'Dear White People' Season 4 Teaser: The Musical Final Season Drops In September

Talk about going out on a high note. The fourth and final season of Dear White People, the excellent Netflix drama based on the 2014 movie of the same name, will consist solely of musical episodes inspired by music of the 1990s. Take a brief look at what the final batch of episodes will look like, courtesy of a new teaser that Netflix released today.

While there are exceptions made for juggernauts like Stranger Things, it's relatively rare for shows to make it past three seasons on Netflix since the streamer has decided that it makes more sense to develop new shows instead of paying higher amounts to extend the life of existing projects. But Dear White People is bucking that trend – and doing it with style.

Set in a "not-so-distant, post-pandemic future" during the main cast's senior year at Winchester, the show's last batch of episodes will follow its characters "looking back at the most formative (and theatrical) year of their lives," as TVLine puts it. Sounds like there will be a framing device in which we see actors like Logan Browning (Samantha), DeRon Horton (Lionel), Ashley Blaine Featherson (Joelle), Antoinette Robinson (Coco), Brandon P. Bell (Troy), and Marque Richardson (Reggie) reminiscing about their final year at school. (I wonder how far into the future that framing device will be set?) In any case, TVLine relays more of the official synopsis:

"Both an Afro-futuristic and 90s-inspired musical event, Dear White People Vol. 4 is a can't-miss, farewell experience with one pitch-perfect promise: sometimes the only way to move forward is to throw it back."

Creator/showrunner Justin Simien made a movie between seasons – the horror satire Bad Hair – which also featured a soundtrack full of '90s-style New Jack swing tracks. "Doing the movie definitely made me excited about pushing what the show could be even further, making a definitive season, and going out with a bang," he told Entertainment Weekly last year.

The third season was good, but a little messy overall, and I'm hoping the fact that this will be the final season will give these new episodes a propulsive and focused quality that was missing from the previous batch. Even with the occasional misstep, I think this is one of the best Netflix original shows out there, and I highly recommend catching up before the final season takes this big creative swing to bring it all home.

Dear White People Vol. 4 arrives on Netflix on September 22, 2021.