I jumped in on the Stranger Things bandwagon way later than probably most of the rest of the people who are into it. I started watching it just a few weeks before the second part of season 4 came out, so I really didn’t have as long of a wait as anyone else did for part 2. I always had an interest in watching it but for some reason just never did get into it, but boy am I glad that I took the time to get caught up.

Getting caught up, for me, was the easy part. I watched everything that had already been released within a week. Mainly because I just couldn’t stop watching it until there wasn’t anything left to watch. A pattern that I caught onto pretty quickly was that every season the main characters seemed to get more and more spread apart. In season 3 the group was split up into 3 groups that eventually came back together in the end to defeat the monster. Season 4 had them split up again in 3 groups, but for a majority of time those groups were also split up amongst themselves. Every time the protagonists come out on top, or so they think.

So I finished watching season 3 and that night I saw a trailer for season 4. Up to this point I had just never really paid any attention to any of the ads for Stranger Things. This time I was watching someone on Twitch and the ad just happened to come on. I can’t explain how mad I was when I saw the ad and I saw Hopper there! Keep in mind that I had just finished season 3 so in my head Hopper was gone. Of course I figured he would make a come-back somehow, but I didn’t know for sure and the trailer kind of spoiled that for me. Not really a huge deal though because I started watching season 4 the next day and all was revealed to me.

They have done a great job in my opinion of the evolution of the antagonist throughout the seasons. Into season 4 you find out who it is, and has been the whole time. You find out why they did what they did and what they plan to do. One thing I really enjoyed was the backstory to what led up to the bad guy becoming what they are now. It was somewhat split up though instead of all explained at one time, but that can be justified by trying to stretch out the episode. Let’s be honest here too, they could have just as easily made 4 episodes an hour long each. I’m not really put off by the longer episodes. It just felt to me like they wanted to keep the number of episodes around the same.

While I don’t have any characters in the show that I dislike, my favorite character is obviously 11/Jane. Yeah it’s pretty cool the things she can do and all the ass she kicks, but where she won me over was watching her grow with the other kids. Starting with being this kid in the woods running and scared for her life and not knowing anybody other than “Papa”. Then making friends, learning what a real family is, and learning the ins and outs of love.

All in all though the writers of the show did an amazing job in my opinion of leading me to feel like every main character in this show is family. Of course I know in reality they are not, but when I’m watching the show I feel familial emotions towards the characters. Even Eddie was pulling on the ol’ heart strings there near the end of season 4. He actually reminded me of some people I knew back in high school.

This is definitely a show that I would recommend watching. For a rating I would give this show a 9 out of 10. I would give it a 10 but really I feel like they could have done a little more with Number 1’s story of his time right after going into the upside down. The story they did tell I thought was fantastic, but I felt like they could have had more there and made a whole episode about it. I’m sure there are some other nitpicking things I could find if/when I go back and watch it again but doubtful that it would lead to me lowering my score. If you haven’t seen it you should check it out, if you have please let me know your thoughts. There are several ways to get in touch with me down below.