When I saw the runtime of each of the episodes of Stranger Things season four I was concerned because I wondered how they would be able to fill up that time, but thankfully this first episode really surprised me.

We once again join the group that we have known since season one as they embark through high school and have started to take different paths. Will and Eleven have moved to California with Joyce and are starting a new life there while the others are still in Hawkins and dealing with the ramifications of the end of season three, which includes Max still dealing with the death of her brother and Lucas wanting to become more popular in school.

But at the start of this episode we are transported back to when Elven was still in the facility for mind control and we see that her beginnings were a lot darker than we first expected. I really enjoyed this because it built up a lot of excitement for the rest of the season and how this will fit into the overall story, and even with the end of the episode showing a new supernatural bad guy being introduced, you really want to continue watching to see how he fits in with the overall narrative and how this will affect the group, especially now that they are in two separate locations.

What I love about this episode is that while it was longer than the ones that we have watched before it didn’t feel like it. At no point did it feel like it dragged because it was building up so much excitement and intrigue and at no point did you want to skip forward to see what was going to happen, but instead sit and watch and enjoy every moment. I feel that’s the wonderful thing with Stranger Things, as we have seen these kids grow up into these young adults you feel a real connection to them and want to find out what will happen to them, and I’m very excited to see how it unfolds.

Overall this first episode was absolutely perfect, it set up a lot of questions that I hope will be answered in later episodes and bought in new characters that are very enjoyable to watch and fit the chemistry of the group well. As I said, being in two separate locations now you wonder how it will all come together and work, but I am very intrigued to continue watching this season and I hope that it stays just as good as this first episode was.

What did you think of The Hellfire Club?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding