I watched this last week but have not had time to write about it. It was so good that I have not been able to get it out of my head all week. Hopefully releasing all of my thoughts here will give me my brain back.
OK. This is going to be confusing so let me break this down as concretely as possible. Netflix is releasing this season in chunks. Chunk 1 dropped on November 26 and consists of the first 4 episodes totally around four and a half hours. Chunk 2 will drop on Christmas day and will total about six hours. Then the finale drops on New Years Eve and is about two and a half hours long. So it is like an incredibly long movie broken down into three chapters.
Episode four is the finale of chapter one. Think of it like the end of Avengers Infinity War. It has a distinct end, but it is merely setting the stage for the best part of the story.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed episodes one and two, episodes three and four are what really got my heart pumping. I already praised episode three in my last post. I was shocked that episode four was even better somehow. Hawkins is starting to fall into utter chaos... again. This time it involves all of the town's 9 -10 year old children. This includes a new favorite character Derek Turnbow. He goes from heal to hero faster than even Steve Harrington did. Derek has also injected some new humor into the show. His acting is very "Goonies" like. I don't know this for a fact, but I have a hunch that Derek was modeled after Chunk from The Goonies. (By the way, Jeff Cohen who played Chunk grew up to be a pretty handsome dude).
Even with my "no spoilers" rule, I think it is safe to say you are going to get to see some monsters in action this episode. You are also going to catch a "Great Escape" reference that made me stand up and cheer (I love that freaking movie!).
The crew has broken up into four distinct teams. they are all fighting a part of the battle or trying to solve a mystery. Again this reminded me of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame with tons of action and plot happening all over the universe. Somehow the Duffer Brothers managed to do an amazing job of keeping all of these stories straight without them becoming confusing or interfering with each other. Each team has a distinct job and it is incredibly fun watching them carry it out. Of course everything doesn't go to plan... what fin would that be?
It is hard to put my finger on which team is the most fun to watch. Some are funny (I'm looking at you team Robin) while others are just badasses (Hopper and Elle). To continue the Avengers analogy, Hopper and Elle have become a full on super hero duo. Some have become much tougher and more involved than before. But all of them are still very emo. I also love that there are multiple factions for our lovable gang to fight. Who knows where the next enemy will come from.
This might be a little spoilery...
End here if you want to be a complete blank slate.
Last warning.
If you have been waiting for Will to stop sucking. He no longer sucks. he no longer sucks in a huge way!