The Duffer Brothers, through Netflix, have released Stranger Things: Season 4 (Vol 1). I've watched the first seven episodes (against all odds, due to my grueling schedule) and as such, I now offer my passing reflections.
For one, I dig this season's amped-up '80s music groove. Though other decades since have produced fine tunes, the '80s was the last decade to fuel it high with continuous, catchy hits and memorable melodies. This atmospheric element proves meaningful for anyone who savors that cozy timeframe, whether or not a Lucio Fulci-lookin' creature and revengeful, Lovecraftian remnants of the Cold War were around.
Of course, for those in Hawkins, Indiana, the circumstances are again dire, if not colorful, as Season 4 demonstrates, with upside-down phenomena hitting all hyperventilating levels. This leaves Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhead); El Hopper (Mille Bobby Brown); the flashbacked Jim Hopper (David Harbour); Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer); Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton); Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo); Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke); Steve Harrington (Joe Kerry); Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink); Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin); Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder); Will Byers (Noah Schnapp); the enigmatic Sam Owens (Paul Reiser); and that erudite bastard, Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) to experience further brain-wracking, interdimensional interludes (and for a special few, a dandy D&D group called the Hellfire Club). And just for the record, Joseph Quinn joins the cast as the cool but under-suspicion heavy-metalist, Eddie Munson. Alright!
The new, underlying events cater to bullying, the fate of being different and how to cope with such (all in the courageous, Rebel Without A Cause vein), and when the spectral invasion becomes unavoidable, the Scooby-Doo-ing downtrodden investigate. This results in a return to the saga's It/Poltergeist/Aliens/The Fly annals (with The Keep, The Kindred {the '87 flick, of course}, The Elm Street movies {in particular The Dream Warriors} and House by the Cemetery then manipulating the chilling queue).
So, is this reignited rehash as engaging as what preceded it? Sure, even if yet incomplete for viewers' seamless consumption. The conclusion hits early July. (Come on, it's gonna consist of two concluding episodes. Why not drop the whole thing at once for full, melodramatic impact?) Anyway, though some might say Season 4 is all-too-familiar, the show's successful ingredients still defy the mundane. In other words, the path feels logical. (It never hurts to add a few twists to any lay of the land, but also no point in reinventing the wheel here, folks, as in the way of those decrepit, neo Star Wars movies. If something ain't broke...)
Anyway, more Stranger Things will come, and when such strikes, rest assured I'll have more to say. Stay tuned.
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