How ‘Stranger Things 4’ gets the terror of high school right
After three times between seasons, “ Foreigner Effects ” is back with an aged cast and a new trouble majority.
“ Foreigner Effects 4 ” is set in 1986, six months in Television- time since the gang from Hawkins,Ind. defeated the Spider Monster in the food court of the Starcourt Mall and baffled a Soviet plot in the shopping center’s basement. El, Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Sam have outgrown their dorky-cute phase. Now they ’re uncomfortably awkward, like a collection of humiliating prints from your 10th grade yearbook come to life uber-clumsy teens so socially inept in comparison to their high academy peers that they teeter on the cliff of unlikable.( The hair is particularly bad. Indeed for the ‘ 80s.)
The brilliance of “ Foreigner Effects 4 ” is that rather than buff over the unpleasantry, it leans hard into their clumsy, painful transition. Though the disaffection and shame of bullied high schoolers is a much tougher sell for a cherished sci- fi series than the pain porn of youthful adult dramatizations like “ 13 Reasons Why ” or “ Euphoria, ” “ Foreigner Effects ” channels that darkness into a fresh narrative that’s as much an ode to “ Hellraiser ”- period horror flicks as it's to growing pains.
Series generators, pens and directors Matt and Ross Duffer have always turned to flicks, shows and references from the Reagan times to set the tone for each season. Odes to the frothy nostalgia of “ Ghostbusters ” and “ Goonies ” worked when the gang was youngish, also nods to “ Fast Times at Ridgemont High, ” boardwalk culture and “ Indiana Jones ”- style adventure as they aged. But the misery of high academy calls for horror, naturally “ A Agony on Elm Street ” and the “ It ” miniseries are a many of the calls in Season 4, and the terror is as important cerebral as it's physical.
High academy social strata and courting are as confusing and dangerous to the boys as the alternate dimension beneath the face of their city known as the Upside Down. Formerly confident girls who had many issues expressing their wrathfulness have now stuffed it down, rendering them helpless and depressed. “ Cacodemonic fear ” has gripped the nation, Hawkins included. The new surge of supernatural tragedy gripping the community is being criticized on devil deification, i.e. anyone who plays Dungeons and Dragons or listens to hard rock. Did we mention that Dustin( Gaten Matarazzo) is now in a hard gemstone band? The true source of the murderous wrong is Vecna, a ghoulish man/ critter who resides in the Upside Down and thrives on destroying the residers from the inside out. Mining suffering and remorse is his thing, and he has plenitude to work with among the teens of Hawkins.
In the first seven occurrences of the penultimate season, all of which are now available to sluice on Netflix( the final two drop July 1), the old musketeers are scattered across the country and the globe. The terminally upset Joyce Byers( Winona Ryder) lives in California with sons Jonathan( Charlie Heaton) and Will( Noah Schnapp) and son- by- deputy Eleven( Millie Bobby Brown). Mike( Finn Wolfhard) is there too, visiting El over spring break, leaving his family Nancy( Natalia Dyer) and musketeers Lucas( Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin, Max( Sadie Sink), Robin( Maya Hawke) and Steve( Joe Keery) behind in Hawkins. Hopper( David Harbour), who was presumed dead last season, resurfaces in a Soviet captivity. Murray Bauman( Brett Gelman) joins forces with Joyce to free him. Dustin’s genius girl confidante Suzie( Gabriella Pizzolo) returns, and the scene in her Mormon ménage is one of the stylish. And thank virtuousness for Erica( Priah Ferguson). Lucas ’ loquacious 11- time-old family isn't as emotionally bombarded as the aged kiddies, so she emerges as a sharp armament against Vecna.
New to the party is metalhead and Dungeons & Dragons “ Hellfire Club ” master Eddie Munson( Joseph Quinn). He’s indicted of committing a string of heinous murders around Hawkins. The long- haired castaway contends that “ Forced conformity( is) the real monster, ” and he’s not entirely wrong. There's plenitude of fun to be had in “ Foreigner Effects 4, ” which both celebrates and parodies a decade that pushed conformity, traditionalism and questionable style. There are plenitude of headbands and sideways ponytails held up by Scrunchies. Lucas sports a Sprat ’n Play hairstyle. Joyce now yells at folks through a cordless phone that’s bigger than her head. The music includes speed essence by Extreme, some “ Detroit Rock City, ” stoner chorales by Musical Youth, one- megahit prodigies Dead or Alive and Falco. And of course, Kate Bush’s “ Running Up that Hill, ” which sets the tone for a moving sequence with Max.
But “ Stranger Effects ” doesn't calculate on 1980s saccharinity this time around. The series sets aside the high- powered halcyon lens it used in the history and allows high academy to be the torturous thing that it was, at least for those of us that didn't fit in. It’s heartbreaking when El realizes she’s noway going to be accepted by her peers “ I'm different. I don't belong. Everyone looks at me like I ’m a monster. ”
Season 5 will be the last, and we know what’s coming. The end of high academy, and with it, the implicit disbanding of this tightknit group. Or not. Because the oddest thing about “ Foreigner Effects ” might be its capacity to keep surprising us. Like its characters, it’s still growing — no matter howun-photogenic the trip.