With filming delayed on Stranger Things season 4 the show’s creators need to use this issue to their advantage by fixing the ending of season 3 and setting season 4 at Christmas. Created by Hidden directors the Duffer Brothers and originally entitled "Montauk" early in its development, Netflix hit Stranger Things is a well-deserved success story for the streaming service. Now entering its fourth season, Stranger Things is a unique mash-up of horror, sci-fi, coming-of-age dramedy, and 80s nostalgia that succeeds despite that unusual description thanks to twisty plotting, witty writing, and a superb multi-generational cast.

Although Stranger Things has received a lot of critical love since it debuted in 2016, season 3 of the show received some criticism for changing the character of David Harbour’s Detective Hopper into a more mean-spirited and thuggish cop than before. Season 3 created a problem for the future of Stranger Things as the season ended on too definitive a note, wrapping up its storylines too neatly. Since Stranger Things is currently shooting its fourth season, it’s clear that the season 3 ending didn’t need to close proceedings so completely, which is an issue that the show will need to address going forward.

Related: Stranger Things: Eleven Keeping The Door Open 3 Inches Started Way Earlier

Stranger Things season 3 will be a difficult act to follow as its closing scenes left the show's cast scattered across America (and seemingly dead, in one pivotal character's case). Season 3 ended with the death of not only the show’s biggest villain so far, the IT-inspired bully Billy, but also Detective Hopper who (seemingly) sacrificed his life to save the rest of the cast. However, a post-credits scene teased (and an early trailer later confirmed) that Hopper actually survived this feat and is currently stranded in Siberia. But the kid cast of Stranger Things, as well as teens Jonathan and Nancy, were still split up for good by Joyce Byers’ choice to move away with her sons and Eleven. It was a poignant ending that left the group heading in different directions and unsure when—if ever—they would meet again.

Season 3's Ending Was Too Much Of A Full-Stop

Hopper Stranger Things David Harbour

The final moments of Stranger Things season 3 ended on too definitive a note for a finale that's aiming to return. That ending was more like what you'd expect of a final episode of the entire show. The final episode split up Jonathan and Nancy as well as the gang of Mike, El, Dustin, Max, and Lucas up as a final season would, posing a problem for season 4's opening. Fortunately, there is a way for the show to address this narrative challenge. The Byers clan moved on from Hawkins for good reason, as it was not only the site of Will’s disappearance but also the death of Joyce’s love interest Bob Newby, the apparent death of Hopper, and the gruesome demise of Jonathan’s entire workplace. With all this trauma attached to the town, it’s not like the Byers brood would just move home randomly on a whim—unless they were visiting their friends and family for a very specific reason, that is.

Seasons 2 And 3 Centered Around Major Holidays

The Stranger Things kids in Ghostbusters costumes

There’s an established formula for Stranger Things using holidays as its setting, and the show has good reason to return to this system. Already Stranger Things has centered seasons 2 and 3 around Halloween and Independence Day respectively, timing the Netflix release of these seasons to coincide with the real-life holidays. Now that season 4 will be delayed by COVID, there’s no better excuse to push its release off to Christmas 2021 than by actually setting the season at Christmas. Strangers Things season 4 needs to return to what works for the show, so it would benefit from focusing on Hawkins Lab as villains instead of the Russians and from holding onto a holiday-based setting when the show returns.

The first season of Stranger Things used Christmas to wrap up its action and assure the audience that everyone got their happy ending, only to flip this warm and fuzzy atmosphere on its head (literally) when Will had a flashback to the Upside-Down. Season 2 and 3’s Halloween and Independence Day, meanwhile, were used as an excuse for the town of Hawkins to not notice supernatural goings-on since they were distracted by costumes, carnivals, and general revelry. The holidays were also a solid excuse to explain away why the kids were rarely in school, something season 4 can also repeat.

Related: Stranger Things: Billy's Season 3 Arc Made Hopper's Mistakes Even Worse

Christmas Gives Season 4 A Reason To Bring The Gang Back Together

Stranger Things Season 3 cast

With the Stranger Things cast split between Hawkins and wherever it is that the Byers are now living (with Eleven in tow) in season 4, there are few opportunities to bring the teens back together where school schedules wouldn’t get in the way of the show's action. Season 3 got around this by using the summer holidays, and since Hopper is stuck in Siberia regardless, the least the show can do is reunite its young cast by having them all home for the holidays, a rare time of the year when the kid stars could realistically reunite and have another life-threatening adventure. They have developed a sort of kinship through shared trauma that cannot easily be put aside - nor should it - and having that sort of unconventional family drawn back together makes a lot of sense.

'80s Movies Loved Christmas Settings (And Netflix Love Christmas Specials)

Gremlins

Gremlins, Die Hard, everything Shane Black ever wrote… The '80s culture that inspires every season of Stranger Things loved to use the aesthetic of Christmas, both sincerely in the likes of Bob Clark's A Christmas Story, and subversively in the decade’s stream of Yuletide slashers (inspired by the same Bob Clark's Black Christmas). With its sweet coming-of-age dramedy and creepy sci-fi horror scenes, Stranger Things could pay homage to both these modes nicely. Not only that, but there's a precedent set by the streaming platform that a Stranger Things Christmas could follow. Smaller Netflix original series such as The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Bojack Horseman have already received Christmas specials to promote their respective shows between seasons and fill in some gaps in their canon, which makes a Stranger Things Christmas season an even more logical addition to the series.

Fundamentally, Stranger Things season 4 needs a smaller, more intimate story to re-establish the tone of the show after the messy, overcomplicated season 3 offered a dramatically bigger, but much less impactful action-horror genre mashup. Thus the best route for Stranger Things to take in creating a more small-scale and emotionally involving storyline is bringing the young cast back together for Christmas, returning Mike, El, Dustin, Max, and Lucas to Hawkins Indiana, and offering a Yuletide fusion of horror, sci-fi, and good old holiday cheer that can match the festive-but-foreboding ending sequence of Stranger Things season 1.

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