Alright! Today I'm reviewing the fourth season of Netflix's biggest TV show Stranger Things, which was about four high schoolers looking for their lost friend before it evolved into commies creating an elaborate faux mall in a small town so they can better manipulate a dimension hole. This season of Stranger Things sets you back a good thirteen hours, with every episode being the length of a full-on movie, ranging from Dumbo to The Dark Knight in length. It's a lot to take in.
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| Spoiler warning |
Now, right off the bat, that's probably my biggest issue with the season. While each episode is well-paced and the season moves relatively smoothly, the superfluous episode length is just a sleazy way for Netflix to boost audience viewing. Now they get to brag about it being "The Most Watched Netflix Original/Premiere/Record Setting Numbers," as they measure those statistics in minutes watched. I mean, yeah. When each episode is that long, it's bound to happen. It also ensures that Stranger Things will be on the Top 10 list for a while, as the average person doesn't have the time to binge thirteen hours of TV. This feels especially important to point out following Netflix's Wall Street loss earlier this year. But hey, it's good P.R. since they can claim to be director friendly, give the characters "room to breathe," and no one really ends up caring because, for the most part, it's enjoyable entertainment.
Now, as this season has the characters canonically enter high school, we lose a lot of the sweet middle schooler friendship that made the first few seasons fantastic. Instead (Especially in the first - and worst - episode) we get high school clichés, including but not limited to: Main characters standing on cafeteria tables, jocks being the popular cool, mean kids, having students run assemblies with impromptu speeches, D&D being lame and for nerds, everyone being 30, and the band kids being gay (Although that last one's not a cliche, in my experience that one's pretty accurate). It also had Netflix clichés, including but not limited to likable characters wearing flannel and "gay" being the only development a character gets in the entire season.
The cast also aged HARD. I'm fairly certain all of these actors have graduated high school, and due to long gaps between Netflix seasons, the fact they were all playing freshmen really took me out of it, and the escalation clause of freshmen being played by 20-year-olds means the seniors are played by 30-year-olds. It was very jarring, but eventually one eases into it. I suppose this is also where I mention that, as a recent high school graduate, the trope of high school cliques has my instant disapproval due to violent flashbacks.
And one more technical complaint before I get into the actual quality of the show: This season is far more violent and gory than the last three. The main villain, Vecna, kills people by creepily lifting them up, snapping their limbs one at a time, snapping their jaw, and then imploding their eyeballs. It's... graphic... especially considering I see Stranger Things kids' toys at Target. It didn't feel like an escalation from the previous seasons, but rather such a far cry from the 80s-Amblin vibes of the previous seasons that it became excessive. Like, I missed when it was about middle schoolers looking for a lost friend.
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| You're a mean one |
It's as if they recognized the season one target audience had grown out of the show, and thus they tried to be edgier and more bleakly violent to bring them back. In the way that Harry Potter aged and matured with its audience, Stranger Things just got more violent. Tonally, it bears many similarities to its earlier seasons, but with sporatic levels of violence that feel out of place. But hey, it does show that if this and Primal can be TV-14, Disney+ has really been playing it safe so far with its originals.
For the most part, I rather enjoyed the season. Plot wise I had a few gripes, namely the entire Russian side plot. It got to a point where it felt like Hopper should have been killed off in season three if only to shave ten minutes off of each episode. And while I'm not Russian nor did I live in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, something tells me literally nothing about the show's depiction of Russia was accurate. It was also more fun when the series focused on the "kids." Focus on the kids. Everyone likes kids. Adults are boring. And the fact it was so far disconnected from the rest of the Vecna plot up until the last minute made it feel unnecessary. Additionally, I question how Joyce and Murray acquired the 40k (106k adjusted for inflation). Neither is shown to be very liquid.
Like the previous seasons, Stranger Things 4 benefitted greatly from a cast bubbling with chemistry. As always, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington continues to carry the show, but the rapport he has with... well, everyone, makes the show a blast to watch. Gaten Matarazzo continues to shine as Dustin Henderson, and his dynamic with Joseph Quinn's Eddie Munson was fun to watch. Actually, scratch that - the entire cast of the "Find Vecna" subplot/main plot was awesome (Joe Keery, Gaten Matarazzo, Joseph Quinn, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Natalie Dyer, and Maya Hawke). That cast of characters was fantastic to watch, and I specifically appreciated the improvement that Nancy (Who had been a relatively bland character the past three seasons) showed when not paired with Jonathan. The main villain of the season, Vecna, was hauntingly played by Jamie Campbell Bower, who I'm sure will continue to have a long and lucrative career of playing mentally unstable characters (Batman's 16th reboot, Batman: Battiest Bat Yet, due for release in 2035, will greatly benefit from his Joker performance).
Now, one of my favorite TV show characters of all time is Steve Harrington, so his usage in season four was both welcome and disappointing. While the prior three seasons gave him very definable archetypes (One=bully, two=babysitter, three=mom), season four wasn't so much of a continuation of that arc but rather his self-realization that he is a mom. And while it's always wonderful to see him on screen, I would be lying if I said there was anything that had me absolutely bubbling over his character like seeing him take the nail bat in season one, talking about hair products in season two, or hanging with Dustin in season three. It needed more of that strong Steve and Dustin dynamic.
Part of the reason this season didn't have as strong of that dynamic was the introduction of Eddie, who, while at first, I disliked, eventually won me over as a worthwhile addition to the cast. I loved his dynamic with Dustin and his overall tone in the series. However, I wish this season had really played up that Eddie might be replacing Steve and then had them making peace in the finale and agreeing to raise Dustin together, leading to the fifth season being filled with the beautiful Dustin/Steve/Eddie dynamic, which didn't happen for reasons we'll get to later.
One of the biggest issues this series faced was the fact that some plotlines and some characters were less interesting than the others. While the first season had a strong dynamic of the five kids looking for their friends, Jonathan and Nancy looking for Barb with Steve being a minor antagonist, and Joyce and Hopper uncovering the conspiracy, season four splintered the ever-growing cast into an ever-growing number of groups, with Dustin/Lucas/Max/Nancy/Steve/Robin/Eddie forming one group (With Nancy/Steve/Robin/Eddie frequently splintering off to do their own thing), Mike/Will/Jonathan/Argyle forming the next group, Eleven's sidequest to regain the powers I forgot she lost, Eleven/Vecna flashbacks, Jason Carver's witchhunt, and the Joyce/Jim/Murray/Enzo Russian quest forming the last grouping. Unlike the previous seasons, where the groups were all very clearly working towards the same goal, these groups are largely disconnected. It's not until the last episode that they all work together.
This issue was further amplified by the Dustin/Lucas/Max/Nancy/Steve/Robin/Eddie "uncover" Vecna subplot being the main plot and most interesting plot. When the show focuses on those pairings, it works. When it focuses on others it still works but to lesser degrees. It's always entertaining but never fun, and because the main villain is very clearly Vecna they all feel irrelevant. Adding to their irrelevancy is that the subplots (Again excluding the main Vecna plot) largely leave their characters with little development. Mike continues his season three trend of being defined by his relationship to Eleven, Will continues his season one trend of being forgotten to the point that it's his defining feature, Jonathan is reduced to a stereotypical stoner kid, Joyce is yet again looking for a lost person, and Eleven is learning how to control her powers while the audience uncovers her past in Sam Owens' lab... eg, the first season.
This isn't to say that I disliked this season - quite the contrary, I quite enjoyed it - but I do acknowledge that some of the pairings were less than the sum of their parts, especially compared to previous seasons' groupings. I also found it weird that, despite thirteen hours, the series never really had a chance to set the "vibe," which is my je ne sais quoi term for when something "hits different." Season three's premiere did a fantastic job of setting the vibe, but season four is so focused on the plot it doesn't allow the characters to have fun. Again, going back to the Dustin/Steve talking about hair, the little details are like that are barely there, or maybe just aren't as good as in previous seasons. Everyone seems to be sad and dreary, again save for the main Vecna plot, and that tone doesn't feel so much darker or more mature as it does less fun.
I'm not going to say the season lacked heart, but it certainly did lack happiness in general. While it's okay to be more serious and mature, brief moments of levity, or at least setting an initial tone of levity before moving into more grimdark territory, would have been appreciated. While season three was (In my opinion) too comedic, season four is a bit sadder and drearier than it should be.
However, something I loved about this season was the emotion. There are so many plot beats and character moments that hit you in the feels (All unfortunately saved for the last episode). The acclaimed "Running Up That Hill" sequence is acclaimed for a reason, numerous heartfelt conversations hit more often than they miss, and long-awaited reunions are sure to make viewers tear up. However, and I feel like I'm doing this a lot for this review, for one thing I liked there were two things I didn't - these heartfelt conversations often had flashbacks to previous seasons, which worked in some cases (Like Max thinking of memories to stop Vecna) but detracted in others (Flashbacks of Eleven and Mike's relationship placed in the middle of Max's "death"). It unnecessarily padded an already superfluous runtime. That runtime also muddled very strong, strong beats such as Max's aforementioned "death."
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| Everything relating to Max and Billy's relationship was perfectly done. |
Going into that death, I was pretty convinced it would make me teary-eyed. They had set it up perfectly with some really hard-hitting stuff about Max's psyche, but a really, really long Mike speech took me out of the moment, and then superfluous slow motion made the previously harsh and sudden Vecna death lose its impact. Slow motion was frequently used in this season, and never was it used effectively, just making things a bit slower than they normally would have been for seemingly no other reason than to pad already long runtimes. The slow motion further took me out of Max's "death" since every other Vecna kill had been so fast and horrifying. Seeing her limbs twist in slow motion didn't make me sad, it just made me think "Why did they use slow motion here?" It should have felt like a gunshot - quick and effective, this person suddenly taken away - but instead was prolonged to the point of "Yeah, she's being killed, I get it."
But, right. Things I liked about this season. I absolutely adored some of the money shots found throughout - namely Elle bringing the helicopter down, seeing the Upside Down pre-corruption, the "Running Up That Hill" sequence, the superb epic Stranger Things theme remix utilized in the last episode, and perhaps my favorite shot in the series - the kids riding bikes as the camera circles down beneath the ground as you see the other kids riding bikes in the Upside Down. That shot was fantastic.
I also loved all the new characters introduced - while it took a while to warm up to Eddie, he eventually grew on me and I am extremely distraught over his early demise. He went out like a champ though, even if I wish he had stuck around long enough for a Steve/Eddie duo "raising" Dustin. I liked Enzo and wish him a happy reunion with his son. I also really liked Jason Carver as the jock slowly losing his mind. Even if that plot escalation slightly broke the suspension of disbelief, his personal vendetta and role in the finale were all fantastic. I really liked Vecna, even if his reason for being evil was that he... checks notes... likes spiders? However, I liked him more in his human form, as online memes about Vecna's physical similarities to the Grinch were.... well, they did slightly ruin his menace. I wish his design was a bit more monstrous than humanoid.
I liked this season of Stranger Things. While long, the plot moved well enough, the characters are always fun to hang out with, and the compelling story keeps you engaged. It is on that note that I give this my highest form of praise yet - Netflix should have released this weekly. Aside from the fact shoving 13 hours of content in consumers' faces takes a while to get through, the online chatter and hype for each new episode would have been unimaginable, absolutely plowing through any and all chatter Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ms. Marvel, or The Boys was competing for.
Maybe the best thing about Stranger Things 4 was that I saw it right after/during Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ms. Marvel. After complaining to high heaven about Disney+ shows that feel like short TV shows or really long movies, to have something that is fundamentally TV through and through was refreshing. Episode cliffhangers that beg the "Continue" button to be clicked, character beats and visual cues that work, and, above all else - an intro that's impossible to skip.
When all is said and all is done, I enjoyed Stranger Things 4. It was engaging, occasionally fun, and I had a good enough time watching it and being engrossed in it that I can overlook its faults. However, I do wish that it had just been about Normal Things, and centered on Eddie and Dustin convincing Steve to play D&D with them.
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