I Love ‘Stranger Things.’ I Would Not Recommend It.

The show is a welcome escape for stubborn fans like me.

Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, blindfolded in a chair. Behind her is One, played by Jamie Campbell Bower.
Netflix

The past several weeks have left me desperate for the kind of break that only a show like Stranger Things provides: a true escape from real life. Now in its fourth season—the first half of which just premiered on Netflix—the series is still full of monsters, mysteries, and government conspiracies. And even though it’s more horror than sci-fi this time around, the adventures in Hawkins, Indiana, still have the charm of a cozy murder mystery.

The rest of the show is, well …

Stranger Things 4 sprawls to California, Russia, and beyond, and falls into the standard traps of a series that has outlasted its story: repeated false stakes, a less cohesive narrative, and the instant un-death of a major character from the previous finale. I lost track of the number of plot conflicts fixed by laughably implausible solutions or by pushing the limits of an already generous suspension of disbelief. At one point, someone gets rid of their prison chains by having their ankle crushed repeatedly with a steel mallet, only to sprint through the next scene (and the rest of the season).

Its shortcomings make the series hard to recommend to anyone who’s not a day-one fan. If you’re one of them, there’s enough ’80s nostalgia and quippy dialogue—along with the best villain since Season 1—to keep you engaged. But if you’ve only watched a few episodes and are wondering if you should catch up, you deserve to know the secret: The magic of Stranger Things is still based on the cultural hold it had in its first season.

Stranger Things nostalgia isn’t just for the ’80s, but also for the summer it premiered. I, for one, was a demogorgon for Halloween in 2016.

Yes, this is me. Yes, I take Halloween seriously.

My favorite mean tweet about Stranger Things 4 is one that stung when I read it:  “It’s time you all admit that Stranger Things had a decent season 1, and seasons 2 and 3 are shit, and season 4 will follow suit and the show is mostly trash. The nostalgia novelty can only last so long.”

The tweet is an exaggeration, but I agree with the sentiment about a show that was meant to be a miniseries and became too important to end. (Seasons 2 and 3 are indeed forgettable, if not bad.) I’ve written about the three types of long-awaited returns before: the money-grab sequel, the summer before sophomore year, and the triumphant return from hiatus. Even as a fan, Stranger Things fits the description of the first:

[The money-grab sequel] is the most common. It’s usually when franchises capitalize on the commercial potential of nostalgia and name recognition. It’s also a fool’s errand to recommend, because no one wants to hear a recommendation for Fast and Furious 12 ... The money-grab sequel is rarely wanted, rarely good, and rarely worth watching for anyone unattached to the original release.

Few shows get better over time and are worth recommending to new viewers after they’re done—Schitt’s Creek, Better Call Saul, and BoJack Horseman are rare examples. Far more common are the types of shows that never beat their first season and aren’t worth recommending for the long haul: Homeland, True Detective, The Walking Dead, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, How I Met Your Mother, and countless others.

I don’t recommend Stranger Things to anyone looking for a new series—if you somehow missed it before, it’s not worth starting now. I still love it, though, and I’m glad that it’s still good enough to be worth finishing. I might need another break from reality when the final episodes drop on July 1.

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This one’s a day early! Humans Being will still typically come on Saturdays, though!

Thanks to everyone for your replies to last week’s essay about patriotism and George Carlin. There were a million great responses, but since the topic inspired mostly personal stories that I don’t feel comfortable publishing,  I’ll instead share this email from a new reader, Mark, who emailed me about Scrooge McDuck:

“The most frustrating thing about the DuckTales reboot is that Scrooge is cast as a lovable character, when the original intent behind him was to show just how nasty and self-centered billionaires can be. It's actually a bit irritating to watch the show and think of the billionaire as the hero; I didn't realize Atlas Shrugged had been internalized so much by DuckTales, but there it is.”

I struggle with Scrooge too, Mark! I think the medium of animation definitely helps save his character from being fully seen for what he is: a selfish, adventure-seeking bajillionaire.

Because Stranger Things went full horror this season, this week’s book giveaway is It, by Stephen King. No explanation needed, except maybe a reminder that it’s over 1,000 pages—perfect for anyone looking for a long summer read. Just send me an email telling me the name of a show that you liked but wouldn’t necessarily recommend, and I’ll send the book to a random person who hits my inbox. You can reach me at humansbeing@theatlantic.com, or find me on Twitter at @JordanMCalhoun.

Jordan Calhoun is a contributing writer at The Atlantic.