My Family Is So Sad That Stranger Things Is Finally Over

It's rare for us to watch something collectively as a family and have everyone enjoy it. Now, we're on the hunt for a replacement.

Photo by Ludo Poiré on Unsplash

When Stranger Things wrapped, fans were so upset over saying goodbye, plus the conclusion’s polarization reaction, that “Conformity Gate” was born. The theory was that Netflix was hiding a secret final episode that had yet to air—the real ending. There were no “Conformity Gate” truthers in our household, but I was rooting for it anyway, because it would have given our family more time in the world of Hawkins.

I still wish it was true.

I didn’t need Stranger Things to have a secret ending; the final season was okay, the finale was pretty good, and I do not regret spending time in that world. But it was the first time my entire family—kids and adults—were so collectively enthralled by a TV show that we all did our chores faster, we ate our food faster, and we finished homework faster in pursuit of fitting in another 20 minutes of an episode before bed.

Honestly, it’s surprising it happened at all!

Months ago, my wife and I were watching the final season. It’s a show close to our hearts, because of its throwback nature and because its airing parallels my oldest. (Stranger Things debuted in July 2016; my nine-year-old was born a month later.) Vecna, the Freddy Krueger-like villain that appears midway through the series, is wrecking. Our heroes are getting beat. Vecna is scary as hell. Naturally, this becomes an evening where our youngest, then five, waltzes out of her room and declares she can’t sleep.

Our general policy when the kids are having trouble falling asleep is they can color next to us, but they’re watching what we’re watching. Now, there’s limits, but Stranger Things did not rise beyond it. One reason for this approach is that if the kids determine what we’re watching is boring, they’ll go back to their room and fall asleep.

In this case, my youngest decided to stick around and was immediately transfixed. Grabbing onto my wife’s arm. “Who is this?” “Who is that?” And that evening, a kid who never has nightmares had a nightmare…about Vecna killing her. Of course. Sigh.

Later, when my nine-year-old raised the idea of watching Stranger Things, fueled by a YouTube Shorts algorithm that was apparently funneling her spoiler analysis videos, there was some pause about my youngest. Vecna didn’t show up until later in the series, so by the time he came around, maybe she’d be into the show and not care?

Jackpot.

The whole family sitting down to watch the series finale in our projector room.

One rainy afternoon, we watched four episodes in a row. I haven’t watched that much TV since before kids. It was special. I figured it would take us the better part of a year to watch all of it, but after school, the kids would beg for “ramen and Stranger Things,” and suddenly, we’d blasted through five seasons of Stranger Things in mere months.

Then, it was over. Not without tears, gasps, and a few is-so-and-so-gonna-die moments, but the credits rolled and we were left without any. more. episodes.

We tried to watch the behind-the-scenes documentary…but that lasted 15 minutes. We tried the animated show…but it’s aimed at children and my wife and I were bored.

Quickly, I could feel this moment—this connection—slipping.

While we regularly watch and enjoy movies together, it’s usually with entertainment aimed at my kids. Stranger Things was a rare “oh, we’re all having a blast.” And it meant many nights of the family cozied up on the couch, yelling and screaming together.

I searched online for “shows like Stranger Things for young kids” and found a few recommendations to try. I jotted down eight into my phone, queued up some trailers on the TV, and asked everyone to sit down. The plan was to watch every single trailer, poll the family on which ones were their favorites, and come up with a handful of shows to trial. Maybe, if we were lucky, one would grab us how Stranger Things did.

Here’s how that experiment played out! All told, we had eight shows in consideration: