Cast your mind back to July 15, 2016, where, for the first time, in the basement of a suburban house in Hawkins, we meet four best friends. Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas, playing D&D, mucking about, having the time of their lives and just being kids. Little did anyone know that later that night a series of events would unfold which would embroil them all in alternate universes, brutal creatures and death at every turn.
And since then, every move they made, every decision to help and protect one another lead them down this dark and harrowing road.
Stranger Things 4 is a culmination of all that has come before it. It leaves its predecessors feeling like a rehearsal compared to what we witness in this gut wrenching season.
What was most loved about Stranger Things, is its way of providing hope in each battle despite insurmountable odds; much like a number of series before it, you always felt as if the characters stood a chance.
From the very first episode of season four, we begin to scratch the surface of the true horror this mythic villain is capable of. Plot points that we’ve been mulling over for three seasons come to light, and we understand that this is what it’s all been leading towards.
This season does a truly spectacular job of creating a sense of true helplessness and unease in its key scenes, presenting us as viewers with the somewhat novel – for Stranger Things – sensation of uncertainty. That, maybe, just maybe, this time it doesn’t work out for everyone. That the luck has run out and the odds might be too insurmountable for our group of Hawkins Heroes to prevail over.
A Homage To Horror
Stranger Things 4 decides to roll the dice and no longer creates a suspenseful series with horror elements, but graduates to its true horror form, with an antagonist that will go down in history with some of the greats.
It is clear that elements of this season are a true love letter to the renaissance of horror, the era that helped the genre be the loved behemoth it is today. From sets, costumes, characters and their designs, there is such detail to the likes of IT, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Carrie and The Silence Of The Lambs.
It highlights just how spine chilling these concepts still are in present day when executed well and that this classic horror more than has life in itself still.
Gone are the campy neverending story moments as Stranger Things 4 has a point to prove that not everything always works out the way you want it to. The characters that you love can die at any moment, and the story can very much come to an end.This is a threat that delves so much further into the horror elements than we have ever seen before and is a far superior series for it.
It’s not the bright neon of the 80s that the show needed but has perfectly blended itself with the confident storytelling from season 3 mixed with the dark and brooding tone of season 1 in order to reach a peak far beyond any of us thought it was capable of reaching.
Worlds Collide
For it’s biggest season yet, it felt only right for the series to widen the scope of the show by showing the repercussions of past events and the grief that has spread across the town itself, narrowed not just to our home-town heroes. It doesn’t just stop there. As well as introducing us to the harsh realities of what town-wide hysteria can do, and how that manifests in usually well-meaning people, we see the wider arena that Stranger Things has been setting on a global scale. This time, the stakes are higher, the villain is stronger than ever, and there’s peril at every corner.
As we watch four different but interconnect stories unfold it has to be commended for the vast scope this series was willing to take. Our points of reference are more varied, but the season manages to weave these together in a way that doesn’t weaken any of the narratives, and leaves no character underdeveloped or with a disappointing lack of air time.
As for our beloved characters, despite not believing it to be possible our affections grow only deeper for them as they share some down to earth poignant, loving and heart-breaking scenes. These add a slower pace to the moments of intensity, and give us a chance to understand truly, that these are not the same kids we met all those years ago.
And for the newcomer characters, it is an understatement to say they are more than just welcome but truly cement themselves and their chapter in this story, with one or two quickly shooting up to fan favourite status.
Stranger Things 4 truly captivates us and draws us into this dark and fractured world in a way rarely seen done before.. It is no easy feat to have one episode in your series be almost 2 and a half hours in length and yet it never overstays its welcome and never feels like enough. We are all still left wanting more.
At points you truly feel so engrossed into this beautifully dark world that we can forget it is TV, it can feel more like a window, a gate into another world that we are watching from. Which only makes it that much bruising when all you can do is helplessly watch from the sidelines as these heroes of Hawkins are outmatched, again and again as they try to prevail.
The Day The Children Went To War
This season aims to bring this story of Eleven and her family to a close, answering questions that we’ve had, and end some lingering theories as we enter the endgame of her origin story narrative.
The series balances this to near perfection. You would struggle to find a fan that feels short changed or as if the answers were cheap, which is nothing short of a miracle when trying to satisfy a fanbase while still staying true to the lore.
It is a culmination of all seasons, every fight fought, every battle won, every loss had, made and shaped what we witness in this twisted season. Character motivations become clear, and the threads that the Duffer Brothers have been weaving throughout each season begin to tighten, and lead us to a final destination.
It feels like a puzzle we didn’t even know needed piecing together, and yet as all the pieces begin to fit into place and things begin to take shape, it’s done in a way that makes you wonder how you didn’t see it to begin with. We were transfixed by the complex characters, subplots that never feel out of place, and the world itself such to the extent that we’re left thinking, “of course it had to be that.” Such is the prowess of Stranger Things as a production.
This season is one of those moments that will be remembered in history as a beautifully crafted piece of media, the passion and heart into creating these 9 episodes cannot be understated. Its a rare moment where the sets, the costumes, the acting, the writing and the cinematography all work in unison to create something heartbreakingly special.
As a reviewer you have to stay impartial at points but even from an objective point of view, this is a series that we can’t even say rarely comes about because I don’t think we’ll witness anything like this season again.
How season 4 wraps up is nothing short of mesmerising, the series concludes with such hope, all the while providing such devastation and desolation to the story of Hawkins all within a matter of moments that even the term ‘jaw-dropping’ doesn’t quite cut it. All the while darkly foreshadowing the fights still on the horizon and the town sized battle that is yet to be faced.
Verdict
Stranger Things 4 captivates us in a way unlike any TV series before it. The magnitude of this seasons is immense, and handled with such detailed precision. Introducing new characters, locations and threats, while never failing to build up the characters we truly love and know, delivering some of the most heart-warming and excruciatingly difficult moments from them.
This season offers up a unique sense of unease, combining a lingering dark cloud of tension and unease with the intensity of bigger threats and higher stakes. The Duffer Brothers can, and should, truly revel in what they’ve created. Stranger Things gives us an atmosphere that so few films in the cinema can achieve, let alone millions of homes across the world. It’s true star dust.
