Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 Roundtable
Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 landed on Netflix at the end of May and after a little breathing space we decided to take a run at it. Clare, Amy and Clara got together to ask and answer some questions, and to make predictions for Vol. 2 (coming July 1st). Let’s dive into the Upside Down!
THIS ROUNDTABLE WILL CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 VOL 1 OF STRANGER THINGS. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU ARE NOT UP TO DATE.
Stranger Things Season 4 Vol 1 picks up several months after the end of season 3, with our gang split and lots of changes. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Will (Noah Schnapp), Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are living in California, almost everyone else is in Hawkins with the exception of Hopper (David Harbour) who miraculously survived the explosion and is now in a Russian Gulag.
Spring Break is almost here, Eleven and Will just have to survive one more day of school, and in El’s case, one more day of the vile Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin) and her cronies, before Mike arrives to stay for the vacation. Pretty sure we’ve all wished we had superpowers when dealing with bullies, but what did you think of what El did to Angela at the roller rink?
Clare – Honestly I was expecting it to be a fake-out, something she’d imagined but not gone through with, so I was fairly surprised that they actually went there. It actually helped me buy into the red herring that El was responsible for the massacre at the lab a little more than I ordinally would have.
Clara – Kinda annoyed it was just a little cut. I wanted El to do more damage than that. Yes because Angela deserved it but also to tap into the darkness we all know El has inside her, put there from her broken memories of what happened at the lab.
Amy – You know El should have done more, Angela made it horrible for the girl. And she picked on Hopper, that’s crossing the line. I died a little on the inside when Angela destroyed El’s diorama, which lead into the events at the roller rink. All the abuse El took from Angela, she should have done more.
Back in Hawkins we meet The Hellfire Club (merch available from FANDOM-MADE.com), the D&D group Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) have joined now they are in high school. Led by Eddie Munsen (Joseph Quinn), a long haired, Dio-patch sporting, rocker type who becomes a major player this season. Thoughts?
Clara – Shockingly I kinda hated Eddie to begin with, he seemed too much of a stereotype character that I’ve seen a billion times before. He grew on me after he had to go on the run and more of his personality was fleshed out.
Amy – I loved Eddie immediately, he was someone I would have hung out in high school. His personality was something needed this season, as it’s a dark season, he has that goofy and silly personality that brings some laughter.
Clare – I really didn’t like him to start with, he felt too much like he belonged in Dazed & Confused rather than Stranger Things. His grandstanding speech in the cafeteria in the first episode was a LOT. He did get more tolerable as the show went on, but he was still quite annoying.
We meet Chrissy (Grace Van Dien), a cheerleader, girlfriend of the head of the basketball team and apparently perfect student… until she meets Eddie in the woods to buy drugs. She’s being plagued by visions, pretty fricking terrifying ones, and wants something to make them stop. They take a trip to Eddie’s trailer where something from the Upside Down murders Chrissy in brutal fashion right in front of Eddie. What do you think of our new villain, Vecna?
Amy – Vecna is terrifyingly interesting, and seeing his origin story in episode 7 made him ever more interesting. His powers are amazing, he’s able to kill from another dimension. That’s not something we have seen before in the show. How he goes after people with trauma, he has unlimited pickings in Hawkins.
Clare – I was more interested in what was going on with Chrissy (and Fred for that matter). If you’re going to bring in new characters and have them be chased down and killed and want it to be impactful then I’m gonna need more than one scene of Chrissy crying in a toilet to feel any empathy for her.
Vecna hunting people with trauma didn’t connect until we realised he was after Max. All the Hawkins kids have massive unresolved trauma… why not actually give us some stakes and kill someone off that we’ve spent 3 seasons getting to know.
I mostly enjoyed Jamie Campbell Bower’s extended monologue, although I felt it was a bit too much tell and not enough show for my liking. It could have left more unsaid, and let the audience infer from visuals.
Clara – I liked Vecna immediately, a villain that can kill from a distance just by tapping into their trauma. I have a feeling Vecna is choosing people who have trauma but haven’t found healthy ways to deal with that trauma because it makes them so much easier to lure into his trap and that’s why he went for Chrissy even though she was a minor character. To be honest, I hadn’t considered Vecna and his connection to the other monsters until Dustin brought it up, thinking back it makes so much more sense now though.
As always with Stranger Things there are lots of references to 80s pop culture. Kate Bush has made a massive resurgence on the charts thanks to that (frankly stellar) scene with Max escaping from Vecna, but what else did you pick up on?
Clara – Mainly the Silence Of The Lambs reference with Nancy and Robyn, the skate rink was peak 80s/90s, the clothes were as ugly as you’d expect late 80s clothing to be and the reference to D&D being a Satanic cult. These were the things I picked up on but there are for sure so many more that I’ve either not noticed or forgotten.
Amy – You know Stranger Things has done great things using that Kate Bush song. As they played it on repeat on the show for Max, I’m now listening to it on repeat like my life depends on it. What I picked up on, it’s the hair styles. Nancy’s with the frizzed out perm, Lucas’s high-top fade, and of course can’t leave out Will’s bowl cut.
Clare – Most of what I picked up came from the very end of the 80s/ early 90s… The asylum where Nancy and Robyn interviewed Creel was 110% ripped from The Silence of the Lambs, and Vecna in his lair had massive Hellraiser vibes. The biggest thing I guess was the Satanic Panic/D&D stuff which was pretty well done, if rather accelerated.
General thoughts on this season.
Clare – My biggest gripe this season was the pacing. The episodes were insanely long and a lot of the time it felt like they weren’t doing anything with all that time. The extended D&D/Basketball slow-+ motion sequence in the first episode made me want to put my foot through the TV. Also that entire final episode didn’t feature Mike/Will/Jonathan/Argyle AT ALL. What on earth was the point of them going through all that with Suzie (who I still can’t stand)? I can only assume that it’s going to pay off in Vol 2, but good grief.
Clara – This is my favourite season of the show, even more so when you look back at things that become big storylines now but were only ever hinted at earlier. For example the clock sounds before people died in previous seasons now becoming central and an important part of the whole Upside Down mystery.
Also Lucas’ plot of taking one for the team for his friends, getting in with the jocks so none of them will be bullied anymore, Lucas has always had his friends best interests at heart like in S1 when El changes the compass’ direction so the team can’t find Hawkins’ Lab Lucas was the only one to not only point out her crappy behaviour but immediately cast her as someone who is potentially dangerous to his friends.
Vecna is the best villain so far and I loved his reveal, I can’t wait to see what part 2 has to offer.
Amy – This is my favorite season by far. The fact that we are now figuring out that all the previous seasons are connected, with the clock sounds. We are also seeing and learning more about the Upside Down. Now that we have learned that El had a hand with Vecna/001 and the first doorway, it leads to more questions about the Upside Down. I honestly can’t wait for volume 2 and see what happens to all our favorites.
Predictions for Vol. 2?
Clara – Well, we already know someone is going to die, my money is on Nancy (Natalia Dyer) being the most likely. I feel like Vol. 2 might be just as Eleven dense as Vol. 1, maybe even more so. With her having her powers back and likely being stronger than ever they’re gonna have to keep her out of the action for a while cos she could just Deus Ex Machina everything, there’d be no threat, certainly not from Vecna who she’s beaten before.
I’ll be honest, I’ve tried not to think about it too much. I wanna be surprised when it does happen so I’m keeping my mind open to any possibility but not focusing too much on exploring them.
Amy – Someone is going to die this season, but there are way too many possibilities of who it could be and it scares me a little bit. I’m predicting it now that Will is a vessel for Vecna or something along those lines; a lot of how Henry Creel/001/Vecna was described as a child matches exactly how Will was in season 1. Plus how can we ignore Will’s connection to the upside down. I just know I’m not mentally ready for vol 2.
Clare – I do think someone will die, but genuinely no idea who. Every time I think I have a solid idea I change my mind. I’d be really into it if they actually offed El, I know that will probably get me yelled at, but sacrificing herself to save her friends, echoing what Hopper thought he did at the end of season 3, would be badass. I doubt they would thought, with a fifth and final season on the horizon.
Given that Will, Mike, Jonathan and Argyle weren’t even in the Vol. 1 finale (after all that nonsense with Suzie) I think we are going to see some roadtrip rescue hijinks as they try to find El.
Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 Ratings
Clara – 7.5/10
Amy – 8.2/10
Clare – 6/10
Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 2 drops on Netflix on July 1st. Head over to our preview post to check out all the info we have so far on episode titles, lengths, and to see promotional photos.
