Stranger Things Season 4 Needs To Change The Show's Formula
Stranger Things season 4 must remember that pairing off unexpected characters like Dustin and Steve has worked better than adding new cast members.
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The most critically-acclaimed seasons of Netflix’s hit Stranger Things have offered new character pairings as well as entirely new characters, and changing up the formula is necessary to keep Stranger Things season 4 feeling fresh. Since its earliest episodes, Stranger Things has always had an unusual structure. The show combines coming-of-age dramedy with teen soap opera and small-town sci-fi horror, a balance achieved by splitting up the cast for largely separate, albeit interlinked adventures. For example, while one dark Stranger Things season 1 subplot saw the harried single mother Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) attempt to find her missing child Will (Noah Schnapp), another was a thrilling mystery that focused on Will’s friends and telekinetic newcomer Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).
Stranger Things should have been a tonal mess, with devastating moments like the discovery of Will’s corpse—later revealed to be a fake—clashing with sweet scenes like Eleven’s new friends giving her a makeover. The Netflix hit struck a balance between keeping the plot lines of its adult characters dark and gritty, keeping the teen character’s stories appropriately dramatic and angsty, while the younger kids' story is kept face-paced and fun, despite the genuine peril they were in almost constantly. However, later seasons of Stranger Things struggled to keep this balance in place. For example, where season 1 saw Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) besting his bully Steve (Joe Keery) and prompting a change of heart from the humbled, redeemed character, Stranger Things ruined Jonathan’s character arc by instead focusing on Steve as a central character in season 3 and forgetting about the other. Similarly, where Stranger Things season 2 saw Hopper struggle with becoming a surrogate father for Eleven, season 3 made him a boorish and mean-spirited patriarch, losing the sweetness of their earlier dynamic.
Where Stranger Things avoids these pitfalls is when the show creates new, unexpected character pairings instead of revisiting familiar duos or relying on new characters. Without the introduction of late additions like the Mayor, Alexei, and Robin, Stranger Things season 3 might have had more screen time to flesh out Jonathan and Nancy’s subplot. Without revisiting season 2’s story of Hopper becoming a father to Eleven, season 3 could have avoided this plot feeling stale and second-hand, instead choosing to take things in a new and fresh direction. Since Stranger Things season 4 missed its best setting, Christmas, which would have brought the crew back together and thus facilitated fresh new pairings, it’s more imperative than ever that the series changes its formula in the upcoming outing.
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