 Mmm, running up that hill. Back to almost the precipice this show used to be. Ooh, that's a hot mug, guys! I'm 11 now, bitch! Hey guys, this is my review for Stranger Things Season 4. Now, I wanted to do a review during the break, but I wanted to see how the last two episodes would play out. And I'm happy I did because it was a really, really good finale. And to be honest, I haven't felt this excited about this show since the first season. For those of you who didn't see my first review, I praised it. It was a perfect amalgamation of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg put together. Great horror vibes, great sci-fi mystery vibes. Not too deep or too whimsical, just very basic, but very easy to understand and very interesting and entertaining to follow. Storylines with kids, psychic powers, monsters, and 80s lore. Season 2 kind of was a retread of it, and then Season 3 just jumped into the campy commercialization that was the 80s and early 90s. And while it was cool to shoot the Season 3 review with Uruguana near me and one of the ancient temples in the Mayan Riviera, I did feel that the third season had almost kind of killed the excitement for the show for me. I didn't feel that there was really that much in terms of actual threat to the characters and I felt that the story just wasn't going anywhere. We just had the same reiteration. And while maybe in very brass tacks you can say the same thing happens with Season 4, there are a lot of changes and there's a lot of good improvements that help the quality of life with this show and the first being Vecna. Having a face, having an actual character in terms of a villainous threat to the characters who can speak, God forbid, is actually something that this show is desperately needed. While the Demogorgon in the first season was a lone character, a lone entity in this world that we are trying to figure out and understand, this time around we know what the upside down is. We know everything about it. We know the Mind Flare, which to be honest, I don't really even find him that menacing anymore after the second season. So to have this guy who's able to breach the wall, breach into reality, grab people, force their horrible guilt nightmares and use it against them to help himself create these wormholes from the upside down into the real world was so entertaining and so nerve-wracking that during that scene where Max is caught in his grasp and pretty much everyone else has been talking about it with Kate Bush and running up that hill, that scene as itself is now tied with my favorite scene of the entire series. The scene I'm referring to is when Hop and Joyce find Will in the upside down at the end of the first season and Hop is trying his best. He's trying everything he can to bring Will back to life all the while reliving the horrible nightmare memories of his daughter dying from cancer. And that was so well done. So to put that on the same level of emotional hit was so good. And even in the final climax of the finale for season four, again, I was on my feet with emotion, with rage, with come on, with hope, and everything that this show has reminded me that it had. And a lot of that has to do with two things. One, focusing entirely on the characters and the main characters. There's not a lot of supporting characters in this show. Sure, you have Pete's a guy, but really the parents are kind of out of the story. There's no teachers to talk about. The cops are barely even characters. Unlike the first season where everyone kind of got a little bit of a character arc, this is purely on the kids, both the younger and the older ones. Eleven struggling with her purpose without having any powers and then also dealing with evil bitches from high school. The kids trying to figure out how to take down Vecna without Eleven's help and Will and Mike having this dynamic between the two of them that their friendship is kind of in threat, but also kind of in a dark space for them. And Will too will get some development. God forbid this poor kid with this poorly awful haircut. I don't know how they're going to keep it. They can't keep it anymore. It's just it's awful. No wonder he's so sad. That haircut's just off. If there's one character though who got completely gypped and I'm a little bit upset that he did is Jonathan. Jonathan got nothing in this season. He is replaced by Eddie. And don't get me wrong, Eddie's a great character. Eddie's fantastic. He's another one of those characters that Stranger Things can just introduce and make him as beloved as the main cast in a single season. He doesn't even end every episode. He's in the first episode, kind of the second one and then more of the latter ones. But he is so iconic and so many people have been talking about him. It once again shows that the Duffer Brothers can create characters that are genuine, lovable, entertaining and memeable. But probably one of the best parts about this season in my opinion is the stakes. The stakes are real this time. There's a finale ending that's not the same as what we're used to and leading into season five. I have only questions and curiosity and hope that this season will be fantastic. It could be the best season of the show. It could be. That is the very big catch, the very big risk with how they're going into season five. With everything that they established in season four, there's a lot more new mysteries to kind of figure out. Is Vecna actually really the one in control? Is the Mind Flayer just an associate of his? Or does the Mind Flayer control him? Are they working coinciding with each other? It's something that still needs to be developed, something that kind of still needs to be explored. But speaking of exploring, how the fuck is Papa back? Maybe to say it doesn't make sense is a little bit harsh, but truly they do not explain how this character came back. They don't. You really thought this character was dead, but they're somehow back. And it still confuses me because of how that character's arc comes to a close at the end of the season. It's a little bit strange to me, but this show is called Stranger Things. Maybe they're just debuting in the... Ooh, they miraculously survived offscreen. And if there was any other complaints I could have about this season is that it is a bit long. Sure, I enjoyed every episode. I enjoyed all of the elements. The fact that every episode was over an hour in the finale was two and a half hours long. It was really fun to watch. I do feel that they could cut it down a little bit. They could be a little bit more stricter in the editing department with cutting down the story, keeping things a lot more concise. But at the same time, the editing once again is just flawless in terms of the transition. The sound design alone with using a lot of kind of Shaun of the Dead hot fuzz kind of changes, as well as natural sounds to indicate kind of changes and cuts in the show. Superbly well done. Editing team gets A plus in that. Not so much on the pacing, but definitely an A plus for everything else. So in the end, I am going to give Stranger Things season four, A five out of seven. This is a good return to form for the show. While it was a little bit long and there was some storylines like kind of hoppers that really were grasping at trying to mean something to the show when you're just like, God damn it, just take me back to the kids. I'm hoping that in season five, everything will make sense. Everything will actually truly matter instead of some one little element trying to matter. So that's my hope. Then anyways, guys, let me know what you thought about Stranger Things season four in the comments below. If you liked the video, leave a like and if you're interested in more, subscribe. Otherwise, see you guys next time.