Prior to the series finale, Season 5 felt like it’d shown a lot of restraint in terms of big splashy song choices. Turns out, that was because it was saving its biggest needle drops for the last hour of Stranger Things ever (at least until the first spinoff premieres).

The Netflix epic Stranger Things has finally come to a close, and depending on how much you were thinking about this ahead of time, things turned out pretty much how you might have expected. If you want to get into the spoilers of the finale,

Securing the rights to use a song in film or TV is a challenging and expensive task - and the more iconic the song, the more challenging and expensive the clearance is likely to be. So when two of Prince's most legendary songs,

Luckily, the wait is nearly over. The two-hour series finale of Stranger Things will release on December 31 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix. The episode will also be released in select theaters on December 31 and January 1, so be sure to check out local showtimes if you want to experience the Upside Down on the big screen.

Joe Keery’s “End of Beginning” makes the headline after the Stranger Things finale, fans are totally loving it

The end of the year brings fewer new streaming options, but it's a great time to catch up on 2025's best movies, TV, music, and games.