This was a long season of Stranger Things, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Each episode is very long so since this isn’t my full time job, it took me a while to get through it all. Stranger Things Season 4 gave us a ton of content and story that spread across the US and the world, it felt different, but it also felt like it got back to the roots of season one.

There are going to be spoilers in this. A lot of spoilers, not even going to pretend to do a review without it. If you want the two sentence review if this is good, the answer is yes. It’s not a perfect season but it’s really good.

Spoilers Ahead

The Storylines

This is a bit of a different season. As the boys are growing older, it is like they are closer to the ages of the older generation. So instead of getting that split of the older kids, younger kids, and adults, we have two groups of kids and a group of adults. Plus then Eleven is split off on her own some. I think it is important to talk about all of these different groups and if their stories worked.

Eleven

Eleven is the best spot to start because really this world and overall story revolves around her. Her story, is both one of the more interesting parts and one of the less interesting parts. Her time in California is just fine. It has strong Carrie vibes but doesn’t really pay off. We already know she’s not a normal kid and doesn’t fit in.

And then we go to the new lab with Brenner and Owens. It is a very good vehicles for telling the story of Eleven’s powers, and who Vecna, Henry, the Orderly and One all are. The unraveling of that mystery with Eleven and Nina and Eleven getting her powers back works well. However, her time in this new lab, the fighting between her, Brenner, and Owens, the military showing up, there is too much of that and that part was not interesting.

The Adults

Then we head over to Russia with Joyce, Murray, Yuri, Hopper, and Antonov. And this is a bit of a mixed bag for me again. I really loved Antonov and her and Hopper’s relationship. How they loosely work together to really work together. How they both help out the other. And Murray and Yuri provide some good comedy for this.

Overall, really know knocks on the storyline for the adults. It does feel a bit like it’s less connected to the overall story though. And I get it, they need to get Hopper back to the rest of the group. The fact that they never really were in the same fight, even though they tried to help, is interesting. I’d have loved for there to be something more to get them directly involved.

Hawkins Kids

Easily my favorite part of the story, and I don’t think that’s a surprise. The Hawkins story has most of the bigger cast with Dustin, Lucas, Max, Erica, Nancy, Steve, and Robin and introducing Eddie. All characters that you really start to like.

They also have the best ability to interact with the upside down and it was fun to delve into there more. We’ve gotten these hints throughout the other series. We even spend time there, but this time we really get to spend time in the upside down. There are still mysteries to it but we know more now, some because of them.

And I also think that the Max storyline was interesting. What she is going through, Vecna targeting her, she’s a character I really like. She brings something different to the group. And to have her be a focus and really the whole Hawkins kids side of thing being so relationship drama free, I think it worked well.

California Kids

Finally, the California kids with includes Argyle, a great character, and Mike, since he timed up his spring break amazingly. But their story was intriguing. They got to do the whole road trip thing which is fun and very much a trope from that time period. And getting to meet Suzy’s family was interesting.

I think that their story was stronger once Eleven was gone and them trying to get her. While that intersected with hers at one of the more boring parts, overall, it felt real. And to see the emotion from Will and Mike. And just that relationship and rebuilding between Eleven and Mike, it worked well. Plus Argyle was a great humor character.

Stranger Things Season 4 Overall Story

To me, while there were outliers, mainly the adults, the whole story did work together. And I think you could argue that they lost this fight, Vecna still lives, Max is in a coma, because they split the party at the end of season 3. Now the adults being split off, or at least Hopper, makes sense, really all of them splitting makes sense. But it’s leaning into a D&D trope that way where you never split the party.

I also think that building up the history of the upside down is very good. And for Eleven and her powers. It makes the world that is being more impactful to go back. And they did it in a smart way where the consequences to the real world mattered as she was finding out all of this. It was an information dump, technically, for her stuff, but not one that felt only like explaining. There is a reason behind it.

How It Ended

So, this is a bit more speculation going forward. If you don’t know, season 5 is going to be the final season of Stranger Things. Now there is plans for a show set in the same “world” as Strangers Things. And The Duffer Brothers are the runners for that show as well. It is an idea that they had, not someone that they were asked.

But let’s look at the world as it is now. Vecna is out there. Hawkins is a disaster area, what is going to be happen next? I expect that the finale will again be a face off against Eleven and Vecna, though that might be mid season. If they split it into two, I wouldn’t be shocked if Vecna is defeated by the end of the first half. For Hawkins, the question is, how do you close it up again? And that is where the story gets interesting.

Because I think that is going to be the harder part. Vecna might have an army around him, but he is injured both on the mental level and the physical. But how do you close everything back up again. I think we might see a character lost to doing this. In particular, I think Will might need to sacrifice himself. Not die, but go back to the upside down. Face that fear that he has and go back to close the portal. Eleven working on the outside and him on the inside.

I also think we end with more deaths in the season. Murray, unfortunately, and possibly Joyce or Hopper I could see dying. One of Steve, Jonathan or Nancy might die. And I don’t know if I think one of the kids will die or not. Max seems like a choice, if she never recovers, but she’s had that experience. And Will staying in the upside down could be seen as that. But I don’t know about Lucas, Dustin, or Mike. Mike seems fairly safe, but Lucas or Dustin could be a casualty.

Stranger Things Season 4 Final Thoughts

It is a very good season. I put my rankings of the seasons as 1 followed closely be 4. Then there is a gap down to 3 and a gap down to 2. Two is not bad, I think that it feels like it’s trying to be season 1 again without capturing that same feeling. Season 4 captures that feeling of season one and is darker as well. For me that is really interesting and works really well.

I think they walked that line nicely, though. It is darker, but they kept much of the essence of Stranger Things. And with that it let people who maybe don’t love that slight step darker stay engaged. Because, in the end, we want it to feel like Stranger Things and this season really did.

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