Suffering from the streaming platform’s experimental release schedule, the first four episodes of the final season of “Stranger Things” build to a climax that barely lands.

Taking place 18 months after the earthquakes that tore through Hawkins, Indiana, at the end of season four, the group must track down Vecna while avoiding the military forces that have infiltrated downtown Hawkins.

While only four episodes were released on Nov. 26, each character gets their time to shine.

Nell Fisher is a standout this season as Holly Wheeler. In previous seasons, the other Wheeler family members have taken a back seat, allowing Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) to take the spotlight. Fisher claims the spotlight in every one of her scenes, bringing back some of the childlikeness from season one.

Following this trend, Jake Connelly plays the new addition, Derek Turnbow, Holly Wheeler’s school bully. His Eric Cartman-esque portrayal starts annoying, but he will quickly grow into anyone’s favorite new character.

Just as in previous seasons, this season pairs one of the kids with the older kids. This season sees Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) team up. This brings an older sister, younger brother dynamic that Will’s character has been needing for a while. Schnapp and Hawke mesh well together on screen, which gives hope for later on in the season.

Fans of the series may want to take a look at “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” which seems to have ties to the last season of the show. The play focuses on Henry Creel, his first encounter with the Upside Down and how he became Vecna. While nothing from the play itself is explicitly shown in the first four episodes, references and characters can be seen throughout. 

The pacing of these four episodes falls flat. Each episode lasts for about an hour, but it feels like nothing important happens until the last ten minutes. Leaving viewers bored and tuned out by the time the climax of the episode happens. Then the next episode starts, and it’s back to the slow pace for the last ten minutes.

Netflix built its platform around binge-watching, releasing the whole season of a series so viewers can watch episode after episode. With other streaming services resorting to weekly releases for episodes, Netflix combats this by releasing seasons in parts.

Netflix does this with “Stranger Things” season five; four of the eight-episodes of the season were released in part one. This was an attempt to give viewers the feeling of binge-watching while keeping them engaged for longer periods. 

This is not the effect that has come out of this release. While the four episodes given set up what is to come in the rest of the season, it does not end on a note that will hold viewers over for another month for the next release.

Thanks to this, in terms of season and episode releases, “Stranger Things” will go down as one of the worst-paced shows on Netflix.