Netflix’s Stranger Things Season 4: TV Review

At any time Rocky The franchise began, Rocky Balboa was an unlucky, mischievous and headstrong Paluka, an outsider who largely had a lucky break. Author Rock IVHe is a millionaire with a body carved from marble, and the only way to be subdued is to fight a powerful monster in Russia. Only symbolic victories are not enough. He must end global communism.

I love it Rock IVBut her arousing arousal has almost nothing to do with her alluring charm. Rocky.

The only reason I wouldn’t say it Weird stuff Reached Rock IV The stage of his artistic evolution is that of the theatrical debut Rock IV It is 91 minutes long, or seven minutes of the last seven episodes that premiered in the first “half” of the show’s final season.

Yes, you read that right. mid season finale Weird stuff It’s 98 minutes, while five of the remaining six episodes exceed 70. If the fourth season Weird stuff Not at least partially inspired Rock IVIt might be the only major ’80s movie that didn’t impact the Duffer brothers in an ever-expanding hobby that no longer seems to fit within the confines of traditional television. Otherwise, no one at Netflix has the authority or willingness to enforce those limits.

Two more episodes of never-before-seen features, the fourth season, will be released in July. Weird stuff It’s the biggest, the scariest, the most ambitious Weird stuff Season hours. It’s also the least fascinating, least funny, and least inventive season, which doesn’t mean these elements are entirely absent, just that the effort to focus on moments of human interdependence is often overwhelmed by attempts at scale.

The so-called Starkort. Six months have passed since the fight.

In Hopper’s Dead Faith (David Harbor), Joyce (Winona Ryder) left the Spielbergian California suburbs of Indiana with Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Eleven fighting for life without their strength is missing Mike (Finn Wolfhardt). Jonathan misses Nancy (Natalia Dyer), but she may not live up to his expectations of them meeting at college.

Returning to Hawkins, Mike and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) have found a bold niche in the D&D club, led by newcomer Eddie Manson (Joseph Quinn). Lucas (Keleb McLaughlin) has widened his social circle by warming up on a basketball bench, and Max (Sadie Sink) thinks broadly. Nancy works hard for the school newspaper, and Steve (Joe Curry) and Robin (Maya Hawke) switch jobs at their malls for a video store, giving the Duffy Brothers far more options for movie references.

So people start dying in the most serious circumstances: this is the most violent and often brutal way. Weird stuff Season until today, and everything is backwards.

Meanwhile, Hopper isn’t as dead as Joyce thinks. In fact, he is very much alive and fighting in the Soviet Gulag.

That’s a lot, and that’s before you start making most of the new additions to the season, including Eduardo Franco as a smoker asshole named Argil, Grace Van Dien as a pretty nervous fan Chris, Game of thrones Veteran Tom Vlashiha as a Russian prison guard and Jamie Campbell Bauer as a “friendly warden”.

When it premiered and the episodes were mostly 40-50 minutes, Weird stuff It was almost a “small” show. The action took place in Little Hawkins, a community that would simply boast access to a government research facility and a parallel dimension. The second and third seasons we went through, that’s what I was complaining about. Hawkins again? Standing again? Another demogorgon? And even the small expanses still felt self-conscious and showed a peculiar lack of deep mythological interest in the righteous and their hideous inhabitants.

So thanks to Season 4, which really gives us more details on what was going on with Eleven and her various doctors – Paul Reiser and Matthew Modain returning with different opportunities – and a much more complete geographic and zoological study of the Upside Down. There are creatures we’ve never seen, with more tentacles, sharp teeth and leathery wings. After the first season left all the special about the special effects at the bare minimum cost, there is no doubt that Netflix has just opened a basement of special effects bank for directors – Duffers, Shawn Levy and Nimrod Antal – and said : “Do what you have to do”. do. Do. “The results are stunning and frightening and often confusing, as the creative solution that allows the show to generate seething tension without needing to show everything is no longer evidence.

There are many places, many dimensions, and many dates, and the characters are divided into different permutations. The writers know that certain couples (Dustin and Steve, Robin and Steve, Steve and anyone really) are good for comedy and other couples are good for romance and insecurity, even though there’s very little time left for it, which is ridiculous because Oh my God, these episodes are long. But it’s not about all extended films, no matter what others think, because the A-story/B-story/C-story/D-story structure is based entirely on television.

The stories are not all of the same interest and do not move at the same pace. However, often the edit seems like someone believes so, and depending on the episode, different stories are delayed. The team in California, where Mike flies with his girlfriend over spring break, is the most visible, with Hopper’s sudden icy progress in Russia in second place. I could remove Russian scenes from each episode and combine them into a standalone Russian clock and things would improve. Clearly, this must have been a 13-episode season that was inexplicably split into nine episodes, regardless of the best flow for this story.

Another problem is children. All have grown more than the dates of history, and it can be said that sexual maturation, with monsters erect, is the great evil of the time. But that’s not to say that young actors have aged terribly or that they’ve shrunk as actors over time. Problem is, the writers haven’t discovered any new strengths for them, so they do pretty much the same thing, whether it’s Brown’s almost alien intensity, the train’s dependable comedic timing, or McLaughlin’s engaging fervor. Sink, the season two supplement, has emerged as perhaps the best actress of this generation of actors, and she’s doing more emotional weightlifting this season, aided by Kate Bush’s music.

Nothing with young children is as revealing as Kerry in season two, when the writers realized he was funny or that Dyer was stable. There’s a joy that bounces off the screen whenever the writers find a way to expand Robin as a character and it’s unclear when that happened, but Hawke easily became my favorite part of the show when he could have been a supporting character.

Adults are also taking on new dimensions, whether it’s the current imaginary incarnation of Hopper’s Harbor or Brett Gelman, whose Murray Bauman makes the big leap from repetitive entertainment to regular acting. You have to ignore the fact that Quinn, Franco and increasingly Heaton are closer to the actor’s Rider/Harbour segment than they are to the Hawkins sons.

A three-year absence saves a lot Weird stuffFamiliar Nostalgic Moves: Include Direct Moves This Season War games, modified states s an endless story – To look old-fashioned and respect some development efforts. That’s not to say I don’t miss the innocence and warmth, or that I’m not sure there are seven fantastic 50-minute episodes on TV here, and it can be a little tiring to watch 70-minute-plus episodes. To find them. This is no longer a stranger.