Actually, I should be overjoyed to hear that the final fifth season of Stranger Things seems to be epic on a level all its own. And actually, I think everything so far has been good, possibly that I could have been without the emo-Eleven in season two (was it huh). But... Still, something is chafing.

What made Stranger Things so exciting was precisely that it was the story of these young people. They played role-playing games and they hung out together, surviving against all odds in a supernatural story that was almost directly taken from the dramaturgy of the 80s. And that's pretty much how it has stayed, but by season four, the mythology of the series had become so big that the kids had gotten a little overlooked, and also started to get so old that it was hard to buy their story when they were going to play much younger than they are.

I'm not trying to nag at all, but will be glued when Stranger Things returns, but a season with eight feature-like episodes where the kids are just over 20 years old and the whole world is about to end – feels a bit too much like the Cliff Bleszinski motto from Gears of War 2; "Bigger, better and more badass".

It worked for Gears of War 2, but isn't always a formula that renders a better product. It wasn't because the whole world was threatened that it was so exciting to follow Will Byers' struggle in Upside Down, but precisely because it was a matter of life and death for a person who didn't have a good chance of defending himself and surviving all the horrific trials.

We'll just see. Of course, the series will end with a real bang, and I'm really looking forward to it. But I think I already miss the stripped-down role-playing in the boys' room, rather than the fact that the whole world is threatened and the American military (I guess) has to be called in.

How do you see Stranger Things: Season 5 consisting of eight feature-length episodes?

It is during digital breaks, even short ones, that you realize how incredibly vulnerable our society is. Simple power outages or computer problems often mean that we cannot buy a Plopp from Willys because the stores' systems can no longer accept money - not even cash - without a connection. This is something we should absolutely review as a society, because if we see it, even enemies outside the country know about it and would try to exploit it in the event of the worst.

But... It wasn't quite as serious during the evening, but me and my brother were going to play some Fall Guys via Xbox, only to realize that we couldn't log in. A complete stop with a mysterious message and a meagre amount of updates and clear messages from Microsoft. I have several consoles (for work and convenience reasons) and this particular one was not set as my home Xbox. 

And since I couldn't log in online, I wasn't allowed to play either. Not a disaster though, I didn't fear that Microsoft had conked or that they stealth-killed their online service so I knew it would come back. But now it's been five hours and it still doesn't work for me. The problems of developed countries. I'll survive an evening without Fall Guys with my brother, but what will it look like in twenty years?

Will my home Xbox still work and how has the system changed? There is an imminent risk that the fully digital world will cause us to lose just about all the games we own on the day services are shut down. It's nothing that concerns me today, other than in the case of short interruptions in online services, and maybe I won't even care in twenty years (seriously, what does the world even look like then, with today's pace and AI it feels almost abstract) - but I'm not going to lie. It's not a pleasant thought, and something I wish it was talked about. Let the games work through thick and thin.

Homework for Microsoft. The entire online service should not go down, and if it does, it must not be long - and the information must be better.