*Graeme Tuckett is a Stuff film and TV critic
OPINION: A month ago I wrote a piece about Running Up That Hill – and why Kate Bush’s 36-year-old track was number one again – and especially how perfect its use had been in season 4 of Stranger Things. I ended that column with this sentence:
“Running Up That Hill in Stranger Things is as good a meeting of soundtrack, action and theme as you could hope for. I’ve got a few more episodes to go too. So there’s still a chance Siouxsie and the Banshee’s Spellbound will make the cut.” same treatment. Or maybe we should wait for season 5.”
And, as the credits rolled into the final episode of Season 4 on Friday night, guess what song thundered out of my TV speakers? Souxsie and the banshees enchanted.
Netflix
Stranger Things season 4 owes a lot to Lord of The Rings.
Not that I’m pretending it would take a genius to pick that Siouxsie’s 1981 hit would be a contender for the Stranger Things soundtrack, but after four hours of Stranger Things spread over two lengthy episodes, it was at the very least a nice way to go out.
Episodes 8 and 9 – Papa and The Piggyback – dropped out after a month-long break from the schedule.
They don’t say why the producers did this, but anticipation was certainly refreshed by the forced hiatus and the need to binge-watch was reinstated. And, it was worth it.
In fact, looking back at Season 4, we can happily call it the best of all the sequels.
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I love the way this show has aged and how the stories and themes have gotten darker and more nuanced as the cast has moved from childhood to adolescence.
It’s now a cliché to say that season 1 was inspired by The Goonies and ET, while in season four the writers seem to draw on A Nightmare on Elm Street and Carrie for their inspiration and jokes.
I’m actually a little surprised that hardly anyone has mentioned how much season 4 owes to The Lord of The Rings, with its heroes similarly divided into three groups, all fighting separate but intertwined battles against different aspects of the same thing. pissed off.
It’s just a minor spoiler to tell you that season four even features its own version of Tolkien’s infamous “Scouring of the Shire,” which, yes, also very much points to a possible next season.
And maybe there’s a clue to how good Stranger Things really is. If you ask a fan of a TV show what the show is about, nine times out of ten they will describe the plot to you.
But Stranger Things is so well written that almost everyone understands that this show is about much more than just what happens.
It’s a performance about families and relationships, but also explicitly about the fact that many of the strongest families are created by people who come together out of need. Like almost all great teen literature, Stranger Things is a celebration of the outsiders, the geeks, the misfits, the dropouts, and the queer kids – Will (Noah Schnapp) and Robin (Maya Hawke) both benefit from some hauntingly well-written scenes in these episodes.
Netflix
Robyn Buckley (Maya Hawke), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), and Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) will be driving again in Season 4.
Season 4 was also the most outspokenly political of the series. While the script never mentions it, we know that Stranger Things takes place during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, when a sudden nuclear war with Russia seemed a daily possibility, but also saw the rise of the “moral majority” with their fabricated scandals over heavy metal lyrics, marijuana and – yes – the evil of Dungeons and Dragons.
The character Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) is loosely based on the very real Damien Echols, of the West Memphis Three, who spent eighteen years on death row due to the kind of moral panic whipped up around Munson in Season 4. That Munson took out Metallica’s Master Of Puppets late in the season was a perfect nod to Echols.
Stranger Things is an undeniable part of this so-called golden age of television that we live in.
People who think that only “drama” is worth taking seriously and that anything aimed at teens is somehow among them may never appreciate how consistently brilliant this show really is.
But I think we should start thinking of Stranger Things as one of the greatest shows ever made.
For its heart, its inventiveness, its deceptive complexity, but mostly because Stranger Things is about something other than just what happens on screen.
Like all the greats, Stranger Things is about loneliness, loss, facing fears and falling in love. Bravo.