Hello and welcome to another week of the Banana Meter! For those not aware of how this works, let me explain it to you. First, our critics check out a series. Then, they rate it on our scale of 0-100%, we gather the percentage from all of your critics and that’s how we get our rating on the Banana Meter.
What is the Banana Meter scale, you ask?
When a show hits above 85% or higher from our critics, it means it hit Bonafide Bananas status.
When a show hits between 55-84% or higher from our critics, it means it hit Ripe status.
When the show hits under 55%, it means it hit Sour Status.
Hitting the Banana Meter today is
Stranger Things Season 4
Here is what our Ripe Banana Critics are saying about Season 4:
Beta_Critic
Banana Meter Rating: 40%
Season 4 falls prey to the Generic, Cliched and bland storytelling. Although it’s strong in technical Departments, it fumbles so badly writing-wise making me care very less about the characters and the world itself.
Ben Wiebe
Banana Meter Rating: 90%
Season 4 marks a return to form for the Duffer Brothers. The longer runtimes are expertly utilized to connect the previous seasons altogether, whilst providing the playground to dive into the darker sides of this loveable cast.
Matthew Simpson
Banana Meter Rating: 70%
Season 4 features all of the series’ strengths –a great cast, an excellent concept, impeccable production design– but also all of their weaknesses –overlong episodes and no real tension when it comes to the narrative. It’s not bad, but it’s a step down from season 3.
Serena Seghedoni
Banana Meter Rating: 85%
It’s not a perfect season overall, and I’m not sure switching the tone from sci-fi to horror worked in the show’s favor, as this “darker” season is gorgeous and filled with references but it also often forgets about character development. Fortunately, Vol. 2 makes up for that, providing us with plenty of epic moments as well as all the heart we’ve grown used to.
John Maffeo
Banana Meter Rating: 85%
A juggernaut of television that continues to excel with the strengths it has developed over the past 6 years, great characters, and fun use of inspiration from other nostalgic horror-based movies. Episodes keep you on the edge of your seat consistently like a book you just can’t put down.
Matthew Fox
Banana Meter Rating: 75%
It doesn’t hit the heights that Stranger Things has in previous years, but it’s a decent and engaging season. It feels more like set up for the final act and working to bring all our heroes together, which was nice. If nothing else, it’s an Emmy reel for Sadie Sink, who was the Season 4 MVP.
Ricky Valero
Banana Meter Rating: 45%
Overlong, boring, and overstuffed with storylines that never kept me interested. They failed to live on its promise and didn’t deliver any emotional weight that the previous seasons have. A massive letdown.
Brian Skutle
Banana Meter Rating: 80%
These episodes were way too long, but Vecna is easily the best villain the series has had, and- for the first time since Season 1- the series seems to want to deal with some of the panics of the ’80s, and not just be about pop culture connections. In the end, I cannot wait to see how Season 5 ends up.
Ripe Banana 