Aww man, I'm so disappointed in this season.
For me, each new season had been better than the previous one.
Absolutely loved season 3 for the incredible balance between each group, and for its very fun story toying with the cold war's communist paranoia in the US (the communists are actually hidden within the capitalism's church : the mall ! So much fun)
But in this one, the groups felt so unbalanced to me. Jim's story in the gulag straight up felt useless. Never thought he would spend the whole season in there lmao.
Mike, Will and co, despite being a fun group thanks to pizza dude, is 100% useless until the very last episode.
And was very disappointed to, once again, going back to some "Eleven's life in the lab" flashbacks. And it never ended, by far the most boring moments of the season for me. Where the character started in this season had so much potential ! She, a girl who never experienced a normal life, is trying to live one at the place where people will tear you apart if you don't fall into their societal standards : the high school ! But it didn't last long, and didn't even had any real conclusion. Early on the season, I was wondering what would happen between Eleven and her bully by the end of the season. Will they bond ? Will they confront again ? Oh well, nothing actually lmao.
As for the good points, as always, some fun new characters. Eddie is indeed very cool, but his death was predictable from the beginning because we watched the other seasons and his character fell into the "this weirdo man is actually very cool and you know he will die a hero" category. Could have been such a great addition as a permanent member of the gang for the final season.
Pizza dude was a great new addition because he's an antithesis of all the other usual new characters the show introduce. Having a guy who is basically just a stoner pizzeria employee was great. Not much more, no secret dark past, no hidden pain within him, just a stoner and a good friend, that's it, lmao.
Jason was a good villain, a very believable menace. When he was around, you knew shit was about to go down. And I join Lord Azrael's feeling of how they wrote him off. You don't kill off one of your season's villain like that, that felt very cheap. I agree with the sentiment that it feels like the writters didn't really know where to go with him. They probably made him too much of a menace for their own good lol. Would have been cool to keep him for the final season.
Anyway, I hope the final season will be good. As long as they bring back a good balance between the groups (make them all useful to the plot and make them all participate to the main mystery and it'll be already a good point !) it should be fine.