In 2025, 9 years after the premiere, the final part of the fifth season was released, putting an end to the history of Hawkins. What began as a modest experiment ended in a global triumph: the final episodes gathered a record audience at the screens, and the total viewing time of all seasons exceeded the mark of several billion hours.
A short story – where it all begins
1980s, Hawkins town. Adults are going about their business, children are playing Dungeons & Dragons, but suddenly a boy named Will disappears from the company of friends, and instead of him, a strange, frightened girl with a tattoo of the number 11 on her arm appears in the town, whom they call Odd (Eleventh). She has a strange ability to telekinesis. And she is also wanted by the secret services. And she knows how to find Will. Thus begins the first season of Stranger Things.
From an experiment to the most anticipated series
The missing boys and supergirl appeared in the plot for a reason – viewers are sent to the history of the secret project “Montauk”. Conspiracy theorists believe that from the 1940s to the 1980s on Long Island, New York, American special services studied the limits of human abilities, including children, and the human brain. They tried to develop in their subjects a tendency to telekinesis, teleportation, and other superhero functions. But the experiments did not lead to the intended goal – some of the subjects were diagnosed with mental disorders, “Montauk” was closed, and documents about it were classified. For Americans and conspiracy theory enthusiasts from around the world, this project remained a mystery.
The directors of “The Incredibles,” the Duffer brothers, were inspired by this story and wanted to tell it in their own way. But they didn't know if audiences would like a sci-fi series about kids and superpowers in an '80s setting.
David Harbour recalled in an interview that after the first season, the actors were sure that the series would be closed. That is why the finale of the first season was so ambiguous: the disappearance of Odd seemed to be the end of the whole story. But the numbers put everything in its place. By the time the fifth season was released in 2025, “Stranger Things” was already on a par with “Harry Potter”, having raised a whole generation of actors and fans.
Whatever the expectations of the actors and directors, Stranger Things was highly appreciated by viewers and critics. And so it has been with each season.
The first season set a record for viewership in 2016, with 14 million in its first month of release. The second season made the Guinness Book of World Records in 2018 as the most-watched original series. The third season was watched by 40 million people in 2019. The fourth season set a record in 2022, with 4 billion minutes of viewing in its first week.
Now, 10 years later, the series has entered the cult list and, almost like “Harry Potter,” has raised a new generation of children and made their parents nostalgic for the 80s.
Why is “Strange Wonders” so popular?
In “Strange Wonders,” unlike many popular TV series, the arcs of all the main characters are gradually revealed — the creators try not to focus the audience's attention on one character so that we can find a character and image with which we can associate ourselves.
For example, Steve Harrington's evolution is one of the most realistic in the series: from a narcissistic school king, he turns into a “nanny” for the children and a caring friend, ready to fight monsters from a parallel world, the demops, on his own. The audience fell in love with Steve because his path is a coming-of-age story, full of mistakes, but one that allowed the hero to find himself.
In each season, the directors added references to various conspiracy theories, issues of the Cold War period and the confrontation between the USA and the USSR. Spies, secret laboratories, real scientific theories about parallel universes, the results of experiments from the past and very strange enemy creatures – all this constantly keeps the tension and adds adrenaline to the life of the series.
Everything science fiction in the plot is intertwined with real and recognizable problems and issues of teenagers and parents: finding friends, feeling lonely in a new school, first love, the eternal desire to find adventure – for teenagers, and for adults – to find time for peace, tranquility, and caring for children.
The final season, which aired last year, was a real test for viewers. The storylines related to the disappearance of Holly Wheeler and Max's travels through the depths of memory in the Upside Down kept us in suspense until the last seconds. The Duffers skillfully wrapped up the story, returning us to the origins – to friendship, which is stronger than any monster.
The series is not only for parents with children, but also for geeks – those who love Dungeons and Dragons, are fanatical about physics lessons and will never try to become the king of the school. “Weird Wonders” partially revived geek culture. The series proves to the viewer that being a geek does not mean being an outsider. As Jonathan Byers said to Will in the second season: “Yes, you're a freak, but you want to be normal? Do you want to be like everyone else? Being a freak is the coolest thing!”.
The audience of “Strange Wonders” is teenagers, that is, the most active users of social networks, who help promote the series. The clips with it went viral after the release of the fourth season in 2022: the same geeks edited cuts with their favorite heroes and their catchphrases, they flooded TikTok, where everyone now builds crazy theories about the fate of the characters and the development of the plot, and also write fan fiction and come up with merch. A person far from “Strange Wonders”, watching all this, will definitely watch at least one episode.
Nostalgia trend. Streaming services respond to users' requests for content that can transport them to the past: they create films, series and books related to recognizable historical events, clothing, music and other details of the time. Many viewers of “The Incredibles” did not even live in the 80s – the time of the series. But the atmosphere that was created thanks to the scenery, clothes, soundtracks, and most importantly, the acting, transported everyone forty years back and in five seasons managed to become native. The comic book “Camazotz” that Holly reads, the models of sneakers on the guys, the design of Pepsi, Steve Harrington's voluminous hairstyle – such details recreate the America of the past.
The Place of “Strange Wonders” in Pop Culture
This is Netflix's first large-scale series, thanks to which the streaming platform has become one with the best producers of films and series – HBO and Apple. The series has proven that Netflix can create not only content, but also cultural events. For example, in honor of the premiere, global advertising campaigns have been held for several years: in Spain, the metro is decorated and even sewer hatches are replaced with portals to the Inside Out.
“Strange Wonders” attracted mass audience interest in vinyl and old tracks.
Each song chosen by the series' music producers becomes popular and viral. In the first season, the Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go became such a hit, but Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill from the fourth season became iconic. It is associated with the heroine Max, who runs to the song through the Inside Out and returns to reality, to her friends.
The multiverse of “Strange Wonders”
Among the key features of “Strange Wonders” are the many cultural references related to cinema, music, and board games, that is, a system of recognizable codes through which the viewer reads the atmosphere and purpose of the episode.
For example, the first season, where the strange Ode appears and her secret life in Mike's house is shown, is intertwined with the film “E.T.” in many moments. The incomprehensible creature is also discovered in the forest at night by a group of children, in the new house the alien tries on a wig (like Ode) and puts on a dress so that his difference from people is not so noticeable. But the most striking reference is hidden in the 7th episode, when, escaping from “Dad” on a bicycle, Ode uses telekinesis to lift a special service car into the air, which blocks the path to escape. The exact same scene was in the 1982 film: the boys, together with the alien, were running from the police, and the creature lifted their bicycles into the air so that they could escape the chase.
Also in the first season there are many references to the films “Alien” and “Aliens” – this is mainly noticeable in the production of the shot and the atmosphere of horror. In both universes, something unknown penetrates the real world, and a collision with it is dangerous. Aliens are compared to demogorgons, which are also born from eggs, develop quickly and resemble humans in physique, but what distinguishes them from us is the structure of the head: the demogorgon has no face, only a strange mouth, and the Alien in the film has an elongated head and no visible eyes.
Another such striking example is the Halloween costumes of the main characters in the second season: Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas choose ghostbusters costumes. In the episode where the proud mothers took pictures of the children and sent them to school, the soundtrack from the film sounds: “Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!” And this again sends the viewer to the science fiction genre, because the idea of ghosts and demons is an integral part of the Ghostbusters franchise, which runs through the five seasons of “Strange Wonders”.
A less noticeable, but important reference is in the fourth season – to the film “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. The viewer first meets Vecna's father, Victor Creel. This episodic role was played by Robert Englund – the actor who also played Freddy Krueger. But in the series he plays the role of the victim – a father who suffered from the cruelty of his son. Vecna becomes a kind of Freddy Krueger, and this is hinted at, for example, by his hand, with which he covers the victim's face before putting her into a trance. Freddy Krueger is also in the same vein. The name Nancy Wheeler, one of the main characters of “Strange Wonders”, also refers to the horror universe: the main character of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is her namesake. And finally, Vecna, like Freddy Krueger, appears to children in nightmares, only Krueger does it in a dream, and Vecna recreates the nightmare in a trance, using the main fears of his victims.
Well, where would we be without “Harry Potter”. After the release of the first part of the final season, all the attention of fans was focused on a new parallel – the coincidences in the plot of “Wonderful Wonders” and Potteriana. The obvious similarity between the main characters, Harry and Will: both boys survived after a clash with evil – Lord Voldemort and Vecna. They both gained a part of the villain's power and turned out to be physically connected to him: Harry became the Dark Lord's Horcrux, and Will in the second season began to see events through the eyes of demops, in the fifth – demogorgons, that is, creatures associated with Vecna, and received superpowers. But if Harry Potter defeated evil 18 years ago, when Joan Rowling published the last book of the saga “Deathly Hallows”, Will Byers, Al and other heroes have only one battle with evil.
What else should fans of “Strange Wonders” watch?
If the aftertaste of the finale hasn't worn off yet, and the feeling of emptiness requires filling, pay attention to these projects:
It: Welcome to Derry (2025) is King's long-awaited prequel, which was released just recently. The same “losers' club” vibe, only with an even darker undertone.
“The Darkness” (2017-2020) – if you liked the time-consuming games in the fifth season, then this German masterpiece is a must-watch.
“Super 8” (2011) is a classic from J.J. Abrams that perfectly captures the same atmosphere of teenage friendship and secret laboratories.
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