The day has finally arrived for Stranger Things<\/a> fans to return to Hawkins, Indiana after a break of more than three years.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the early hours of Friday morning, four shiny, new episodes of the award-winning sci-fi drama began streaming on Netflix<\/a> (with two more drops also set to wrap up the story next month<\/a>), picking up the story 18 months after the events of season four.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n So far, the critical reaction to these new instalments has been noticeably mixed, with a string of glowing, four-star reviews contrasted by more critical takes claiming the show\u2019s central characters remain underdeveloped and that the new series\u2019 bumper runtime can make things feel a little slow at times.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s a selection of what critics are saying about Stranger Things season five, starting with some of its more celebratory reviews\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWith each of the four episodes running on from the previous one, we have a five-hour action-comedy-horror movie, where each part of the story is luxuriously stretched.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEpisode one is all set up; episode four is a solidly thrilling 90 minutes of flame-throwing, bullet-dodging spectacle that makes good use of what looks like a virtually limitless effects budget, and which culminates in a moment that will have fans standing on their chairs and hollering joyfully.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNo Stranger Things fan is going away disappointed from these episodes, which leave anticipation for the rest of the season at fever pitch. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe bombastic episode four is Stranger Things at its best […] it\u2019s thrilling; and if it\u2019s a precursor to how the Duffer Brothers plan to wrap up the show […] then viewers are in for an all-time great TV ending.\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAs our time in Hawkins reaches its climax, Stranger Things gets grander and gorier. Both our heroes and their deadliest foes still have thrilling new tricks up their sleeves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat Stranger Things still excels at is the character development, with the complex dynamics between the characters still proving just as gripping as the final battle. There\u2019s a huge ensemble here to deal with, but the Duffers handle each character with care, giving us interactions and pairings we\u2019ve not yet seen in the five seasons, while still doing the long-loved relationships justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cVolume one doesn\u2019t rewrite the manual but why would you want it to? This is richly entertaining stuff with proper jeopardy and bags of emotion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cStranger Things will have to open itself up in the second half of its final season, as it prepares to send the characters off for good. For now, however, these children remain frozen in time and space, unable to move past our nostalgic memories of the people they once were.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just as well that Vecna\u2019s curse is coming to an end sooner rather than later. It\u2019s time to let these adolescents do as adolescents are meant to do: grow up and move on with the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBy declining to enrich its characters as they age, Stranger Things traps itself in arrested development. When you get bigger without going deeper, you end up stretched thin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe episodes in this first tranche range from 57 minutes to 86 minutes, which necessitates an awful lot of <\/span>almost<\/span><\/em> killing the demogorgons, <\/span>almost<\/span><\/em> escaping the clutches of Vecna, <\/span>almost<\/span><\/em> saving humanity. Delayed gratification is how writers build a compulsive narrative, but Stranger Things could do with a little more gratification, a little less delay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe four-episode first \u2018volume\u2019 [is] more thrilling than it is stilling, and will likely satisfy its most ardent fans. Could it have been better, sharper, more narratively focused and judicious with its plot twists and deus ex machina magical solutions? Absolutely. Do the emotions feel right even as rationality flies out the metaphorical window? Most of the time.\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAbsurd as it may be to grouse about improbable storytelling in a series featuring psychic-powered villains from an alternate universe, it remains true that more fanciful moments play better when they are surrounded by stuff that feels grounded and authentic. So moments where Stranger Things loses that plot can be oddly annoying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe longer season five goes, the less charming it becomes, and the two big closing twists don\u2019t exactly inspire hope for the back-half: One is over-telegraphed and the other shocking\u2026 but only because it\u2019s so ill-conceived […] so much has happened since we first met the Hawkins kiddos, and if you still want more \u2013 more goofy twists, more sloppy battles, more of the same monsters \u2013 season five should have you covered.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBut for those who already feel like too much has happened, who want something that feels as big as it\u2019s straining to look, you may have to imagine that ending for yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cStranger Things feels trapped in a feedback loop, with little sense of the creative adventure that was once so intrinsic to a series about the imaginative potential of playing Dungeons & Dragons with your friends and building a wide-open world where anything is possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat version of the series no longer exists. <\/span>Instead, Stranger Things is traveling the same paths, and they\u2019re no longer so strange.\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Volume one of Stranger Things\u2019 fifth and final season is now streaming on Netflix, with new episodes to follow on Christmas Day and New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/692813c7190000d6ce6a037f.jpg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp)
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