Though Stranger Things is a well-loved classic, the series is not without its problems, which appear even worse in light of its biggest comparison to Netflix's Dark. With Stranger Things season 4 releasing sometime in 2022, it looks like the show will once again deliver its signature supernatural phenomena, '80s throwback vibes, and strong ensemble cast. But with three seasons of the same already under its belt, Stranger Things might be creating a problem for itself when it comes to repetitive storylines.
The beauty of Stranger Things season 1 was its well-paced mystery that was both original and nostalgic, the interconnected storylines that come together in the end, and the creation of solid character arcs for most of the main cast. These aspects made the series an enormous hit for Netflix when it was first released in the summer of 2016. Dark, which came to Netflix a year and a half later, shared many of Stranger Things' key attributes. The German show featured a small town with creepy secrets, missing kids, and a gateway to dangerous other worlds. Dark also had a large cast in which different characters or groups went on their own tangential journeys that eventually intersected, much like Stranger Things.
But the two mind-bending Netflix originals differ in a key way that highlights Stranger Things' biggest weakness. While Dark concluded its intended 3-season run in 2020 with a fairly definitive ending, Stranger Things is plowing right ahead with season 4 and doesn't show signs of stopping. This is good news for dedicated audiences who have many unanswered questions they hope to see explained, but it also points to a dangerous road Stranger Things seems to be going down story-wise. After the success of season 1, every subsequent season has followed the same exact arc, with the result that the series is losing its captivating edge by becoming too predictable.
The Stranger Things season 4 trailer reveals some potential twists, but seasons 1-3 have indicated that the show tends to structure every season the same way. Each season thus far began with something spooky happening connected to the Upside Down (always at Will's expense), and from there, tension mounted while different groupings of characters chipped away at different sides of the same puzzle. At the end of each season, the characters then came together to launch a high-stakes battle against the forces of evil. The nature of this evil hasn't even changed season to season; season 1's Demogorgon and season 2's Mind Flayer come from the same world, and season 3's main antagonist is just the Mind Flayer again, only in a different form. Thus, it's likely season 4 won't diverge too much from this established course.
Dark, by contrast, steadily ramped up its complexity and stakes over the entire course of its 3-season arc, meaning Dark season 4 definitely won't happen. Instead of rehashing the same plot with new embellishments each season, Dark continuously made shocking revelations that changed the entire course and tone of the story while still building towards the finale. Unlike in Stranger Things, it was quite hard to predict where Dark's story was going most of the time. Likewise, each season of Dark eschewed the sort of pseudo-closure that Stranger Things usually reached for in its finale episodes, with the result that the former show never needed a jump-start at the beginning of a season, as the latter still does. The closure at the end of Dark truly felt clean, final, and satisfying, something Stranger Things might be hard-pressed to achieve at this point.
Comparing these two similar Netflix shows side by side highlights the rut Stranger Things has fallen into and means that Stranger Things season 4 needs to fix this story issue to avoid becoming burned out and dull. Both Dark and Stranger Things are strong series that spin highly original, engaging mysteries. The latter deserves to have an ending as well-planned and executed as the former, eventually. To do this, it needs to take a page out of its biggest Netflix comparison book in order to avoid worsening story problems.