Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 - Review

By Niklas Müller

(PHOTO CREDIT: NETFLIX)

GRADE: B+

Since it has been over 1000 days since the third season of the Netflix hit series Stranger Things released, I do have to admit that I became somewhat skeptical. Mostly because I was wondering how these "kids" could still play kids in a believable manner. And how the storytelling would approach this 3 year hiatus. In the end I wasn't entirely relieved of my skepticism as only six months have passed in Hawkins, Indiana since the events of the third season. But the Duffer Brothers (show-runners, creators, producers, writers and directors of Stranger Things) have proven me wrong in almost all of my doubts, and I couldn't feel more ashamed for ever doubting the creators of one of the biggest cultural phenomenons of the 21st century.

Season 4 opens about 6 months after the "Hawkins Mall Fire" and all of our protagonists are scattered around the world (mostly US though) in little groups. All of these groups got their own thing going on, even though in the end they are all connected by their own thing. We got our Hawkins crew consisting of Dustin (a charming Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin, who's character arc I was really intrigued by this season), Max (this season's definite standout, Sadie Sink), Steve (one of the biggest stars of the cast by now, Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Robin (Maya Hawke). Also with them for most of the season is the leader of the Hellfire Club, Eddie (a really good Joseph Quinn). Our Hawkins crew investigates strange and bizarre murders happening across town, all of them committed by this season's big bad, Vecna. As Dustin puts it: "If the Demorgorgon was the Mind Flayer's foot soldier, then Vecna is the 5 star general". After the first 7 episodes I think it is relatively easy to say that Vecna is the best and simultaneously most terrifying villain of the series.

Besides Hawkins we also venture to sunny California (even though they shot it in New Mexico) where Joyce (the always great Winona Ryder), Jonathan (the New Mutants' Charlie Heaton, okay I probably could've written down one his better roles), Eleven (previous Emmy nominee for this role, Millie Bobby Brown) and Will (who's still in his emo phase, played by Noah Schnapp) moved to the last time we saw them. But even this crew splits TWICE, once when Joyce and Murray (Fleabag's Brett Gelman) fly to Alaska in search for Hopper (David Harbour in his most challenging season yet). And the other time I rather wouldn't reveal. Oh and I almost forgot Mike (Finn Wolfhard) who doesn't really have much to do anyway.

This is also where this season's biggest problem lies. It is massively overstuffed. The Duffers and the other writers of the show try to do too much all the time. And this really shouldn't be a problem, especially when every episode is over an hour and most of them are about 75 minutes. I really have to say this could've been easily avoided, and if you have as talented writers as the Duffers it really could've been avoidable. Nonetheless this is still very much the second best season, right after the (as I believe by now) the untouchable first. I do have to admit that my hopes weren't really high after a surprisingly weak third season (in spite of that even the third was still very much enjoyable). But even a weak Stranger Things season (like the third) still manages to charm with its nostalgia and incredible soundtrack, which are spiked with the biggest hits of the 80s (the biggest song of this season is the earworm, "Running up that Hill" from the great Kate Bush), this season in particular does it better than ever before.

One of the great things about this show, are its nostalgic references to films that inspired this very shot. Some of those references are even shot by shot. There is one reference (a gate closing) to Steven Spielberg's cult classic, Jurassic Park that will blow your mind. It is incredibly well framed, lit and shot. And speaking of composition, this show's cinematography is one of television's best. Besides the cinematography one also has to mention the nostalgia inducing score by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, it is very much on point this season once again.

(PHOTO CREDIT: NETFLIX)

Coming back to the "overstuffed" part of the season, though I also have to say that certain characters that we've come to like receive barely any screentime this time around. Take Erica (Priah Ferguson) as an example. She had quite a lot to do back in season 3 and her character was pretty interesting as well. I'm sure they could've gotten great things out of her, but unfortunately she's barely existing. And that's my second big issue with this season, there are just too many characters (which doesn't have to be a bad thing, just look at some great Ensemble pieces like Mad Men, Game of Thrones or Downton Abbey) and subsequently a lot of them feel rather untouched. They don't get the attention they deserve. Having so many characters can obviously work really well, but not if they just stop focusing on some of them altogether.

And even though this season has some minor issues, it is also at the same time stronger than ever in some ways (although season one is still slightly superior). Just take the filmmaking, all the directors (especially the Duffers in Episode 7 and Shawn Levy in Episode 4) have really outdone themselves. For instance in Episode 7 "The Massacre at Hawkins Lab" (which serves as season 4's mid-season finale) there's a transition featuring multiple bikes where I literally stood up and cheered, it's that magnificent. Volume 1 also delivered the best episode of the entire series thus far, with episode 4 "Dear Billy" featuring an absolute beast of a performance from Sadie Sink (she really is going places, and she's gonna co-star alongside Brandon Fraser in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale).

All in all this season is darker, more mature (the show actually gets more mature the older the actors become) and the stakes are higher than ever before. But before we can judge the season as a whole we still have to wait until July 1, when the remaining two episodes will be released.

CREATED BY: Matt & Ross Duffer

CAST: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton

RUNTIME: 7 Episodes, around 75 minutes

RELEASE: May 27th Volume 1, July 1st Volume 2