stranger things 4 volume I review (spoilers)
Volume I of Stranger Things 4 is easily better than 80% of the endless options available on streaming but fails to deliver the can’t-look-away panache or zeitgeist-shifting extreme confidence of the nigh-perfect debut season. Stranger Things (ST) has a fairly obvious success problem. The first season was a simple yet intoxicatingly enthralling mix of mystery, nostalgia and pitch-perfect character that rightly became a phenomenon. The gloriously effortless story of plucky, unafraid kids (one of them with powers!) triumphing over an unknown evil with the help of a hard-drinking, downtrodden sheriff captured the hearts of viewers in a manner that felt and hit different. Still does. Subsequent seasons, for no fault of their own, suffer from increasingly diminished returns. Volume I of ST4 is just the latest case. ST2 was tantalizingly close to matching the debut season while ST3 was an exceedingly gratifying watch that expanded the show to include far more characters and glimpses into greater Hawkins. Volume I of ST4 expands too far for its own good. It’s the fandom-dividing episode 7 of ST2 on steroids (QC Note: I loved EP7 of season 2). The Duffer Brothers wrote themselves into a tough spot in moving several key players out of Hawkins. The entire Russian sub-plot which takes up a good chunk of ST4 Volume I is a chore to watch and completely throwaway. The ultimate reveal of the Demogorgon therein is quite literally superfluous to the greater story. So far, at least. The show drives home at its tail end that fan-favorite Dustin has so much experience with the upside down that he finally “gets” the rules of the shadowy dimension. It comes too late and feels surprisingly flat. While the sequence does set up nicely how the Hawkins crew can now enter and exit The Upside Down at will, it should’ve felt like an exciting capstone to Volume I but instead comes across as a bit sleepy and been-there-done-that. Perhaps if I could watch ST4 Volume I with no memory of the dizzying visual and story heights of the perfectly balanced first season I would have only good things to say. But alas I cannot and thusly must recommend ST4 with the aforementioned caveats. It’s still as good or better than damn near everything else on Netflix within the fantasy/horror/thriller genre.