According to the show’s stars, Stranger Things season 4 will have higher stakes than ever—but the Netflix hit should lean into its more comedic side in this upcoming outing. Debuting in 2016, Stranger Things soon became a word-of-mouth success story for its creators the Duffer Brothers, and streaming service Netflix. A small-town mystery with horror and sci-fi elements, Stranger Things drew in viewers with a combination of ‘80s nostalgia, coming-of-age dramedy, and some surprisingly brutal moments.
However, as the show continued and gained a bigger fandom, a subtle shift occurred in the tone of Stranger Things. In season 1, Stranger Things was inspired by Prisoners, a dark, uncomfortable domestic drama about a kidnapping case destroying a family. The series, like the movie that inspired Stranger Things, saw its stars driven to the brink of madness by a dark, labyrinthine conspiracy and featured remorseless human villains as scary as its more literal monsters.
In contrast, season 2 upped the fun factor and added a faster pace to proceedings, only for season 3 to double down on this approach and enter into some full-blown action-comedy territory. For comparison, one of the most important reveals in season 1 of Stranger Things revolved around a small boy’s dead body being discovered drowned in a lake. In contrast, one of Stranger Things’ biggest season 3 reveals was that Russian spies had set up a secret lab beneath a suburban mall in Indiana. By far the goofiest season so far, Stranger Things season 3 turned the show’s elements of campy humor up to eleven and indulged in some seriously silly scenes like a shopping montage set to Madonna’s "Material Girl". However, fans loved this shift in tone and the lighter moments that came as a result of it, suggesting that instead of the tendency for the series to plumb ever-darker depths with each season, Stranger Things should lean into its comedic side in the upcoming season 4.
According to series star David Harbour, Stranger Things season 4 will see the show go bigger than ever, but this is not necessarily good news for the series. Per fellow star Sadie Sink, season 4 will see the show have higher stakes than ever before, something that may read as a worrying development for fans of Stranger Things. Given the fact that season 3 saw Hopper mowing down faceless Soviet soldiers by the dozens, this means season 4 will be seriously bleak and brutal to match that higher body count. Although Stranger Things season 3 was the show’s silliest outing, it was also by far the bloodiest, with countless townspeople and Soviet soldiers alike being killed off in the big finale. Upping the ante will mean killing even more characters, something that season 4’s Hawkins Lab test subjects could easily manage, but which could be too bleak and sad for Stranger Things to pull off in tonal terms.
Stranger Things season 3 was popular with fans of the show, and as such, it is easy to see why the creators would return to the approach that made the series so successful so far. However, despite the higher body count and more cavalier attitude to collateral damage seen in season 3 (which saw most of Hawkins’ unnamed townspeople mashed into the Mind Flayer by the season’s end), it was silly scenes like Dustin and Suzy’s cute duet that fans truly connected with. The scene of Dustin and Suzy singing The Never-Ending Story’s theme song was a bonafide viral hit for Stranger Things, racking up over 36 million views on Youtube. For a frame of reference, that is 14 million more than the show’s season 2 trailer, and 31 million more than the season 1 trailer earned. The most-loved moments of season 2 came from comical characters like Suzy and Dustin, proving that Stranger Things could benefit from a lighter touch.
Whether it is season 2’s rebellious newcomer Max, the lovable nerd Dustin, the hot-headed and braggadocios Lucas, the eternally gormless but good-hearted Steve Harrington, or the sardonic Robin, most of Stranger Things’ fan-favorite characters are comedic rather than serious figures. Even Stranger Things season 2 breakout Murray Bauman was introduced as a silly scene-stealer and ended up becoming a series regular by season 3 because fans of the show enjoy the addition of a character who can provide levity when the heroes are tangled up in life-threatening misadventures. The more serious characters like the Byers brood, Eleven, Mike, and season 3’s meaner version of Sheriff Hopper are necessary to keep up the story momentum of Stranger Things, but focusing mostly on them drags down the tone of the show.
Giving characters like Robin a chance to shine instead of spending most of season 4’s screen time on Hopper’s struggle to escape Siberian exile would allow Stranger Things to feel fun and fresh, whereas an overly grim, self-serious season could feel hopeless fast. The main cast already thinks Hopper is dead, and with Netflix offering a similar but scarier small-town horror story in the Fear Street trilogy, Stranger Things needs to be fun more than it needs to be dark heading into season 4. That switching up the show's tone would mean more time with its most-liked characters is just another fringe benefit.
Since Stranger Things has committed to upping its body count, the stakes have been paradoxically lowered. In season 1, only a few characters died and did so with little fanfare, meaning Eleven’s big sacrifice seemed like a real deal death. After Hopper offed a dozen Soviet soldiers and a Terminator-style assassin, few believed he was dead for good in the season 3 finale. A less bloody and more funny fourth outing could let Stranger Things re-establish some stakes, as deaths would have a real impact when the show isn’t mowing down characters left, right, and center. Stranger Things season 3 had too many plot strands that went nowhere, meaning season 4 could trim the excess story by killing off fewer characters and having more fun with the core cast. Thus, the best move for Stranger Things season 4 is to head in a funnier, and not merely darker, direction.
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