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Max (Sadie Sink) along with Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo): Oh, and Cold War, was there something?
Photo:
Courtesy of Netflix
Not always, but more and more frequently, journalists have to sign a so-called screener letter in order to gain access to a series or a film before the public.
Sometimes it's just about the embargo to be observed for reviews, sometimes it's asked not to reveal certain content, i.e. to spoil it.
Netflix's list for the fourth season of »Stranger Things« was long, among other things to be kept secret: »The fact that Max was cursed and saved by the music of Kate Bush.«
Now I can tell you, after all, you've known that for a long time.
Or not?
Then you weren't paying enough attention.
After all, everyone is talking about "Stranger Things" and the fact that Kate Bush's hit "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" from 1985 took the top positions on various download and streaming charts thanks to the series.
At least that's what Netflix and the makers of "Stranger Things" want.
But why this song, what's the point?
Hype doesn't hurt either - it's just a bit scary how well this marketing ploy works.
The song in the charts, the series on record course (number one in the Netflix top ten in 81 countries, most successful start of an English-language series).
The buzz is boiling.
But the use of "Running Up That Hill" in "Stranger Things" doesn't have a deeper meaning.
The hype has little to do with art.
Or only insofar as many people are now rediscovering or rediscovering this song of the century.
Because that is of course great art, a painful inventory of a relationship in which nothing works anymore, in which communication has become impossible.
'Is there so much hate for those we love?
Tell me, it's about us, isn't it?' Kate Bush sings, relentlessly pounding the mesmerizing beat as if trying to drive pain and despair deeper and deeper.
Kate Bush's lyrical self would like to swap places with her partner, walking in the other's shoes.
This is the deal with God that will never happen, which makes the reality all the more bitter.
In "Stranger Things," the protagonist Max (Sadie Sink) listens to the song over and over, a high school student traumatized by the death of her brother.
Would you like to swap places with him?
Possible, you don't know.
Anyway, "Running Up That Hill" saves Max from an evil entity that has kidnapped her and wants to kill her.
But why this song, what's the point?
It's still beautiful, but it doesn't contribute anything to the plot, doesn't add anything to the aesthetics of the series either, except for short-term situational drama, but fits seamlessly into the well-known eighties setting.
Pop culture has always been self-referential.
Songs, films, series end up in a huge pot, the contents of which are thoroughly stirred, and sometimes something tasty, rarely even something new, comes out of this process.
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer are particularly good at cooking Steven Spielberg movies, Stephen King books, and '80s music into a decadent mélange that tastes sugary nostalgia.
In view of the success of their series, the question of what is their own invention and what is simply stolen did not seem to arise.
But "Stranger Things" has long since become a series blockbuster that shares all the negative characteristics with its cinema brothers: too long, too bloated, too loud, too revolving around itself.
Whether it really needs nine episodes of near feature length to finally tell this story to the end (and then another season that has already been announced) can be doubted.
In any case, the first episodes of the new season are like Hubba Bubba chewing gum.
A huge mountain of merchandise
For the Duffers, the 1980s have always been a mere backdrop for perfect escapism.
The full wash of irony turns every reference to the beginnings of politics under Ronald Reagan into a laughing stock and is immediately fed back into the self-referential system.
Barely disguised surreptitious advertising for breakfast cereal, peanut butter or burgers is just part of the game, haha, and of course criticism of an identity-forming lifestyle consumerism that began in the eighties is chic - and yet it's really not meant seriously.
Oh, and the Cold War, was there anything that went beyond mere scenery?
In view of the newly forming power constellations as a result of the Ukraine war, the Duffers' indifference to the decade, which had intensive experiences with two hostile blocs, tastes particularly bland.
In this context, »Running Up That Hill« becomes a mere marketing tool on top of a huge mountain of merchandise.
It's actually a pity that he needed the air number "Stranger Things" to be rediscovered.