An excess of sci-fi bunkum mars Stranger Things finale

The Netflix coming-of-age saga bows out as just another CGI rock'em sock'em adventure

- Nick Hilton

“Something is coming,” a young boy whispers to his assembled friends. “Something hungry for blood.” It’s 1983 – or 2016 – and you’re in Hawkins, Indiana – or on your sofa – playing Dungeons & Dragons... or watching Netflix's Stranger Things. Over the decade since we first encountered the youthful protagonists, the show, created by the Duffer Brothers, has become an international sensation, launching careers and spawning an empire of video games, novelisations, podcasts and a stage play. Now, it ends where it began, with one last roll of the dice for our intrepid players.

With the entire world imperilled by the conquest of Vecna (Jamie Campbell-Bower), the gang execute their final, desperate plan. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) will head into the Abyss, team up with Max (Sadie Sink) and attempt to inveigle Vecna's vessels - the kidnapped children, including Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) - out of his psychic prison. If they can do this, they might be able to set up a final showdown with Upside Down's dark overlord one where El will need all the help she can get.

“One last fight,” Mike tells his compadres, “and this whole nightmare, it’ll be over.” And so off they trot, on a patience-testing feature-length finale that will take them into the belly of the beast and viewers into the bowels of befuddlement.