Eddie, played by Joseph Quinn, is immediately a scene-stealer and he's meant to be an older high-schooler, but having a 29-year-old as someone in their teens is hard to swallow. The worst offenders, though, are the new members of the Hellfire Club. Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton, who play Nancy and Jonathan, can’t escape that they’re both nearly in their 30s but portraying high schoolers. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Sadie Sink (Max), and Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) can just about pass for their on-screen ages, but Finn Wolfhard (Mike) and Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) stand out, and their performances struggle as they act uncomfortably young in places – it's worth noting that there have been no dramatic personality changes between seasons (nothing like Hopper's turn to toxic masculinity), so they're all still acting very young. Now, something I suspect will be the talk of Twitter: the kids have grown up.
#STRANGER THINGS SEASON 4 RELEASE DATE FULL#
The budget – a rumored $30 million an episode – is on full display throughout. Yet, it’s hard to know exactly where they could have comfortably made cuts the show is so supremely well put together that, even when what’s happening lags, there’s no looking away. Stranger Things has always been at its best when telling compact, tightly wound stories, and the premiere could have had a few minutes chopped out. Those are not exactly binge-watch-friendly sizes, and when the opening episode takes this long to get everything off the ground, you have to wonder whether the next episode will justify the extended runtime.
The shortest episode of the new season is 63 minutes long, and the rest are over 70 minutes – the longest, the final installment in “Part 1”, lasts 98 minutes. Much has been made of Stranger Things season 4 consisting of feature-length episodes. If only the premiere didn't take so long to get there. One thread does, at the very end, kick the season into gear, and it's one of Stranger Things’ most gruesome moments to date. These narratives are all drawn out, and I began to dream about the kids bunking classes for something more interesting. Indeed, the majority of the action happens at high school, where friendships are tested and Eleven is bullied. Stranger Things has done the dorky D’n’D thing already, and these scenes start to feel like padding more than anything else. Then there's The Hellfire Club, where very little seems at stake. Nancy and Jonathan, for instance, have become long-distance lovers, and a scene dedicated to explaining why they’re not seeing each other over spring break comes across as cutesy, obligatory exposition. Right now, the kids are largely on different paths, and some of their stories are just not particularly interesting.
The Duffers do an admirable job juggling each storyline, but there are problems. That’s the initial setup and, frankly, the premiere continues at a lethargic pace, slowly laying the table for the season to come. Also, Nancy’s the editor of the school newspaper, and the adorable duo Steve and Robyn are both chasing girls. Meanwhile, Lucas is on the high-school basketball team, causing some friction in the friendship group, and Max – now a Kate Bush fan – is suffering PTSD following the death of her brother, Bille. Back in Hawkins, Mike and Dustin have joined a new Dungeons and Dragons club named "The Hellfire Club", led by the energetic Eddie Munson.
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