Stranger Things

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Andre Jurieu
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:38 pm
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Re: Stranger Things

#101 Post by Andre Jurieu » Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:50 pm

As S2 dragged on, Mike and Eleven just grew more insufferable. Plus - as with almost all 2nd seasons - the additional characters didn't really improve anything. (Hyperbole follows)It was like they threw in a handful of Poochies all at once.

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domino harvey
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Re: Stranger Things

#102 Post by domino harvey » Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:54 pm

I’m with y’all on season two, but it’s been my IRL experience that no one I know or meet feels the same way, so I wouldn’t ascribe our own minority exhaustion to this announcement— and right on cue, it is blowing up social media as we speak

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Persona
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm

Re: Stranger Things

#103 Post by Persona » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:39 pm

S2 definitely kind of stretched me thin (and I didn't really love S1--but did binge it, like everyone did). The episode where Samwise Gamgee plays the hero was pretty good, though.

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Murdoch
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Re: Stranger Things

#104 Post by Murdoch » Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:18 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:40 am
Did anyone get all the way through Season 2 who is eagerly anticipating Season 3? If they'd left the first season as a standalone I would have been excited for new anthology seasons of this show, but as it stands, Season 2 was a big step down and very forgettable, which makes this feel like too little too late for the series as a whole now that the kid actors are almost adults.
I wasn't very impressed by the last season. I'm only sticking around because I've heard the Duffer brothers only plan on doing four seasons. I'm at a point with TV where a short run is a selling point for me.

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domino harvey
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Re: Stranger Things

#105 Post by domino harvey » Wed Mar 20, 2019 6:44 pm

Discussion of watching TV moved here

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Boosmahn
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Re: Stranger Things

#106 Post by Boosmahn » Sun Mar 31, 2019 11:15 pm

Finished episode four of season two and definitely agree that it isn't as good as the first (so far).
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As soon as Mike and Max were in the same room together with Eleven loose in the school, I knew exactly where they were going -- and couldn't have found myself more disappointed.
The teen drama is a lot more heavyhanded this time around as well.

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Re: Stranger Things

#107 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Jul 03, 2019 5:09 pm

Early reviews of S3 are good, and that it got it's act together. I hope so, even if I was totally prepared to see it put on it's leather jacket and skis.

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Persona
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Re: Stranger Things

#108 Post by Persona » Fri Jul 05, 2019 2:52 pm

Three episodes in and the season so far is really leaning hard on you loving these characters and since I don't love them all that much, it's been pretty eh.

Plot contrivances and recycling of tropes have always been a thing with this series, too, but man this is really starting to stack that kind of stuff high. Just way too convenient how all our principle characters from the previous seasons are still in separate plot-lines deeply involved with what's happening in this one. Joyce's and Dustin's access points to the central mystery/threat are especially chortle-inducing.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Stranger Things

#109 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jul 05, 2019 4:11 pm

Persona wrote:
Fri Jul 05, 2019 2:52 pm
Three episodes in and the season so far is really leaning hard on you loving these characters and since I don't love them all that much, it's been pretty eh.

Plot contrivances and recycling of tropes have always been a thing with this series, too, but man this is really starting to stack that kind of stuff high. Just way too convenient how all our principle characters from the previous seasons are still in separate plot-lines deeply involved with what's happening in this one. Joyce's and Dustin's access points to the central mystery/threat are especially chortle-inducing.
I'm with you. I loved the first season, and strongly disliked the second, but boy does this make season 2 look great by comparison. Pretty much everything that was weak about that season is amplified here, and then they take potentially interesting storylines and destroy their potential:
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Max's brother, whose own physical abuse determining his abusive behavior was hinted at effectively in the last season briefly, is completely wasted here by being turned into a villain by proxy of inhabited by the aliens, making that clinical moment pointless and officially reducing any complexity of character to the simplest of forms: pure evil.
Even Steve and Dustin's relationship has lost steam, though Brett Gelman continues to steal every scene he's in here just like everywhere else. I hate giving up on shows once invested, especially those this brief, but if there's a fourth season I'm likely out.

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Murdoch
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Re: Stranger Things

#110 Post by Murdoch » Sat Jul 06, 2019 7:29 pm

I'm enjoying season three so far after three episodes in. I'm not in love with any of the characters either but they're charming enough. There's nothing revelatory this season, just as there isn't from past seasons - everything is pastiche, the antagonists are cliched bad Russians, and it leans heavy into the 80s nostalgia. But for me it's a nice mindless distraction that doesn't take itself too seriously. Netflix's shows aren't known for their long shelf lives, despite how long many drag on past their expiration dates, but I think this season succeeds where season two failed.

Hopper in season two was a grating and overbearing patriarch, and the writers seem to have realized they laid him on too heavy during his interactions with Eleven last season, shifting him back to a comically gruff father figure. Mike and Eleven's relationship follows the beats of a rom com and thankfully drops the irritating drama. Will Byers actually comes across as a character this season after hovering around the margins in season two.

It's certainly not the cultural landmark its most ardent fans claim it to be, but it hasn't yet devolved into unenjoyable pap yet either. That said, I don't think it has too many seasons left in it.

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YnEoS
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Re: Stranger Things

#111 Post by YnEoS » Sat Jul 06, 2019 10:18 pm

I finished watching the latest season. I was a bit unsure in the beginning, but the second half of the season kind of won me over just because I enjoy hanging out with the characters and the genre set pieces. But it definitely seems like its running out of ideas in terms of what to do with the character relationships and where the whole story is aiming. Its kind of weird because apparently they're planning this to be only one or two more seasons, but it kind of feels like they're just repeating the same general structure with a enough new additions and twists to make it feel different, but without ever feeling like its progressing towards anything. There were just some simple conflicts between the characters that were leaned on for most of the season, and they added a lot of new characters or increased the screen time of more minor characters. I like most of the new characters a lot, sometimes more than the old ones who don't seem to have progressed anywhere, but in the end its just sort of piling more stuff into the show.
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It seemed like by the end they try to push enough development to vary things up a bit. Its refreshing to not have El's powers be able to save the day at the end this time, but we don't really get to explore the implications for her character so much since it happens at the end of the season. Having a big portion of the cast move a away could potentially start pushing the show into some new ground, but I have the feeling the next season is going to take place on one of the planned Thanksgiving or Christmas meetings, so maybe there'll be some baggage about being apart like they kind of did in this season already and some new seasonal genres to explore, but I somehow doubt its going to fundamental alter the structure of the show. I have a feeling that their test doing stuff in a different setting in Season 2 that was so poorly received has scrapped any hopes of them trying something different, but we did get some glimpses of characters in Utah and Russia this season, so maybe they'll surprise me.
This post came across mostly negative, just because that stuff is easier to talk about, but I'm a fan enough of the shows vibe, and there was enough variation at the end, that I'll probably be sticking with it, but it definitely could be much better.

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Gregor Samsa
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Re: Stranger Things

#112 Post by Gregor Samsa » Sun Jul 07, 2019 12:55 am

Murdoch wrote:
Sat Jul 06, 2019 7:29 pm
I'm enjoying season three so far after three episodes in. I'm not in love with any of the characters either but they're charming enough. There's nothing revelatory this season, just as there isn't from past seasons - everything is pastiche, the antagonists are cliched bad Russians, and it leans heavy into the 80s nostalgia. But for me it's a nice mindless distraction that doesn't take itself too seriously. Netflix's shows aren't known for their long shelf lives, despite how long many drag on past their expiration dates, but I think this season succeeds where season two failed.

Hopper in season two was a grating and overbearing patriarch, and the writers seem to have realized they laid him on too heavy during his interactions with Eleven last season, shifting him back to a comically gruff father figure. Mike and Eleven's relationship follows the beats of a rom com and thankfully drops the irritating drama. Will Byers actually comes across as a character this season after hovering around the margins in season two.

It's certainly not the cultural landmark its most ardent fans claim it to be, but it hasn't yet devolved into unenjoyable pap yet either. That said, I don't think it has too many seasons left in it.
I think that's fair. Its a fun ride (and not having a side episode like Season 2's Episode 7 meant it could be focused on that build), but at the same time quite a few of the structural elements repeat from season to season and its a formula that gets old after a while.
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I think my favourite parts came right at the end, with the parody news video about the 'Satanic' goings on in Hawkins, plus the video-store scene of Robin's arthouse tastes juxtaposed against Steve's boorishness.

RIP Film
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Re: Stranger Things

#113 Post by RIP Film » Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:23 am

Got two episodes left. So far I’m less enthusiastic on this season, and I liked the first two. What others have said about it repeating structural elements is right, but it also leans heavily on film references and nostalgia in a more self-aware way. Before this stuff was sort of in the background, but now the homages to various 70’s-80s films is nonstop and plays into the story beats... The Russian underground base is very James Bond, you also have The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Terminator, the list goes on. It’s sort of fun but definitely more offbeat in tone. For me the best scenes are between Dustin and Steve at the mall.

Aside from that, the CG work and creature designs are a bit lacking, and David Harbour seems to be on something. But I am liking it overall, it’s just not as binge worthy as the first two were IMO, which I finished in like 2 days.

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Murdoch
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Re: Stranger Things

#114 Post by Murdoch » Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:49 pm

Having finished season three last night, I can say that I liked it considerably more than two. I can't recall my opinion of season one (I watched it soon after it premiered and have retained little memory of it outside of some key character moments). While there's some obnoxious moments like Hopper and Joyce bickering just so another character can comment on how they're really in love, I liked the addition of Robin as a character (her top three favorite movies of The Apartment, Children of Paradise and Hidden Fortress were a nice touch) and thought the conclusion to Billy's arc gave him some needed gravitas as both a victim of abuse and abuser. It does lay on the references too thick, particularly the Terminator, with the Russian hitman even doing an approximation of Schwarzenegger's accent.

YMMV though. As I said before, I don't expect much from this show other than pastiche. I think it says a lot that the highlight of the season for me was seeing a Waldenbooks in the mall.
Last edited by Murdoch on Sun Jul 14, 2019 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Stranger Things

#115 Post by What A Disgrace » Sun Jul 14, 2019 1:05 pm

While everyone is watching season 3, I'm hope hope hoping that there's a "season 2" of this irreverent and surreal parody some time in the future.

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Re: Stranger Things

#116 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Jul 18, 2019 3:01 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:47 pm
Maybe it's just me but Hawkins feels too small to have had a mall of it's own.
Validation from the geniuses at Cracked.com

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domino harvey
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Re: Stranger Things

#117 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 12, 2022 11:43 pm

Season four trailer - season will be split in two parts premiering in May and July, apparently because the episodes are all twice as long as the previous season (I don’t understand that reasoning either)

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Stranger Things

#118 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Apr 13, 2022 12:01 am

Looks even worse than season three, which is saying a lot

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The Pachyderminator
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Re: Stranger Things

#119 Post by The Pachyderminator » Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:30 am

Poor Will is never going to get a decent haircut, is he?

Apparently there's a secret message in this trailer. Some fans on reddit noticed that one frame has four timestamps on it next to a pattern of bright spots, and if you use the bright spots on that frame as a mask to isolate the same locations on the frames at the corresponding timestamps in the trailer, you get letters that spell out I AM HELL'S MASTER. I'm not making any of this up.

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Re: Stranger Things

#120 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Apr 13, 2022 6:03 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Thu Jul 18, 2019 3:01 pm
flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:47 pm
Maybe it's just me but Hawkins feels too small to have had a mall of it's own.
Validation from the geniuses at Cracked.com

Image

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Stranger Things

#121 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jun 08, 2022 1:30 am

Season four continues the downward spell this show took ever since the tail end of S1, though I hated 3 so much it might be a step up from there. Still, for the few areas where it's amusing enough to serve as campy bingable trash, there are more eye-rolling inclusions. The Eleven subplot might be the most obnoxiously lengthy yet vapid meditation on trauma I've seen on TV, and the Minority Report homages/plagiarism, down to the use of similar terminology, somehow makes it even more grating. The first couple episodes were promising though, with a few surprisingly somewhat-inspired horror setpieces featuring a slew of new peripheral characters that was most welcome. Unfortunately any indication for novelty in this milieu is a fakeout, and it doubles down on the rote direction the 'adventures' have always moved in.. so lame

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feihong
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Re: Stranger Things

#122 Post by feihong » Wed Jun 08, 2022 2:28 am

I've been watching this show from season 01 while I work on other stuff. What surprises and preoccupies me about the show is how little there seem to be any vital themes to watch develop over the course of a season––so much is repetitive reconstruction of horror stuff from the past, or 80s stuff from 80s movies of the past––with the same beats we've seen in so many movies before. And I guess the thing that really flummoxes me is how active the show is––how much seems to be happening, juxtaposed with how little thematic ground is covered from episode to episode. The filmmakers also seem to get better each season at developing the plastics of filmmaking style––the scenes have slicker construction, the acting is more varied and more solid in these later seasons, the humor is more complicated and sewn into character development, and the action has a lot more clarity in these later seasons––but none of it means any more than before. The characters hardly seem to develop, reliving some slight variation of the same problems they had in the previous season. And the larger the cast gets, the less danger any given character seems to face––they're always facing that danger with a gang of other kids, who have proven resourceful in these scenarios forever now. So in that way, the horror elements get less and less effective, even as the filmmakers get better at shooting and editing them. And now the cast is so large that characters can hardly get a minute to land their beats before we have to move on. Max escaping the Freddie-Krueger-like dream zone seemed like a centerpiece of the season, but after it ended, Max immediately shrunk into the background of the scenes that followed, so other characters could get their beats in. It gets harder to latch on to any character's issues for long enough to really start to care what happens to them. The cliffhanger we're left on, waiting for the "2nd part" of the season, gives me really just nothing to care about. I'm still watching to the end, though; don't know why.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Stranger Things

#123 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jun 08, 2022 10:56 am

Same, the reveal adds some logic to the lore, I suppose, but it feels more tacked on than satisfying - as if they concocted the central conceit of the entire upsidedown pull (why it’s been targeting who it’s targeting) for this season alone, just to have something more dire to contend with (which is, I bet, what happened). Max’s arc was the most disappointing- that was a ripe opportunity to lean into trauma and they muffed it

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Stranger Things

#124 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jul 01, 2022 3:49 pm

The last two episodes of S4 dropped today and the finale is clocking in at 2.5 hours. What kind of streaming audience, with attention spans exponentially-reducing by the day, is asking for bulk-sized bites of content like this? Props to the creators for just doing what they want I guess, since plenty of us who swore off the show keep coming back to touch the stove anyways.. I doubt they're losing viewers


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