• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Stranger Things | Season 4 | Part 1

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Just finished …

Idk how they did it but, they beat 1,2,3 together . 4 is the new king
I rank the season as

4
1
3
2

I might swap 3 and 1 around.

They are all good even two but it does have that sister episode.

Also rewatching 3 you can hear the Vecna clock noise so I’m guessing three and four were meant to be back to back but covid stopped it.
 
Last edited:

Kev Kev

Member
Maybe we're looking at it with contemporary eyes? 80's were a different time, where it was way way way harder to come out.
robin didnt have a problem telling steve, who she still wasnt even that close to at the time. so its odd that will has taken so long.
 



Stick Around Bob Ross GIF by Originals
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
robin didnt have a problem telling steve, who she still wasnt even that close to at the time. so its odd that will has taken so long.
It’s harder for boys to come out than girls. And Robin is significantly older than Will. Telling a new friend is also easier in a lot of ways, since you don’t have the baggage of a long-standing relationship that could unravel in an instant if things don’t go well.
 

Tieno

Member
It’s harder for boys to come out than girls. And Robin is significantly older than Will. Telling a new friend is also easier in a lot of ways, since you don’t have the baggage of a long-standing relationship that could unravel in an instant if things don’t go well.
Yeah, and the friend-relationship is different, and Will also way different personality wise.
 
Last edited:

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
dude it was so much. there were so many awesome scenes. the master of puppets part was so fucking good. it really was the most metal shit ever lol. just 10/10 on the whole season. not to say its perfect, but if i had to give a tv show a 10 this season deserves to be there.

Exactly... And not a spoiler, but when Eddie was shredding on the roof in the Upside Down, that WAS the most metal thing on TV!
 

EverydayBeast

ChatGPT 0.1
Stranger things brings a lot of horror I appreciate the different age group of characters went Vecna went down everyone was jumping, all the different special effects they made the finale even better I can’t wait already for the season 5 trailer to debut. Pat yourself on the back if you’re Millie Brown.
 

GloveSlap

Member
I liked the las 2 episodes, but

Nancy and Steve's use of weapons against Vecna at the end was pretty frustrating. First they start with molotovs (that probably wouldn't even break against a body) against a psychic that could wake up and crush you and then Nancy take forever to shoot (and from too far away). Nancy was literally in a conversation earlier about how shotguns have shitty range. Just walk up to Vecna while he's still asleep, put the sawed-off up to his head and pull the trigger

Still great episodes. Eddie was a great addition from minute one.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Exactly... And not a spoiler, but when Eddie was shredding on the roof in the Upside Down, that WAS the most metal thing on TV!
not gonna lie, that made me grin from Ear to Ear and fuck man METAL AF!!!

Stranger Things Devil GIF by hamlet


since day one not one of the child cast have been rubbish or flat/wooden with their deliveries , exceptional actors and actresses. even upstaging some of the more veteran cast.
 
Last edited:

daveonezero

Banned
I liked the las 2 episodes, but

Nancy and Steve's use of weapons against Vecna at the end was pretty frustrating. First they start with molotovs (that probably wouldn't even break against a body) against a psychic that could wake up and crush you and then Nancy take forever to shoot (and from too far away). Nancy was literally in a conversation earlier about how shotguns have shitty range. Just walk up to Vecna while he's still asleep, put the sawed-off up to his head and pull the trigger

Still great episodes. Eddie was a great addition from minute one.
Everything you said and in the show about shotguns was wrong so don’t believe it. Buck shit doesn’t spread much until 50 yards or so.

Also the monsters are bullet proof. The fire is needed to weaken them.
 

March Climber

Gold Member
Beautiful pictures, but empty inside.
I was trying to figure out what I was experiencing after watching this season finale and this pretty much summed it up. The Last Jedi gave me a similar but worse feeling when I left the theater. At least Stranger things had consistent writing in comparison.

I think part of my issue with this season is that it fully absolved Eleven from everything and made her a completely innocent hero, instead of making her a character who actually killed those people yet had to live with that tortured past being a part of her life. On the other hand, I understand why they decided to inject a villain with slightly more presence and lines, rather than having yet another screeching creature stalking about and killing people. Also the show still doesn't know what to actually do with Will, making him even more of a background character this season.
 
Last edited:

jufonuk

not tag worthy
I was trying to figure out what I was experiencing after watching this season finale and this pretty much summed it up. The Last Jedi gave me a similar but worse feeling when I left the theater. At least Stranger things had consistent writing in comparison.

I think part of my issue with this season is that it fully absolved Eleven from everything and made her a completely innocent hero, instead of making her a character who actually killed those people yet had to live with that tortured past being a part of her life. On the other hand, I understand why they decided to inject a villain with slightly more presence and lines, rather than having yet another screeching creature stalking about and killing people. Also the show still doesn't know what to actually do with Will, making him even more of a background character this season.
He has felt like that since season one. The other characters have all grown and he sort of hasn’t.
 

balls of snow

Gold Member
This show is killing it and hope netflix dont go down before the last season comes.
Best part is seeing the world building they did for 4 seasons come together at the end. We know from season 2 fire hurts the monsters as well as being a hive mind. We also know El can travel into peoples memories as per season 1 and 3.

So Hop and Joyce stroyline was to weaken Vecna since part of mind flayer is in Russia, Eleven was to hold Vecna inside Max's mind so that Steve and Nancy crew get to finish of his body with fire and shotgun shells. At the same time you had the Max in the real world getting ripped apart and Dustin/ Eddie running distraction.
 
I liked the las 2 episodes, but

Nancy and Steve's use of weapons against Vecna at the end was pretty frustrating. First they start with molotovs (that probably wouldn't even break against a body) against a psychic that could wake up and crush you and then Nancy take forever to shoot (and from too far away). Nancy was literally in a conversation earlier about how shotguns have shitty range. Just walk up to Vecna while he's still asleep, put the sawed-off up to his head and pull the trigger

Still great episodes. Eddie was a great addition from minute one.
What are you talking about, she was already at a very close range. Fire has already been shown to be the most effective weapon against the up-down creatures so thier plan made sense according to the rules of the universe.
 

RaduN

Member
Really underwhelmed about season 4 part 1 and 2.
Way too long for no reason, waay too many crappy teenage oriented one-liners and Marvel-style little jokes, and worst of all, power of friendship (yeah, that power...) solves every single problem.
Overall it was painfully predictable and overacted. Typecasting galore.
The direction was not good either, with again, way too much wanna-be emotional/nostalgic flashbacks, that lose their intended effect pretty quickly and become eye rolling moments.

There is some good stuff here and there. The villain has a couple of good lines in the last episode. Max and Crissy's boyfriend are some of the highlights as well.

Watchable, but not memorable.
 

John Bilbo

Member
I think part of my issue with this season is that it fully absolved Eleven from everything and made her a completely innocent hero, instead of making her a character who actually killed those people yet had to live with that tortured past being a part of her life. On the other hand, I understand why they decided to inject a villain with slightly more presence and lines, rather than having yet another screeching creature stalking about and killing people. Also the show still doesn't know what to actually do with Will, making him even more of a background character this season.
I thought the same thing. This retconning made her a lot more boring of a character.
 
Finished watching the 6th episode and overall I'm pretty underwhelmed.

In terms of overall production values, it's very impressive, but wipe away the great editing, cinematography and soundtrack and it's just ok. The biggest issue I have with it is how drawn out and bloated everything is. The entire Russia story line could be cut in half and still have the same impact,if not, more. I feel like Eleven's character development has gone backwards, it's almost like the second half of season 1 and the entirety of seasons 2 and 3 never happened. Speaking of El, her character has become so one note that I'm not interested in her much at all anymore. El is like Samus where she loses everything at the start of every season, but she isn't nearly as cool as Samus.

The entire Mike/Will/Stoner dude road trip story line has been mostly a meandering waste of time - it doesn't help that Mike, Will, Stoner Guy, and Will's brother are all incredibly uninteresting, definitely the b-team of the cast. When they get to Utah to find out Dustin's girlfriend got her computer taken away my eyes rolled so hard they made an audible noise. Almost all plot points feel like they have at least 1 or 2 extra stops that don't really add much other than minutes to the run time.

By far, the Eddy side of the story is the best, it's not even close. That portion of the show has kept me interested despite the other parts of being chock full of fat that should've been trimmed. I've watched about 7.5 hours that feels like it should've been closer to 6 hours.

If I were to rate the season as of now I would give it a 6.5/10 but I keep hearing that the last few episodes wrap things up well. Here's hoping to a strong end.
 

Melon Husk

Member
Unsatisfying ending. It didn't feel like a complete season. Very little character development.

Episode 8 was a traffic jam of character scenes they had to get out of the way. I laughed at how they kept returning to old locations.

Part 2 dropped my rating of this season by a notch. The music video segments were well made but the character stuff, no.

I'm not sure if Part 2 was delayed because of special effects or because they tried to make the story work. Were parts of the epilogue reshoots?

Part 1 had just too much of everything. Five timelines in total: Three groups plus two flashback time periods. It still worked because of editing.

All those scenes where there's 5 minutes of dialogue, characters are about to kiss and then someone interrupts and says "Stuff is happening!" and then that plot thread just ends there and nothing is resolved got me scratching my head.
 

sol_bad

Member
Apparently this season cost 30 million per episode but there were still certain CGI elements that looked like shit.

Story spoiler I guess.
Like Millie Bobbie Browns head looks poorly photoshopped on the kids body in certain scenes. And aldo the floating bodies with bones breaking, looked bad.
 

bitbydeath

Member
Some issues I had with the season:

-They never resolved the bullying situation, where 11 drove a skate into that girls head.

-I hated that they didn’t try get the jocks on side at all by explaining what was going on, they could have really helped in the final fight scene or at least been Vecna fodder.

-Dustin’s girlfriend scene was awful, that whole segment shouldn’t have survived the editing room

-Russia, or more specifically how Hopper became a superhero that heals like Wolverine when taking a massive hammer to the leg. He walked that injury off a bit too well.

-Will, I don’t even get what’s going on there, he should have died in season 2.

-Eddie dying, it just sucks and there was no reason for him to face a hundred+ bats head on. They could’ve killed so many others in his place, Nancy, Max, Will, Jonathan, Robin, hippie pizza guy, could even kill them all.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
I thought the same thing. This retconning made her a lot more boring of a character.
But she has done the deed despite the retcon. The end of season 1 for example, nearly in 2 until she had a change of heart
 
Last edited:

FunkMiller

Gold Member
There’s a couple of things I felt didn’t work:

The bully subplot. They spent way too long building up Jason as a really threatening Henry Bowers from IT like character - and all he really does is smash Max’s Walkman. A pointless character that could have easily been cut.

They cop out with Max. I was delighted when it looked like they’d killed her, and the last minute Hail Mary from 11 really weakens all the work Sadie Sink put in. It also weakens motivation for season 5. They should have had the guts to kill her, and stuck that landing.

Killing Eddie, and not another one of the returning cast, was also a mistake. TV shows these days seem determined to be the opposite of the trend GoT and Walking Dead started with killing off main characters in shocking moments - but they’ve gone waaaay too far in the other direction now. Undercuts the drama and threat level, leaving the audience a bit deflated.

Also, I would have shifted the whole season two years on into 1988… partly so the kids look more their own age, and partly because they could have used One by Metallica instead of Master Of Puppets, and that scene would have been even more metal than it was 😊
 
Last edited:

ManaByte

Banned
Also, I would have shifted the whole season two years on into 1988… partly so the kids look more their own age, and partly because they could have used One by Metallica instead of Master Of Puppets, and that scene would have been even more metal than it was

Master of Puppets came out in the beginning of March of 1986. The season is set like 2 weeks later. So with his D&D campaign, drug dealing, and "school", Eddie was able to play Master of Puppets perfectly after only having the album for a couple of weeks.
 
Last edited:

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Master of Puppets came out in the beginning of March of 1986. The season is set like 2 weeks later. So with his D&D campaign, drug dealing, and "school", Eddie was able to play Master of Puppets perfectly after only having the album for a couple of weeks.

Man, that’s hilarious. Eddie the fucking prodigy 🤣
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Oh gawd the bullies / lynchers subplot, that went nowhere.
Thought they were going to try and parallel the police today and senseless gun violence. But they never.

Also as hinted at before some things they should have done and not done.

Tbh they expected
eddie to die, he was a great character. He went out like a mother ducking. Champ, i Hope somehow how Eddie died and how he died becomes known throughout hawkins. As the upside down is going to be a thing next season
but they shouldn’t have. But having the other death would have just been so impactful. Like this person could have been someone the group rally over. Bringing them closer or fracturing the group.
Setting up an let’s avenge their death type angle.

Also after
El bought the chopper down the previous episode I was hyped for insanity for the final fight. Which never materialised, the final fight was rather sedate in comparison nothing too different from other fights. Yeah the whole everything going to shit for the group at the end was great but to pull off the last minute power of friend ship vecna makes a mistake type thing was not the insanity
 
Last edited:
Two major issues:
1. Drums heard throughout guitar solo scene.
2. Nancy can't hit a still target from 1.5 meters away with a shotgun in the head or center mass.

Two minor issues:
1. Eddie dying is not heroic, but in fact stupid.
2. Lucas decided to brawl with an older, bigger, and more athletic opponent armed with a gun instead of stalling and breaking Max out of the spell as intended.

My issue:
This was advertised as the second part of season 4, but everything was rushed, condensed to 3 hours, and it all ended on a cliffhanger.
 
Last edited:

bitbydeath

Member
Season 5 is aiming to be shorter than season 4. It’ll take place entirely in Hawkins this time, also the Duffers likely won’t be involved with the spin-off.
“We thought Season 4 was going to be eight [episodes], and they were going to be regular length. So if you had interviewed us before four, that’s what I would’ve said. I think we’re aiming for eight again. We don’t want it to be 13 hours. We’re aiming for more like 10 hours or something. I think it’s going to be longer than Season 1 because we just have so much to wrap up, but I don’t think it’s going to be as long as Season 4.”
https://www.darkhorizons.com/final-stranger-things-season-to-be-shorter/
 

mortal

Banned
I honestly don't know how they can top this season tbh. The season finale was an emotional episode.

Eddie's sacrifice :messenger_crying:

Damn, when will my boy Steve Harrington finally catch a W?
 

Mossybrew

Gold Member
Really enjoyed this season, but one big flaw, I mean I love Hopper but his whole storyline was just a drag and contributed to these long runtimes, they should have just let him die last season.
 

sol_bad

Member
Did they explain at all why Vecna needed to kill 4 people and how killing those 4 people would open the gateway?
 
Top Bottom