I think the Duffer Brothers missed the memo on how to make a TV show. After a three-year development period, Stranger Things Season Four finally dropped on Netflix on May 27th 2022…or at least the first seven episodes did, followed by the final two on July 1st. Not only that, but rather than having conventional episode lengths of forty-five minutes to an hour, the nine episodes range anywhere from sixty-three-minutes up to a hundred and fifty, with the majority of the episodes lingering around the seventy-five-minute mark. This is a gargantuan sized season of TV that pushes the definition of ‘bingeable’ the limit. So now that all the episodes are available, does the extra length and development time make the show extra awesome or is it just a bloated overdue mess?
It has been eight months since the destruction of Starcourt Mall; Joyce (Winona Ryder) has moved Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her sons Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) out to California in an attempt to keep them safe. But when Joyce is contacted by someone claiming that Hopper (David Harbour) is alive in a Russian prison, she and Murray (Brett Gelman) travel to Russia to check out the validity of these claims. But in leaving she gives the U.S. government the perfect opportunity to sweep in and take Eleven.
Meanwhile in Hawkins, Max (Sadie Sink) is struggling to cope after her brother’s death and has begun having nightmarish visions. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) have joined a Dungeons & Dragons group led by local weirdo Eddie (Joseph Quinn), whilst Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) has distanced himself from his friends and joined the basketball team in an attempt to gain popularity. But when Eddie is blamed for the murder of a fellow student and Max realises she is a target for this new threat from the Upside Down, so begins a race against time to stop more murders, protect Eddie from the mob-like townsfolk, and destroy the threat known as Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bowers).
It has been eight months since the destruction of Starcourt Mall; Joyce (Winona Ryder) has moved Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her sons Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) out to California in an attempt to keep them safe. But when Joyce is contacted by someone claiming that Hopper (David Harbour) is alive in a Russian prison, she and Murray (Brett Gelman) travel to Russia to check out the validity of these claims. But in leaving she gives the U.S. government the perfect opportunity to sweep in and take Eleven.
Meanwhile in Hawkins, Max (Sadie Sink) is struggling to cope after her brother’s death and has begun having nightmarish visions. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) have joined a Dungeons & Dragons group led by local weirdo Eddie (Joseph Quinn), whilst Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) has distanced himself from his friends and joined the basketball team in an attempt to gain popularity. But when Eddie is blamed for the murder of a fellow student and Max realises she is a target for this new threat from the Upside Down, so begins a race against time to stop more murders, protect Eddie from the mob-like townsfolk, and destroy the threat known as Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bowers).
Season Three of Stranger Things was a deviation from the norm for the show. It was considerably more light-hearted, and despite going to some dark places it had a lot more humour and levity. Season Four finds a middle ground between the more pulpy and humorous approach Season Three took, and the darker more serious approach used in Seasons One and Two.
If it wasn’t apparent by the longer development period and lengthier episodes, Season Four also ups the ante considerably. It’s difficult to explain just how much good having a humanoid villain in Stranger Things has done for the story, as it allows Season Four to provide so much context to what the Upside Down is and why Hawkins is ground zero for all the terrible things that have tried to break through over the last few years. Vecna and his backstory provide so much context for everything that has happened thus far in Stranger Things, and because we finally understand the motivation behind these creatures the fight our protagonists have against them is so much more impactful.
However, Season Four does fall into the same trap that Game of Thrones often fell into where characters and storylines are so isolated from one another. You’ll frequently encounter instances where you’ve spent so much time with one set of characters that by the time it swaps to another storyline you’ve forgotten where they are or what’s going on. This becomes less of a problem as the season goes on and the storylines begin to merge, but particularly Joyce & Murray’s trip to Russia is less interesting than what’s happening with the kids, and even come the end of the season it can feel like it was an unnecessary diversion.
For me, Max was the most compelling character on the show this season, and I’m so glad that Sadie Sink got to sink her teeth into the character a bit more and show us exactly what she’s capable of as an actress. Her grief and guilt over Billy’s death in Season Three is explored in great detail here, and it becomes a central component of the story now that she is dealing with the reality that she may not survive the next few days as Vecna closes in on her.
Eleven also gets the backstory treatment this season, and finally justifies that underwhelming diversion she went on in Season Two. It’s great seeing her character finally get fleshed out in the way it should have been years ago, and this combined with the increasingly complex relationship she has with Mike provides an extremely satisfying coming of age romance subplot.
I did feel generally unsatisfied with Will and Jonathan this season though. The issue with Will is that you can tell they’re trying to build to a major development of his character in some way, but it’s so cryptic and ultimately it never comes. Are the Duffer’s saving it for Season Five? Or is Will just going to get shafted and become the most emotionally stunted character in the entire show because he’s never been given his time to shine? Jonathan meanwhile is just stuck in a kind of limbo unsure what to do with his life, and whilst I did appreciate that combination of him being both indifferent to everything but also extremely passionate about the things he cares about because it’s something I identified with around his age, but it feels kind of out of place when put in the context of the rest of the season. Especially when you look at the flipside of his story, Nancy, and the way her character is handled in a similar kind of situation.
If it wasn’t apparent by the longer development period and lengthier episodes, Season Four also ups the ante considerably. It’s difficult to explain just how much good having a humanoid villain in Stranger Things has done for the story, as it allows Season Four to provide so much context to what the Upside Down is and why Hawkins is ground zero for all the terrible things that have tried to break through over the last few years. Vecna and his backstory provide so much context for everything that has happened thus far in Stranger Things, and because we finally understand the motivation behind these creatures the fight our protagonists have against them is so much more impactful.
However, Season Four does fall into the same trap that Game of Thrones often fell into where characters and storylines are so isolated from one another. You’ll frequently encounter instances where you’ve spent so much time with one set of characters that by the time it swaps to another storyline you’ve forgotten where they are or what’s going on. This becomes less of a problem as the season goes on and the storylines begin to merge, but particularly Joyce & Murray’s trip to Russia is less interesting than what’s happening with the kids, and even come the end of the season it can feel like it was an unnecessary diversion.
For me, Max was the most compelling character on the show this season, and I’m so glad that Sadie Sink got to sink her teeth into the character a bit more and show us exactly what she’s capable of as an actress. Her grief and guilt over Billy’s death in Season Three is explored in great detail here, and it becomes a central component of the story now that she is dealing with the reality that she may not survive the next few days as Vecna closes in on her.
Eleven also gets the backstory treatment this season, and finally justifies that underwhelming diversion she went on in Season Two. It’s great seeing her character finally get fleshed out in the way it should have been years ago, and this combined with the increasingly complex relationship she has with Mike provides an extremely satisfying coming of age romance subplot.
I did feel generally unsatisfied with Will and Jonathan this season though. The issue with Will is that you can tell they’re trying to build to a major development of his character in some way, but it’s so cryptic and ultimately it never comes. Are the Duffer’s saving it for Season Five? Or is Will just going to get shafted and become the most emotionally stunted character in the entire show because he’s never been given his time to shine? Jonathan meanwhile is just stuck in a kind of limbo unsure what to do with his life, and whilst I did appreciate that combination of him being both indifferent to everything but also extremely passionate about the things he cares about because it’s something I identified with around his age, but it feels kind of out of place when put in the context of the rest of the season. Especially when you look at the flipside of his story, Nancy, and the way her character is handled in a similar kind of situation.
Season Four is grander in scope and scale in every single way. It also leans into the horror angle of Stranger Things much more than the show has done since Season One. Vecna feels reminiscent of iconic horror villains like Freddie Kreuger and IT, invading people’s minds and warping their perception of reality. It’s also considerably more violent than any season before it with some gruesome deaths and the previously mentioned mob mentality present in the citizens of Hawkins reminiscent of the ‘Satanic Panic’ movement in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Despite being more fantastical than ever, Season Four feels so much more grounded in reality and I loved that.
The production values have also skyrocketed with so much more care put into the cinematography, editing, set design, makeup, and special effects. Season Four often looks comparable to a Hollywood film in terms of how good it looks (Running Up That Hill am I right?), and it’s clear that Netflix allowing the Duffer’s to take their time with this season paid off incredibly.
Season Four of Stranger Things is undoubtedly the best season of the show yet, and each episode is a complete knockout. I can’t ever remember a time where I was screaming and crying at the TV in response to what I was watching, and there were a number of times where I was rendered completely speechless by what I was seeing.
Are there problems? Absolutely, without divulging any spoilers there are a number of creative decisions regarding characters, deaths, and plot conveniences that rub me up the wrong way in Season Four, as well as me not being entirely happy about the length of episodes, but a lot of these issues I’m willing to look past because of how enjoyable the whole thing is.
Season Four of Stranger Things exemplifies why this show is one of Netflix’s greatest achievements and sets up a Fifth and final season in the most spectacular way. Even if Season Five takes another three years to materialise, Season Four does such a cracking job of laying the groundwork for the epic finale that I’m happy to wait if it matches this kind of quality.
The production values have also skyrocketed with so much more care put into the cinematography, editing, set design, makeup, and special effects. Season Four often looks comparable to a Hollywood film in terms of how good it looks (Running Up That Hill am I right?), and it’s clear that Netflix allowing the Duffer’s to take their time with this season paid off incredibly.
Season Four of Stranger Things is undoubtedly the best season of the show yet, and each episode is a complete knockout. I can’t ever remember a time where I was screaming and crying at the TV in response to what I was watching, and there were a number of times where I was rendered completely speechless by what I was seeing.
Are there problems? Absolutely, without divulging any spoilers there are a number of creative decisions regarding characters, deaths, and plot conveniences that rub me up the wrong way in Season Four, as well as me not being entirely happy about the length of episodes, but a lot of these issues I’m willing to look past because of how enjoyable the whole thing is.
Season Four of Stranger Things exemplifies why this show is one of Netflix’s greatest achievements and sets up a Fifth and final season in the most spectacular way. Even if Season Five takes another three years to materialise, Season Four does such a cracking job of laying the groundwork for the epic finale that I’m happy to wait if it matches this kind of quality.