Stranger Things 4 | if you haven't yet watched the new season...

_{Half of the ensemble cast in Season 4 of Stranger Things series. Source}

A song can save you. The new Stranger Things season has conferred that kind of power to Kate Bush. If you’re 80’s teen, you’d likely now be able to guess, which song is a life saver in this multiple award winning show this year, returning to some most popular song lists almost 40 years after being a hit single. If you’re not an 80’s teen, but are reading this after watching any of the previous seasons, you’d likely want to know what Stranger Things look like these days, and where they are plot-wise; and if you can find out something new about the world your mom and dad grew up in.

Worry thou not, dear reader, who is the source of my joy and the apple of my eye; I’m happy to tell you that The Duffer twins don’t disappoint their fans this time either. In fact, out of all the ST seasons this one looks as the darkest one yet; it has dived deeper into horror genre while the main cast of young people are now high school students.

_{Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp in Stranger Things Season 4. Source}

One thing that leaves an unsuspecting viewer startled towards the end of the Volume 1 of Season 4 of Stranger Things are the actors that aren’t part of the usual ensemble cast of kids. Depending on which season you’ve watched, or not watched, you’d likely remember Wynona Rider, Matthew Modine, Brett Gelman and David Harbour. Season 4 sees Paul Reiser (Burke from Aliens) returning. And then there is also Robert Englund – the iconic Freddy Krueger of 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, who’s making appearance in this, and is likely to get more screen time in the upcoming Volume 2 of ST4, due for release in July. His role is tied to that of Kevin L. Johnson’s (Ozark series’ Sam) character here.
Tom Wlaschiha (remember the guy who introduced Arya Stark to the concept of “No one” in Game of Thrones?), an actor originally from the East Germany of Cold War era, is a Russian speaking guard Dimitri at Soviet secret prison, and makes appearance in 8 episodes of this season. If right now you think this is getting interesting then I can definitely relate to that sentiment – there are considerable parts of this ST season that had been filmed with Lithuanian actors in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius in Eastern Europe, which was part of the Soviet Union for half a century.

_{Wynona Rider and Brett Gelman in Stranger Things Season 4. Source}

One thing I wondered about before watching ST4 was how interesting, or boring is going to be The Demogorgon (you know, the being I'd have as a pet with that beautiful blooming flower for a mouth). I wasn’t excluding the possibility of switching the series off and not returning to them because recurring things can only be interesting for so long until there is no novelty left in them. This, it seems, had been understood by creators of the series well – enter the Lovecraftian not dead, but dreaming type of antagonist who might be another one of those, whom Cenobites are searching for in order to bring him back to hell he is trying to escape. His agenda is what largely saves the first three episodes from boredom that’s brought about by a lengthy slow burn with high school abuse and inexplicable serial killings. Nevertheless, a number of separate storylines develop, each reaching a decisive and fairly intense phase in episode 4, starting from which point one can forget about boredom. Even with all the experiments with human test subjects, familiar from the previous seasons, that may seem like something the series, for one or another reason, simply can’t get rid of, there still is an important twist involved, and paying attention to that storyline will be rewarded with an entrancing interestingness of how everything plays out.

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One of the storylines in ST4 deals with Hellfire Club of geeks. Do we already sense a trigger for satanic panic, when reading this? If we do then I think we can congratulate ourselves on being prime clairvoyants. As such we will have pleasure watching those same geeks dealing with time paradox. I can’t promise it’s gonna meet your expectations from the point of view of science, but the production values and design are, as always, smashing. All that, of course, is combined with the right tools and the right geeky reasoning by our lead heroes. Reality is gradually becoming more and more metaphysical as the series progresses, and therein lies the magnetism of it all. Meshing together physical reality with science, pseudo science and pure fantasy is an extremely tricky discipline if one wants to lure either the reader or spectator into a dazzling pseudo world, making all that an exciting experience. The team behind Stranger Things has managed to accomplish that task with taste and indeed remarkable depth with just the right attention to details. Here’s to the hope the quality isn’t lost in the upcoming 5th and final season of this wonderful series.

Peer Ynt

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**** Read a movie revisit article written by me, mentioning Cenobites here

**** Read Under the Silver Lake movie review by me, which features pop culture references to a particular decade here