Monday, June 6, 2022

[New post] Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 (Netflix, 2022) Review

Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 (Netflix, 2022) Review

Connor Clarke

May 31

Spoiler Warning: This discussion contains some spoilers. It could be an entire gag from a comedy or in-depth conversation concerning events in the second act.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

`"I'm afraid your friends in Hawkins are very much in the eye of the storm."`

Stranger Things 4, the latest season of the show that arguably made Netlflix the content monster it is today, is a wildly thrilling and engaging time despite its bloated runtime and obvious production hurdles. I'd highly recommend watching this even without a full binge of the previous three seasons if the last few outings were your bag. If you've never watched an episode before, then now might be the time to start because the entire show is extremely well made and (excluding one or two anomalies) has been one of the most consistently entertaining shows of the last ten years.

The casting for the series is still pretty breathtaking from that first season. Six years on, and Winona Ryder is no longer the biggest name on the cast sheet. David Harbour has become a commonplace name; Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and Joe Keery are bonafide movie stars these days; Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, and Maya Hawke are all remarkably talented and fulfil these roles with intense charisma and clearly feel a profound bond with the characters. They're all superb here; the characters have grown and grown over the years into people you can understand and believe in as young people who are growing up and going through many of their first experiences together. They just also happen to be fighting interdimensional forces for the fourth time together as well.

The soundtrack is always an immense pleasure with Stranger Things, and this is no different. It's not Should I Stay or I Should I Go punk era, nor is it Time After Time prom sequence. It's another varied selection that twists from (realistically speaking here) cringe roller-rink pop in You Spin Me Round to avant-garde post-punk Talking Heads' track Psycho Killer. However, the obvious track to pick out because of its vital place in the best episode of the season, Dear Billy, is Kate Bush's Running Up that Hill. It's introduced the song to a whole new crowd of people who are going to associate it with the series forever, with good reason. I loved how the showrunners decided to use it, dropping the vocals at times just to have its punchy chorus shine through at the perfect opportunity. The whole show sounds wonderful overall, with a gorgeous score to compliment the '80s bangers and science fiction sound design that stands amongst some of the best.

The production design is as meticulous as ever, and though there is no reproduced American super-mall here, there are mounds of accurate costume design, hair, make-up, and set design to credit. There's so much attention paid to every element that it's difficult not to appreciate when you watch it. When a team pours this much love into such specific components of a show this vast, it is lovely to have that be recognised and discussed. The special effects are fine, up to standard for the modern-day successful TV show, but what is really impressive are those small details that probably took years of preparation to accumulate.

My gripes are relatively limited. As I have already said, the runtime is pretty extensive, with every episode pushing 75 minutes. It feels like they just wanted to use everything for every plotline instead of sitting back and realising that a lot of scenes either aren't necessary or could have been cut down. The flashbacks with Eleven are a prime example of where we spend way too much time doing the same thing over and over again. It's not the biggest problem in the world because much of the narrative is pretty engaging, especially after three previous seasons of establishing character dynamics and personalities. Otherwise, my only other real issue is that it's obvious where the split is in the cast. It's a gigantic ensemble, and it feels like they couldn't get everyone together at once, so they just separated them. It means you might not see your two favourite characters interact, and it's a bummer when the show used to be so intimate and focused on keeping its central team together. Who knows, maybe Volume Two will rectify that next month.

Otherwise, get on this! It's a very easy to digest show that has some familiar problems with some of its characters and some slightly repetitive plot points (particularly Upside Down wise). Nonetheless, there's some very neat cinematography to appreciate and a little bit more of an edge to the violence. It's a good summer show, for sure, and it's impressed me more than I expected it to after such a long hiatus between seasons.