This post contains spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things, "The Rightside Up," now streaming on Netflix.
Alan Sepinwall
Late in the Stranger Things series finale — very, very, very late, as "The Rightside Up" was one of the longest episodes of television ever made, clocking in at over two hours — several of the show's characters gather for one last game of Dungeons & Dragons in the Wheeler family's basement. At the end of another successful campaign, dungeonmaster Mike begins telling his friends that their characters would find comfort and happiness in the future. Max — who, in a funny grace note, has now become deeply invested in a game she once didn't seem to like or understand — interrupts Mike's speech to complain, "Could you be more trite? I thought you were some kind of master storyteller or something?"
This is the set-up for Mike to offer more specific futures for their D&D characters — all of which are clearly about the real versions of Max, Lucas, Dustin, and Will — and to set up the idea that Mike's own future will have him becoming an author who writes stories inspired by the adventures he their whole party had in and around the Upside Down. It's meant to be one final nod to Stephen King, one of the Duffer Brothers' biggest influences, whose books often featured an author character meant to be a King surrogate. And it also allows the Duffers to have things both ways with the fate of Eleven. Mike suggests that she faked her death when the Upside Down was destroyed, but it's presented as something that might just be a theory, even though Mike and the others all choose to believe it happened.
But Max's question about who is and isn't a master storyteller feels unfortunately apt for this finale, and for much of this final season of Stranger Things. The Duffers' storytelling was once pretty masterful, particularly in the show's relatively compact first season. But as the series went on, it succumbed more and more to self-indulgence, so that even the strong moments — and "The Rightside Up" had several of those, including an exciting final boss battle where our heroes took down Vecna and the Mind Flayer — have their impact buried under the sheer bloat.