4 Things We Loved (& 3 We Didn't) About 'Stranger Things' Season 4

An explosive season of 'Stranger Things'!

Editor’s note: this post contains spoilers for season four of Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Created by Matt and Ross Duffer – a.k.a. the Duffer Brothers – Stranger Things has been one of the most successful shows in Netflix’s history.

Since its premiere in July 2016, Stranger Things catapulted young actors like Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Noah Schnapp (Will), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), and Finn Wolfhard (Mike) to mainstream success. The series also reinvigorated the careers of veteran actors such as Winona Ryder (Joyce) and David Harbour (Jim Hopper).

Over time, viewers have watched these young actors literally grow up in real-time while their characters are further developed throughout the seasons. In 2022, season four of Stranger Things finally dropped on Netflix with a lot of hype surrounding it. Thankfully, longtime fans and new viewers were mostly not disappointed by the new episodes.

From classic 1980s songs going viral on TikTok to new characters becoming immediate fan-favorites, the fourth season of Stranger Things delivered on its promises and still managed to keep audiences on their toes at all times. Despite having so many exciting storylines and scenes, though, one can also argue that Stranger Things 4 had a few unexpected low points this year.

Now that both parts of Stranger Things season four are out on Netflix, it’s time to look back at what worked – and what didn’t work – on this season.

Loved: The renaissance of “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush.

Kate Bush released “Running Up That Hill” in 1985 as the lead single off her album Hounds of Love. The song was pretty successful, reaching no. 3 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart and no. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

One of the very best things to come out of Stranger Things 4 was the “renaissance” of Kate Bush when it comes to younger audiences. As Max’s favorite song on the show, “Running Up That Hill” became a viral sensation on TikTok and even reentered the Billboard chats nearly 40 years after the song’s original release.

Didn’t love: Will’s (lack of) “coming out” story.

After dangling Will’s potential queerness in front of viewers’ faces for four seasons, producers finally declared that the character’s sexuality would be more directly addressed – and perhaps even explained – in the second part of Stranger Things season four.

While there is no need for writers to necessarily “label” Will’s sexuality on the show, he is clearly going through a closeted process that seemed like was going to be better explained in the final episodes of season four. As a result, fans were pretty disappointed upon realizing that Will’s sexuality was once again ignored and not better explained in any way.

Loved: Robin conquering up her fears to talk to her crush.

Unlike Will, Robin had a fantastic coming out scene with Steve in the third season of Stranger Things and built up an even more hilarious and entertaining friendship with him in season four. Besides the Vecna of it all, Robin’s main storyline on the show this year was having a massive crush on a girl in her school named Vickie (played by Amybeth McNulty). After going back and forth all season long with Steve about whether or not Vickie would be interested in girls, Robin ended the season gathering up enough courage to talk to her ultimate crush and not even care if the conversation went as perfectly as she had hoped it would be. We loved to see it!