It felt like a punishing endurance test, coming to a head countless times … and yet it’s not over. Where the Upside Down is concerned, it’s never over

We’ve all had a few days to sit with the Stranger Things finale now, and reaction has been mixed. For every hardcore fan who found themselves in floods of tears by the end, there was a disgruntled TikToker aggressively listing all the plot holes the episode left unfilled in its race to the finish line. In other words, how you felt about Stranger Things as a whole probably determined how you felt about the way it ended.

Which, despite any qualms you may have about the finale – and we’ll get to those soon – seems like the best way anyone could possibly wrap up a series. There was no tonal pivot; no bleak, Dinosaurs-style parable; no “it was all a dream” St Elsewhere-style cop-out; no Blake’s 7-style final bloodbath. Stranger Things died as it lived – full of spectacle and sentiment (and a chronically unwieldy mythology, and way too many characters).

The return of hit bonkbuster Rivals, the horny hockey show taking the world by storm, Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer … and Buffy is back! Here’s your complete guide to 2026’s unmissable television

As the writer of conspiracy thriller Utopia and Covid-era relationship drama Together, Dennis Kelly has form for creating darkly perceptive TV drama. This excellent series stars Josh Finan (whose performance in The Responder earned him a Bafta nomination) as Dan, a philosophy teacher with a troubled family past, working in a prison. As he explores issues around freedom, luck and destiny with the inmates, he starts to wonder if he actually belongs behind bars like his abusive father. Soon, his anxieties threaten to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• BBC One, 3 January