TV Review - Netflix's Stranger Things, Season 4

Every ending has a beginning.

Stranger Things is a 2016-present television series created by Matt and Ross Duffer, produced by 21 Laps Entertainment and Monkey Massacre Productions, and distributed by Netflix. The second season stars Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour. It was nominated for twelve Primetime Emmys and did not win any.

"What have you done?" - Martin Brenner

Plot

With Hopper gone and Hawkins still recovering, the party is split up. High school brings new challenges and social problems...but then a familiar evil returns, this time with a plan. Despite being scattered across the world, the members of the party must fight the Upside Down once more...only this time, they are facing something more horrifying than anything come before it.

The Sweet

Stranger Things's fourth season feels like it fixes all of the problems that seasons two and three had.

This season feels like the show goes back to the tone and feel of the first season. One of the things that this season does not get enough praise for is one of its simplest elements: it's a mystery. Season one is a mystery. We are trying to figure out what took Will and how, but when we move into seasons two and three, there's really no mystery. Season four's mystery is completely centered around Vecna: who is he, how did he get in the Upside Down, and why is he killing? The show understands that these are the questions in the audience's mind, so it continues to tease you through the story, dropping little hints here and there while also keeping you invested in the main plot.

One of the best parts of this season, which is new to Stranger Things entirely, is, of course, the main villain. Vecna received universal acclaim upon his first appearance in this season, and it was completely warranted. Just his look makes him a scary, intimidating villain, but really, it's nice to have an actual character rather than just a monster as our main antagonist. Vecna has goals and plans. He threatens and taunts our heroes. The way he kills people is so memorable and terrifying. As I said before, he's the central mystery of the season, and the slow, dawning realization of his true identity and backstory is just so much fun. I love how well the mystery of his connection to the Creels and to Hawkins Lab slowly comes together to show us that he is the son of Victor and 001. It feels like a real, full-circle moment to give us 001 as our big bad of the entire series.

The Duffers described season four as their Game of Thrones season, and that comparison feels accurate in terms of scope and size. Stranger Things becomes expansive and epic in its fourth season, with a gigantic budget and this long, dense runtimes. The finale of this season is literally two and a half hours long. And you feel this huge scope across the entire production. We're in multiple different states and realms and even continents, and all of it is just thrilling. I love how well each storyline converges by the time we reach the finale. The Piggyback should not work: finishing up a season of TV by giving us an episode with a runtime longer than a lot of movies feels like it's just too much. And yet, the episode flies by. Everything is set up so well by the story that came before it so by the time you reach this epic, feature-length finale, it's just an explosion of action, excitement, and emotions. This is where I think Stranger Things has really pushed the boundary of what I am calling "cinematic TV". It started with Game of Thrones and has been continued by Stranger Things. TV no longer feels like a separate medium: Stranger Things feels more epic than a lot of film franchises nowadays.

And, yet, in all of the epic-ness and expanded lore and locations, season four never loses the heart of the show. What makes Stranger Things special is this Spielberg-esc soul that it has, where it remembers to make it's characters feel like humans we can relate to dealing with extraordinary situations. If anything, season four captures the heart more than two and three do. It has some of the best character work of the entire series. It has some of the most emotional beats. It really does a great job of making sure that the story still has this soulful, touching energy that was so pivotal to what made the other seasons of the show great.

One of the things that this season truly does not get a lot of credit for is how well it executes certain returning characters. Now, obviously, Stranger Things has a lot of great characters, but season four really shines the spotlight on some underrated ones. Max has become universally beloved, but that's only because of season four. She's fun in seasons two and three, but season four just gives her this heart-wrenching, emotional story that really shows her character in a different light. Part of what makes her arc so emotional and impactful is her relationship with Lucas, who also gets a massively improved story in this season. Like Max, Lucas has always felt like a fun side character, but here, he gets a ton of actual character growth. We see him try to fit in with the basketball guys, but when he learns they are going after his friends, he abandons them. His romance with Max, which was just kind of a side couple, is given the spotlight here as you see how much they both care about each other but how they are also having trouble reaching the other because of where they are at emotionally. It's easy to forget that before season four, these characters were not top-tier Stranger Things characters, but now, they are.

And, of course, how can you not talk about Eddie Munson when talking about Stranger Things season four. Since starring in this season three years ago, Joseph Quinn has absolutely exploded onto the scene. He was in Gladiator II and A Quiet Place: Day One before obviously being cast as Human frickin' Torch in the MCU's Fantastic Four. This all happened because he is so good as this lovable, punk-rock icon of Stranger Things. Eddie's entire arc revolves around the town of Hawkins hating him because they think he is the one behind Vecna's killings, when really, he is just this outcast with a heart of gold. He deals with inner turmoil because he feels he always runs from danger, but in the end, he sacrifices himself by not running and holding off the Demobats a bit longer to save the town that despises him. He is an absolutely tragic character but is one of the most iconic and beloved in the show for a reason.

This season also feels like it has some of the highest highs of Stranger Things. The Running Up That Hill sequence in Dear Billy is probably my second-favorite sequence in all of TV (behind the Red Wedding). I have praised Dear Billy ridiculous amounts and, in my final episode ranking, you can see where I have it (spoiler alert: it's pretty high), so I don't want to dedicate an entire section of this review to it, because there are so many incredible moments in this season. Hopper's reunion with Eleven. Master of Puppets. The Vecna twist. Chrissy's entire storyline. Brenner's final moments. Like, it is just chock-full of some of the best stuff we've ever gotten from Stranger Things.

I also feel like this season sets the stage for a truly epic final season. Season three was my favorite when it came out (upon rewatch that is no longer the case), but if you watch the end of it, it doesn't really set us up for a finale. Season four, on the other hand, gives you this huge, epic cliffhanger that just leaves you salivating for the fifth season. It has been an oh so long wait, but it is crazy to me that we are finally getting that fifth and final season next week. I think Stranger Things 5 would've been my most anticipated show of the year no matter what, because it's the final season of my favorite TV series, but the perfection of season four just made it all the more exciting and made me all the more antsy for the end of this amazing, beautiful story.

The Sour

To me, the negatives of this season are so overshadowed by the positives that they don't really bother me, but there are definitely a few problems with this season.

First off, like most Stranger Things seasons, it takes a second to get going. We spend probably a little bit too much time watching Eleven get bullied, and it sets her on this arc of trying to figure out if she's a monster...and I just don't enjoy it. I think the monster arc is fine, but I don't think her getting bullied is a good comparison to her possibly murdering children in Hawkins Lab. Like, these girls at school are psychopaths. They are torturing her and taunting her (supposedly) dead father. Angela, the lead bully, deserves to get hit in the face with a skate. I'm glad it's only two episodes, but I kind of wish it wasn't in the season at all.

I also find Jason Carver and the Hawkins mob to be a bit too cartoonish for my taste. It feels like the Duffers wanted to make the town of Hawkins feel like an actual character and show what the Upside Down is doing to its citizens, but I think there was a better route to take than a group of high school basketball jocks turning the town on a D&D club that is supposedly a satanic cult. Like, even describing that, it just sounds kind of stupid. I think it gets too cartoonish and I think Jason is just a badly written character, unfortunately.

And, finally, as much as I love season four's epic runtime and scope, it's a bit of a jarring change of pace from the first three seasons. This isn't a huge deal, but I do think it feels a bit weird when you go from the relatively self-contained nature of the first three seasons to this epic fourth season where every episode is over an hour long. As someone who obviously adores Stranger Things, I loved every single aspect of that, but if you are a more casual viewer, I can see this extended length and enlarged scope being a bit overwhelming.

Final Thoughts and Score

Stranger Things 4 is a basically perfect penultimate season of TV. This is neck-and-neck with season one for me, and to even be in competition that good just shows how good of a season this is.

I am going Sweet here. Age range is 14+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad)

Moldy (Terrible)

"Stranger Things 4"

Fun Factor: 9.5/10

Acting: 9.5/10

Story: 9/10

Characters: 9.5/10

Quality: 9.5/10

Created by Matt and Ross Duffer

Rated TV-14 for strong bloody violence, language, frightening themes and images, thematic elements

Premiered on May 27, 2022

Episode runtime: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven

David Harbour as Jim Hopper

Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers

Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler

Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson

Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair

Noah Schnapp as Will Byers

Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield

Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler

Joe Keery as Steve Harrington

Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley

Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers

Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson

Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman

Eduardo Franco as Argyle

Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna

Paul Reiser as Sam Owens

Matthew Modine as Martin Brenner

Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler

Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair

Tom Wlaschiha as Dmitri Antonov

Mason Dye as Jason Carver

Grace Van Dien as Chrissy Cunningham

Myles Truitt as Patrick McKinney

Nikola Ðuričko as Yuri Ismaylov

Rob Morgan as Calvin Powell

John Reynolds as Phil Callahan

Sherman Augustus as Jack Sullivan

Gabriella Pizzolo as Suzie Bingham

Elodie Grace Orkin as Angela

Amybeth McNulty as Vickie

Logan Riley Bruner as Fred Benson

Robert Englund as Victor Creel

Tristan Spohn as Two