The 13 Most Frustrating Things About 'Stranger Things' Season 4

Stranger Things simply must stop using the power of love to save the day. Specifically, the show has to stop relying on Mike's love for Eleven because by the season finale, it felt beyond forced. Will's claim that Mike is the "heart" of the group hasn't been true since maybe Season 2, and after spending almost a year stringing El along through half-hearted letters (signed “from,” not “love”), there's no way he has the same feelings for her that she has for him.

Eleven tapping into her powers through her own self-confidence, or even through her friendship with Max, would provide a much more satisfying character beat. It's frustrating to see the series return to this old standby rather than thinking of something new or allowing Eleven to be more self-assured.

What was the point of this? Truly, why would Eleven lie to Mike about a group of kids who not only actively bully her, but who put her through the kind of mental torment that would be understood as emotional torment today?

It makes sense that Eleven wants to present a rosy picture of her California life to Mike, but why not make up a friend group out of students who aren't so antagonistic and cruel? Even if Eleven doesn't have friends, per se, surely there must be at least one or two students who don't actively seek her destruction. Is she so delusional that she thinks Angela and her crew of cretins will go along with her story?

The unfortunate reason behind El's decision is that it's a story device to get her to the secret base out in the desert - but couldn't the writers have accomplished that without a bunch of unnecessary, illogical drama?

The escape from the Byers house is one of the coolest scenes in the entire season, but it's almost like this climactic moment serves as the end of the subplot for Mike, Jonathan, Will, and new addition Argyle. Once the crew hits the road, they spend the rest of the season driving around looking for El, trying to figure out how to get to Hawkins, then making El's pool. Since the military seemingly stopped caring about Eleven after she blew up their helicopter, there's really no urgency or danger in this subplot, making it fall flat.

It almost feels like the additional characters and plot lines left some of the older characters with nothing to do. Especially depressing is seeing Will put on the back burner once again in the interest of more engaging storylines.

Season 4 is definitely not #relationshipgoals. Even in episode 1, the show teases two major breakups: Mike and Eleven, and Jonathan and Nancy. Both of these relationships are strained by distance, trauma, and the unfortunate truth that as people grow up, they grow apart.

Jonathan and Nancy don't speak to each other for the entire season until the final minutes of the last episode. While the actual breakup could happen in Season 5 - the last of the series - why wait to pull the trigger on something that's just going to take up time in a season that should be all about resolution?

The more troubling relationship belongs to Mike and Eleven. El clearly senses that Mike is no longer as invested as he once was, and despite Mike's cheesy monologue in episode 9, he seems more enamored with El as a Manic Pixie Telekinetic Experiment than as a partner with flaws and feelings.

Not only are Mike and Eleven children (okay, teens) who have their entire lives ahead of them, but they haven't seen each other for the better part of a year while Mike leans into becoming a high school goof and Eleven tries to find her footing as a normal girl. There's no reason these two need to be in a romantic relationship aside from the fact that they've already trauma-bonded to the extreme. Let them break up and figure out how to be friends while they finally close the portal to the Upside Down.

Sometimes it's fun to watch a collection of disparate storylines come together to form one cohesive narrative, but that's not what happened in Season 4 of Stranger Things. COVID delays definitely had a lot to do with the fractured storylines, but to never have all the characters in one place until the last 20 minutes of the season is a huge drag.

Of the four plotlines, the two that work the best are the most fantastical. El's training and rediscovery of her powers provides some finality to the story that began in Season 1, and the Nightmare on Elm Street riff in Hawkins is a lot of fun. It makes sense that these two stories would meet up in the dream world/Upside Down, but the California and Russia storylines feel like filler when everything's said and done.

Season 4 of Stranger Things may have come to a close, but the Russia subplot will never end. Hopper's many escape attempts from the frozen Soviet prison have melded with time and space - they've slowed our lives to the speed of sap leaking from a tree. What we're saying is, this subplot was way, way too long.

While viewers may experience some initial excitement when Joyce gets her own active storyline that puts her and Hopper back together, they may soon realize that in terms of the screenplay, the only reason Joyce and Murray travel to Russia - and the only reason they're stuck there so long - is to get the adults out of the way so the kids can embark on their multi-part adventure unhindered. What could have been a tight, exciting storyline quickly becomes repetitive and doesn't allow three stellar actors - David Harbour, Winona Ryder, and Brett Gelman - to show off their stuff.

In terms of character, it's deeply frustrating to see Joyce pushed aside yet again for the majority of the season. When she's not acting totally clueless, she's being tied up or going moon-eyed over Hopper. Joyce deserves to have an emotionally satisfying arc, and this is definitely not it.