Online Series: Stranger Things season 4

[Epictetus]

Bloated is a good way to describe the show.
Way too many characters as well.

 

[Raekwon]

Really enjoyed this season. Last 2 eps were a bit of a step down from the rest but still the best season of the show imo

 

[PK Cronin]

I liked S4 a lot more than S3. The last two episodes were pretty bloated and with the last episode especially i thought they could've cut out nearly an hour of it. The Hopper/11 dynamic is a little weird to me and I wish Mike and Will were doing more than they were.

Speaking of those two, i get why fans are upset at their dynamic. That does happen a lot in real life, where a guy abandons his friends for his girlfriend, it just doesn't translate to something we'd want to see on TV with characters we like. I hope S5 Mike has something to do or say other than how much he loves his girlfriend. I'd like to see Will do something other than wince around and mope for another season too.

The Will thing is just bizarre and my fear of it not going anywhere was correct. I think what you're describing would translate fine, but that's not what they're doing and if it is, they're missing the mark. They are creating an ambiguity about Will's sexuality and it's just really unnecessary because it doesn't add anything for the viewer. At the beginning of the season it's not as bad but it just gets worse because nobody would be moping about their friendship or love life at this point in their adventure, yet it keeps coming up. His acting is also unbelievably bad, making it more jarring every time he's talking.

 

[tacogeoff]

Loved the second half. great ending and cant wait to see what comes next. season 4 is almost up there with Season 1 for me.

 

[Jussi]

Loved the last two episodes but they definitely didn't need to be that long. You could have trimmed them down by a maybe 10-20 minutes, for maybe the whole season 4. Overall I think the season was right up there with season 1.

 

[beowulf]

Amazing how the popularity of the show brought two very different 80s songs back to the top of the charts.

 

[Osprey]

 

[Jussi]

 

[Hivemind]

Much better than seasons 2 or 3.

 

[x Tame Impala]

That scene was sick as f***. So METAL

 

[DanielPlainview]

Seemed like they hired out some of the writing for the last two episodes. Holy rambling monologues

 

[beowulf]

Was this the final season or not? They bloody left in unfinished with number 1 still being out there.

 

[Osprey]

Was this the final season or not? They bloody left in unfinished with number 1 still being out there.

Season 5 will be the final season and it sounds like we have another long wait:

The Duffer Brothers have said that the Season 5 writer’s room will begin in August. Filming could then start in 2023, with a potential release in 2024 or 2025.

Stranger Things Season 5: Everything We Know So Far

 

[beowulf]

Season 5 will be the final season and it sounds like we have another long wait:

Stranger Things Season 5: Everything We Know So Far

ok cool I thought I had read that 4 was going to be the final season with talk of the actors getting too old for their ages in the show etc. Just glad they are not leaving it on an unfinished note.

 

[Jovavic]

My thinking that the kids will be seniors in high school during the final season might be true, but with the

Spoiler

town being upside down-ifed

that may be hard to explain

 

[Jussi]

ok cool I thought I had read that 4 was going to be the final season with talk of the actors getting too old for their ages in the show etc. Just glad they are not leaving it on an unfinished note.

There's a confirmed time jump to account for the cast growing up. Just curious how they set that up considering how the season ended.

 

[HanSolo]

There's a confirmed time jump to account for the cast growing up. Just curious how they set that up considering how the season ended.

I mean

Spoiler

Maybe the rifts in the ground don't do anything for a while. Like Vecna spends the time recovering and they just look like normal fissures in the earth until the right time.

 

[Jussi]

I mean

Spoiler

Maybe the rifts in the ground don't do anything for a while. Like Vecna spends the time recovering and they just look like normal fissures in the earth until the right time.

The plant life was already beginning to die.

 

[Tawnos]

Spoiler

I really hated the fake death for Max part, if that's what they're doing (which it definitely seems that way even though eleven couldn't find her when doing the walk thing or whatever its called). They're so scared to kill off one of the truly main characters, it's pretty frustrating sometimes. Would've been such a hard-hitting and impactful death and instead its clear she's gonna come back to life at some point. As soon as El touched her I rolled my eyes cause I knew what was about to happen lol. Should've just left it how it was. Killing a character and then immediately bringing them back a couple of scenes later is annoying. Maybe they'll make it to where Vecna is somehow living off of her or something idk. Just really annoying and predictable that they only kill off characters who were introduced in the same season. Maybe season 5 will be different, or maybe Max really is dead and they showed that by El being unable to find her like I mentioned earlier. Maybe El is the thing keeping her alive just barely...idk I'm not confident that they'll actually kill her off tho.

I have also seen theories that she is stuck in Vecna's mind, and that once he is dead she will return back to her body. This seems to be the most likely scenario. He claimed her soul but he didn't finish off her body, so she can return I guess once he's dead.

Besides that part I really enjoyed these 2 episodes, wayyy better than part 1 was.

Spoiler

It's not really clear to me that Max is alive more than physically. At the moment, her mind is certainly completely gone, which is why El can't find her. I'm sure it's going to lead into a storyline about Max finding her way back, but at this moment in the story I don't really think "fake death" exactly describes what happened with Max.

Volume 2 left me disappointed somehow. I don't know why.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Ok, here are a few things that come to mind that I didn't really like. I believe some of these will be addressed in S5.

- El suddenly has powers to resurrect people. Would have been better to just kill Max, I guess the Duffer brothers didn't have the courage to kill off a main character
- Instead Eddie died for nothing.
- El's and Hoppets reunion felt weird and totally unemotional. They build El's struggles after losing Hop so much and they give us this? Felt like he was gone for one Hour.
- People really believing it was an earthquake ripping Hawkings apart and red gue comming out? In the last scene, where is all the media, military, scientists, government people and civilians investigating what is really going on.
- the Mindflayer being Vecnas creation. I really hope they would have gone in another direction with this.
- El's and Mike's relationship. After Mike's talk about his feelings and heart. Those two characters seem totally disconnected. What is the purpose of Mike's character?
- many characters not getting closure (Enzo, Yuri, Owens, Murray)

Best things about volume 2 was Lucas acting performance and Eddie's Guitar Solo in Hell. Master of Puppets!

Spoiler

Regarding the El/Hopper reunion. I felt that way too, but I also think a factor in that was that you'd had emotional moment after emotional moment leading up to that. By the time it happened, I felt a little numb to all of it.

 

[HanSolo]

Spoiler

It's not really clear to me that Max is alive more than physically. At the moment, her mind is certainly completely gone, which is why El can't find her. I'm sure it's going to lead into a storyline about Max finding her way back, but at this moment in the story I don't really think "fake death" exactly describes what happened with Max.

Spoiler

Regarding the El/Hopper reunion. I felt that way too, but I also think a factor in that was that you'd had emotional moment after emotional moment leading up to that. By the time it happened, I felt a little numb to all of it.

Spoiler

I don't know guys, I rewatched the finale and it seemed like a pretty emotionally charged moment. There wasn't any swelling music or anything but both actors conveyed the relief and joy to be with each other again well. Maybe not over the top but I think it was good

 

[Super Cake]

Spoiler

I don't know guys, I rewatched the finale and it seemed like a pretty emotionally charged moment. There wasn't any swelling music or anything but both actors conveyed the relief and joy to be with each other again well. Maybe not over the top but I think it was good

Spoiler

The reunion was fine. Did some people want both El and Hopper to drop on their knees while crying and screaming each othes names as loud as possible?

 

[Tawnos]

Spoiler

I don't know guys, I rewatched the finale and it seemed like a pretty emotionally charged moment. There wasn't any swelling music or anything but both actors conveyed the relief and joy to be with each other again well. Maybe not over the top but I think it was good

Spoiler

Well, what I was saying was that it was a pretty emotionally charged moment, but by then I was no longer able to feel the full impact of it. On rewatch, it might hit a little better because the prior moments won't hit quite as hard.

 

[Jussi]

 

[I am not exposed]

I'm honestly relieved that it's over. I lost interest with each episode, became bored before the end of Part 1 and ended up having the finale on in the background while I used my computer.

It was so drawn out, especially the Russia and lab storylines, and so melodramatic, to the point that it occasionally felt like a show for young adults.

It was also too "heavy" and not much fun, IMO. What made the first season so fun was that it captured the feeling of early/mid-80s Spielberg movies (ex. E.T., The Goonies). Each season has lost some of that and I didn't feel it at all with this season.

It was also predictable. Eddie always seemed most likely to die because he was the new, older character with a redemption arc, so I wasn't surprised or sad when he went. On the other side, none of the main characters--Max, Nancy, Lucas, El, etc.--were going to die, so teasing that they might didn't have much effect, except maybe to annoy me. The writers haven't killed a young, main character yet, so there was little reason to think that they'd start now. After all, that's why they've written in new, older characters like Eddie, Billy and the jock to kill off, instead. I guess that I'd prefer that the show either commit to being dark and sacrifice the main characters from time to time or be lighter and not pretend that they might die.

One small thing that stood out to me in the finale: several Russians fired a hundred bullets at a demogorgon's head, seemingly doing no damage; then, just a few scenes later, Hopper killed a restrained demogorgon with a single pistol shot to the head.

This was easily my least favorite season. I'd say that I loved the first, liked the second and thought that the third was OK, so I've liked the series less as it's gone on. I'll watch the fifth season, since it's the last, but I can't say that I'm looking forward to it now.

I feel like when I come into TV show threads I just need see your post, because you hit the nail on the head.



The last episode was a chore to get through.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I feel like when I come into TV show threads I just need see your post, because you hit the nail on the head.



The last episode was a chore to get through.

Agreed. They episodes were too long and too dense. They really need to trim the side stories. No reason for the last 2 episodes to be 4+ hours combined of run time

It was especially jarring since I rewatched season 1 right before launching into 4. Season 1 has such a perfect pace and build