‘Stranger Things Season 4, Volume 1’ review: Everyone aboard the Upside Down for another fun round

Even though each of the seven episodes of Volume 1, Season 4 strange things Practically a mini-movie, it’s so entertaining and mind-blowing you don’t realize you’ve binged it, by the time the end credits roll in, and a hollow feeling in your stomach for forgetting to eat Is.

Season 4 begins six months after the climactic battle of Starcourt Mall, set in the summer of 1985. The Byers, Joyce (Winona Ryder), their sons, Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), move to Lenora Hills, California.

Eleven is a telepathic and psychokinetic girl who escapes from the Hawkins laboratory where “Papa” Brenner (Matthew Modine) is conducting experiments on her. He saved Hawkins from all evil from the alternate dimension of the Upside Down. But now, Eleven finds it difficult to adjust to the school in Lenora Hills with its bunch of average girls.

Mike, (Finn Wolfhard) who helped Eleven when she first escaped, and who he is dating, comes to Lenora Hills for spring break to find Joyce escaping to Alaska. Is. She visits the mysterious Yuri (Nicola Juriko) with her friend, Murray (Brett Gelman), with change after receiving a mysterious communication from Russia about an American prisoner.

At the end of Season 3, Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) appears to have died, but in the post-credits sequence, an American prisoner is mentioned in a cold maximum-security Russian prison…

While Eleven, Will, and Mike are dealing with their issues, and Jonathan is smitten with the ultimate stoner and pizza delivery boy Argyle (Eduardo Franco), Hawkins is bustling from the Upside Down.

A frightening creature, the Vecna, targets the troubled teens’ minds and destroys them from within. Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), the leader of the D&D club at Hawkins Middle School, Hellfire Club, is the prime suspect. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) puts her journalistic instincts to good use by remembering Victor Krell (Robert Englund), a ’50s serial killer whose family met a similarly sticky end.

Max (Sadie Sink) still has nightmares about his half-brother Billy (Dacre Montgomery). When she is targeted by Vecna, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Nancy is joined by her ex-boyfriends Steve (Joe Keery) and Robin (Maya Hawke), who work with Steve. . Decay in Hawkins. Lucas’ 10-year-old sister Erica (Priya Ferguson) is also helping him.

When Sam Owens (Paul Reiser), the sympathetic Department of Energy executive, takes Eleven to a secret facility in an attempt to help her regain her powers, and the home of government officials in suits and colors, Jonathan, Will, Mike And descend. Argyle decides to do some digging on his own. When they learn that some serious hacking is needed, they turn to Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzy (Gabriella Pizzolo), for technical support.

Eleven finds himself back in the lab with Papa, who is wielding all sorts of evil minds. The only person who tries to help her is Peter Ballard (Jamie Campbell Bower), a sort of orderly in the lab.

he made all strange things What happened is in spades. From scintillating ’80s soundtracks (including “Tarzan Boy” and “Amadeus” among others) to analog devices, richly drawn characters, genuine thrill, horror and humor, all served on a delicious Spielberg-inspired platter Is.

While Will would have been welcome to spend some more time deciphering Mike’s comments about not liking girls last season, a tight rein has been put on all the moving parts to offer a coherent, cohesive thrill ride. . The extra time spent in the mysterious Upside Down is heartwarming. The bromance between Steve and Dustin is sweet, Argyll is legit funny, and so is Eddie who takes the time to congratulate Steve on his OG move with the Demogorgon. Murray laughs out loud by tricking Yuri.

And on July 1st is the two-episode epic finale…

Stranger Things season 4 is out, Volume I streams on Netflix from May 27