"Stranger Things 4, Part One" - Skip or Stream?
Stranger Things 4, Part One premiered over Memorial Day Weekend. The Netflix series is one of the last remaining pillars that built the platform into the (now struggling) behemoth it has become. The premiere comes three years after the third season. This is partially due to the nature of the series and the size of the production, but filming was also derailed by the pandemic. Seven episodes of Volume 4 are now streaming, and the final two episodes of this volume will drop on July 1st. There is still a fifth and final season on the horizon.
Unsurprisingly, Hawkins, Indiana, is still cursed by an unknown supernatural threat, but not all of the characters still live there. The end of season three saw Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Joyce (Winona Ryder), El (Millie Bobby Brown), and Will (Noah Schnapp) move to California in search of a fresh start away from the cursed town. Hopper (David Harbour) was presumed killed in the fight at the mall, but it’s revealed that he was captured and taken to Russia.
Even those who stayed in Hawkins aren’t as close as they used to be. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) are part of a Dungeons and Dragons club hosted by new-to-the-show Eddie (Joseph Quinn), while Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) is now on the basketball team. Max (Sadie Sink) has isolated herself after her brother Billy’s (Dacre Montgomery) sacrifice in the battle at the mall. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) is throwing herself wholeheartedly into the school newspaper and counting the days until she’s off to college. Perhaps the only two brought closer by the tragedies of last season are Steve (Joe Keery) and Robin (Maya Hawke), who work together at the Family Video store.
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There’s not much to say about this installment of Stranger Things. Much was made about the $30 million-per-episode cost and the bloated runtimes of some episodes that were more like a feature film than a television series. That may not make much difference to the average viewer, since it’s common to binge shows. Many people, especially fans of shows like Stranger Things, will watch the entire series in one sitting. In that regard, it feels no different than watching more episodes of shorter length.
On the other hand, there’s no reason for these episodes to be as long as they are. Every season of Stranger Things has essentially been a rework of the first season with new characters added. Sometimes those characters are welcome and sometimes they drag the show down. Fans give the show the benefit of the doubt because the main characters are so endearing, but the plot that surrounds them is truly tedious.
Stranger Things 4, Part One peaks in its first episode. The banter and friendship between Steve and Robin is the show’s crown jewel, but it’s tossed aside for plot lines in California and Russia that run in circles for episodes on end. The Hawkins storyline of Nancy, Steve, Robin, Dustin, Max, Lucas, and Eddie dealing with the Upside Down’s new big bad, Vecna, is the closest the show gets to the heights of season one. Even so, there’s so much potential for all of these characters that is never fully realized. This is especially true for Nancy. It feels purely accidental that Nancy has grown from quiet, goody-two-shoes to bonafide monster hunter. She’s now a truly badass character, but the writers seem to have no idea what to do with her except give her feelings for both Steve and Jonathan. For the third season in a row.
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It may seem like a strange bone to pick, but the fact that none of the main characters have died raises questions about how much danger the town is really in. Yes, smaller and newer characters have met their demise at the hands of one Upside Down creature or another, but the main group of characters from the first season have remained relatively bulletproof. While not advocating for any particular character to die (although I wouldn’t mind losing Jonathan), the showrunners are playing things too safe. It’s understandable for the first season or two, but as the fourth and fifth seasons progress, it seems unlikely that every one of the original characters would make it out alive.
Given the show’s immense popularity, the audience is very curious about how the story of Stranger Things ends. Unfortunately, they’re no closer to understanding anything now than they were before the season began. Stranger Things 4, Part One is more of the same, and for a lot of people that will be enough. It’s always nice to see this ragtag group of characters come together to fight evil, but that stopped being enough to sustain the show two seasons ago. With any luck, Part Two and the final season will deviate from the repetitive storylines of the past and take the story somewhere beyond the Upside Down.
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