Ahead of Stranger Things Season 4 debuting on Netflix, audiences knew that the adventure would be split into two parts, as the writing team had the time during the production’s delay due to the coronavirus pandemic to write all of the scripts for the whole season, resulting in its most expansive season yet. With the roster of beloved characters expanding and the mythology only growing more vast and complex, it’s hard to argue that creators the Duffer brothers needed to break up the experience into two parts as to not be overwhelming. Rather than splitting the season down the middle, this second volume is only two episodes, yet runs for a whopping four hours of story. Despite not feeling needlessly bloated, these extended episodes can be exhausting, though they also make for some of the most explosive encounters the series has seen, which is really saying something for the bombastic narrative.
