Super late to the party here but I finally got around to watching Stranger Danger Season 4, and it was very... nyeh.
I wasn't as down on it as I feared I'd be when the first impressions of the season started coming in, there are definitely a lot of really cool moments but they're dragged down by some other unfortunate ones.
I liked:
I was ambivalent towards/didn't mind:
I didn't like:
And so now we just wait for the final season, which starts filming this summer I think? I'd be worried about the kids getting even older looking but there's supposed to be a time jump between seasons 4 and 5. How much I can't say, but the few interviews I've seen suggest it'll be quite a bit more than the mere 6 month jump between seasons 3 and 4. Considering how season 4 ends it's not super surprising, but now I can't help but wonder just how different season 5 will feel when it hits.
I wasn't as down on it as I feared I'd be when the first impressions of the season started coming in, there are definitely a lot of really cool moments but they're dragged down by some other unfortunate ones.
I liked:
Eddie. He seemed a bit too weird when first introduced but damn if this guy didn't win me over by the end of the first episode and from there I was rooting for him. But then he goes off and has his Big Damn Hero moment and dies and just, man. Hell of a way to go but I wish he got to live to see his name cleared and THAT might not even happen!
Robin and Nancy's teamups. I was worried that the writers would rely on silly jealous tension on Nancy's end with Robin and Steve but the main reason these two don't get along at first is that their personalities just don't mesh, like at all. Then it became fun to watch Robin's manic energy clash with Nancy's attempts at being methodical.
Running Up That Hill. Sure this song got a bit overused by the end of the season, but that moment at the end of Episode 4, hot damn. Watching that I knew Max made it out of that situation but even so I found myself leaning forward in my seat as that song was blaring and Max was running for her life through Vecna's onslaught. Probably the highlight of the season for good reason.
Just everything Max, really. Seriously, the Running Up That Hill moment alone makes her a star, but her 'death' scene in the season finale was another strong moment. Max is absolutely the MVP of the season, and maybe even the entire series to be honest.
Hopper's story. Honestly I thought I'd hate this going into the season since it's just so far removed from the main event in Hawkins, but honestly I found myself really liking the asides in Russia. Tying it to helping the kids at the end by having the team go BACK into the prison to kill the monsters was maybe unnecessary, but after putting Hopper through hell I can't hate the show for letting him kill a Demogorgan.
Robin and Nancy's teamups. I was worried that the writers would rely on silly jealous tension on Nancy's end with Robin and Steve but the main reason these two don't get along at first is that their personalities just don't mesh, like at all. Then it became fun to watch Robin's manic energy clash with Nancy's attempts at being methodical.
Running Up That Hill. Sure this song got a bit overused by the end of the season, but that moment at the end of Episode 4, hot damn. Watching that I knew Max made it out of that situation but even so I found myself leaning forward in my seat as that song was blaring and Max was running for her life through Vecna's onslaught. Probably the highlight of the season for good reason.
Just everything Max, really. Seriously, the Running Up That Hill moment alone makes her a star, but her 'death' scene in the season finale was another strong moment. Max is absolutely the MVP of the season, and maybe even the entire series to be honest.
Hopper's story. Honestly I thought I'd hate this going into the season since it's just so far removed from the main event in Hawkins, but honestly I found myself really liking the asides in Russia. Tying it to helping the kids at the end by having the team go BACK into the prison to kill the monsters was maybe unnecessary, but after putting Hopper through hell I can't hate the show for letting him kill a Demogorgan.
I was ambivalent towards/didn't mind:
Argyle. Really the stoner archtype could have gone terribly, but Argyle won me over more often than not. Still not my favorite character by a long shot and if I could pick one Season 4 newbie to sacrifice to keep Eddie alive I'd probably choose to kill Argyle instead.
El's tormenters. Ok so, this was something I was sure I was going to hate given the discussion in this thread when the season dropped and at first I did, but... by the end of the season it made more sense? Like, at first El's bullies seemed wholely unnecessary but then the situation is mirrored in her flashback almost to a tee. Being picked on by someone preening to the higher authority, the bully going too far but blaming El for being found out due to being a crappy liar, then during the follow up revenge El goes too far. They both basically play out the same way and thus El's reactions to the high school bullying at every step make more sense retroactively. It certainly doesn't make the decision to lean into the mean girl trope GOOD, but at least they did something with it?
El's development. I'll address this specifically since it was another point of contention in the thread, but I don't think El has 'regressed' that much this season. At least not when you consider that it's only six months after season 3 (despite the kids aging way more than that) and she just went through a huge upheaval in her life by relocating, she's dealing with the dual trauma of losing Hopper AND her powers, has an entirely new homelife situation with two new siblings and a new parental figure, and is trying to adjust to an entirely new school environment, and all that on top of the fact she was never in the school system until shortly before the third season. It's disappointing she's still a bit halting in her language and childish in her writing, but it's not very surprising.
Vecna. On the whole, Vecna/Henry/One was just kinda boring as a big bad. Had their original assumption about him being a higher-ranking minion of the Mindflayer been true then I would have been fine with him just being the Season 4 big bad, but making HIM the biggest bad and having the Mindflayer apparently subordinate to him kinda sucks. He's just not that interesting. Not TERRIBLE by any means, and he had his moments, but I think I really would have rather preferred a version of Season 4 that ends with the revelation that, no, Vecna was played by the Mindflayer the whole time (and then dies from the combined assault of Robin, Steve, and Nancy) and the big bad of the show is this unknowable entity from another world rather than a little nihilistic creep who somehow got powers. I guess we'll see what the final season does with him.
El's tormenters. Ok so, this was something I was sure I was going to hate given the discussion in this thread when the season dropped and at first I did, but... by the end of the season it made more sense? Like, at first El's bullies seemed wholely unnecessary but then the situation is mirrored in her flashback almost to a tee. Being picked on by someone preening to the higher authority, the bully going too far but blaming El for being found out due to being a crappy liar, then during the follow up revenge El goes too far. They both basically play out the same way and thus El's reactions to the high school bullying at every step make more sense retroactively. It certainly doesn't make the decision to lean into the mean girl trope GOOD, but at least they did something with it?
El's development. I'll address this specifically since it was another point of contention in the thread, but I don't think El has 'regressed' that much this season. At least not when you consider that it's only six months after season 3 (despite the kids aging way more than that) and she just went through a huge upheaval in her life by relocating, she's dealing with the dual trauma of losing Hopper AND her powers, has an entirely new homelife situation with two new siblings and a new parental figure, and is trying to adjust to an entirely new school environment, and all that on top of the fact she was never in the school system until shortly before the third season. It's disappointing she's still a bit halting in her language and childish in her writing, but it's not very surprising.
Vecna. On the whole, Vecna/Henry/One was just kinda boring as a big bad. Had their original assumption about him being a higher-ranking minion of the Mindflayer been true then I would have been fine with him just being the Season 4 big bad, but making HIM the biggest bad and having the Mindflayer apparently subordinate to him kinda sucks. He's just not that interesting. Not TERRIBLE by any means, and he had his moments, but I think I really would have rather preferred a version of Season 4 that ends with the revelation that, no, Vecna was played by the Mindflayer the whole time (and then dies from the combined assault of Robin, Steve, and Nancy) and the big bad of the show is this unknowable entity from another world rather than a little nihilistic creep who somehow got powers. I guess we'll see what the final season does with him.
I didn't like:
Jason. He just flat-out sucked. Another jocky bully archtype similar to Billy but without any nuance. He just existed to screw things up. If there's anything I did like about him is that the show went out of its way to show that he was a straight-up narcissist. He was introduced at a rally where he co-opted the victims of the 'fire' from Season 3 as inspiration for the team winning, his reaction to Chrissy's death wasn't about her loss as a person and more about status (See also his angry reaction to the suggestion she was buying drugs off Eddie, he was totally more concerned with how that would reflect on HIM than her), to say nothing of the big town rally where he whipped the yahoos into a frenzy by againi making himself out to be the hero. But the show didn't really explore his narcissism beyond that and he was more or less used as a plot device whenever things needed to be made complicated. Don't know that he deserved to die via torso-melting but I wasn't exactly sorry to see him go either.
Army Dude. Like Jason, Army Dude just existed to screw things up and add tension. Unlike Jason he lived so he'll probably show up to screw things up further in Season 5. We'll see.
Dr. Brenner. Or, to clarify, I hate that Dr. Brenner got anything resembling even a little bit of redemption. Ever since that moment in Season 2 where we saw what he did to El's Mom just to cover his tracks I wanted him to be alive again just so he could die worse. Instead he comes back and briefly plays a teacher to El to get her powers back and let her discover the truth about what happened to the other numbers. I still think he could have just told her from the start that she wasn't responsible for massacring children but whatever, something something milking drama. But then he has his sudden but inevitable betrayal and tries to keep El held there which lasts about five minutes before Army Dude busts in and starts screwing everything up. Worst of all, Brenner gets to die defending El from gunfire which is so goddamn far from the sort of death he deserves it's almost insulting. At the very least when begging El to say she understood that he did it for her she just walks away, but even that cold shoulder is more than he deserved to get. Just unsatisfying up and down. Screw that guy.
Army Dude. Like Jason, Army Dude just existed to screw things up and add tension. Unlike Jason he lived so he'll probably show up to screw things up further in Season 5. We'll see.
Dr. Brenner. Or, to clarify, I hate that Dr. Brenner got anything resembling even a little bit of redemption. Ever since that moment in Season 2 where we saw what he did to El's Mom just to cover his tracks I wanted him to be alive again just so he could die worse. Instead he comes back and briefly plays a teacher to El to get her powers back and let her discover the truth about what happened to the other numbers. I still think he could have just told her from the start that she wasn't responsible for massacring children but whatever, something something milking drama. But then he has his sudden but inevitable betrayal and tries to keep El held there which lasts about five minutes before Army Dude busts in and starts screwing everything up. Worst of all, Brenner gets to die defending El from gunfire which is so goddamn far from the sort of death he deserves it's almost insulting. At the very least when begging El to say she understood that he did it for her she just walks away, but even that cold shoulder is more than he deserved to get. Just unsatisfying up and down. Screw that guy.
And so now we just wait for the final season, which starts filming this summer I think? I'd be worried about the kids getting even older looking but there's supposed to be a time jump between seasons 4 and 5. How much I can't say, but the few interviews I've seen suggest it'll be quite a bit more than the mere 6 month jump between seasons 3 and 4. Considering how season 4 ends it's not super surprising, but now I can't help but wonder just how different season 5 will feel when it hits.