4x01 Chapter One: The Hellfire Club

[7.5/10] There is a lot going on in this nearly eighty minute bloat-fest of a reintroduction, so let’s start with the major sequence that show what Stranger Things does best.

The first is the opening flashback to Eleven’s massacre. I’m glad that Netflix included a content warning given recent events, because seeing an authority figure, even a tainted one, wander around a facility seeing dead children hit pretty hard. I’m usually able to emotionally separate fiction from reality when it comes to death and violence on screen, but in light of the real life images and stories we’ve been subjected to from Uvalde, Texas, it affected me more than I had expected.

All that said, it’s a very well done sequence. The surprise reveal of Brenner, the warm interactions between him and Ten, the utter chaos that slowly engulfs them, and the bloody, terrifying young Eleven staring back at him all sets a tone as the series kicks off its fourth season. Eleven is kind of a cinnamon bun, a mistreated child who deserves to have a normal life and be surrounded by people who love her. But she can also be dangerous, and that's wroth remembering too.

Hers is my favorite storyline in this overstuffed season premiere. It feels so sad and true to life to have a bright but socially awkward kid excited for school and the prospect of what the day could bring, only to have stuck up kids needle her, bad grades staunch her enthusiasm, and cruel bullies disrespect the things that she holds dear. Watching the dastardly queen bee make fun of Eleven when she talks about Hopper as her hero, or worse yet, wreck the diorama that Eleven made to honor him, makes your blood boil. You feel terrible for Eleven when she’s distraught from so much going wrong, but you also bear righteous anger on her behalf. You want her to give that callous popular girl a taste of her own medicine.

Yet, after that opening sequence, it’s low-key disturbing when Eleven reaches out with a raging fury, only to recall that she no longer has her powers. The mean girl deserves a little karmic recompense, but not to die. After seeing what Eleven did in a furor a mere seven years ago, it’s frightening to think what she could do if truly upset now.

It still might not be as scary as the closing horror sequence, when another popular girl, Chrissy, is tormented in her dreams and eventually raised and broken by some malevolent force. The Nightmare on Elm Street influences are hard to miss, but well-deployed. The show knows how to build suspense, with Chrissy’s horrifying insecurities about her weight turned into ominous moments that presage something more powerful reaching a claw into her psyche. The contrast between a seemingly nice young woman wanting to do anything to block out the sense that she’s losing her mind, before a skinless humanoid monsters ravages mind and body, makes for a disturbing conclusion to the episode.

The other half of that equation, though, is the biggest new character -- Eddie, a D&D enthusiast who plays guitar, sells drugs, and has been held back in high school for multiple years. I don’t know quite what to make of Eddie just yet. His big speech about the normies being afraid of D&D is pretty cheesy, but in other scenes, the character is charming and authentic, revealing a charismatic and recognizable type beneath all the countercultural bluster. He could easily fall into some standard tropes, but I’m curious to see where Stranger Things intends to go with him.

The third, and most impressive big sequence, is the intercutt between Lucas’ championship basketball game, and the climax to a D&D campaign hard-fought by Mike, Dustin, and Lucas’ little sister, Erica. The juxtaposition works to heighten both dicey “match-ups”, shows how one can be just as exciting as the other to the right crowd, and highlights the way in which Lucas and his friends are on different paths now. The shot-selection, scoring, and editing are all outstanding, and it’s the signature sequence of the episode.

I like the Lucas story well enough apart from it. We’ve gone a lot of places with the original kids already. Pointing him toward an attempt to break out of the Freaks and Geeks set, and instead position himself to get in with the popular kids to avoid bullying and ridicule, is a natural move for any dork who dreamed of being cool. It’s relatable and sad, as he asks his pals “as a friend” to try to move the culmination of their campaign, and instead sees empty seats where his compadres should be for his big game, and eventually watches them celebrate a successful bit of monster-slayage rather than his improbable game-winning heroics.

The Mike/Dustin/Erica business is solid too. We don’t get nearly as much in the way of character from them, but they build up the comedy this week. The montage of them reaching out to scads of people to sub for Lucas features the best humor in “The Hellfire Club”. And the choice to enlist Erica, replete with an American flag as a cape, no less, is inspired. Her routine works wonderfully in a D&D setting.

The rest of the storylines we see here vary from “solid” to “intriguing”, but don’t get enough oxygen to really confirm anything one way or another. I’m glad they’re following up on how Max’s life and attitude have changed after going through something as difficult as watching her stepbrother die. Again, the execution is a little generic, but it’s a rich vein worth exploring that makes what she went through in season 3 feel more meaningful.

I still love Steve and Robin as a pair, especially now that they have all their cards on the table. Robin working through the very real dangers of her crush on a fellow bandmate, that make it harder to muster up the courage to express your feelings even more than it normally is as a teenager, is all kinds of endearing and sympathetic. Her back-and-forth with Steve about the kind of people who pause Fast Times at Ridgemont High and being yourself is the right blend of sweet and funny. Again, we only gets wisps here, and Steve’s more comic relief than a character with a storyline, but I’m not necessarily complaining since he’s so good in that mode.

On the other hand, the other two points of his old love triangle remain dull. I’ve never given a damn about Nancy and Jonathan, and that hasn’t changed. Making pointing toward a potential break-up could be interesting, especially with Nancy pointed toward an ambitious school newspaper editor position and a future at a fancy college while Jonathan is pointed toward pot and scholastic rejection. But the characters, their relationship, and their new friends are all dull or, again, pretty standard archetypes. Another nerd character and a dimestore pothead foil for each of them does nothing for me.

Joyce and Murray fare a little better. We already have very good reason to suspect Hopper is back anyway, but Joyce muddling through an encyclopedia sales job while getting cryptic messages in the mail creates an immediate problem to solve. Her calls with Murray have a humorous bent to them, and the clue that Hopper’s alive is perfectly fine as a way to move that story along.

And that pretty much covers it. Even in an hour and twenty minutes, Stranger THings has to cover a lot of ground to reintroduce as much as it does here. Will Byers is pretty much an afterthought. We get one glancing interaction between Dustin and his girlfriend. There’s a new lead basketball player who’s surely fodder for a big kill later in the season. And, of course, there’s some new kind of Upside Down creature tormenting our heroes. With so many plots, only a handful of moments or characters truly have the chance to stand-out, and it tends to come with that trio of excellent sequences that remind you of the cinematic capabilities this crew has, even as the narrative feels jumbled from the jump.