Stranger Things
With the final episodes of its fourth season Stranger Things is breaking all records and has already placed itself at the top of the most viewed English-language Netflix TV series in the world (trailing only Squid Game, which is precisely in Korean). It is no surprise, therefore, that the Duffer brothers, creators of this blockbuster series, want to capitalize on this success by expanding the narrative universe with other projects. These days, in fact, they have inaugurated Upside Down Pictures, a new production house that among the first things will be destined for projects originating from the adventures of Hawkins. The Upside Down "aims to create stories similar to those that inspired the Duffers as they grew up, which take place at the crossroads between the ordinary and the extraordinary, in which the spectacular coexists with the intimacy of the characters, in which the heart prevails over cynicism ".Upside Down Pictures will be led by Hilary Leavitt, a producer known for her work on titles such as Orphan Black and Ozark, and will produce series and films that will flow into the global deal that the Duffers have with Netflix. But not only that: the two are in fact also working on a theatrical show that will take place in the universe of Stranger Things and which will be produced not only by Netflix but also by renowned names in the world of the stage such as Sonia Friedman and Stephen Daldry. Daldry, theater and film director (he was nominated for an Oscar for Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader), will also be directing this new version.
As already announced in the pipeline there is also a live-action series that will act as a spin-off of Stranger Things: despite the rumors of the past few weeks that the new project would focus solo on characters like Eleven, Steve or Dustin, the Duffers have confirmed it will be a "1000% different" story. But in the future, other productions will also arrive: in fact, a new live-action series is being worked on from the famous manga and anime Death Note and always in the works is a television adaptation of The Talisman by Stephen King, co-produced with Steven's Amblin. Spielberg and Paramount Television; then there will be a new tout court project signed by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, already behind Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The Stranger Things course may also end with the next fifth season, but the creative future of the Duffers has just begun.
Why Stranger Things' Season 4 Finale Was an Epic Letdown
Spoiler warning: Stranger Things Season 4 spoilers abound.
Stranger Things had me in the palm of its hand. By the time Netflix's logo crackled on my TV screen ahead of the show's grand finale, I wondered whether season 4 would be Stranger Things' best yet. But when I rose from my couch at midnight, a full 150 minutes later, another question was on my mind.
Is that it?
The episode's final stretch begins with Eleven battling Vecna within the subconscious of Max – a super normal sentence if you've watched the show. Eleven deals a painful but indecisive blow to Vecna, who dissipates into evil dust while promising revenge. This is important: Vecna, the big baddie, is unambiguously not defeated. At that point, 30 minutes remained. More than enough time, I reassured myself, for a final battle to pop off.
See also: 'Stranger Things' Season 5: Everything We Know About the Upcoming Final Season
Following his showdown with Eleven, Vecna opens a gate to the Upside Down at the center of Hawkins, which causes a massive fissure through the town. The perfect precursor to one more clash! Local chumps chalk it up to an earthquake, but we the viewers know what's behind the ruptures. We see touching scenes of Hopper reuniting with Eleven and Max resting in hospital after narrowly avoiding death at Vecna's grotesque hands. Wouldn't it be unfortunate if these scenes were spoiled by a certain returning bad guy?
Alas, no. The Stranger Things theme begins to play as ash begins to fall on Hawkins like snow. The gang investigates, and sees hellfire erupting from Vecna's Upside Down gate. The screen flicks to black.
OK.
The ending didn't feel like a cliffhanger. It felt like a truncated episode. And remember, the finale was over two hours long! The finales for season one, two and three were all 60 minutes, and all featured decisive endings. In season four's finale, it took more time for less to be achieved.
It's not that all season finales need to see the bad guy perish for good. Vecna is the central force of evil in Stranger Things, and it's easy to justify his saga taking more that one season. But the scale of an episode needs to be justified by the story it tells. Instead of an epic story requiring a long runtime, it felt more like Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer decided on a 150-minute episode first and then figured out how to fill the time.
It makes sense that Vecna's saga would take place over two seasons. But if that's the case, why have a 2.5-hour finale for season four?
NetflixThe season's ambition was enormous. Netflix boasted that subscribers have collectively spent over a billion hours binging the horror-tinged season. I believe that: the nine episodes ran so long you'd only need a few dozen people watching them all to hit that lofty milestone.
I kid. Stranger Things season four's runtime of 13 hours is appreciably longer than the eight hours season three took up, but it was mostly time well spent. We got several worthwhile new characters in Argyle, Yuri, Dmitri and Eddie. Splitting the cast into four different locales was bold, and largely paid off. Vecna is the show's most gnarly villain ever, and was a harrowing boogeyman, particularly in the opening episodes. The saga of Eleven's efforts to regain her powers dawdled, but Stranger Things season four was mostly good shit.
And frankly, most of the finale was, too. Distracting satanic bats by playing Master of Puppets atop a broken-down trailer amid the apocalypse? Hell yes.
But it all served as buildup for a dazzling finish -- a finish we didn't get.
Now we wait for Season 5. The Duffer Brothers have promised the wait for the next season will be shorter than the two years that separated seasons 3 and 4. David Harbour, who played Hopper, reckons it'll hit Netflix in mid-2024.
There are already a few things we know about the next season. For starters, it's slated to be the last one. The Duffer brothers have also said that, to bridge the age gap between the on-screen characters and the actors that play them, it'll involve a time skip of some sort. And finally, the last episode is going to be really long.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Duffer brothers said that an issue in typical series is that the second-to-last episode is the gripping one because the finale has to include an emotional 'wind-down.' A movie-length ending is their preferred way to solve that issue.
'We're more likely to do what we did here, which is to just have a two-and-a-half-hour episode,' Ross Duffer said of season 5's finale. 'The wind-down is just part of a two-and-a-half-hour episode. I would expect the finale to be at least two hours,' Matt Duffer added.
That's no bad news. Two hours to cap off one of the decade's biggest shows? That makes sense. But it also highlights how little sense the scale of season 4's finale made. Because, as overused as the word is, Stranger Things' season four finale was epic. But, without a memorable ending, it was also a letdown.
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