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Netflix Adds Content Warning To Stranger Things Season 4 After Texas Shooting

The long-awaited new season has some unfortunate thematic overlap with the recent tragedy.

18 Comments

In the wake of the school shooting in Texas that left 21 people dead, including 19 children, Netflix has added a last-minute content warning on the opening episode of the newest season of Stranger Things. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The first episode of Season 4 opens with a telekinetic massacre that includes the depiction of several dead children covered in blood.

"We filmed this season of Stranger Things a year ago," the warning reads. "But given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of Episode 1 distressing. We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable violence, and our hearts go out to every family mourning a loved one."

A Netflix spokesperson further told The Hollywood Reporter that the streaming service "decided to add the card given the proximity to this tragedy--and because the opening scene is very graphic." The warning will only show for viewers in the United States. Netflix has also edited the episode description to include: "Warning: Contains graphic violence involving children."

Season 4 is broken into two parts, with the first seven episodes arriving on May 27. If you want to get fully up to speed and don't mind spoilers, you can check out our Season 4 explainer.

The second wave of episodes releases on July 1, while a fifth and final season is coming later. Beyond that, spin-offs could follow to extend the wider Stranger Things universe.

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deactivated-64ff549d2d157

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Adding a warning is fair. Americans will take offense to anything and being outraged at a TV show is WAY, WAAAAAAAAAAAY easier than actually trying to do something that matters to at least try and fix this problem.

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xgalacticax

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"We are deeply saddened by the tragedy in Texas, but here's a show showing dead children anyway, just in case there are any other psychos out there are looking for inspiration for their own attacks."

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deactivated-64ff549d2d157

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@xgalacticax: With that logic, movies should not contain sex (Might inspire a rape), Children (might inspire a paedo), Police (might inspire a cop killing), black people (might inspire a hate crime), Hispanics (might inspire a hate crime), Asians (might inspire a hate crime), Germans (might inspire Nazism), The British Royal Family (might inspire Inbreeding) and last but not least, Brazilians or Greeks(might inspire spontaneous dancing).

Shit already happened, no one cares, no one wants to fix it... Hell... No one wants to even try to fix it.

A Streaming Service's tv show is hardly the straw that breaks the camel's back.

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BeefoTheBold

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Edited By BeefoTheBold

Having now watched the first half-season that released on the 27th my thoughts are that this is a completely non-controversial move that nobody should be bothered by.

And yet, I read down in the comments...and look at all that whining.

It isn't bowing to a mob or heading off fake outrage. It's simply showing some basic sensitivity to a fairly prominent news story of the moment. It shouldn't be of any harm to anyone and nobody should be upset about them doing so.

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dmblum1799

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I see posts on this website from the incels and people like that, and I really think of this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/28/uvalde-texas-gunman-online-threats/

The type of this troubled, resentful adolescent is such a common type on the internet. It's creepy.

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zerojuice

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I don't think anyone who has been affected by the shooting cares about watching Stranger Things right now...

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Spartan_418

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@zerojuice: You may be right, but there probably still was potential for some fake outrage campaign going after the show and how "insensitive" it is. Netflix wanted to cover their bases and avoid that.

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chaosemerald

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@Spartan_418: You are right about that. The mob will attack and consume anything they can touch.

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DuggD1ggler

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@chaosemerald: the mob would stop if everyone stopped caving and giving in to every outrage they had.

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dmblum1799

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Edited By dmblum1799

@duggd1ggler: These are exactly the type of resentful posts that the delusional kid psycho-murderer would have made (and did).

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Rolento25

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@dmblum1799: Nice blow hole comment.

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DuggD1ggler

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@dmblum1799: it’s not resentful. It’s facts. The world would be a much better place if everyone would stop being so scared of a bunch of keyboard warriors on Twitter ruining their lives.

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jenovaschilld

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Probably not an article you want to leave comments on, during this climate.

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chaosemerald

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Edited By chaosemerald

@jenovaschilld: Why not? So that only one side may at times (not saying now or this article) can push agendas while others are silenced? Of course any website can do that, they own it/work for it. But I dont think its cool to do.

Especially since its extremely lame that people only care about things when its heavily publicised. The other daily deaths from a variety of sources, nobody cares about. Until the tv tells them to.

And before you or anyone rages at me, Im just being realistic and neutral. Obviously the events a few days ago are abhorrent.

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tskrilla3

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@chaosemerald: You are correct. Horrible atrocity that occured in Uvalde. Tragic. At the risk of sounding insensitive though, terrible, smaller scale things happen every day all across the country. Cumulatively they probably add up to be a much larger scale than the incidents the media focuses on the most. Seems like most people who watch news want the stories, not the stats. Stats are boring. Who cares that stats help us see the whole picture and become informed, right? <_<

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DuggD1ggler

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Edited By DuggD1ggler

@jenovaschilld: I wish they’d either leave comments open on all posts or not have them at all. I think it’s ridiculous that they get to pick and choose which posts to disable comments on, especially when it’s an opinion piece that has little to do with gaming. It’s ok if they express their opinion but we can’t express ours.

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BeefoTheBold

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@duggd1ggler:

Nobody is stopping you from expressing your opinion. They are just under no obligation to give you a platform.

It's not ridiculous that they get to pick and choose what content they allow on their platform. They can allow or disallow whatever they want because they're paying for everything involved in running this place.

That's simply how private business works. They could shut down the entire forums tomorrow and it still wouldn't change anything and wouldn't be stopping you from expressing your opinion anywhere else on the internet or offline that you wanted.

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soulmuncher666

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@duggd1ggler: Personally I like to just put my fingers in my ears and run away if I hear someone having a different opinion than my own.

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