Posted on Jul 2, 2022
'Stranger Things' season finale succeeds by leaning into excess
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https://www.npr.org/2022/07/01/ [login to see] /stranger-things-finale-review
One of the toughest things for an established TV show to do is surprise you.
Specifically, to surprise by revealing something new about characters fans think they know, after years of watching episodes and growing attached to their favorites.
That's a big reason why I have so enjoyed this fourth season of Netflix's monster hit Stranger Things. And it's why the last two episodes, dropping today, amp up the energy of an already propulsive season, revealing the full scope of the danger our heroes (and heroines) face while highlighting new complications among them all.
The show has always turned on an improbable premise: A nerdy gang of young kids keeping horrible creatures from an alternate universe from consuming our world — with help from a few bumbling adults. That core crew — teen buddies Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will — has expanded every season and is now an endlessly eccentric gang that feels like every underdog from every '80s teen flick jammed into one bustling storyline.
For its fourth season, the series has more than doubled down on just about everything — building out the show's fictional universe, adding engaging new characters and setting up a bombastic showdown for these last two episodes that offers its biggest spectacle yet.
One of the toughest things for an established TV show to do is surprise you.
Specifically, to surprise by revealing something new about characters fans think they know, after years of watching episodes and growing attached to their favorites.
That's a big reason why I have so enjoyed this fourth season of Netflix's monster hit Stranger Things. And it's why the last two episodes, dropping today, amp up the energy of an already propulsive season, revealing the full scope of the danger our heroes (and heroines) face while highlighting new complications among them all.
The show has always turned on an improbable premise: A nerdy gang of young kids keeping horrible creatures from an alternate universe from consuming our world — with help from a few bumbling adults. That core crew — teen buddies Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will — has expanded every season and is now an endlessly eccentric gang that feels like every underdog from every '80s teen flick jammed into one bustling storyline.
For its fourth season, the series has more than doubled down on just about everything — building out the show's fictional universe, adding engaging new characters and setting up a bombastic showdown for these last two episodes that offers its biggest spectacle yet.
'Stranger Things' season finale succeeds by leaning into excess
Posted from npr.org
TV
Sci-Fi
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 1
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Problems with the "confessional monologues"
Even with two inflated episodes, the Duffer brothers have a lot of narrative ground to cover in these last installments. So they resort to a device I'm going to call the "confessional monologue" — where one character turns to another and neatly, emotionally explains exactly the problem in their relationship, admitting their part in it and promising to do better.
This is something that happens often in the final episodes. And as satisfying as it can be for viewers to see these characters stop acting like knuckleheads and actually talk to each other, it also feels like a crutch — allowing the story to skip ahead into emotional resolutions that aren't fully earned.
In one case, the confessional monologue is between two characters — I won't name names — who vow to be more open with each other. Then they proceed to move onto the emergency at hand without actually talking about the emotional issue that prompted the confessional in the first place. Sigh.
Still, there is a lot I liked about the character development here. The deepening relationship between Hopper and Joyce. Steve Harrington's efforts to transcend his womanizing. The odd triangle between Will, his friend Mike and Mike's girlfriend, Eleven.
And it was surprisingly powerful to see these far flung groups of friends finally reunite in a bittersweet resolution.
I have no idea how the Duffer brothers are going to match what they pulled off in this season for their fifth and final run (they even reintroduced '80s icon Kate Bush to a whole new legion of fans). But I can't wait to be surprised by this inventive and bold series yet again."
..."Problems with the "confessional monologues"
Even with two inflated episodes, the Duffer brothers have a lot of narrative ground to cover in these last installments. So they resort to a device I'm going to call the "confessional monologue" — where one character turns to another and neatly, emotionally explains exactly the problem in their relationship, admitting their part in it and promising to do better.
This is something that happens often in the final episodes. And as satisfying as it can be for viewers to see these characters stop acting like knuckleheads and actually talk to each other, it also feels like a crutch — allowing the story to skip ahead into emotional resolutions that aren't fully earned.
In one case, the confessional monologue is between two characters — I won't name names — who vow to be more open with each other. Then they proceed to move onto the emergency at hand without actually talking about the emotional issue that prompted the confessional in the first place. Sigh.
Still, there is a lot I liked about the character development here. The deepening relationship between Hopper and Joyce. Steve Harrington's efforts to transcend his womanizing. The odd triangle between Will, his friend Mike and Mike's girlfriend, Eleven.
And it was surprisingly powerful to see these far flung groups of friends finally reunite in a bittersweet resolution.
I have no idea how the Duffer brothers are going to match what they pulled off in this season for their fifth and final run (they even reintroduced '80s icon Kate Bush to a whole new legion of fans). But I can't wait to be surprised by this inventive and bold series yet again."
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