Stranger things

The fifth season is full of self-referential excess, but it’s also an example of great homage

…and that’s a good thing

The Better Call Saul finale wraps up an era

The problems begin in the first episode, a kind of demonic take on Downton Abbey

Its version of the Eighties is oddly benign

So much for escapism

Where season one had the creeping menace of Alien, the mood here is closer to Scooby-Doo

Would it not have led to a more meaningful narrative if the ‘monster’ the Russians had brought into being was in fact climate change?