With such a high rating as 8.7 (t the moment I write this review) it seems like being a sourpuss or a nitpicker to have even the slightest reservations, but I still feel the need to get them off my chest.

Yes, all 4 seasons are very impressive, evolving from funny horror stuff for kids to almost epic proportions in the last season (even the duration of the last episodes being epic!). But as things grew bigger and bigger, I personally more and more lost my touch with the story as well as with all the characters, especially in season 4 where things got totally chaotic. Way too many characters, operating on way too many levels in way too many bizarre storylines, it was all extremely hard to follow, made even more difficult by the constant shifting between the present and the past or by things happening in real life and things happening in a state of... I mostly couldn't event tell: dream? Subconsciousness? Parallel life??

Sure, there were some nice, scary scenes and the CGI was at many times great, but Vecna himself, who should be the epitome of Most Fearsome Being Ever, looked most of the time just like someone in a not very scary black suit. Then there was this time-consuming second storyline in Russia, with endless depressing scenes of Jim in prison where hardly anything happened (until at last, but totally out of the blue, the monsters appeared!), and only in the very last episode they came up with a rather contrived link to Vecna.

All those kids that were so funny and endearing in the first season, in season 4 seemed to have grown into a bunch of rather poorly acting young adults, who were still made to come up with corny primary-school humor. Supposed heroin Millie Bobby Brown in my opinion can only put up two expressions: either a wide-eyed cry-face or an (intended) intense face, and her parading in several curious, unbecoming outfits, with constantly stretched-out arm to evoke her powers, was more laughable than impressive.

If the already announced season 5 will go further down this slope, I'll definitely give it up.