Every great adventure comes to its conclusion, and so it will soon happen for the TV series that since 2016 brings Netflix viewers back in time, with great insistence and conviction, to the 80s. 

Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1 arrives on the platform on May 27th and, for the first time in its history, not all of it will be available to binge-watchers out there. The first thing to know in this review of Stranger Things 4 Part 1 (episodes 1 to 7) is that the Differ Brothers series has been divided into two chapters and that, if the first, the one we are talking about here, arrives at the end of May, to see the second block of episodes, the two final ones, we will have to wait until July 1st.

Not bad, because although the seventh episode ends with a big cliffhanger and a gigantic question mark, the wait isn’t too long and, in this case, it could increase the pleasure, also because, this time, the episodes of the fourth season they all last over 60 minutes, over an hour per episode for our fourth time at Hawkins. In detail, the first episode lasts one hour and 18 minutes, the seventh (the last of the first volume) one hour and 38 minutes. The shortest episode, the third, lasts one hour and 3 minutes. But the longest episode is the ninth and last: two hours and 30 minutes.

Stranger Things 4 Part 1, What Happens to Hawkins?

But let’s get back to what really interests us, which is what happens to our young heroes in this fourth and final cycle of episodes. At the end of the painful events that led to the defeat of the Soviets in Season 3, but the apparent death of Hopper (David Harbor), Joyce (Winona Ryder) decides to leave Hawkins along with his boys, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Will ( Noah Schnapp), also adopting Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), orphaned (still) by Jim’s disappearance and extremely distressed in her new life outside her shell. 

Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) try to find a new balance since they have “lost” Will and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) seems more interested in being popular than he is hanging out with his old friends. Max (Sadie Sink), on the other hand, has to deal with the traumatic events of the past season, she too, in the tragic conclusion of the story, has lost someone, her stepbrother who had been possessed by the Mindflayer and who had finally sacrificed to save her. This process of mourning will lead her to isolate herself. 

Meanwhile, Nancy (Natalie Dyer) works at the town newspaper, dreaming of college, perhaps with Jonathan, and Steve (Joe Keery) and Robin (Maya Hawke) are busy in their video rental work, consolidating that strong bond of friendship (platonic with the Capital P, cit.) Established in the third season. Meanwhile, in a prison in the snow-covered desert of the Russian steppe, an American prisoner makes plans to escape … And while everyone prepares for spring break, Hawkins has a brutal murder of a teenager. The troubles for the Indiana town are not over yet.

Matt and Ross Duffer have decided to divide our heroes for their final adventure. The “action groups” will in fact move independently, unaware of what happens to the other during the whole affair. Parallel adventures that, however, somehow see them collaborating, unaware, even from a distance. Used to dealing with oddities and the Upside Down, our young heroes won’t be easily intimidated by what lies ahead. But this time the threat is ancient and seems to go back to the origins of all the evils that have plagued the city.

The great tribute to Stephen King and It

Stranger Things 4 Part 1 is very dense, with references, and quotes, but also ideas of staging and from the point of view of the development of the plot. Obviously, not everything is original, but everything is certainly designed to offer viewers the most all-encompassing experience ever had with the series. Of course, the main source of inspiration for this season, now more than ever, is Stephen King and his masterpiece It. We’ll let viewers find out how, but the thrilling king is honored with a grounded element of the plot that is elegantly incorporated into the story. inside the story.

Then there is the feeling of “closure”, since, although the story is new and waiting to be discovered, it goes back in time to bring to the surface the origins of the evil that hides in the Upside Down, also going to shed light, more and better, on the origins of Eleven and on the laboratory that saw her as a guinea pig for most of her life.

A repetitive pattern for an easter egg mine

Stranger Things 4 Part 1 confirms itself as an excellent product, rich and curated, which still in the fourth season represents the best of what Netflix has produced up to now. Of course, it is always based on the same narrative structure, repeating itself, again this time, with exasperating punctuality, but it guarantees entertainment and involvement of the viewer, also giving them a certain taste in finding details, quotes, and easter eggs.