Only some hallucinatory nightmares for bit players, which portend a new evil at work in Hawkins, offer the promise of the necessary new adversary. When Stranger Things is just a story of teenage angst, exacerbated by cliche blonde bully Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin), the seams show via over-the-top costumes and uneven performances. You can feel the show’s narrative engine slowly revving up, but the wait is excruciating in part.
It takes three episodes to really click – an issue when the entire season has just nine episodes (the first instalment releases May 27, the second on July 1). The 1980s-set hit returns with a discombobulated set-up and dispersed ensemble cast. The initial episodes of the blockbuster show’s fourth season require you to consider a new concept: “The Inside Out”. In the paranormal period adventure that is Stranger Things, danger lurks in “The Upside Down”, the nightmarish parallel dimension that co-exists alongside the small town of Hawkins, Indiana.
