It has been nearly three years 

since the last season of the Netflix 
original series “Strangwer Things” 
graced our screens, in July 2019. 
That time was not wasted. After the 
success of season three, hints of what 
was to come for the show’s beloved 
characters kept rolling in. From 
casting announcements to the news 
that the season would be released 
in two volumes, things felt different 
this time around. The stakes became 
higher following confirmation from 
show creators Matt and Ross Duffer 
that season four would be the second 
to last of the show: “The beginning of 
the end,” as they put it. 

With the season’s plot taking place 

across two countries and spanning 
decades, it was poised to be either the 
best season yet or the most scattered.

Lucky for us, the roll of the 

20-sided dice has played in our favor. 

The first episode picks up roughly 

nine months after the events of the 
previous season. While the majority 
of the original cast of characters 
have tried to regain normalcy for 
their lives in Hawkins, Will (Noah 
Schnapp, “Hubie Halloween”), Joyce 

(Winona Ryder, “The Cow”) and 
Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton, “The 
Souvenir: Part II”), along with Eleven 
(Millie Bobby Brown, “Godzilla vs. 
Kong”), have relocated to the sunny 
town of Lenora Hills, California. 

Each tries to move on from the 

effects of the Upside Down in their 
own way. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin, 
“The Boys Presents: Diabolical”) joins 
the Hawkins High School basketball 

team, Will learns to paint and Nancy 
(Natalia Dyer, “Things Heard & 
Seen”) leads the school newspaper. 
But then their classmates start dying, 

and our gang once again ends up in 
the center of it all as they work to 
learn the secrets of the creature in the 
Upside Down that they believe is the 
source of the killings: Vecna. As they 
pry into Vecna’s past, some startling 
revelations about the origins of the 
Upside Down and Eleven’s powers 
begin to be revealed.

While Hawkins may be cursed 

with ever-appearing problems, thank 

goodness the “Stranger Things” 
writers’ room is not. 

Wednesday, June 15, 2022 — 3 
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is a 

reboot done right

When I was in high school, 

my mom constantly teased me 
about my refusal to watch “Top 
Gun.” She always talked about 
how good of a movie it was and 
knew that a young Tom Cruise 
in a military uniform would be a 
strong selling point for me since I 
had loved “A Few Good Men.” But 
I was a spiteful teen — the more 
she made fun of me not having 
seen it, the less I wanted to. One 
winter night, my parents cornered 
both my sister and I, and I will 
admit the movie was better than 
I had expected (though a small 
part of me isn’t too willing to say 
that out loud). A few years and 
one global pandemic later, “Top 
Gun: Maverick” is finally gracing 
our movie screens after being 
pushed back several times. This 

time around, I was much more 
openly excited to see a “Top Gun” 
film, and I’m happy to say that the 
reboot exceeded my expectations 
— and even the original movie. My 
sister and I are already itching to 
see the film again with the rest of 
my family in tow, and we’re even 
brainstorming our own call signs.

Tom Cruise returns as Pete 

“Maverick” 
Mitchell, 
who 

has spent the last few decades 
working as a Navy test pilot. He 
doesn’t appear to have grown 
up much since the ’80s — he’s 
still cocky and reckless, pushing 
the limits of both his ability 
and his commander’s patience. 
Just as Maverick is about to be 
grounded permanently, his old 
friend Tom “Iceman” Kazansky 
(Val Kilmer, “Batman Forever”) 
calls him back to Top Gun as an 

instructor for an urgent mission: 
He must choose an elite team to 
destroy a uranium enrichment 
plant before it becomes fully 
operational. Among the younger 
pilots hoping to be chosen for 
the mission are Jake “Hangman” 
Seresin (Glen Powell, “Set It Up”), 
Natasha “Phoenix” Trace (Monica 
Barbaro, “The Good Cop”) and 
Bradley 
“Rooster” 
Bradshaw 

(Miles Teller, “Whiplash”) — the 
son of Maverick’s late wingman, 
Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony 
Edwards, “ER”). Rooster still 
holds a grudge against Maverick, 
both for his father’s death and for 
setting back his own career as a 
pilot.

Right away, the movie lays the 

nostalgia on thick. The opening 
credits are almost identical to 
the original, from the iconic main 
theme to the title card outlining 
the real life Top Gun program 
to shots of planes flying off the 

runway while Kenny Loggins’s 
“Danger Zone” plays in the 
background. But “Maverick” isn’t 
a total nostalgia grab, nor is it a 
reboot that completely copies the 
original material (looking at you, 
Star Wars). In fact, I’d argue that 
this film has more of a plot than 
the original. Instead of new Top 
Gun students competing to see 
who’s the best, the ensemble cast 
makes up Top Gun graduates, 
already the best, tasked with a 
mission that races against time 
and even gravity. The work that 
everyone does at Top Gun is 
dangerous, but the stakes are 
much higher when there’s an 
actual mission to complete — one 
that everyone may not come back 
alive from. 

Tessa Bailey’s ‘My Killer Vacation’ should be 

your next beach read

Tessa Bailey’s new novel, “My 

Killer Vacation,” is a fun, funny 
and killer vacation (get it?) from all 
other thoughts and responsibilities. 
Known for novels like “It Happened 
One Summer” and “Hook, Line, and 
Sinker,” Bailey pulls off another 
successful romance novel that will 
surely be a summer favorite.

The story combines the murder 

mystery genre with romance, which 
may be a combination that readers 
don’t see often. The novel’s main 
character, Taylor, is the reason 
why this seemingly odd mix of 
genres works. She is, in many 
ways, a traditional romance novel 
lead — brown hair, green eyes and 
a sunshiny smile to match her 
second-grade-teacher personality. 
However, she’s also a fan of true 
crime podcasts and harbors the need 
to prove to herself that she can be 

brave, which is why she hops on the 
investigation train after discovering 
a dead body in the vacation home 
she rented for herself and her 
brother. Taylor is paired with 
Myles, a bounty hunter love interest 
(complete with tattoos and a tragic 
backstory) who is intent on keeping 
her away from the investigation 
and the danger that comes with 
it. In these two characters, we see 
how two utterly different genres 
can come together in a puzzle that 
showcases the best qualities of both 
romance and mystery.

The novel’s success lies in its 

characters. As is the case with many 
romance novels, the side characters 
are a blast — especially Taylor’s 
brother Jude. He’s a hilarious 
addition to the book, constantly 
making remarks about the man in 
his sister’s life, while also being 
Taylor’s 
number 
one 
defender, 

protector, confidante and supporter. 
The scenes with Taylor, Myles and 
Jude are consistently entertaining 

because their dynamic works so 
well.

Taylor 
and 
Myles 
fit 
the 

stereotypical 
“grumpy/sunshine” 

romance novel trope, but their 
interactions rarely seem cliché or 
predictable. The murder mystery 
at hand allows readers to see them 
outside of a completely romantic 
context. 
They 
also 
both 
have 

external worries, concerns and 
insecurities, ensuring that they 
are not solely defined by each 
other. A romance novel’s greatest 
downfall is when its characters 
are so wrapped up in each other 
that they forget everything else in 
their lives, often losing the parts of 
their personalities that made them 
lovable at the start. Thankfully, 
we don’t run into that issue with 
Taylor and Myles — they do learn 
from each other and change as a 
result, but never at the cost of losing 
themselves fully. 

SABRIYA IMAMI

Daily Arts Writer

‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Volume 1 proves 

the series can evolve, just like its villain

MALLORY EDGELL

Daily Arts Writer

HANNAH CARAPELLOTTI

Daily Arts Writer

This image is from the official trailer for “Top Gun: Maverick,” distributed by Paramount.

Read more at michigandaily.com

Read more at michigandaily.com

This image is from the official trailer for “Stranger Things 4,” distributed by Netflix.

Read more at michigandaily.com

