Can ‘Stranger Things’ graduate?

So this is 2026, Popculturology fans? Does it feel any different? Did everyone make it through the holidays in one piece?

I know that everyone (this edition of the Friday newsletter included) is talking about the Stranger Things finale, but was the Pop-Tarts Bowl the true pop culture moment of the holiday season?

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I guess the true Stranger Things were the, um, demogorons we met along the way?

Before switching over to CNN to see Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper crumble into an increasing state of drunkenness on New Year’s Eve, Caitlin and I did our duty as Americans and watched the Stranger Things series finale. It was a fitting end for the Netflix show that it would end as 2025 also came to a close.

Was anyone surprised by anything in the Stranger Things finale? (Spoilers ahead, folks.) The show failed to kill off one of its major characters. No, I’m not counting Kali as a major character, nor do I count Vecna’s death in that category. The finale didn’t necessarily need a major death to drive home the stakes, but everything about this final season has made the once mighty threat of the Upside Down seem ... small?

Where were the demobats? The waves of demodogs and demogorgons? The show’s immortal group of heroes was able to not only waltz right up to the Mind Flayer, but they easily tricked it into following them into that canyon they were also able to effortlessly and quickly scale. What happened to the interdimensional being that had been pulling the strings this entire time? In the end, it was taken down by some suspiciously old-looking high school kids with a few guns and some flares.

Yes, the closing moments of the series finale delivered a gut punch. The kids we watched grow up (and grow up some more) over Stranger Things’ five seasons were now heading to college, choosing to believe Mike’s story that Eleven had secretly survived the destruction of the Upside Down and slipped away. Maybe I got choked up for a moment as Max, Lucas, Dustin, Will and Mike forlornly put their Dungeons & Dragons binders away on a basement shelf ... until I thought, Hey, they know they can keep playing after that night, right?