After three years, Stranger Things is back with a new, gruesome season. Split into two parts, Volume 1 is set six months after season three, with a new villain called Vecna murdering teenagers in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. It’s everything you’d expect from a Stranger Things season — mystery, horror, ‘80s outfits, and a fair deal of Dungeons & Dragons.
The episodes in Volume 1 are an average of 78 minutes long — a half hour longer than in previous seasons. But despite longer runtimes, it wasn’t until the third episode that things really took off. I didn’t feel that the stakes rose until the third episode, and I kept getting distracted by the ages of the actors, who now play characters several years younger (compared to previous seasons, when they were the same age as the characters). I feel like Stranger Things has lost some of its ‘80s charm, as it’s turned into a full sci-fi-horror hitting the ground running. But as the plot tightened and the character dynamics strengthened, the season proved that the Duffer brothers are still going strong.
The show has gotten into the habit of splitting the large cast into smaller groups, each with their own separate adventures. This has worked extremely well because it allows for efficient pacing and fresh character dynamics. Steve and Dustin, for example, were paired together on a whim in season two, and now their friendship is one of the best things about the show. But season four’s groupings are not all created equal, and the weakness of this season is that some of the storylines have less intrigue than others. What was Mike even up to this season? I’ve already forgotten.
One of the more unique storylines — but much slower-paced — is Eleven’s, the child experiment-slash-superhero who deserves a break, guys, come on. She’s trying to get her powers back after losing them at the end of the last season, and she spends much of this season diving into repressed memories. We learn about the circumstances leading up to her escape back in season one, filling in details about the experiments and the other children in the lab. A good directive choice was to have Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven, acting in most of the scenes from her memory — despite Eleven being a much younger child when the scenes took place.
Even beyond this exploration of El’s traumatic childhood, this season is drowning in trauma. You can expect nothing less from characters who have witnessed horrifying monsters and untimely deaths as preteens. Max is reeling from her step-brother’s death. Hopper (who, spoiler alert, is alive and not well) is in a Russian prison with his demons. Then there’s my own trauma from watching the show. Vecna might not be as frightening as previous villains, but the murders themselves have moved straight into the horror genre. I’m not a horror person, okay? I’m going to be thinking about those demon-possessed murders for weeks.
One thing that I miss in this season is the childhood friendship that was much more prevalent in season one and later seasons. Part of this is because the focus has gravitated toward more intense and gruesome stories, and part of it is because the characters have gotten older. New themes of romance and maturity have found their way into the show out of necessity — with the characters now 15, it’s bound to become coming-of-age. But this evolution tosses aside the simple friendship between four nerdy boys and the nostalgia of the ‘80s. The show — for better and worse — has become much more.
Due to the unequal storylines, this season might have been underwhelming if not for the last episode of Volume 1, which brought some amazing plot twists and left me in anticipation for the last two episodes.
The final two episodes, which will be released on July 1, are titled “Papa” and “The Piggyback.” While it was a wise decision to split the season in two — keeping Stranger Things trending as its viewers wait for Volume 2 — it would have worked better to have one episode released each week. But for such a binge-worthy show, I’m not sure anyone could wait an entire week for a new episode to air.
Danaye studies English and procrastination at UFV and is very passionate about the Oxford comma. She spends her days walking to campus from the free parking zones, writing novels she'll never finish, and pretending to know how to pronounce abominable. Once she graduates, she plans to adopt a cat.
