Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers from “Stranger Things” season four, volume two.
“Stranger Things”season four finally wrapped up on Friday, July 1, with two feature-film-length chapters, following May’s drop of seven already overlong episodes.
Was it too much? Too many plotlines, too many locations (California, Nevada and Siberia, along with its traditional, demon-plagued setting Hawkins, Ind.), too many plucky kids returning to fight monsters in the Upside Down?
Probably too much ’80s nostalgia.
Somehow, though, you didn’t need to be a Gen Xer to get captivated by it all. Matt and Ross Duffer, the twin creators of Netflix’s biggest series, have become master craftsmen who blend pacing, character, horror and humor into the ultimate binge cocktail, served up with indelible visuals, awesome sonics and editing so precise it feels instinctual.
There’s something extra that makes the show’s fourth chapter so watchable, beyond all the repetitious Reagan Era mayhem; despite the feathery hairdos, heavy metal outfits and Kate Bush’s 1985 “Running Up That Hill” playing over and over again: This season feels a lot like 2022.
Probably more than the Duffer Brothers intended when they conceived it years ago. Since then the Russians, who were such reliable movie villains during the Cold War, are in the news again thanks to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. A vigilante mob that forms in response to the paranormal murders of Hawkins students not only evokes the “satanic” child care panic of the ’80s but also acts as reasonably as the Jan. 6 insurrection mob Congress has just been investigating on TV. When Natalia Dyer’s Nancy, Joe Kerry’s Steve, Maya Hawke’s Robin, Sadie Sink’s Max and friends load up at the War Zone, a firearms store packed with scared and scary shoppers, our unsolved concerns about gun violence fill the atmosphere.
And the gay kids feel less acknowledged than ever. “Like a mistake,” Will (Noah Schnapp) puts it.
Perhaps season four’s most unexpectedly resonant character is Matthew Modine’s Martin Brenner, the mad doctor whose experiments on children created the series’ star superhero Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and this season’s uber-villain, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). Brenner entices Eleven to his new lab in the Nevada desert, promising to help her regain the powers she lost last season. Once there, he won’t let her act on her own decision to leave.
Is it because we’re freaked out by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, or does Brenner — who insists his young charges call him Papa — represent overreaching patriarchy? His “I’ve only ever wanted to protect you” sounds as hypocritical as antiabortion conservatives’ “We’ll adopt your baby” stance does now.
The irony is compelling, then, when Brenner’s final act is to set El free. It seems like an uncharacteristic fail, though, that “Stranger Things” ace music supervisors didn’t needle-drop John Mellencamp singing “Pink Houses,” with its refrain of “Ain’t that America,” over the sequence.
Captivity vs. freedom is the show’s core tension, which plays out physically, metaphysically and psychologically. The series began with El’s escape from Brenner’s Hawkins lab and Will’s abduction to the Upside Down. This latest run juxtaposes efforts to escape deadly confinements, such as the Vecna-haunted Murder House and the Demogorgon-infested Soviet gulag Will’s mom, Joyce (Winona Ryder), strives to spring the cop Hopper (David Harbour) from. Many other traps are presented in montages that make imprisonment appear ubiquitous.
Yet “Stranger Things” delivers a lot of enjoyment too, or it wouldn’t be the popular success it is. Not every monster in the show is metaphorical, and sometimes a game of Dungeons & Dragons is just a pastime for geeks. Born in 1984, the Duffer Brothers have an uncanny grasp of what was happening during their toddlerhood and can locate the charm in pop cheesiness. This makes for era-specific comic relief that’s also timeless.
Who can’t relate as the kids argue about what song would be best to save a possessed friend’s life, while the camera swirls amid the chaos of differing tastes and existential emergency? Then there’s the landmark historical decision about whether to try pineapple on pizza, a debate still raging today.
The show uses escapism to examine our longing to break free. At a time when many Americans feel restricted like never before, this strikes deeper than another shout-out to “The Goonies” or Robert Englund fan servicing. Like any good pop mythology, “Stranger Things” reflects contemporary anxieties and culture.
Perhaps the show’s most chilling achievement is showing how that culture can quickly regress or — considering episode nine’s setup for the show’s fifth and final season — how it’s doomed to repeat more of the same.
“Stranger Things”(TV-14) is available to stream onNetflix.