Over and Out: Why I Love Stranger Things

One last ride.

Well, guys. This is it. Stranger Things ended just about a week ago, and I am now officially ending my coverage of this show. I've actually been putting off writing this post, because this is something different than I have ever written on this blog before.

Stranger Things premiered in 2016. I was ten years old. I remember my mom recommended I watch it, but I was hesitant at first. I had seen the little image that pops up when you click on it on Netflix, and it looked scary. At the time, I didn't like watching anything scary. But I gave it a shot.

I remember the feeling of watching Will Byers vanish for the first time. I was ten, so I wasn't analyzing it or really even fully registering the story, but I remember the feeling. I thought about the adventures that I would take if I were friends with Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. What would I do if Eleven waltzed into my life? How would I stand up against the Demogorgon and try to find Will?

After season one, Stranger Things just became a part of my life. Every time a new season would come out, it would take over my excitement for weeks or even months. The summer of season three was so memorable because I would just go home from summer camp pumped to watch another episode.

And then COVID hit, and we got a nearly three-year gap between seasons three and four. And, when it came back, I was more excited than ever. By now, I had been writing on the blog, so you can find my original coverage of season four. My family had actually gotten COVID over Memorial Day Weekend, when volume one came out, so I was quarantined at home. No complaints from me. I binged nearly nine hours of Stranger Things in two days.

The summer of 2022 was actually huge for me, because I went to my final year of sleepaway camp for 40 days. During that, the final two episodes of Stranger Things 4 released. When I came back from camp, I was so sad. I missed my friends and camp and the feeling of spending every day in that incredible place...and then I got to escape from that sadness and loneliness by spending four hours in Hawkins.

And that takes us to 2025. The final season. The goodbye.

I started re-watching the show in February, and I just immediately felt all of these childhood memories and emotions flooding back. Season one hits differently when you are an adult, but for me, it still felt like I was a kid. All the adventures I imagined and fun I had watching it when I was ten still felt the same when I was eighteen. And that is the magic of this show.

I'm not reviewing the final season here. I have covered it extensively, so if you want that, just look at my past few months of content.

Season five of Stranger Things was more than just another season of the show. It felt like the end of a major chapter in my life. I started watching this show when I was ten. I turn twenty this year. This show and these characters and this story are a defining piece of my adolescence. And so this final post about Stranger Things is my goodbye to the show.

This show has taught me so much about growing up. At its core, its a coming-of-age story, and it really hits harder when you are coming of age alongside the characters. These final conversations that Mike and Will and Dustin and Lucas are having are conversations I've experienced with my friends as we go off to college. The bittersweetness of growing up and moving on to another phase of life is captured so beautifully in Stranger Things, and I think that is one of the biggest takeaways from this final season.

But, to me, this show just has so much power in how it relates to its audience. Each character represents some different challenge to overcome in life. Hopper shows us that grief and depression can swallow you whole, but there is always a way to return to the greatness that you once had in you. Steve shows us that you can always change and become a better person or friend (or, in his case, mother). Max shows us that trauma and self-loathing are your mind playing tricks on you, and leaning on your friends and believing in yourself is a journey that, although difficult, is ultimately rewarding. Eleven shows us that even the darkest of lives can become bright through kindness and love. And so many other characters have that element to them.

These characters, these people that I have been on this ten-year journey with, do, in a way, feel like friends of my own. Now, I know that makes me sound super lonely and sad, but I don't mean it in a lonely or sad way. They are reflections of the kinds of people I want to be around and the kind of person I want to be. The reason Steve Harrington is so beloved is because he shows that you are not defined by the worst version of yourself. In fact, you are usually defined by how much you can change and become the improved, better version of yourself. That's a powerful idea, and it is so much something I want to incorporate into my own life.

If you whittle it down, at the end of the day, Stranger Things is a show about growing up. About changing. About the challenges that come along with that. As someone that has grown up during the run of this show and faced the challenges of growing up, Stranger Things has always felt like a comfort. A reminder that you can overcome anything, even if it doesn't feel like it.

So, to me, this post is a final goodbye to this show that has been integral to half my life. Even if its over, I will be keeping it alive in rewatches, in introducing it to others, in continuing to just love and think about the show. This, to me, is representative of the emotional power of storytelling. The best stories can feel like more than just a show or a movie. They can feel like an integral part of someone's life, and that is most definitely where Stranger Things lands for me.

So, yeah. That's my love letter to Stranger Things. Thank you to everyone who has read and supported the blog over these past few months while I have dedicated it to the final season of this show. It truly was an incredible journey and I am so glad I got to be a part of your experience in any way shape or form.

And, finally, thank you to the Duffer brothers and the cast and crew and everyone who participated in the making of this show. I know I'm not the only one who has grown up with and loved these characters and this story as much as I do. This show is one of the strongest examples of just pure goodness in the world, and I cannot emphasize how important that is to me.

Thank you all for reading this post. It was a tough one to write, because how do you say goodbye to a defining part of your life for ten years? I tried my best. I hope you guys connect with it in some way. And I hope you continue to keep Stranger Things alive and in the present hearts and minds of people, because I do believe in the power of its story and impact.

This is Aiden, signing off of Stranger Things. Over and out.