Stranger Things

[Contentious C]

TFW you've seen the Will meme everywhere and only partly understand but now you've watched SEVEN EPISODES already and there's still FOUR MORE HOURS to go and it still hasn't popped up so you feel left out of the conversation:

[Contentious C]

OK, now I'm caught up.

So.  The good.  S4 was pretty clearly better than S3, and given the COVID restrictions such as they were, I get the whole notion of breaking up everyone.  Honestly, though, I do wonder how they would have handled this any differently if there were no pandemic, since the cast is getting to the point where there are almost too many people moving in it anyway, and spacing them out geographically makes as much sense as anything else to do something new.  The Hawkins stuff was easily the highlight, as there wasn't much of anything there to complain about (except maybe the obviousness of the preppies).  Eddie was great, the Dustin/Steve combo remains arguably the funniest part of the show, Robin is wonderful, and Max is still the best character on the show by a mile.  They even managed to actually do something with Lucas after him kinda going MIA in S3, aside from giving Mike bad advice.  And at least for a while, I liked that the episodes were a fair bit longer, like mini-movies, but eventually you hit a wall with that.

The not good?  Almost everything else with respect to plot.  The whole Russia arc was flushable.  The California crew was nearly a total waste of time, except for Will.  What are they even doing with Jonathan anyway?  He's been third/fifth/whatever-wheeling it so long now that, if anyone dies early in S5 to be a "shocking" death, it 1000% needs to be him.  Argyle was as bad and boring as Eddie was good.  Tying things back into Brenner's misdeeds was good, but going this route opens up a lot more things they either haven't addressed or will need to if they want to properly tie things off, like: why does Henry have abilities at all; where the fuck is Eight and when is she coming back; is there really a good purpose to the whole 'rogue elements in the government' thing besides riffing on modern politics?  If they don't deal with these, they're going to seem like they're just being retconned. 

And FOR FUCK'S SAKE STOP HAVING WILL GRAB THE BACK OF HIS FUCKING NECK.

But if there's one thing these guys do not just well but fantastic, it's their visuals.  Some of the stuff in the Upside Down can look a little busy or overloaded, but nearly every big 'epic clash' set piece is pretty close to perfect.  Whatever they're doing in terms of their CGI team or how they're storyboarding this is what every action-oriented show ought to aspire to.  It doesn't matter if the plot points don't make a lot of sense or feel weak, because what they show you sweeps you up anyway.  They go a bit overboard with the bullet-time stuff, but what hasn't done that since The Matrix?  Then again, I guess when you're dropping 30 MILLION an episode on this, it ought to look good. 

It just sorta sucks this is ending next season, or, not really even that it's ending, but that certain characters are just not going to be there to revisit.  I'd honestly watch a show that was far less crazy CGI and featured Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Noah Schnapp, and Gaten Matarazzo (plus the occasional Joe Keery appearance) dealing with weird bullshit that goes on years down the road due to the Hawkins incursion, but we evidently won't be getting that with the shape Max is in.

Edited August 26, 2022 by Contentious C

[driver]

The best description of Argyle is heard is "human Jar Jar Binks".
I had a customer greet me with "I got this, my dude" this week. I SO wanted to reply with "Relax, Argyle", but I didn't.

 

[Pete]

I wasn't sure what was more heartwarming between the Eddie/Chrissy ships and the Eddie/Stephen ships, but seeing them together like they've been a couple for 15 years put it OTT for me. That shit writes itself.

[Dolfan in NYC]

 

[Craig H]

I get that there is a strike and all, but maybe if it didn't take the Duffer Brothers forever to make one season of TV then they wouldn't have this problem.

[Log]

I keep forgetting that there's still more Stranger Things coming, and I'm a fan of the show!

[Eivion]

11 hours ago, Craig H said:

I get that there is a strike and all, but maybe if it didn't take the Duffer Brothers forever to make one season of TV then they wouldn't have this problem.

To be fair there was a good year+ of the pandemic that slowed down the last season. The actors involved may also have scheduling issues.

Edited August 31, 2023 by Eivion