Despite Netflix’s dwindling subscriber numbers over the past year, one of its biggest productions to date will hopefully recuperate some of its losses, with Stranger Things’ fourth season achieving a record-breaking 7.2 billion minutes of viewing from May 30th to June 5th. According to figures recently provided by the Wall Street Journal, each episode in the current season of the smash-hit horror-drama cost the streaming service an eye-watering $30 million.
And the quality shows. Leaving viewers in four weeks of suspense, the season’s final two bumper episodes exhibit an extraordinary array of gruesome setpieces and demonic creatures, and the Duffer Brothers waste no time in getting back to the horror of Nancy’s (Natalie Dyer) nightmare. The extended length of the episodes not only allows the horrors of archvillain Vecna’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) Upside-Down to be exhibited in full, luxurious visual splendour, but also largely remedies the season’s previous issues with its increasingly oversized cast. Criminally underused characters like Will (Noah Schnapp) are finally provided with more screentime, and the subplot with Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) is developed more effectively, if not exactly weaved into the overall narrative. Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) and Max (Sadie Sink) still dominate in terms of overall characterisation, but both actresses continue to provide stellar, heartfelt performances.
The penultimate episode leaves us on a grandiose cliff-hanger of epic proportions, before the characters are able to execute their final assault to try to save Hawkins from destruction. The conclusion clearly leaves unresolved plotlines for the show’s fifth and final season, but it feels like the season four could have ended on a high point earlier on in the episode. With so much outstanding cinematography and nail-biting action, it’s difficult to see where the Duffer Brothers can go from here. Hopefully they’ll turn it up to twelve.