[DeLa Doll] Stranger Things 4: Volume 2 Review – Tasty…but Not as Delicious as Volume 1

*This review contains spoilers, so if you care about that sort of thing, go watch Stranger Things 4: Volume 2 and then come back.

When I reviewed Stranger Things 4: Volume 1, I likened it to a sloppy, delicious, double bacon cheeseburger. In keeping with the food metaphors, I have to say that Volume 2 is an extra large side of steak fries that are just a touch under-seasoned and end up becoming room temperature before you get the chance to finish enjoying them. Overall still tasty and the perfect side dish for your burger, but definitely not as good as the burger itself. 

Loose Ends and Long Goodbyes 

I completely understand not having the kids fully defeat Vecna in the finale. With just one season left, it makes sense to keep the newly introduced villain around just a bit longer. He’s the most intelligent and intriguing of the baddies we’ve encountered throughout the series, so by all means, let’s have some more Meaty Crypt Keeper. 

Less forgivable is the fact we don’t really see any of the Hawkins gang grieving or discussing Eddie’s loss, nor do we see Dustin telling them about his heroic and heartbreaking sacrifice. Sure, Dustin’s moment with Eddie’s uncle was touching, and yes I cried, but it doesn’t feel like a proper send off for such a well liked character who played a central role in this season’s narrative. When you couple these strange omissions with the fact that so much time is spent on things that don’t really hold as much narrative weight, it just becomes a bit frustrating. For instance, why is so much time dedicated to Papa’s death? Yes, he’s a key figure in Eleven’s life and an influence on Vecna/One, but dude. Did we really need the drawn out visual of him dying in the sand and watching the kids drive off? The entire scene could have been condensed without losing any significance. 

Another thing I feel we spent too much time on was Robin’s love interest. Robin is one of my favorite members of the Hawkins crew, but I really do think the time spent on her reuniting with her crush in the emergency shelter could have been used to show us something more important – or at least more interesting – like how people perceive other members of the Hellfire Club in the wake of the latest disaster and Eddie’s presumed death, or even what happens to Enzo and Yuri after they return Joyce and Hopper to the US. Do they go back to Russia? Do they decide to chill out in the US? I wanna know! Either of these things would have been better than seeing Robin pining over her clone. I want her to be happy, but I don’t really think that scene was season finale material. Hell, I’d even take seeing the consequence of Argyle ditching work to help save the world in the Surfer Boy Pizza delivery van instead.

Relationships and Performances

One of the most interesting elements of Stranger Things is the relationships between the characters…and how uneven they can be in terms of chemistry. For instance, Eddie and Crissy, two new side characters who die in the same season they’re introduced, have infinitely more chemistry in their few scenes together than Mike and Eleven have in the entire season. I don’t even understand why Mike and Eleven are together at this point. They never look like they’re having fun, and Mike isn’t exactly the most interesting, useful, or likable guy these days. 

I’m not really sure if that’s the fault of the writers, Finn Wolfhard’s lethargic performance, or a little of both. Will’s speech about Mike being the “heart” of their group came off as unintentionally hilarious because of this – and sure, we can chalk that clear miscalculation up to his unrequited love for Mike, but I think that’s just giving the writers a little too much credit. The fact of the matter is that Mike and every relationship he’s in this season, platonic or otherwise, is just kind of underwhelming and painful. Even his desperate motivational speech to Eleven came off as lackluster. Nevermind the fact that his sudden 180 from being a tough and caring kid to being sentient furniture isn’t really explained. If there was a reason why Mike suddenly sucked, that’d make sense. Instead, we’re just supposed to accept that he’s having a hard time expressing his feelings or taking action for no real reason. 

Mike’s relative uselessness and Wolfhard’s lackluster performance is especially glaring next to all the strong performances of the main cast, like Caleb McLaughlin’s moving display of desperation, love, and anguish as Lucas, or Sadie Sink’s fantastic performance as Max. Even the actors playing side characters, like Gabriella Pizzolo as Suzie and Eduardo Franco as Argyle, brought their A-game in a way that made them far more compelling, likable, and believable than Mike. I believe Argyle is a good natured pothead who would go on an adventure to save the world without a second thought, I believe Yuri is an eccentric conman and pilot, I believe Lucas cares deeply for Max, but I don’t believe Mike actually gives a damn about Eleven even when he says he does. That’s a problem.

On a much more delightful note, we finally got to see Joyce and Hopper makeout during a lull in their epic rescue and escape mission, which was probably the most satisfying event of volume 2 next to Jason getting his shit both rocked and split. Maybe it’s because I’m a mom myself, but I find myself most heavily invested in their relationship out of all of the romantic pairings in the series thus far. 

As far as other friendships and romantic pairings, I’d really like to see Steve and Nancy get back together since it was repeatedly teased over the course of the season, and because Jonathan has become kind of a huge loser who brings nothing to the table. Additionally, it would have been nice to see how Will’s relationship with Eleven developed once she more or less became his sister. We don’t really see much of them together enough to get a feel for how they interact when the others aren’t around, and I feel like it was a missed opportunity to bring Will back into the fold rather than have him socially isolated in pizza shops and cry into his hand. 

Speaking of Will

Can this kid get a win? Once a central figure in the Stranger Things mythos, my boy has been reduced to a weeping bowl cut. The writers even forgot his birthday. It’s just unfortunate, and I really don’t understand the point of his unrequited love storyline if they don’t intend to do anything with it other than have him be miserable as he watches his bestie obsess over Eleven. Why can’t he find a new crush? Why doesn’t anyone really acknowledge his sexuality in a positive way, or at all? I appreciated the brotherly moment between him and Jonathan at the pizza place, but it doesn’t feel like nearly enough given how little anyone seems to care about him these days. It just seems like there are too many “main characters” and so we end up with certain figures becoming nearly insignificant because there’s no apparent attempt to balance it out at all. 

The Big Lesson

One thing I really enjoyed about the finale is the lesson that you can’t always reason with hateful people. We see this lesson twice — first with Lucas and Jason, with Lucas desperately trying to keep Jason from becoming a future police officer and failing miserably. We see it again when Eleven, despite being bound by tentacles, tries to tap into Vecna’s humanity and tell him that he’s actually just a victim and not a monster. Like Jason, Vecna doesn’t listen. Each character is completely blinded by their own agendas and self righteousness. They don’t believe they are wrong, and they have chosen violence. All our heroes can do is fight back because, sometimes, people are just too far gone. 

For a show committed to 80s nostalgia, it’s a curiously timely message. There’s a time and a place for trying to reason with others, but that window is decidedly closed once you’ve got a boot on your neck or a gun to your head. Civility just doesn’t work on hateful extremists, sorry. Sometimes you just have to fight.

Overall…

…while I have my minor complaints about pacing and relationships, the Stranger Things 4 Finale wasn’t terrible by any means, but it felt lackluster considering all the excitement and buildup leading up to it. Considering the fact that Volume 2 is a total of 4 hours long, I just feel like that time wasn’t always used wisely. There are a few too many loose ends for it to feel satisfying, despite the heartwarming character reunions. 

I’m also really annoyed that Nancy and the gang didn’t immediately run outside to make sure Vecna was dead. Always confirm your kills, kids. Despite my issues with Volume 2, I enjoyed the season overall, and I’ll definitely be back for season 5. We’ve spent too much time with these characters to abandon them now, and even with some of the more frustrating aspects of the series, there’s nothing horrible enough to turn me off entirely. Nothing’s perfect, but I have high expectations for the final season considering all of the unanswered questions, underused main characters, and intriguing new side characters. 

Assorted Asides

• Why were the only two Black main characters shown making spears? I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt here, but it still stood out enough for me to go “Hmmm” although I happen to think Stranger Things does an ok job with its (very few) Black characters overall. Do I wish Erica didn’t have the whole “Sassy Black Girl” trope going on? Sure. But since she’s also a huge nerd, it kind of balances out because we don’t really get a lot of nerdy Black girls in popular media even though we definitely exist in abundance in real life. 
• Steve recovered the bat bite very quickly, making all the fan theories about how it will impact him kind of funny. On the other hand, though, who’s to say that it doesn’t? There’s so much we still don’t know, so perhaps season 5 will address it. Or it could just be a minor event that we’re all fixating on because we just really love Steve “The Dad” Harrington. 
• I want to know more about Jason’s corpse. Does anyone actually find it? Is it still in-tact enough to realize something much more sinister than a natural disaster led to his well-deserved demise? Is it so destroyed in the wreckage that it doesn’t even matter?
• Vecna’s weird sexual tension with pretty much everyone makes me deeply uncomfortable. He’s second only to Papa on the “so he’s definitely some kind of pervert, right?” list
• I hope they fix the lighting issues in season 5. From Lucas being carelessly and improperly lit, to certain scenes having such low visibility that we can barely make out the details, it’s getting tiresome. Netflix reportedly spent $30 million per episode of Stranger Things, so the least they could do is make sure we can actually see it all.