Will the Wise: The Beginning of the End to Netflix’s Stranger Things

Last Saturday, I gathered some friends into our home to begin the final season of Stranger Things together. Through a budget of fifty dollars, I procured branded snacks, like Dorito’s, Chip’s Ahoy, and Totino’s Pizza Rolls, strung multi-colored lights on the walls like Joyce Byers, and built a playlist from composers’ Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, to cultivate the atmosphere for the occasion.

Nine years ago, the epic series of Stranger Things, premiered, taking the world by storm. Directed by the Matt and Ross Duffer, it tells an epic story set in Hawkins, Indiana where parallel universes, government secrets, and childhood friendships collide within the 1980's. While initially dismissed by television studios, the production eventually secured a contract with Netflix. At the time, Netflix had begun to curate their own original programming in the dawn of streaming television. Their adaptation of a British television show, House of Cards, in 2013 garnered nine Emmy awards, solidifying them as a platform for quality television. When Stranger Things premiered in the summer of 2016, it quickly became a hit and created momentum for its continuation.

Over four seasons, the story has developed a unique looking glass into the world of 1980’s suburbia with supernatural intrigue that has become lore onto itself. The Duffer brothers grew up in North Carolina, crafting home movies during their childhood on Video8 cassettes, eventually attending and graduating in 2007 from Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. They wrote four episodes of M. Night Shyamalan’s Wayward Pines in 2015 and directed their first limited-release motion picture, Hidden, the same year, building a small but impressive resume of talent before embarking on their next project that would become Stranger Things.

Originally titled The Montauk Project, the series explored government conspiracy theories involving psychological warfare and exotic research at a military lab. While the Montauk Project has yet to be verified, Matt and Ross Duffer always had a fascination for sublime conspiracies. The series cleverly weaves together real government experiments, like the CIA’s Project MKUltra in the 1960’s, as well as iconic movies from Steven Spielberg, Wes Craven, and Sam Raimi. While the main cast were relatively unknown children, the series features actors that starred in classic films from 1980’s, like Winona Ryder, Paul Reiser, Cary Elwes, Sean Astin, and more.

For those in upstate New York, the series also features a budding young actress, Gabriella Pizzolo, who has starred on Broadway as Matilda in the musical and in a local production of Loch Ness with the Adirondack Theatre Festival. Her debut as the character in Stranger Things, Susie Bingham, at the end of the third season featured an iconic title song recreation from the Never-Ending Story, originally sung by English singer Limahl in 1984. In the summer of 2019 when the episode premiered, fans from all over the world bonded over the nearly thirty-year-old song.

The series has resurfaced other classic songs from the 1980’s and introduced younger audiences to the dulcet tunes. In the fourth season, the integration of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill into the storyline eventually garnered one billion streams on Spotify. In an interview, Kate Bush stated, “I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries — a billion streams — on their way to the sea. Each one of these streams is one of you. Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I'm blown away.” Other songs, like Africa’s Toto, the Mama’s and the Papa’s California Dreamin’, and Madonna’s Material Girl, have fostered renewed success for musicians nearing retirement age.

For the fifth and final season, Netflix and its producers have orchestrated a unique release schedule that aligns with three holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, a change in its original release schedule back in 2016 to 2019. In 2016, “bingeing” became a colloquial word for watching a television show in a singular sitting, thanks, in part, to the ubiquity of on-demand video content. I appreciate that this season’s release schedule marks a shift, like last year’s season, to more mindful viewing habits and ensures that fans can enjoy theorizing about unreleased episodes together.

From the beginning, Will Byers, played by Noah Schapp, thrust the story into motion after his unusual disappearance. His friends and him were fans of role-playing games, notably Dungeons and Dragons, and the show lends itself to describe strange occurrences under the umbrella of those mythical tales. Through glimpses of his innate abilities, the audience learns that Will is an exceptional, budding artist and his role-playing identity as the sorcerer Will the Wise, delightfully encapsulates Anthony Richichi’s comparison of artists to magicians during his Colorworld Live production in Glens Falls, New York. Will’s ability to transcribe his imagination to paper become a key to solving the mysteries throughout the series.

Also, during the series, his inner turmoil over his sexual orientation transpires, especially as the children grow into young adults. This important representation in the show, along with the Robin Buckley played by Maya Hawke, plays an important role in society. Over the past two decades, television and movies have steadily increased diverse characters on screen, from Brokeback Mountain, Modern Family, Love Simon, and Young Hearts, to provide a gentle reminder that queer people exist. The exploration of Will’s sexual orientation in 1980’s rural Indiana sheds an important light into the lived experience for a small part of society. In season one, bullies in school slyly make hurtful jokes at Will’s expense, comparing him to fairies. Later on in season three, Will finds it difficult to relate with his friends as they explore their own heterosexual relationships.

But in the current season, Will is finally on the journey toward acceptance, though with a unique twist. The final moments in the fourth episode of the fifth season are exceptionally heartwarming to anyone that has struggled with inner acceptance. With the first four episodes of season five released, the final season is halfway over and final episode releases on New Year’s Eve via streaming and in select theatres worldwide. I am truly excited to witness the culmination of not only Will’s journey toward acceptance, but the multitude of other storylines that permeated this show.

Until then, I will always remember what Robin tells Will in an underground tunnel, “I was looking for answers from someone else, but I had all the answers. I just had to stop being so scared. Scared of who I really was. Once I did that, I felt so free.”