Amid the friendships and impeccable comedy, Season 4 Vol. 1 brings some of the darkest moments the series has to offer.
Returning to Netflix after a nearly three-year pandemic-induced break, Stranger Things could have done two things. One would think that the horror-mystery series, which has lost a bit of hype since its debut in 2016, may have returned with a guitar in hand, ready to slam the hits: the brilliant Gaten Matarazzo screeching and joking as Dustin, plus romance between Mike and Eleven, lots of Eggos and even more 80's nostalgia
In the first season of Stranger Things, being 12 years old was a moment of suspension in the air. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will (Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp) flew off the precipice of their toddler years, never feeling like the ground was no longer beneath them. They were old enough to be alone together, young enough to love their parents, old enough to keep secrets, and young enough to fear being too far apart. They were children until they saw monsters, and the monsters were gravity that pulled them to the ground.
season four is broken up into a lopsided bunch of increasingly lengthy episodes; the seven releasing this week range from 63 to 98 minutes, then two more are coming in July at nearly 1.5 and 2.5 hours, the last longer than most feature films. Season four splits the Stranger Things ensemble into four groups, all scattered around the world. world. There's Detective Hopper, toiling away in a Russian jail after mysteriously surviving the explosion in the season three finale. Jonathan, Mike, Will and Argyle drive around in a pizza delivery van, with the larger contingent stoned to the bone most of the time. Divulging the details of Eleven's search would become a spoiler. But the most compelling team consists of Dustin, Steve, Max, Lucas and Nancy, who investigate this season's newest terror of the Upside Down: the telekinetic Vecna, whose terrorization of the residents of Hawkins comes very close to what she finally returns crazy in town.