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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
142
Mixed:
32
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
iJul 1, 2022
Season 4.5 Review:
The action and the four-series storyline – all of which untangles into one simple, satisfying thread towards the end of episode two – are excellent, but secondary to what Stranger Things does best. That I was worried for every single character, that there was not one I would be willing to say goodbye to is a testament to the world building and relationships the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, have achieved.
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iMay 24, 2022
Season 4 Review:
This is a series so full of surprises, Easter eggs and references that it’s a delight to know you’ll be able to enjoy them in all their glory. But here’s what I can tell you: it’s fantastic. ... Series four is certainly a change in tone and even genre, but it’s all the better for it.
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Oct 23, 2017
Season 2 Review:
There really is a kind of sophisticated genius behind Stranger Things, and while others may try to imitate what the Duffers are doing, it’s harder than it may seem. If anything, the pair have moved the game forward in the second season by making the show scarier without losing the wise innocence of ’80s films as embodied by a bunch of kids, riding around Indiana on bikes in the middle of a real adventure.
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Jul 12, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Stranger Things reminds us of a time marked by a kind of no-strings escapism. And as it does so, we find ourselves yearning for it because the Duffers have made it so irresistibly appealing. There may be other equally great shows to watch this summer, but I guarantee you won’t have more fun watching any of them than you will watching Stranger Things.
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Jul 1, 2022
Season 4.5 Review:
Stranger Things at this point feels nostalgic for itself: its characters, its lore, and more importantly the emotional connection its fans feel towards it. ... The show’s scope is getting bigger, its cast more expansive, and its stakes more universal. And it’s a miracle that it manages to keep all these plates largely spinning, even as its runtimes threaten to give Titanic a run for their money.
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ColliderJul 1, 2022
Season 4.5 Review:
Ultimately, it speaks to the strengths of the show and its cast that Season 4 manages to extend moments of hope and poignancy even in the midst of greater circumstances that could quite literally signal the end of the world. The performances in these final episodes are staggeringly good.
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Jul 1, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Mainly what you’ll be doing when you’ve finished your binge is trying to catch your breath (the finale is epic with a capital E, P, I and C), drying your eyes (it’ll also give you feels that you never even knew were feels) and wondering whether you’ll remain on the edge of your seat all the way until Season 4.
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Nov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
the initial quartet of chapters are so packed with gory action, movie-grade visual effects and effortless, amusing interactions from its now-veteran ensemble that watching in spurts is probably advisable...You’ll want to savor the finely structured storytelling and extended shock setpieces that series creators Matt and Ross Duffer serve up. Additionally, those who indulge have extra time to obsess over all the nostalgic Easter eggs the Duffer Brothers plant. And considering the escalating pace at which the narrative barrels along on multiple tracks, viewers could need a breath-catching break; I know I was absolutely winded by the end of Chapter Four.
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RogerEbert.comJul 1, 2019
Season 3 Review:
It’s such a finely-tuned and executed piece of escapist entertainment that I watched it twice. (Yes, the whole thing.) ... “Stranger Things 3” has absolutely no fat. It's the kind of show that I’d wager almost everyone who starts will find themselves finishing in one or two sittings. The rhythm of “Stranger Things” has never been tighter, but it helps that the cast feels elevated as well.
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Jul 16, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The real star is Brown, who brings the enigmatic and ill-used Eleven to heart-wrenching life almost without benefit of dialogue. Her face flickers with wonder, woe and menace, often in the same scene, in a way that even cynics who make a point of rooting for horror-movie monsters will not be able to resist.
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Jul 1, 2022ColliderMay 23, 2022
May 23, 2022
Season 4 Review:
To its credit, the lingering pace doesn’t translate to any boring moments. Stranger Things still injects an enthralling backstory into its well-established universe. It’s an indication that the final two episodes of Volume 2 (dropping on July 1), despite its movie length, will only elevate season four.
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Jul 2, 2019
Season 3 Review:
This eight-episode installment available Thursday just might be my favorite of the series. It has more heart and far more willingness to address the messiness that comes with adolescence. It also features several genuinely creepy moments that have everything to do with something not of this world.
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Jul 13, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Over the course of the eight hours, the story and characters take on enough life of their own so that the references don't feel self-indulgent, and so that the series can be appreciated even if you don't know the plot of E.T. or the title font of Stephen King's early novels (a huge influence on the show's own opening credits) by heart.
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Dec 1, 2025
Season 5 Review:
As I watched the episodes that make up the first half, I found myself getting caught up despite the lack of emotional depth, if straining to remember some of the finer details of what was going on. .... I found the final moments of the final episode coming out this month both genuinely thrilling and genuinely moving. Almost despite itself, Season 5 pulls off a scene of impressive emotional payoff, pushing past all of the action of the earlier episodes to say something profound about being young.
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Nov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
Stranger Thing Season 5 Part 1— streaming now — is full of gaudy special effects, nonsensical lore, and insane plot devices, and yet you will still somehow fall under the show’s spell. That’s because it was never the spectacle or super-sized episode run times that won audiences over. No, the best part of Stranger Things is still, as it’s always been, the sheer humanity of its characters and the incandescent talent of its young cast.
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The TimesNov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
Maya Hawke, meanwhile, is a star and David Harbour and Winona Ryder’s Hopper and Joyce are one of the engagingly imperfect couples on screen — let’s hope it doesn’t end badly, and she makes a confessional album about him. Episode four features a set piece that would be the envy of most movies and a revelation that sets up the final chapters very nicely indeed. The big question is: who will they kill off? Roll on Boxing Day.
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Nov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
Having seen four of the final season’s nine episodes, I can attest that there’s a lot of gratifying new material, particularly for fellow fans of author Madeleine L’Engle and Schnapp, and one very weird subplot. But the flashbacks are what interest me most; they feel anxious. There’s an urgency to them, a workmanlike sense of rigor that feels slightly at odds with the show’s mission and tone. Put simply: It feels, suddenly, like “Stranger Things” wants to explain itself. It wants to provide answers — and connections — that I both long for and fear the show can’t plausibly deliver.
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Nov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
After an unwieldy, exposition-heavy first episode, the Duffers quickly find their groove again in Stranger Things Season 5, Vol. 1. These four episodes are a welcome return to the town and characters of Hawkins. The fight against Vecna takes a new path and the show’s tone has matched the maturing of its cast and experiences of its characters.
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ColliderNov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
These four episodes make a statement that the Duffers are ending their series on their own terms, even while they serve as a culmination of everything that has come before. That's a good thing, and if Stranger Things can maintain that balance the rest of the way, the back half of the final season should be able to deliver the type of remarkable ending the residents of Hawkins and the viewers watching at home all deserve.
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Radio TimesNov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
The Duffer Brothers have had a monumental task in wrapping up this beast of a show and giving each and every character an ending that not only makes sense, but proves satisfactory after nine years. Many showrunners have tried to wrap up stories of this scale in style, and many have failed, and which camp the Duffers ultimately fall into remains to be seen...But, if these first few episodes are anything to go by, we could be looking at a finale for the ages. It might be a bit too soon to tell for sure, but, as we've seen over the past decade, when it comes to this TV phenomenon, stranger things have happened.
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Jul 1, 2022
Season 4.5 Review:
As big as Stranger Things has stretched in season four, the avenues by which its parallel narrative threads will converge are becoming more clear with the revelations of volume two. And that’s exciting, watching as all of these characters, long broken apart, find their way back to each other.
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The GuardianJul 1, 2022
Season 4.5 Review:
The fireworks finally begin and they don’t disappoint, with no big surprises (various characters find themselves on the edge of defeat in a fight to the death before visions of what truly matters to them give them the strength to rally at the last second) but a lot of impeccable judgments.
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Jun 2, 2022
Season 4 Review:
The visual effects are more sophisticated and so is the filmmaking; the transitions between scenes, which track four different running story lines, are more elegant and make a sprawling season feel relatively cohesive. Does it feel bloated given those longer run-times? At times, yes. But by episode three, I was again invested in what’s happening in Hawkins (as well as some new locations), and less concerned about the amount of minutes that investment required.
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The GuardianDec 4, 2019
Season 3 Review:
It’s a real and joyful return to form for the show that has been taken fiercely to the hearts of people who weren’t there the first time round and, perhaps even more fiercely, by those who were. The brothers continue to play with, reference and occasionally lift all the things that made the Johns, Carpenter and Hughes, and the Steph(/v)ens, King and Spielberg, enduringly great and mash them into something equally fun, racy and frightening as hell for us all on the small screen. It’s almost like being young again.
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Jul 1, 2019
Season 3 Review:
To some this may stand as evidence of a series relaxing into its baroque period, and depending on how much love a viewer has for the show, that’s probably fine. Kid fans are going to love it, although the frights have escalated this season. Adults yearning to be seduced by memories of a past injected into our brains by Hollywood will be amply satisfied. .. A summertime treat built for the broadest range of tastes.
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Oct 30, 2017
Season 2 Review:
All in all, Stranger Things season 2 is ultimately more of the same, but still a very worthy sequel, which is good news for those of us (like me) who only hoped for the Duffer Brothers to manage to carry through the success of the original run with an affecting, and believable, continuation of the story.
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TV Guide MagazineOct 26, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Stranger Things 2 is a blast. [30 Oct 2017 - 12 Nov 2017, p.12]
Oct 26, 2017
Oct 26, 2017
Season 2 Review:
The new season of Stranger Things isn’t as good as the first. The Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers notwithstanding, sequels hardly ever are. Though, as with so many sequels, what happened before happens again only more so, it is somehow more than the sum of its disparate parts.
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Oct 26, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Season 2’s first three episodes top the suspense, weirdness and fun of last year thanks to sharper writing, more dynamic storytelling, a honed sense of humor (some of it self-referential) and a young cast that has developed its acting skills alongside their adult teeth.
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Oct 23, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Stranger Things 2 is quite good and, if your expectations are in check, largely satisfying. The Duffer Brothers fall into very few traps of self-importance or self-awareness and they deliver a second season with an expanded assortment of '80s influences, an expanded cast of instantly embraceable characters and some expanded Stranger Things mythology without the bloat that inevitably dooms sequels.
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Oct 23, 2017
Season 2 Review:
Until Stranger Things 2 really gets going--and that takes a while--it trails an air of self-consciousness that veers into strained fan service at times. The good news is, the show’s core cast remains an extremely versatile and effective ensemble, and once the story kicks into a higher gear about halfway through the nine-episode season, a lot of the old magic returns.
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Jul 14, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Harder is capturing the tone of another era. The Duffers manage that quite well, too, thanks to a fine sense of restraint that increasingly seems a lost art these days. There are a few good shocks here, but mostly there is patience. None of it would work without solid acting, and the series has that in abundance.
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Jul 14, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The nostalgic tone of Stranger Things succeeds less from discrete moment to moment than as an overall ambience; in synthy music, vivid shooting style, and deeply earnest performances, the show is committed to selling you a sort of story that doesn’t exist in mainstream pop culture anymore.
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Jul 13, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Stranger Things tries to strike a tricky balance between going fully meta and creating a piece of paranoid, magical, terrifying realism that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the works of Spielberg, Stephen King, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven that it so overtly references. At times, it wobbles in that effort. But it manages to right itself pretty quickly by effectively hooking us into its central mystery and so evocatively conjuring up a not-so-long-ago yesteryear when walkie-talkie conversations were our Snapchat and what’s now considered free-range parenting was just called parenting.
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Jun 13, 2022
Season 4 Review:
Amid the show’s ballooning scale and scope, Stranger Things finds an unexpected anchor not in its ensemble of fan favorites but in its latest villain: a supernatural serial killer dubbed Vecna after—what else?—a Dungeons and Dragons character. Vecna resides in the Upside Down, but unlike previous visitors, he’s humanlike, with a voice, a face, and, most chilling of all, a worldview.
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Nov 26, 2025
Season 5 Review:
What lingers is not just nostalgia for the ’80s, but nostalgia for the “Stranger Things” version of that decade. No longer merely a pastiche, Hawkins has become a place both familiar and extraordinary that we’ve happily visited for nearly 10 years...The TV world is going to feel a whole lot stranger without it.
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Jul 5, 2022
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