Stranger Things 5 is a „masterpiece”? Sci-fi hit finale kicked off strong with 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, but critics have one major complaint

Part One of Stranger Things 5 is pretty much a thrill ride start to finish– TV Insider.

For fans, it's perfection. The series provides incredible satisfaction as it builds up to a finale that leaves me eager to see the rest of the season. I absolutely loved the choices and surprises – Zach Pope Reviews.

It takes a minute, but the Duffers soon find their groove in Vol. 1 of Stranger Things Season 5, confidently moving their epic campaign towards its conclusion – IGN Movies.

It’s classic 80s adventure fare, in the best way: kids outsmarting adults, lashings of humour and a surprising amount of heart. I gulped it down – more please – The Standard.

Despite having too many characters and too much story, and despite feeling more like a five-hour movie (that needed to be two) rather than an actual TV show made up of episodes, Stranger Things 5, Volume One punched me right in the heart – Nerdist.

Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 made me want to scream – it's a masterpiece. Volume one, is epic, and will remind you why you fell in love with TV in the first place – Metro.co.uk.

As it hurtles toward a final showdown with Vecna, Stranger Things is resetting the clock rather than riding its forward momentum. […] By declining to enrich its characters as they age, Stranger Things traps itself in arrested development. When you get bigger without going deeper – Variety.

But the enormous stakes come at the expense of the smaller details needed to make them land with appropriate emotional impact. There are plot snags […]. More frustrating, however, is the hit to the characters that have always given the show its heart […]. Without the space to flesh them out into meatier storylines […], for character growth – The Hollywood Reporter.