Stranger Things’ second season 4 trailer shows that the Netflix hit will soon return to the Hawkins Lab storyline of season 1, a smart choice that will streamline season 3’s messy storytelling. Debuting in mid-2016, Stranger Things was a word-of-mouth phenomenon that soon became a runaway hit for streaming service Netflix. It is not hard to see why the series became an outsized success for the platform and its creators, Hidden directors the Duffer Brothers.
Combining coming-of-age dramedy, monster-movie thrills, and a whole host of homages to Stephen King and Steven Spielberg alike, Stranger Things is a nostalgia-fest with heart and a solid story at its core. The talented multi-generational cast helps, although it wasn't until Stranger Things season 2 where emerging supporting stars like Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, and Joe Keery got a chance to shine. However, Stranger Things is not without its problems, and the series has run into a few narrative dead-ends, particularly when the plot grows too byzantine to follow, as was the case in season 3.
Stranger Things season 3 brought a quicker pace and a lighter tone, two changes that many fans felt were for the better and improved the series. However, some critics complained that this faster pace left more plot threads dangling, and a handful of stories never received satisfying conclusions when season 3 reached its dramatic finale. Hopper’s character devolution, for example, was seen by some reviewers as the cost of a more broadly comic and less subtle tone. Fortunately, from the evidence seen in early teaser trailers, season 4 looks set to learn from this. The return of Matthew Modine’s villainous Dr. Brenner, and Hawkins Lab as a whole, proves that Stranger Things won’t be focusing on Hopper and the Soviets as much as its familiar small-town setting, which is good news for fans disappointed by season 3 and its overstuffed story.
From its opening scene introducing a Soviet version of Hawkins Lab to the Mind Flayer body-snatching storyline to the Mayor’s convoluted land-grab subplot, Stranger Things season 3 simply had too many story strands for viewers to become invested in any one story. At some points, this approach paid off handsomely, with the debut episode’s mention of Dustin’s presumably imaginary girlfriend Suzie setting up their eventual Never-ending Story singalong payoff in the finale. However, Stranger Things is more of a drama than a comedy. While the setup/payoff approach worked in cases like this, the sheer number of plot threads left dangling made emotionally investing in any one story implausible.
While Hopper’s struggle with parenting Eleven was ultimately turned into a touching moment by his (short-lived) self-sacrifice, his explosive anger at Mike (and Mike’s unexplained newfound arrogance) was set up for a single scene and never addressed again. Similarly, Hopper’s sudden infatuation with Joyce Byers was obviously intended to make his (apparent) death more poignant. However, since Stranger Things season 3 was busy telling the tale of small-town bully Billy’s possession, there was little time for this plot to pay off as anything more than Hopper boorishly asking Joyce out repetitively despite the recent death of her boyfriend, Bob Newby. None of the season’s subplots were notably weak by themselves. In fact, Dustin, Steve, and Robin’s pursuit of the Soviets was a refreshing comic relief subplot, but it didn't truly fit into the bigger picture right away. Rather, season 3 of Stranger Things proved unable to keep all of the proverbial plates that it set up spinning early on in unison, and as a result, lost tension with meandering digressions.
In season 1 of Stranger Things, Hawkins Lab technicians led by Brenner were the show’s lone human antagonists, while the Demogorgon was the only monster in the series. Both were established early in the season’s pilot episode, and the threat they represented was clear. Season 2 of Stranger Things added more monsters with the Demodogs and more human villains via Billy, as well as beefing up the supporting cast and earning critical approval in the process. However, by season 3, there was the Mind Flayer’s blob-monster form, the possessed Billy and his deranged followers as monster antagonists and the Soviets, the corrupt mayor, the remnants of Hawkins Lab, and the Hawkins Post staff as human villains.
Cutting back down to one memorable villain—particularly one like Dr. Brenner, who played a central role in the setup of Stranger Things as a whole and has an obvious, impactful emotional connection to the heroine, Eleven—could let season 4 streamline its storytelling. The human villain has a clear motive in getting Eleven back under his control and avenge his apparent season 1 death. His presence also represents an obvious threat since viewers have already seen how lethal the denizens of Hawkins Lab can be when their test subjects escape.
However, just because Stranger Things has the opportunity to now streamline its storytelling does not necessarily mean that the series will take it. The most recent trailer (and its predecessor, the Stranger Things 4 trailer many fans missed) may focus solely on Hawkins Lab, but it is worth remembering that Hopper is still stuck in Russia. While Stranger Things is clearly moving back to more of a small-town, self-contained mystery atmosphere judging by Brenner’s return, Hopper’s exile means that the series can’t simply forget the Soviets of season 3.
The “Russians under Starcourt Mall” subplot may have been an entirely excisable testament to the outing’s overstuffed plotting, but Hopper’s exile in Russia means that Stranger Things still needs to at least tie up this loose end, if not focus much of the coming season on his return. Luckily, the Upside-Down gives Hopper a convenient route out of Russia and back into the Hawkins storyline that has already been established in-series and would not require too much expository explanation. However, regardless of whether the show takes this easy out or not, Stranger Things still must make sure to close off these sort of story snarls lest the show is left with another season’s worth of unanswered fan queries.
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June 21, 2021 at 12:19AM
