Stranger Things season four (2020) (DVD: TV series review).
The extended-length opening episode begins in 1979 at Hawkins Laboratory, where Eleven and her fellow inmates are observing their powers. Suddenly, a massive telekinetic explosion occurs, killing most of them. Interestingly, when I watched the credits, there was no mention of the number eight; it’s likely that she was away at the time.
Back in 1986, it was more about life at two different high schools. The boys have split up, and Mike (actor Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (actor Gaten Matarazzo) have joined the Hellfire Club RPG players. They had to bring Erika Sinclair (actress Prian Ferguson) in when they needed an extra player.
At her own high school, Eleven, now called Jane Hopper (actress Molly Bobby Brown), is not doing well socially. I loved her opening line about being good at math and better at grammar, even though she made a faux pas. Bullies also target her, and without her telekinetic power, she feels helpless.
Meanwhile, Joyce Byers (actress Winona Ryder), working from home doing telephone sales, rings Murray Bauman (actor Brett Gelman) when she receives a box from Russia containing a doll. The ever-paranoid Bauman tells her to smash the doll open and check it for bugs, and she discovers a note saying Jim Hopper is still alive.
You would be mistaken to think everything has gotten back to normal until the end of the episode.
I discovered that I needed to halt my work due to a DVD glitch in the third episode. The replacement also occurred within the same episode. Not trusting the UK editions, I finally pulled an American edition, and this one works so well in my watching schedule.
The plot heavily relies on outdated technology from the 1980s, such as a primitive internet, raising doubts about its future adoption. If Eleven was coerced to regain her powers, as depicted on TV in the 1980s, it would cast doubt on the practice of coercing children, regardless of whether it was carried out by a covert organisation. The monsters don’t always have hooves and glowing eyes. Humans are far worse.
Joyce and Murray Bauman (actor Brett Gelman) make their way into Russia in the hope of rescuing Hopper from imprisonment, but they run into their own problems.
Episode 7, ‘The Massacre at Hawkins’ Lab’, provides significant spoilers and forces viewers to rethink who did what and what the creature in the Upside Down is.
This fourth season contains a significant amount of spoilers, which are divided into five interconnected threads. Only a few of these threads truly apply in the finale, despite the influence of distance. Many reveals, particularly those pertaining to Eleven’s background, demonstrate that the revelations from earlier seasons were not entirely accurate.
With the final episode, things do get a bit wobbly. One of the college boys gets into the Upside Down and takes it in stride. The place is disturbing, right? So how did that happen? Other than the one major creature, you would have thought there were more than a multitude of flying bat creatures there. Running at 140 minutes long, the Duffer Brothers created the longest episode, and I ended up splitting it up over two nights.
I should point out that all the cast members do stellar performances, which, when you consider the cast size, is more remarkable. I can see why it’s been so popular, although I’m wondering why season 5 hasn’t come out on DVD yet. Run up that hill.
GF Willmetts
June 2024
(pub: Widescreen Presentation/Lionsgate. 3 DVDs 480 minutes 9 * episodes of variable length and one extra. Price: varies. ASIN: 300002792)
cast: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Noah Schnapp, Brett Gelman and many, many more
check out websites: www.netflix.com and www.lionsgatefilms.co.uk