Ranking Every Season of Stranger Things

Stranger Things amassed a huge fan base after it hit Netflix in 2016, and that fan base only grew as more people joined in on the supernatural fun. Over five seasons, the series evolved from a little mystery about a missing boy and a strange girl with a shaved head into the epic saga of the Upside Down and the monsters who dwell there, but not every season landed equally well with fans and critics.

Now that it’s over, we’re taking a look back at Stranger Things and ranking every season, from the slam dunks to ones that didn’t quite hit the spot.

5. Season 2

In the second season of Stranger Things, Will Byers is back home, but clearly, all is not well. He’s having weird episodes and seeing visions of the Mind Flayer that are truly distressing. Meanwhile, Eleven is frustrated hiding out with Chief Hopper and seeks out her “sister” figure, Kali. In an effort to stop the Mind Flayer’s plans to take over the world, the season wraps up with a confrontation where Eleven uses her powers to defeat it (or maybe not). There’s also a lot of wheel-spinning with the military that will become a recurring issue as the series chugs along.

Season 2 had some definite high points. The introduction of Max (Sadie Sink) and Billy (Dacre Montgomery) significantly freshened the story up, as Max was intriguingly imperfect and Billy was a complex antagonist. Whether you loved it or hated it, Eleven did make some progress by exploring her past, and the lore behind her powers expanded. It also really felt like the Mind Flayer raised the stakes in Hawkins – the Lovecraftian beast seemed like a genuine threat that might never be truly beaten.

Ultimately, the negatives outweighed the positives, though. The season was paced poorly, with Will’s visions becoming repetitive. They spent too long teasing out his connection with the Mind Flayer, a villain who often felt quite abstract. Characters like Nancy and Jonathan were also getting sidelined in favor of new blood, while Kali’s introduction distracted us from the main story and only feels more annoying retrospectively, given how long it took her to show up again and how little she had to do when the Duffers finally remembered she existed.

4. Season 5

Vecna’s back, and he’s wearing a hat! At least, he is when he’s Henry Creel, the version of Vecna who is capturing children for his evil plan to merge Earth with the Abyss, a dark dimension apparently filled with horrors (though we don’t see any, except the Mind Flayer). Thus goes the endgame of this smash hit series.

Season 5, dragged out on Netflix over several release dates, gave us a Will Byers who was finally able to control the Hive Mind, Max waking up and …not a lot else, when you think about it! However, it did have an ending, and that’s all that really seemed to matter. To be fair, at this point, Stranger Things had done basically everything it’d set out to do. The story had outgrown Hawkins and its gang, who were now being played by actors a lot older than their characters.

This season was heavily criticized by critics and a chunk of the show’s fan base, but it delivered on some levels. There was an epic, cinematic finale with a big battle. Vecna finally got what was coming to him, and we found out what happened to all our faves in the final episode, except for Eleven, whose fate was left a little ambiguous. Were it not for the season being so undercooked and full of repetitive, awkward dialogue, the series may have ultimately stuck the landing without that big old wobble.

3. Season 4

We expanded beyond Hawkins in season 4, as our gang was split between there and California. We also learned that Hopper had survived his apparent death in season 3. This is where all the Vecna stuff started and where we met metalhead Eddie Munson, a character who would become hugely popular thanks in part to endless edits and discussions on social media.

Vecna seemed quite a terrifying new villain, one with a distinctly human element that tied in nicely with Eleven’s past and the military’s experiments. There were also iconic moments aplenty, including Max’s Kate Bush-induced capture at the graveyard and a version of the Upside Down that finally started to feel fleshed out.

The season was dark and ambitious, but sometimes overly so – episodes seemed longer because they were, and it wasn’t always a good thing. Jumping between California, Russia, Hawkins, and the Upside Down led to a sense of overstuffing and occasional disjointedness, and the visual effects sometimes drowned out the story and characters, leaving some episodes lacking substance and straying into music-video territory. Overall, it felt more like a setup for the final season than a standalone story, but it certainly had some good stuff to offer along the way.

2. Season 3

Season 3 seemed like a partial reset for the show, which was well reflected in its story. Everything felt colorful and vibrant as the kids hung out in the new Starcourt Mall, worked summer jobs, and the dating drama kicked off in earnest. The story was still grounded in Hawkins, despite the whole “secret Russian base” scenario. There was also a solid monster for the gang to team up against, and its possession and control of Billy dialed up the terror on a very human level.

The mall was a relatable place that brought in genuine 80s nostalgia, while the costume design stepped up with a new vision for the characters’ looks. Those Scoops Ahoy outfits, the jazzy casual wear, and a glowing neon aesthetic really elevated the show to a new level in season 3, while Robin and Steve’s friendship was a solid, thoughtful highlight instead of what could have been a lacklustre subplot.

Though this season was perhaps a little goofier than the others, its lack of seriousness in some areas helped balance the show’s tone after the previous two seasons, when everything tended to get a little too glum.

1. Season 1

A boy named Will Byers mysteriously vanishes after riding his bike home from a friend’s house, and a TV sensation is born. Yep, we reckon the first season of Stranger Things is still the best, almost six years after it debuted on Netflix and became a phenomenon that, in the end, perhaps ended up a little too big for its small-town roots.

Everything about Stranger Things felt fresh and interesting back in 2016, despite its rose-tinted nostalgia for the 80s. The Duffers created this new series with tight, compelling storytelling. It was well-paced and culminated in a satisfying finale. It had everything, really! A small-town America with period-accurate visuals, well-rounded characters (kids that weren’t annoying!), and at the heart of the story, the intriguing mystery of Will’s disappearance used classic sci-fi and horror tropes expertly to draw us in. Season 1 was simply a slam dunk.