Over the weekend, Bradley J. Birzer gave a largely positive review to season four of Stranger Things, the sci-fi horror thriller/’80s-nostalgia romp created by the Duffer Brothers. I also enjoyed it, and I want to explain why, as well as to detail some of my criticisms.
First, the good. The latest season of the show is, on the whole, an improvement from season two, which I thought was basically a retread of the first season, and season three, which seemed to suggest a show without any serious idea of where it was going or wanted to go. One of the reasons those two seasons seemed so aimless was the lack of a central and compelling antagonist. Well, in what the Dungeons & Dragons nerds of the show labeled “Vecna,” season four definitely gave us that. A kind of Freddy Kreuger figure lording over the evil alternate dimension known as the Upside-Down and menacingly intruding on our reality, Vecna is suitably threatening and a serious challenge to every character in the show, including Eleven/Jane, the psychic child so often resorted to as a deus ex machina in prior seasons. (The character also has a layered backstory that ties with El’s own.) Vecna dominates season four, and seems likely to return as a foe for whatever Stranger Things has in store next.
There are a couple of other things I really liked about season four. It has some great individual moments, two of which are backed by two perfectly chosen songs: “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush and “Master of Puppets” by Metallica. While I, as a proud ’90s kid, lack genuine ‘80s nostalgia, I do enjoy its pop culture, so such musical moments, as well as allusions to that era’s movies and TV (one notable instance: a body mysteriously missing after falling off a high place). And though not all art I enjoy has to validate my political views (my entertainment diet would be meager indeed were that the case), it’s hard not to notice, as Birzer did also, how this season emphasizes “the progressive inanities of governments (here and abroad).” The Soviet Union hasn’t looked worse in American pop culture since The Americans concluded. The separation of the story into multiple parts, only one of which is centered in the series’ original setting of Hawkins, Ind., ends up deepening one’s appreciation of what ties all the characters to that place (where the season ends): that is, the people they find there.
Now, for the bad. That same attempt to split up the plot helped contribute to one of the flaws of the season: an overall sense of overindulgence. There was just too much going on. You don’t even have to watch the show to see this: Each episode this season has a much longer runtime than what the show started out as, with many episodes creeping up to and then past the 90-minute mark, and the finale ending up nearly two-and-a-half hours long. That’s a movie, essentially. (No wonder this season took three years to finish.) As a result of the sprawling nature of season four, it’s possible to go almost entire episodes without checking in on one character or storyline or another. Some narratives are held in abeyance, and other characters (such as Jonathan Beyers) become essentially useless this season. The season’s sprawl also means every story leaves unresolved situations in its wake. Multiple characters commit crimes for which they go unpunished, for example. And the details of a bitter internecine turf war in our own government are left incredibly unclear (though I suppose one could say that is the nature of such things). There was a lot of juggling in this season; occasionally, some of the pins were dropped.
My other complaints turn on two of my long-standing issues with Stranger Things, and are not specific to season four: the “appeal” of the kids, and the attempt at “cultural retcon.” I’ve just never actually found the youngest members of the show’s cast to be that interesting. Eleven aside, they’ve always seemed a bit cloying and useless. Of course, the show, in its attempt to recapture the Amblin/Spielberg vibe, so often stacks the deck in their favor, portraying many of the adults around them as useless and clueless. Even so, it is still often those adults (or at least older children/young adults) who end up saving the day, while the kids remain convinced that saving the world is their responsibility. It doesn’t help that, now that the “kids” are actually in their late teens, they can no longer coast on cuteness alone, and we’ve found out that most of them actually aren’t very good actors.
As for “cultural retcon”: It seems like the Duffer Brothers are trying to reimagine the ’80s as they wish they’d have been, to have a kind of revenge upon the type of people they didn’t like from that era. So Dungeons & Dragons is cool now, jocks are evil, Christianity is a source of paranoia and scapegoating, etc. That Eddie Munson, one of season four’s best characters, serves as an illustration of all this doesn’t make the overall messaging any more persuasive.
Despite these flaws, I continue to enjoy the show. It’s an alluring sci-fi drama with plenty of mysteries, thrills, and compelling themes and performances to outweigh its weaknesses. (Goodness knows I’m a sucker for that kind of television.) Whatever my complaints about Stranger Things, I look forward to seeing how the Duffer Brothers bring the fascinating world they’ve created to a conclusion.