Netflix's new release 'Stranger Things' Season 4 shows how American adults put kids in danger

Netflix's new release 'Stranger Things' Season 4 starring Millie Bobby Brown, Joe Quinn and others show how American adults put kids in danger

American public discourse is obsessed with the safety of children, even as in practice we often appear uninterested in or actively hostile toward children. In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a law that claims to protect children from sexual discussions in classrooms, but in reality will help criminalize and stigmatize discussion of LGBT identities, and force queer children, and queer teachers, into the closet. In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded to a rash of shootings of children by imposing a curfew on teens — even though evidence shows curfews do not protect young people from violence, but can criminalize normal teen behavior by children of color. And nationwide, the right continues to claim that people need unrestricted access to guns to protect their families, even as completely unrestricted access to guns keeps leading to horrific school shootings.

The vulnerability of children, and the indifference and ineffectuality of adults, remains at the center of Netflix’s hit retro horror series “Stranger Things.”

The vulnerability of children, and the indifference and ineffectuality of adults, remains at the center of Netflix’s hit retro horror series “Stranger Things.” In its fourth season, we return once again to Hawkins, Indiana in the mid-1980s. The (now high school-aged) heroes battle monsters from the Upside Down, a realm of evil magic that lurks underneath our own reality. Meanwhile, adults (with a couple of important exceptions) mostly refuse to believe children or actively put their lives in danger. If childhood is a horror, it’s because adults have designed it that way.

The fourth season is scheduled to be nine episodes. But only the first seven have been released; episodes 8 and 9 will launch on July 1. At the opening of episode 1, the gang is scattered; several key characters have moved out of Hawkins. But they slowly reunite to confront a new antagonist — a dark wizard they name Vecna, who curses selected individuals with nightmares and waking visions before floating them into the air, snapping their bones and tearing out their eyes.

Vecna mostly attacks teens and young people who are dealing with personal crises, guilt, neglect and family violence. He’s suicidal ideation embodied. The signs of Vecna’s curse — sleeplessness, headaches, substance abuse, irritability — read like a list of symptoms of depression. The protagonists actually identify his victims by stealing the files of the school counselor to find out which students have been struggling.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/netflixs-new-release-stranger-things-season-4-show-american-adults-put-rcna30909


Post ID: 3697d693-5ced-42b1-8f6b-b5b6b14cab1c
Rating: 5
Updated: 1 year ago
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