According to the show’s stars, Stranger Things season 4 will have higher stakes than ever—but the Netflix hit should lean into its more comedic side in this outing. Debuting in 2016, Stranger Things soon became a word-of-mouth success story for its creators the Duffer Brothers, and streaming service Netflix. A small-town mystery with horror and sci-fi elements, Stranger Things drew in viewers with a combination of ‘80s nostalgia, coming-of-age dramedy, and some surprisingly brutal moments.
However, as the show continued and gained a bigger fandom, a subtle shift occurred in the tone of Stranger Things. In season 1, Stranger Things was inspired by Prisoners, a dark, uncomfortable domestic drama about a kidnapping case destroying a family. The series, like the movie that inspired Stranger Things, saw its stars driven to the brink of madness by a dark, labyrinthine conspiracy and featured remorseless human villains as scary as its more literal monsters.
In contrast, season 2 upped the fun factor and added a faster pace to proceedings, only for season 3 to double down on this approach and enter into some full-blown action-comedy territory. For comparison, one of the most important reveals in season 1 of Stranger Things revolved around a small boy’s dead body being discovered drowned in a lake. In contrast, one of Stranger Things’ biggest season 3 reveals was that Russian spies had set up a secret lab beneath a suburban mall in Indiana. By far the goofiest season so far, Stranger Things season 3 turned the show’s elements of campy humor up to eleven and indulged in some seriously silly scenes like a shopping montage set to Madonna’s "Material Girl". However, fans loved this shift in tone and the lighter moments that came as a result of it, suggesting that instead of the tendency for the series to plumb ever-darker depths with each season, Stranger Things should lean into its comedic side in the season 4.
Stranger Things Season 4 Is Set To Be Darker Than Ever
According to series star season 4’s Hawkins Lab test subjects could easily manage, but which could be too bleak and sad for Stranger Things to pull off in tonal .
Fans Loved The Lighter Tone Of Season 3
Stranger Things season 3 was popular with fans of the show, and as such, it is easy to see why the creators would return to the approach that made the series so successful so far. However, despite the higher body count and more cavalier attitude to collateral damage seen in season 3 (which saw most of Hawkins’ unnamed townspeople mashed into the Mind Flayer by the season’s end), it was silly scenes like Dustin and Suzy’s cute duet that fans truly connected with. The scene of Dustin and Suzy singing The Never-Ending Story’s theme song was a bonafide viral hit for Stranger Things, racking up over 36 million views on Youtube. For a frame of reference, that is 14 million more than the show’s season 2 trailer, and 31 million more than the season 1 trailer earned. The most-loved moments of season 2 came from comical characters like Suzy and Dustin, proving that Stranger Things could benefit from a lighter touch.
Stranger Things’ Best Characters Are Comedic
Whether it is season 2’s rebellious newcomer Max, the lovable nerd Dustin, the hot-headed and braggadocios Lucas, the eternally gormless but good-hearted Steve Harrington, or the sardonic Robin, most of Stranger Things’ fan-favorite characters are comedic rather than serious figures. Even Stranger Things season 2 breakout Murray Bauman was introduced as a silly scene-stealer and ended up becoming a series regular by season 3 because fans of the show enjoy the addition of a character who can provide levity when the heroes are tangled up in life-threatening misadventures. The more serious characters like the Byers brood, Eleven, Mike, and season 3’s meaner version of Sheriff Hopper are necessary to keep up the story momentum of Stranger Things, but focusing mostly on them drags down the tone of the show.
Giving characters like Robin a chance to shine instead of spending most of season 4’s screen time on Hopper’s struggle to escape Siberian exile would allow Stranger Things to feel fun and fresh, whereas an overly grim, self-serious season could feel hopeless fast. The main cast already thinks Hopper is dead, and with Netflix offering a similar but scarier small-town horror story in the Fear Street trilogy, Stranger Things needs to be fun more than it needs to be dark heading into season 4. That switching up the show's tone would mean more time with its most-liked characters is just another fringe benefit.
A Funnier Stranger Things Should Be Less Violent
Since Stranger Things has committed to upping its body count, the stakes have been paradoxically lowered. In season 1, only a few characters died and did so with little fanfare, meaning Eleven’s big sacrifice seemed like a real deal death. After Hopper offed a dozen Soviet soldiers and a Stranger Things season 3 had too many plot strands that went nowhere, meaning season 4 could trim the excess story by killing off fewer characters and having more fun with the core cast. Thus, the best move for Stranger Things season 4 is to head in a funnier, and not merely darker, direction.