What We Loved About Stranger Things Season 4

DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS AHEAD

Being someone who watched the first season of Stranger Things when I was roughly the same age as the core gang back in 2016, the release of every consequent season felt like an emotional reunion with beloved friends.

The plot centers around Eleven, a young girl born with psychokinetic superpowers in the Hawkins National Laboratory, where she spent her childhood having lab experiments being done on her by Dr. Martin Brenner, who she is rather ominously made to call "Papa".

Set in the 80s, the story starts when in one of Dr. Brenner's experiments, she accidentally opens a doorway into an alternate dimension, escapes the lab, and is found in the woods by a group of geeky children.

To write this review, I actually had to look up what genre Stranger Things is. "Science fiction horror drama" came up. Alongside the science fiction and horror elements, it deals with a coming-of-age narrative as the characters age across the seasons, with the core gang being geeky pre-teens struggling to fit in. The tense atmosphere is often lightened up with romance and cheeky comedy. To me, Stranger Things lacks nothing, but if I had to pick what it does best, I would say the characters. Every single character is dynamic and explored in-depth, nobody is contained within a usual trope.

The wait for the fourth season was particularly long, but worth it. The first episode spends a good amount of time showing us how the characters are doing, which is a much-appreciated catch-up with our friends. This season is certainly different from the earlier seasons, most noticeable being the fact that this time the gang is scattered across different places. The constant shifting of storylines in different locations received mixed responses from critics, but to me, the cinematic value of the one scene in the season finale of the gang's perfectly time-coordinated, simultaneous attack on Vecna (the villain) from thousands of miles apart made the jumping about in earlier episodes worth it.

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The tone throughout was darker and tenser, with intriguing Easter eggs referencing influential horror films of the 80s. This was surely a big treat for any old horror movie fans. The season was split into two volumes, with the second consisting of two supersized episodes. The lengthy running time led to critics claiming they tried to show too much at once and go into excess detail about how every character was feeling in the final moments of their adventures. The character depth is the best feature of the show, allowing each of them enough screen time and not rushing their moment was only a show of loyalty by the creators to what made the show such a hit.

I really appreciated how in the plot of this penultimate season Vecna chooses his victims to be the teenagers in Hawkins suffering from mental distress. He reaches into their minds and accesses them through their past trauma.

In the finale, Max plans to bait herself and face Vecna in her mind, and escape him by hiding in her good memories. Eleven 'piggybacks' her way to Vecna through Max's mind, her physical body resting in saltwater in a pizza dough freezer, situated near the Nevadan desert. Max asks her if she's real, and eleven assures her she very much is. It is a very real fight, and it takes place in the mind. This metaphor of our inner demons and our mental fights being real is an applaud-worthy way to shape the plot upon the show's return after the coronavirus pandemic, when the show's target audience, Gen Z spent a year grappling with their mental health.

The new characters, each one as likable as the returning ones, also reflect a closely related theme. Chrissy is a popular cheerleader with an outwardly bubbly personality, who secretly grapples with mental turmoil and low self-esteem from an abusive mother. Jason is a jock, who buys into media propaganda that the town murders are cult killings, and single-mindedly set out to seek justice for his dead girlfriend. He becomes increasingly unhinged as the season progresses.

Eddie is branded "freak" by his peers for his eccentric personality and has been trying to graduate high school for multiple years. But he embraces his eccentricity and is later revealed to be a kind-hearted and whole person. His performance of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" while fighting off demon bats is dubbed to be the "most metal concert ever," with excellent cinematography.

This season reveals the mastermind behind all the previous evils faced by the gang from the Upside-down. Nothing could be a better villain origin story than it all leading back to Eleven's sibling One/Henry/Vecna, who was born with the same powers as her and reared in the same lab.

The show does an excellent job of representation through Robin's romantic interest and Will's growing apart from his friends. The season ended with Vecna being injured and weakened, but successful in opening a doorway between upside down and the real world. The fifth and final season will definitely be action-packed and fast-paced, and the creators have revealed that it'll have a heavy focus on Will. Let's just hope that the guy finally gets at least a few moments of happiness.

Amrin Tasnim Rafa is always confused, it's literally her dominant personality trait. This is maybe her email, she can't be sure: amrinrafa@gmail.com