Running up That Hill: Stranger Things Season 4 Discussion - Renegade Marquee #20
Tonight, on an UPSIDE DOWN episode of Renegade Marquee, Captain Kaye, Haylee, and special guest Legault take a trip to Hawkins for the first part of Stranger Things 4!
How’s it going, fellow Renegades? It’s I, THE DIRECTOR, back once again on my bike to brave the masses of the Upside Down in order to bring you the official show notes for RENEGADE MARQUEE. And today, we’ve got a helluva show for you, as we talk about the biggest show on Netflix probably ever (sorry Squid Games, Haunting of Hill House, etc.): Stranger Things!
Ahhh Stranger Things… one of the most famous nostalgic throwbacks in the past decade, the project that J.J. Abrams wanted Super 8 to be like. On the surface, it’s a dime a dozen Amblin homage that people can really sink their teeth into after a long day at work. But if you look within, beneath the memes of Eggos and christmas lights and keeping the door open three inches… you’ll find much of that as well, but with amazing characters that will completely envelop themselves into your heart.
That might be a bit harsh and backhanded, but you have to understand, the first season of Stranger Things was something of a powerhouse that came out of nowhere! I remember clear as day when the first season slowly made its way into the cultural zeitgeist. A season 2 was assured, but everyone was slowly spreading word of mouth due to the excellent quality that The Duffer Brothers had brought to the streaming service. I remember being excited to watch it solely for Winona Ryder, who at that point was seen as box office poison and hadn’t had a substantial role in a film since J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek; I ended up spreading it to everyone I knew, and I knew Mike, El, Dustin, Will, Steve, and Chief Hopper — Joyce Byers included! It was like if a bunch of A24 fanboys made a Spielberg joint, and the direction felt modern with a perfect mixture of pastiche to make it more palatable!
The hype for season 2 was out of this world: The Duffer Brothers made the second season BIGGER (both in scope AND in cast with the addition of Sadie Sink and Sean Astin), and brought on seasoned director ANDREW STANTON (Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Better Call Saul) to direct two of the biggest - and in my humble opinion - best episodes of the whole series, in addition to improvements with the production with a brand new Red camera that makes the colors and camera movements more vibrant! I can’t say it’s perfect, as the episode that feels like a backdoor pilot for a spin-off makes sense in theory… does end up feeling like a splash of cold water with the momentum of the story. But for me? I honestly really enjoyed how the season tried to build beyond the first season and the references to the past were still endearing and fun to watch! Plus, getting to see Mikey from The Goonies dating Lydia Deets from Beetlejuice was a joy. Not only that, but the season upped the horror (the sight of Will Byers having a seizure on the floor still creeps up in my nightmares).
Where things started to get away from me was season 3. The scope was simultaneously the biggest its ever been, while also being mostly bottled down and isolated to the new megamall that made its way into Hawkins. The drama got more intimate as the kids started to pair off and get into relationships, but this also left certain characters high and dry with barely any development for them (Nancy and Jonathan were the worst offenders of this, with Lucas possibly being a close second). They had great new characters in the form of Robin (played by my wife, Maya Hawke), but also added new characters that were basically caricatures of caricatures, such as the Dread Pirate Roberts himself Cary Elwes playing The Mayor from Jaws, or the fact that they added a new antagonist that was basically the Russian Terminator. The filmmaking and craft was on point, and the finale was probably one of the most tense set-pieces the show had ever done, but the pastiche had started to feel a bit stale for my taste having scenes literally lift musical cues from Back to the Future, or having Hopper be a John McClane stand-in for a scene that straight up steals from Die Hard 1 (which Hopper’s character regression and treatment towards Joyce was just… probably the worst part of the season, in my opinion).
It might sound like I’m being more critical of the series as it goes on, and I might be, but despite the fact that I haven’t been able to watch the newest season just yet (and also the fact that each episode is basically a feature length film in it of itself)… I can’t help but still find myself drawn to the show.
It sounds weird, and maybe even contradictory, but despite the fact that I feel that the series has started to run out of steam, and the fact that the fourth season has taken way too long to come out (in addition to the fact that each episode is… AGAIN… FEATURE LENGTH FOR THE MOST PART)… the characters, man. What The Duffer Brothers have managed to do is hold onto the thing that made the Amblin stories of old so endearing: they weren’t just about childhood or anything like that, but they were about bigger issues a child has to deal with. Will dealing with a lost childhood (which in a way can be metaphorical of him being from a broken home and his possible sexuality), Mike and El’s relationship being of young love, Joyce effectively having to combat her gaslighting that was caused by her ex-husband in a more literal sense, Lucas dealing with the xenophobia of the time period that barely anyone wants to talk about in the form of Billy in season 2, and probably the most acclaimed character of the whole series, Steve Harrington going from a stereotypical 80’s Jock to realizing what was deemed masculine and cool cannot carry you into young adulthood and has to realize that he has wasted his teenage years on an ideal.
It’s all of these reasons, aside from the fact that the show just gets better and better quality wise, that I keep tuning into Netflix whenever a new installment has come out. And chances are, when the new season drops, I WILL have everything prepared, and I will probably come back by the time Part 2 comes out with my thoughts on where the characters have gone, as well as what I found in my latest visit to Hawkins…
Well, that’ll do it for this episode! Special thanks to Legalt Land13 for guesting on this episode, same for Haley! Keep running up that hill, because there’s a new podcast making its way to you very soon…
