. For starters, they crammed way too much into that final episodes. There were a lot of int he end correct spoilers that the final set of episodes would cover a lot of the backstory from the play that delvers into Henry Creel's background - that he was infected by particles representing the Mind Flayer in that cave way back when. That it would all be revealed that it was the Mind Flayer as the true big bad from teh beginning, and that Vecna was the unwitting vessel. That all ended up being mostly true - but was way too much to go through in that last episode. This should've been teased out bit by bit across the season, or at the very least across the last three episodes. Instead, it was all jammed up at the very end.

Then was the final battle, where after turning the Mind Flayer into the real big bad (granted, I credit them for not making it a total redemption arc for Henry) the final battle wasn't against the Mind Flayer all that much - it all seemed too easy and "power of friendship", a lesser battle against an active Mind Flayer than the battle against a semi-comatose / hive-minding Henry in Season 4. It was also again rushed.

Then there was the weird character stuff, making Holly Wheeler, a completely faceless character for four seasons, into a key character in teh last season, to sidelining important ones for so long. For making so much of it around Nancy's and Jonathan's relationship, something that truthfully was never all that interesting (and neutered what is generally the most dependably cool character in Nancy). The plot thinned so mcuh, from everyone kind of getting over a demogorgan I guess killing Mr. Wheeler and putting Mrs. Wheeler into a coma. Just a bunch of over-focus on plot and fake moments rather than earned ones in past.

Don't get me started on that never-ending coda, that series of endings that would make the finales of The Return of the King blush. So much of that was saccharine nonsense for a show that generally did well with emotional moments in past. The worst was probably that scene on the roof, pitting four characters in a reminisce when those four never really shared the same worldview or friendship in the past (certainly not ALL of those four). That plus the umpteen speeches, adn the general positive outlook of the coda was just jarring given again all the terror that group, that town has gone through.

Ultimately, I think what really has sharpened into focus when I think about Stranger Things is how the target audience seemed to change for the show over the years. It might be the people that watch more NETFLIX now are teh ones taht are the kids actors age, from the youngsters in 2016 to adults now. The show focsued far more on not just the kids as cahracters, but kid themes, kid emotions, gen Z stuff. That's not where Stranger Things started - despite the kids being truly kids in 2016, and them being instrumental characters, the show was targeted at adults who could remember stuff in the 1980s and 1990s and the like. The show was aimed at adults who were probably ~25-35 in 2016, but the target age didn't change as the show grew.

In the end, Stranger Things was a great show at its best, and even in this past season there were some great moments, but it didn't know how the stick the landing. Maybe that's because it never should've gotten this big and the story sprawled far more than The Duffer Brothers ever expected it to. But then again they had three years to plan for Season 4 (which was great), and they had three full years for Season 5 and messed it all up. It's sad really. It isn't a Game of Thrones level failure, but more in like with a HIMYM level one, where you think adn look back on how easily this all should've been fixed differently. In the end, though, I'll never forget the joys of the show at its best, even if I'll forget the mess of its end.

My Favorite Restaurants: Top 50 Tasting Menus, Pt. 3 (#12 - #1)

12.) Salon  (Cape Town - 2024)

One of my only real regrets through all my trips to Cape Town is taht I never made it to The Test Kitchen, which for years was the premier single restaurant in Cape Town. Bookings were frighteningly tough. Then Luke Dale Roberts closed it during Covid, but I guess got the itch back to open a fine dining spot. It was incredible, a culinary tour through all the spots the Chef Roberts has worked or taken inspiration from. Brilliant South African dishes to be sure, but also a foie gras take on black forest cake, a brilliant "tamale" dish featuring the most Mexican of flavor profiles, to a brilliant play on Duck l'Orange, to authentic Korean to end it. It was all brilliant. In isolation, maybe you would worry about how successfully a place could pull off all these different cuisines, but apparently Mr. Luke Dale Roberts is a talented, worldly man - and after going to Salon, if anything I rue not having gone to The Test Kitchen even more.

11.) Pujol  (Mexico City - 2018)

Pujol is Mexico City's best or 2nd best restaurant, going back and forth with Quintonil (haven't been). It was the first on this list to be featured on Chef's Table with chef/owner Enrique Olvera. On the downside, there were only six listed courses which expanded to eight with a few extras thrown in. On the plus side, each was immaculate, from the famous baby-corn coated in a sauce made from ants, to a perfectly cooked octopus, to another perfectly cooked dish with lamb chops and a green mole. Even the desserts with their mango dessert and best churro you will ever have were both excellent. But of course, one cannot talk about Pujol without talking about the Mole Madre dish, their centerpiece, which is just a plate with two concentric circles of dark and light mole, with nopal tortillas. It seems crazy to serve just that as effectively the main course - but it is truly unbelievable. It is accepted people will go as far to lick the last drop of mole off the plate. It truly was a showstopper of a dish that elevates a bunch of other really great dishes.

10.) I Pupi  (Sicily - 2019)

This was the second tasting course meal we had in our trip to Italy in 2019, and while the first one - Imago in Rome - was a big disappointment, the seafood-forward I Pupi in Bagheria, Sicily (about 30 min away from Palermo) was incredible. Their first course of a random assortment of small bites was inspired, each being seafood forward. The second plate which was a platter with six nigiri on it with six different salts to add on top was divine, and while not 'Italian' in any way was just an insane dish. The rest of the meal got more Italian, but still small, focused, refine, seafood plates, from a zuchinni noodle wrapped fish, to an incredible soup, to lamb chops (the only meat). Each dish was so well put together, alternating from amazing small bites to dishes that approached the size of a normal restaurant starter, to everything in between. This was just a fabulous meal and such a nice comeback after being disappointed with Imago earlier in that trip.

9.) Merito  (Lima - 2025)

The weird thing is when you look up Merito, they talk about the fact the head chef is from Venezuela. I'm sure he is, and that cuising ie present here, but realistically if you just said "hey, here's a Central protege going at it on his own!" you would imagine what Merito is, and it blows you away further, It has the fun of Central, the ridiculously inventive use of various tubers, the sharpness of tis colors, and so much more. It has the taste of it too. Merito is such a perfect place, a gold standard in its city, but new enough it gets to invejnt the worlds coolest desert because it doesn't yet have to live up to Maido's or Central's reputation (granted those two are still to come...). Merito is probably in its perfect phase right now, just amazing enough to get recongized, but still undergroudn enough that it can experiment with things like a course that was basically fish and chips - yeah, better fish and chips than you've ever had.

8.) Tresind  (Dubai  -  2025)

The best Indian restaurant I've been to is still to come, but while that one starts with Indian flavors and goes all fusiony with it at tiems (in the best way), Tresind starts with Indian flavors and just elevates and executes the shit out of them - from incredible takes on pani pure, to fish, to lamb curry, to everything else, Tresind executes in perfection - similar to any 3 star Michelin place. Not that it doesn't take risks, but there is such a focus on exacting preparations, visuals where there are a few dishes that look slightly better on the plate than they taste - in that they look like a 10/10 but taste like a 9/10. Those are the minority of dishes across their 15 course menu. Tresind is at the end of the day probably the best pure Indian restaurant in teh world - it could maybe just stand to take a few more risks.

8.) Mingles  (Seoul - 2022)

Mingles is Seoul's top ranked restaurant, and after going I can see why. It was a classic tasting menu shop, with sharp clarity on its menu, its decor, its everything. It also had a really nice 'Korean Liquor' pairing along with the wine pairing, something I took that got me to taste various different Korean localized liquors. The meal itself was great, with some of the best, most interesting dishes I've had, such as a great king-crab two ways dish, a brilliant take on surf & turf (pork & squid stuffed oyster, along with a braised beef cube), to an incredible lamb three ways dish as the primary main. The vegetable dishes were also spectacular, such as a corn soup dish that opened my eyes to just how sweet corn can be. Mingles was a special restaurant showcasing the best of modern Korean cuisine.\

6.) Borago  (Santiago - 2024)

Central gets all the notoriety from showcasing native food and different altitudes and all that stuff. Deservedly so - it is still to come. But the Chilean version, to some degree, is nearly as good. Rodolfo Guzman's restaurant was the highlight of my trip to Santiago, with some staggering dishes. From a paper scallop with a bright blue algae sauce, to a staggering monkfish and lobster cooked in seaweed. There were incredible small bites to start, like a little makeshift bumblebee of honey and a Chilean corn. And of course that final dish, that Patagonian lamb - just a piece of lamb, roasted over a fire for 24 hours. Much like say it takes balls for Enrique Olvera to serve mole as the main dish at Pujol, so too is it here serving a piece of lamb with no sauce, no sides. Nothing - and it was truly perfect. As was Borago more or less as a whole.

5.) Maido  (Lima - 2016, 2022)

Maido will always have a soft spot for me as it was the first tasting menu spot I went to, at a time where I didn't really know just how well reputed it was. We went for lunch, unable to get a dinner reservation but the menu is the same either way. It is a japanese-peruvian kaiseke meal that is just perfectly designed, executed, presented and crafted. 13 courses, all seafood based, all incredible, from various nigiris, to incredible takes on ceviche, to a choripan of fish & octopus sausage, to a very complicated but inredible soup decanted in front of you. Even the deserts of sea urchin and what they call the 'reef' which is a giant edible reef rock, are wild. I'm sure there are places in Japan that are just as good and more 'authentic', but this is my favorite take on Japanese cuisine ever. Just now I remember being mesmerized at each dish, on how it looked when it was brought out, on the complexity of the way it is described and of course on how it tasted. This, and to be fair the two above it, are peerless for me in the sense that I have zero idea how to recreate any of these dishes. They are simple while being complex, each ingredient, each little piece just so perfect. I hope to go Lima's other world reknowned restaurant Central at some point (maybe even this year, to which I will have to likely re-write this list to add it in), but if we could only go to one premier spot last time, Maido was a perfect pick.

4.) Gaggan Anand  (Bangkok - 2022)

Because of many reasons, I'm going to rank my 2nd trip to a Gaggan Anand restaurant separately from the first one. One reason is it technically is a different restaurant, in a different space. Another is the experience was different - this is a restaurant where he serves just at a chef's table to a group of 14 people. And the biggest difference was Gaggan Anand himself was present, was there to talk to the patrons, the entire thing being equally an experience along with the food. The food was still great, with some of the most inventive dishes I've ever had with insane preparations that he explained so well. It still had all the measure of excitement, like random things that tasted like tom yum soup, or charcoal chicken balls or a dried paper lightly filled that tasted just like hummus. It was classic Gaggan, classic modern cooking, and the only restaurant on this list whre the Chef was there to personally chat with and serve to the customers. The old restaurant is higher up the lsit because at the end I think the food was even better, but my second trip to a Gaggan was about as good as I could have imagined.

3.) Azurmendi  (Bilbao - 2021)

Azurmendi came as close as any meal I've had to unseating what might be a lifetime pick at #1. The basque restaurant certainly met it for downright creativity and presentation. From the picnic basket of small bites, to the greenhouse where they were literally picking up roses from a garden bed before you realized it was sorbet, to of course each incredible bite at the table. All in all they technically had 27 dishes, almost all of which were excellent in their design, freshness, preparation and ultimately taste. My favorites of the small bites were the cod fish brioche and the truffle meringue, just incredible little bites. The daiquiri rose was incredible, from presentation to taste. The asparagurus three ways and play on fish taco were divine. The tempura oyster was maybe the best bite I've ever had, and the ending dishes of cod tart and iberico pork were just sublime. They have a rich tapestry to which to create from local produce and Iberian meats and fishes, but Eneko Atxa's brilliant mind puts it to incredible use.

2.) Central  (Lima - 2022)

Very likely next year Central will be named the best restaurant in the wrold by San Pellegrino in their World's Best 50 list. It is well deserved (the restaurant ranked above it for me has reached similar heights on the same list). The dishes are both uniformly incredibly tasty, and ridiculously inventive. As shown on his turn on Chef's Table, what chef Virgilio Martinez and his team create are art pieces, they're stunning, they're beautiful, they look as good as any dishes I've had, and they were all very good. From dishes made out of random amazonian vegetables, to amazonian fish, to incredibly weird lattice things, to some of the most inventive desserts I've had, including a panoply of peruvian chocolate as the final dish. The best part of the restaurant is how focused the theme is, with showcasing hte beauty of Peru across elevations and its various weird ingredients. It may not have been as many courses as it was in its height pre-covid (I believe 18, now down to 14) but I can only imagine what the four extra would have been.

1.) Gaggan  (Bangkok - 2019)

I don't know if any restaurant will ever top Gaggan, which had so much hype entering in, having seen it on Chef's Table, see it rise up the world rankings, and it being Indian focused. I was expecting a lot, and it somehow overdelivrered. The 25 course menu was just perfect from the start of audacious versions of famous Indian street food (still unsure how my little bit of what looked like a cracker with foam and curry leaf tasted like idli sambar), to the mains of prawn balchao, decronstructed curries, a perfect lamb leg, and multiple Japanese dishes during Gaggan's Japanese phase. The setting, sitting at the chef's table watching his sous chef's go to work, with Gaggan's noted love of Heavy Metal ringing through the speakers, was a delight. IT was so well paced, 25 dishes of 3:30, never once making you feel like you're being rushed through each delectable dish. It is astounding to think this is what is possible with Indian food, that this is how good a menu can be even if you limit yourself to just five meat courses in the 25, and how great an atmosphere, a perspective, a cuisine and a legendary chef can concoct together.