Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
More violence, maturing characters in darker fourth season.
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Stranger Things: Season 4
What's the Story?
STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 4 opens in 1986, eight months after the end of Stranger Things: Season 3, with the characters we've come to know scattered to the winds: Hopper (David Harbour) is still missing, and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has been taken in by Joyce (Winona Ryder) and has moved to California with Joyce and her two sons, Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), to get away from Hawkins' sinister influence. Meanwhile, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) are struggling to fit in at Hawkins High, finding a niche in the school's DnD society, the Hellfire Club, and a complicated mentor in its leader, metalhead Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). When Eddie is implicated in a horrific murder, the Hellfire Club, along with Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Robin (Maya Hawke), and Max (Sadie Sink), work together to clear Eddie's name. Finally, strange events and messages emanating from Soviet Russia convince Joyce and Murray (Brett Gelman) that they must visit in person to help an old friend in need.
Is It Any Good?
Darker, grittier, and more mature than previous seasons, the fourth go-round with this fantasy/horror series channels 1980s horror, especially Nightmare on Elm Street, for its continuing narrative. Stranger Things' co-creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer aren't exactly subtle about the homage: Robert Englund, Freddie Krueger himself, pops up in Season 4 as a Hawkins character who formerly tangled with this season's Big Bad, the Vecna. Devoted fans of the show know that part of the Stranger Things lore is how every season's monster is really just a manifestation of one extremely evil force that keeps trying to destroy humanity through Hawkins' characters. This time out, Vecna acts like a kind of slasher, murdering members of the Hawkins community and, once more, forcing Stranger Things: Season 4's characters to team up and figure out what's happening, why, and how to stop it.
By now, the menace of Stranger Things' monsters has almost entirely worn off, but the show manages to wring some juice out of the premise by leaning heavily into horror movie conventions: There are bloody murders, monsters with melted faces that resemble victims' loved ones, a villain that pursues its victims through dreams and visions, à la Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, which the Duffer Brothers have named as a key influence. There's also some intrigue in the Joyce-Murray-Hopper storyline, which takes on the air of a prison escape movie like The Great Escape, and in Eleven's struggles first to fit in as an average high school student, then to channel all her powers to save the world. But, as in other seasons, the really fun scenes are those where characters work together to solve a mystery, and Season 4 puts together new pairings: Robin with Nancy, Joyce with Murray, Jonathan with his new California pothead friend, Argyle (a fan favorite), and anyone—absolutely anyone—with Joseph Quinn's Eddie, a sweet-and-sour edgelord who is Stranger Things: Season 4's MVP. Viewers will continue to love these characters who have grown up before our very eyes and are inhabited by actors so easy to like that they carry us easily through the monster moments.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Few shows make it to four seasons. What about Stranger Things makes its narrative durable and compelling enough to keep supporting storylines and attracting viewers? What is its appeal, and why is it so long-lasting?
This season introduces two major new characters, Eddie and Argyle. Why do TV shows keep introducing new characters as the seasons go on? Why not just concentrate on the characters we've already gotten to know?
Stranger Things co-creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer are forthcoming about the movies and TV shows that influence each season. They have specifically named A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and The Lost Boys, among other influences. Do you see these influences in Stranger Things: Season 4? When and where?
TV Details
- Premiere date : May 27, 2022
- Cast : Millie Bobby Brown , Winona Ryder , Gaten Matarazzo , David Harbour
- Network : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Adventures , Fantasy , Friendship , School
- Character Strengths : Courage , Integrity , Perseverance , Teamwork
- TV rating :
- Award : Emmy - Emmy Award Winner
- Last updated : January 7, 2026
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