'Stranger Things' begins its final season: 10 reasons why the Netflix show mattered
Looking back nearly 10 years later, who knew?
Who knew this show with a Long Island lineage, Lovecraftian horror and an unabashed devotion to '80s nostalgia would become one of the world's most popular TV series? Who knew it would turbocharge Netflix and the streaming revolution, too?
Yet that's exactly what happened.
To commemorate the fifth and final season of "Stranger Things" — episodes 1-4 arrive Wednesday, episodes 5-7 on Dec. 25, and the finale on New Year's Eve (which will also be shown in theaters) — here are 10 reasons why this series mattered, and changed popular culture in the process.
1. 'Stranger Things' helped launch the streaming revolution
Finn Wolfhard, left, as Mike Wheeler, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson in a scene from season 5. Credit: Netflix
Netflix's streaming service began in 2007, but the other landmark year was 2016 with the launch of "Stranger Things" (July 15), then "The Crown" (Nov. 4). "The Crown" conferred prestige but "Stranger Things" gave Hollywood a glimpse into the future. Yes, "House of Cards" (Feb. 1, 2013) and "Orange Is the New Black" (July 11, 2013) were the first hits, but "Stranger Things" was several orders of magnitude larger. For this reason, the major studios knew they were in trouble because their established business model — based on theatrical releases and network TV hits — was also in trouble. With "Stranger Things," streaming had truly arrived, and within a few years, these studios followed with their own streaming services.
2. 'Stranger Things' became one of the most popular shows on the planet
"Game of Thrones" (which wrapped May 19, 2019) got all the press, but "Stranger Things" got all the viewers, arguably even more than "GoT." Parrot Analytics — which measures the so-called "attention economy" — cited "Stranger Things" as TV's global leader just after the fourth season premiere in May 2022, with "2 billion audience demand expressions" (streams) in some 200 countries. Nielsen also cited 46.5 billion minutes viewed over a 19-week stretch at the time. No series, streaming or otherwise, had ever come close to that threshold, not remotely, because "Stranger Things" hasn't just been a hit in the United States, but also in Canada (where it first went viral), Australia, the U.K., Spain, Norway, South Korea and Japan, to name just a few countries.
3. 'Stranger Things' taught Netflix how to be Netflix
Plying Indiana mom Joyce Byers revived Winona Ryder's career. Credit: Netflix
"Stranger Things" made Netflix into what it is today, or as Time magazine recently observed, it taught Netflix how to be Netflix. Just 5% of Netflix content was original in 2016 while the following year that had grown to 20% (with as much as 70% now, or roughly two originals arriving daily). This show proved to the service more than any other that subscribers didn't just want new content, but demanded it. Netflix also used "Stranger Things" to build its subscriber base (300 million strong today), reduce subscriber churn, and drive subscribers to similar content — like "Wednesday," which is now even more popular.
4. 'Stranger Things' turned Millie Bobby Brown into a star and influencer
Millie Bobby Brown has become the show's breakout actor. Credit: Netflix
Brown, all of 21, has parlayed that most memorable of lead roles (Eleven, with the shorn head and superpowers) into the role of multihyphenate Hollywood player. While starring in "Stranger Things," she also starred in the "Godzilla" franchise, launched her own Netflix series ("Enola Holmes"), began her own cosmetics and fashion brand (Florence by Mills) collaborated with Converse on her own sneaker line, starred in music videos and wrote a historic fiction novel, "Nineteen Steps." Oh, almost forgot — she was also named a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, not to mention she was Glamour magazine's 2023 Woman of the Year.
5. 'Stranger Things' launched an unprecedented Broadway extension
Broadway needs all the help it can get. Has "Stranger Things" come to the rescue? The prequel play, "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" — on stage at the Marquis Theatre since April (and London's West End before that) — is a Tony-nominated hit, but what's so special here is this play is actually an extension of the series' ongoing narrative. Lots of TV shows have been adapted for Broadway but there has been nothing quite like this before. Could this become a model for other established TV hits?
6. 'Stranger Things' jump-started the sci-fi TV renaissance
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers has had his share of issues. Credit: Netflix
Sci-fi has been a TV staple since almost before TV was invented, but the boom that followed "Stranger Things" is unprecedented — "The Boys," "Andor," "Foundation," three scripted "Star Trek" extensions, to name but a few. Lots of reasons behind this sci-fi renaissance but the "Stranger Things" phenomenon is a leading one. "Stranger Things" was part horror, part sci-fi, part coming-of-age, and part teen soap. By fusing so many elements together, it brought new audiences to the genre.
7. 'Stranger Things' created a merch empire
Yes, here's the real reason this final season is dropping just before Christmas. Every TV show dreams of cashing out but few have succeeded as much as "Stranger Things" these past nine years. There are hundreds of "ST" products, everything from Casio watches to Hellfire Club T-shirts, from themed Lego sets to Funko Pop! board games, as well as fashion lines, comic books and novel series, including bestselling "Suspicious Minds" (a prequel about El's mom). Then there are those Netflix House immersive or "interactive experiences," like "Stranger Things: The Experience" and the escape room events. Sure, Disney has done all this and more for 70 years, but "Stranger Things" got Netflix into the game.
8. 'Stranger Things' revived '80s memorabilia and nostalgia
"Stranger Things" made '80s retro cool all over again, and not just through a vast trove of music (Kate Bush's "Running Up that Hill," aka the Song that Saved Sadie Sink's Max Mayfield) or countless movie callbacks ("The Goonies," "A Nightmare on Elm Street") but through products. An abbreviated list alone takes you back to a vivid time and place — Eggo waffles, Bazooka bubble gum, Dungeons & Dragons, Orange Julius, New Coke, Calculator watches and (of course) walkie-talkies. Meanwhile, "Stranger Things" took nostalgia to a whole new level — an all-enveloping aesthetic captured by something as simple as a shag carpet, or hair style, or wall poster (or song or movie nod). No TV series has stage-managed nostalgia quite as effectively as this one. Nostalgia has now spread through pop culture like a virus — and we owe much of that to "Stranger Things."
9. 'Stranger Things' turned creators Matt and Ross Duffer into a TV and movie force
Brothers Matt Duffer, left, and Ross Duffer, are the creative forces behind "Stranger Things." Credit: Getty Images/Rodin Eckenroth
Show creators Matt and Ross Duffer have become a production force unto themselves. A brief list: They've got a pair of new shows arriving in 2026 ("The Boroughs," about a retirement community and ghosts; and "Something Very Bad is Going to Happen," about a wedding from- hell), and the animated series, "Stranger Things: Tales from '85." They've also signed up with Paramount to produce movies. And in case you're wondering, there will likely be a scripted "Stranger Things" spinoff, although Netflix (and the Duffers) have yet to confirm.
10. 'Stranger Things' brought mega-scale budgets to TV
In October, Puck reported each of the final eight episodes will cost between $50 million and $60 million. That surpasses "Game of Thrones" and the previous record holder, "The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power." What this means seems obvious — the really big money in Hollywood has now shifted to streaming blockbusters. Other than the occasional Marvel or DC franchise extension, TV is where the action is, thanks to "Stranger Things."
FROM MONTAUK TO A SCI-FI PHENOMENON
The story behind "Stranger Things" is, appropriately enough, a wooly one.
The idea sprang out of the so-called "Montauk Project," a conspiracy theory which — deep breath — claimed that the Air Force conducted experiments on time travel, teleportation, mind control, aliens and vanishing battleships. Human subjects (including kids) were allegedly involved, too. All of this apparently happened (according to any number of sensational books) at Camp Hero, a real-enough military site about a half-mile west of the Montauk lighthouse.
This all came to the attention of a pair of twin brothers from North Carolina who at the time had a thin TV resume, but an encyclopedic knowledge of '80s movies and classic horror. They pitched the idea of a series but only Netflix stepped up. Alas, before production got underway, the setting moved from Montauk to a fictional Indiana town, presumably for cost reasons.
Matt and Ross Duffer shaped their story of four kids looking for a lost friend in the hellscape known as the Upside Down around a largely forgotten genre known as "weird fiction," which dated from early in the last century. (H.P. Lovecraft, who died in 1937 at the age of 46, was the undisputed master of the genre.) Largely a conflation of science fiction and horror, weird fiction had something of a revival during the 1980s with movies like "John Carpenter's The Thing" (1982) and David Cronenberg's "Videodrome" (1983). The Duffers' special ingredient was a basketful of '80s movies Easter eggs — "Stand By Me," for example, and just about any John Hughes hit or Stephen King adaptation you (or they) could think of.
A hit — the biggest of the early streaming era, and homage to an entire decade — was born.
Gwenda Bond, the author of the bestselling "Stranger Things" prequel novel series, "Suspicious Minds," explains the lasting appeal in an email: "We live in a time when there are so many big, nearly incomprehensible threats and challenges [so] there is something very satisfying about watching regular people fight back against forces beyond their understanding."
Lisa Yaszek, a leading sci-fi scholar and Regents professor of science fiction studies at Georgia Tech, said in a Zoom interview that it struck "the sweet spot for those of us old enough to remember all the '80s stuff and for those younger who have a sort of retro-nostalgia for things they've never had." (And yes, says Yaszek, there's even a word for this — anemoia.)
Traditional science fiction "is all about using science and technology in a rational way to master the world and universe," she explains, "whereas 'weird fiction' says 'nope, you're not going to do that.' "
"Stranger Things" thrived during a time "when things feel like they're falling apart — a lot of anxiety, economic and political instability. It's no surprise we're interested in the 'weird' again, in these moments when we're not sure how to control the world around us," Yaszek says. Stories like those of "Stranger Things" "help us work through our anxieties, and figure out what we do to survive in these moments."
— VERNE GAY
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