"Stranger Things 4" reinvigorated the Upside Down

How the Duffer Brothers leaned into everything I hate about modern TV and still managed to make their fourth season a winner.

By: Josh McCormack

When looking over what would be considered the totemic pop culture artifacts of the current generation, Netflix’s “Stranger Things” — for better or worse — has proven to be one of the most substantial.

Over the past nine years, this sci-fi/horror ’80s throwback has been at the center of countless conversations and studies of what’s right or wrong about the past decade of film and television.

The culture’s endless obsession with ’80s iconography, fan culture in the age of social media, and the thorniness of young celebrity are all topics of discussion that “Stranger Things” has invited over the past decade of its existence. While the show has clearly developed a strong fan base that’s almost unmatched in modern television, these polarizing topics have also helped make “Stranger Things” the target of many cultural critics.

It’s not completely unwarranted, as “Stranger Things” is a show that doesn’t often hold up to scrutiny. In fact, while I’ve been watching the series since it began airing, it’s a show I’m often reluctant to call myself a “fan” of.

“Stranger Things” has perpetuated so many of the issues I have with modern prestige television: dragging out what should be a two-hour narrative into a full season of TV, endless references to other media objects that are rarely cute and mostly feel pandering, and a somewhat styleless sense of direction from the various filmmakers who step up to bring the Duffer brothers’ orgy of nostalgia to life.

Whenever a new season of “Stranger Things” begins to loom — as the fifth and final season is looming at the time of this writing — I tend to carry the negative baggage I often associate with the show. I know I’ll watch it, but I’m not actively anticipating it like others might be.

As we got closer, however, my wife and I decided that instead of being sticks in the mud about it, we should try to give the last season — the supersized season four from 2022 — a rewatch to see if there was any chance we could get back on the hype train.

Within a few episodes, I was reminded how much I dug the fourth season of “Stranger Things,” a season that leaned heavier into everything I feel is wrong with modern television and yet somehow managed to not only leave me charmed, but reinvigorate the entire series.

The first season of “Stranger Things,” in my opinion, is still the peak of the show. Bolstered by its initial lack of cultural awareness and the enthralling plot of a child being abducted by a then-unknown supernatural force, the action was kept to a minimum and the story felt grounded. Its ’80s references are a bit more tastefully handled, and there’s less emphasis on world-ending stakes and more emphasis on the charming characters.

In retrospect, season two was a somewhat pointless slog that retreaded way too much of the same territory as the first season. Season three — while improving on its predecessor — was too enamored with its uninspired goofiness and Saturday morning cartoon antics. It didn’t help that season three also pushed the levels of winking ’80s nods and references to an almost unbearable degree.

Season four still suffers from some of these issues — mainly the very on-the-nose references to the films of the ’80s (seriously, what teenager was talking this lovingly about Judge Reinhold in 1986?!) — but it establishes a new threat to our characters and allows for exciting moments in nearly every episode, which is rare among other shows of the same ilk.

That’s not to say season four doesn’t have the narrative wheel-spinning that has so often plagued the streaming era. At a whopping 13 hours, thanks to several feature-length episodes, the season was longer than any one season of “Game of Thrones”!

To be clear, I don’t think this is a good thing, as the show once again takes a plot that could make for a good two-hour action movie and stretches it to points of absurdity. If a show like “Obi-Wan Kenobi” felt like it was dragging its feet at five hours, it’s pretty amazing to see the lengths the Duffer brothers go to fill the runtime of a show that's nearly three times that length.

What’s fascinating about this season of “Stranger Things,” however, is experiencing the runtime if you choose to binge-watch it as my wife and I did in our recent rewatch. With nine episodes, it can often be hard to distinguish where one episode ends and the next begins. In fact, multiple times during our rewatch the screen would cut to black, prompting my wife and me to think an episode was finished, only for it to be revealed that we were only just now getting to the opening credits.

While I truly hope other showrunners don’t use the Duffers’ supersized runtimes as the template to make prestige TV, I must admit that experiencing the fourth season at this leisurely pace does almost put a weird kind of trance on the viewer.

Knowing what you’re in for, the fourth season of “Stranger Things” plays like a kid-friendly Stephen King novel. Does it need to be as long as it is? Absolutely not. The show does spin its wheels quite often, but I’m rarely ever bored since the Duffers sprinkle some of the show’s best moments throughout the whole season.

Tired of Eleven getting bullied in high school? Don’t worry — Eddie Munson is about to see the high school prom queen get mauled by an interdimensional demon.

Not feeling Joyce and Murray’s endless search for Hopper in Russia? Not a problem. Eleven’s about to go ballistic and telepathically yank a helicopter straight out of the sky.

Feeling a little sleepy whenever Lucas is trying to throw the jocks off his friends’ trail? Don’t sweat it. Here’s an action sequence set to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.”

The fourth season’s length also allows for each of the main characters to get fully developed arcs. Not all of them are perfect (I’m practically begging for Mike to get anything even remotely interesting to do after season one), but no one is forgotten as they have been in past seasons.

Three years after its release, it’s also hard to ignore the cultural impact season four had. From the first episode, which features the iconic “Chrissy, wake up!” quote that would haunt TikTok for months afterward, to the unforgettable use of “Running Up That Hill,” which introduced a whole new generation to Kate Bush, it’s rare that a show in its fourth season can bring in elements that feel so synonymous with its world.

Aside from the moments immortalized by internet memes, the real secret weapon of season four is the fact that we finally got a villain to root against.

Vecna might not be the most unique villain we’ve ever seen, but his presence — along with a backstory intrinsically tied to our main hero, Eleven — has at least given the show a much-needed adversary, and I’m glad to see that he’s going to be sticking around for the show’s final season.

“Stranger Things” might not deserve a spot among the best TV shows of all time, but its popularity isn’t as unwarranted as some might believe. This recent rewatch of the fourth season reminded me that despite the reliance on some negative tropes, there’s a developed sense of maturity in the storytelling.

The upcoming final season of “Stranger Things” not only represents the end of this near-decade-long phenomenon, but also an opportunity for the Duffer brothers and their creative team to show that they can build on what succeeded in the last season and deliver a truly satisfying finale. One that builds upon the likable characters they’ve created and doesn’t merely rely on cute one-liners and overt references to film and TV of the past.

Let’s hope they don’t screw it up.