How can the Duffer Brothers do this to us? After all the crazy build-up, we get two massive episodes, that are longer than necessary and so underwhelming!! I expected something bigger, better, faster, sinister and if not all of that… at least funnier? Like that ridiculous ‘our story’ song break at the end of season 3, where Suzie-Poo and Dusty-Bun serenade each other, while everybody else is on the verge of their deaths. Some of us hated it, some of us loved it, there was no in between. But Stranger Things Season 4 volume 2 was so in between. It was just MEH. Mediocre. Average. Okay-ish. Not bad. But not great either.

Also Read: Stranger Things 4 Vol 1 Review – Bigger Not Stranger, But Hellah Fun

Vecna/One/Henry Creel is made out to be a gullible villain, who talks too much. Why does he talk so much? The characters may as well have some tea and cake with him over a table and discuss childhood trauma. So, despite Vecna’s devious back-story and Jamie Cambell Bower’s powerhouse performance in the earlier episodes, his otherworldly demonic side turns out to be the weakest monster yet. There’s practically zero horror elements in the loooong episodes. Nothing chilling, nothing scary, nothing too tragic even. Moving on….

Why did they queer-bait viewers with a pointless ‘Will is probably in love with Mike’ sub-plot? Their screen-space is so minuscule, they could’ve just skipped that bit and kept things within the perimeter of friendship… unless they plan to carry that thread forward in a season 5. Maya Hawke’s Robin Buckley already stood for some wholesome queer representation. Why make Will cry a river? Poor thing. Oh there’s so much more crying this time around, the fun bits are barely there, even the otherwise sassy Erica doesn’t get any witty punchlines.

What about action? Even that is minimal. Joyce and Jim’s Russian storyline had such explosive potential, they could’ve turned the gore on, given us a bloodbath, a massacre, anything… instead we get a medieval sword-fight between Jim and an already half-burnt creature. Boo.

The trademark 80s synth-pop music was one of the few interesting things about volume two, everything else was just… eh.