The scene is set for the last ever season of Stranger Things

After almost a decade, the final season of one of the decade's biggest shows is nearing its end, with four episodes of Stranger Things dropping on Netflix on Thursday afternoon.

As season five begins it is 1987 and the town of Hawkins is under a military lockdown as a secret government agency intensifies its hunt for Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown), the girl with supernatural powers.

The scene is set for a final battle between Good and Evil, in the form of Eleven against Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the dark lord who resides in a sinister alternate dimension, the Upside Down. But can Eleven and her Hawkins friends save the town, or will they become its undoing?

Since season four aired in 2022, questions remain over the relationship between Vecna and Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), the boy who was taken in season one, and the fate of Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) after she was left in a coma in a hospital bed. Meanwhile Vecna has vanished, his whereabouts and his plans unknown.

Local fans are looking forward to seeig New Zealand-UK actor Nell Fisher play the youngest Wheeler sibling, Holly, who has a pivotal role in season five.

Stranger Things premiered in 2016, quickly becoming a global hit for Netflix, and a cultural phenomenon.

It introduced a new generation to the 1980s, from Dungeons and Dragons to beach cruiser bikes, and with nostalgic nods to Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter and Stephen King.

It revived the era's music, particularly in season four when evil was overcome with the help of Metallica's thrash anthem 'Master of Puppets' and Kate Bush's epic pop classic 'Running Up That Hill'.

Victoria University associate professor Trisha Dunleavy, who teaches Media and Communication, said the drama by sibling directors the Duffer Brothers was a great example of the high-end original dramas that streamers like Netflix became known for.

"It was very important as a show and it was different. Because when Stranger Things season two was released, everybody around the world watched it at the same time. This was the thing that was new to me and I found that really fascinating that we'd all be talking about the same show, the same episode of the same show at the same time."

Dunleavy, who is the author of Complex Serial Drama and Multiplatform Television looking at Stranger Things among other shows, said Stranger Things' complex and interwoven storylines made it "addictive and compulsive" viewing.

"It blended coming of age, sci-fi and horror together... and because of that it achieves a timelessness."

The Gen Z fans who first watched it as children have grown up alongside the young cast. But the series had "a really wide appeal" across the generations with fans including millennials, to Generation X, who were kids in the Eighties, and their Baby Boomer parents.

"Some of my students assume it's all about young adults and I go, well, I love it. That surprises them. I love it because I recognise some of the things in it. What's interesting now is the viewers of it now are possibly younger than the characters were when season one started."

Aucklander Tony Agar was a teenager in the 1980s and was attracted to Stranger Things for its nostalgic influences, such as movies like Poltergeist, Stand By Me and the Goonies, and the "fantastic" fashions.

"It was so well done. It was like being transported back into that time.

"I'm a massive Stephen King fan, massive 80s horror fan. His novel Firestarter, has very similar themes - it's about experiments on children who have telekinetic powers. Plus I love the whole way all the kids bond together and end up the heroes of the movie and no one's completely good or bad and people change through it."

Agar said Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) was "probably" his favourite character. "He's just so different, the most humorous and he's a bit weird."

"Eleven's fantastic because she's the hero, and it's great to see Winona Ryder back as Joyce. But if I had to pick a couple, it would probably be Dustin and local cop Jim Hopper."

His favourite scene? "Eddie Munson and Dustin standing on the roof in the Upside Down, trying to attract all these horrible bat creatures by playing Metallica's Master of Puppets. It's just so cool and what every teenager would love to do."

Agar is a general manager at Spark which is holding an exclusive watch party in Auckland on Thursday night for 60 Stranger Things fans.

But he's planning a night in when the finale drops on New Year's Day.

"My wife and I are obsessed, so absolutely we will stay in and watch it. Our younger kids will be in bed and we'll be binging on that with a glass of champagne, I'm sure."

Stranger Things 5 will premiere on Netflix New Zealand across three dates. Volume 1: 27 November 27 at 2pm, Volume 2: 26 December at 2pm and The Finale: 1 January 1 at 2pm.