Stranger Things 4 Fixes Season 3’s Biggest Villain Problems
Warning: Contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 4, vol 1.
The villains of Stranger Things season 4 are believable, scary, and clearly defined, unlike season 3’s messy mish-mash of Soviets, supernatural monsters, and vaguely defined government conspiracies. After a long wait, Stranger Things season 4 brings back some of the show’s existing villains while also introducing a slew of new antagonists, some of them paranormal monsters, and some of them very much human. However, whether they are returning characters or well-established foes, the villains of Stranger Things season 4 are far more well-rounded than the universally cartoony monsters of season 3.
One of the biggest problems in Stranger Things season 3 was endless villains producing endless subplots which, in turn, resulted in the show’s narrative drive stalling as there were too many character combinations to keep up with and too many strands to maintain tension effectively. While a Soviet assassin hunted Hopper and Joyce, a body-snatching monster consumed the denizens of Hawkins (while also simultaneously possessing local bad boy Billy). As if this weren’t enough, there were also Soviet scientists beneath the Starcourt Mall who took Robin and Steve hostage, as well as a largely-forgotten corrupt mayor and the original villains of Stranger Things, the almost-irrelevant Hawkins Lab.
Related: Why Stranger Things Doesn’t Need Spinoffs After Season 5 Ends
With so many interconnected and overlapping storylines, it was tough for any lone villain to make much of an impact in season 3. One of the biggest mistakes in Stranger Things season 3 was wasting Billy, a potentially interesting villain, by only giving the character a sympathetic backstory seconds before he was
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