Stranger Things Season 4 Risks Repeating Season 2’s Biggest Mistake
By splitting up its cast for (at least) the first half of the new outing, Stranger Things season 4 risks repeating a major season 2 mistake. Stranger Things season 4 might be one of Netflix’s most anticipated shows of 2022, but the series could be setting viewers up for disappointment. Much like season 2 kept Eleven almost entirely away from the main cast until its final episode, Stranger Things season 4 may plan to keep the primary cast broken up for half of its runtime.
Season 3’s finale split the cast between Hawkins, California, and Russia as Hopper was stranded in Siberia, Eleven, Will, Joyce, and Jonathan left for the West coast and Mike, Nancy, Lucas, Max, and Dustin stayed behind. While this split may result in an Eleven/Mike break up, Stranger Things season 4 could have bigger problems than this fan-dismaying twist. If the show keeps its leads apart for too long, it will run into an issue that many critics found fault with in Stranger Things season 2.
The news that Stranger Things season 4’s release will be split in two, alongside the character posters that depict the Hawkins gang, Hopper, and the California cast on separate adventures, implies that the central characters will not be reunited for the first half of the season. This was the approach that Stranger Things season 2 took, splitting Eleven off from the rest of the group for much of the outing’s runtime. That was only one character’s absence, and it still proved enough to annoy many who were frustrated by the slow storytelling, so keeping most of the cast separate for an entire half of Stranger Things season 4 is likely to worsen this earlier issue.
Although Stranger Things season 2 received largely positive reviews, many audiences questioned whether keeping Eleven apart from Mike and the rest of the Hawkins gang for so long added anything to the story. The choice meant that much of Eleven’s screen time was spent either alone or with all-new characters, neither of which was as satisfying as seeing her reunited with her season 1 co-stars. Keeping Mike from Eleven, Jonathan from Nancy, Will from his friends Dustin, Lucas, and Max, and Hopper from Joyce could amplify this problem in Stranger Things season 4 and leave viewers rushing through the first half of the season in search of the inevitable reunion.
While Stranger Things season 4 looks like it has plenty of promising potential plot lines judging by its promotional materials, this approach is unlikely to make the most of the cast’s critically-acclaimed chemistry. The Stranger Things cast are famous for their stellar chemistry across all three generations of the show’s sprawling lineup, making it all the more frustrating that the series may squander this by keeping them unnecessarily divided for much of its runtime. Although this could ideally result in Stranger Things season 4 having an opportunity to introduce new characters at a measured pace, it may well frustrate viewers if it is handled in a way that brings to mind season 2’s least-liked episodes.