Stranger Things

[NOTW]

I don't get what people see in this season. Boring, way too long drawn out plot lines, ridiculous cartoonish new characters taking screen time from the main cast, everything about the Hopper story is terrible, most of the episodes are filler waiting for something interesting. 

[LeanMeanGM]

14 minutes ago, NOTW said:

I don't get what people see in this season. Boring, way too long drawn out plot lines, ridiculous cartoonish new characters taking screen time from the main cast, everything about the Hopper story is terrible, most of the episodes are filler waiting for something interesting. 

Pretty much agree, but

the storyline eventually gets there, and it got me interested in what’s to come for at least this season. At this point ANOTHER season feels like a chore.

[DEagle7]

5 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Pretty much agree, but

  Hide contents

the storyline eventually gets there, and it got me interested in what’s to come for at least this season. At this point ANOTHER season feels like a chore.

 

Agreed that I liked the payoff from the "big reveal" at the end but took too long to get there. Makes me look forward to those last 2 episodes though.

5 hours ago, NOTW said:

I don't get what people see in this season. Boring, way too long drawn out plot lines, ridiculous cartoonish new characters taking screen time from the main cast, everything about the Hopper story is terrible, most of the episodes are filler waiting for something interesting. 

I liked the Eddie character at least. The new jock basketball player and the nerdy newspaper kid were both pretty bad though. Paul Resier's character also always bugged me even from season 2. Not thrilled that he made another appearance. I really liked the 11 subplot even if it took too long to get there. Hopper's storyline could have been been OK if it took an episode or 2, not all season. I enjoyed the 80s horror movie vibes/references. 

Not great. Not terrible though. Enough to keep me interested in watching more at least. 

[NYEagle]

Thought episode 7 was really good, but that could have been the whole season unto itself lol......and jesus christ, when the kids were in the upside down room after that horror, I would have been climbing that sheet to get out like ....well like someone was wanting to do bad to my backside!!!  They were like, well...you go, la de da, no you....no see you up there...take some more time and you wonder why something bad happened!!?!?!?!?

[UK Eagle]

The most jarring thing in Stranger Things is torch bulbs and batteries (in general) lasting that long.  It wasn't my experience of growing up in the 1980s...

[Agent23]

On 6/5/2022 at 1:00 AM, NOTW said:

I don't get what people see in this season. Boring, way too long drawn out plot lines, ridiculous cartoonish new characters taking screen time from the main cast, everything about the Hopper story is terrible, most of the episodes are filler waiting for something interesting. 

Dustin and Steve have been my most enjoyable characters throughout the series, but I liked "skinny" Dustin in S3 the best (though its funny in that season Steve makes a fat joke towards him). Where most of the kids have drastically "grown" since S3 (the Max girl is the only one who really looks the same) and they are still giving Mike and Will really atrocious haircuts to coverup their age, the Dustin actor does look to have put on weight since S3 so it did take a little for that shock to wear off and few episodes before I was able to group him back up there with Steve on Tier 1 power rankings. 

[Agent23]

On 5/31/2022 at 2:57 PM, Gern Blanston said:

Thru 5 eps, enjoying it, but geez its stretching to pretend these "kids" are in high school anymore.  Mike's older sister looks like a world weary middle age dental hygienist with 3 kids at this point...

 

On 6/3/2022 at 11:33 PM, NOTW said:

Watching ep 2 now. So far more references to Nightmare on Elm Street, Swamp Thing, Evil Dead. 

Russian translator guy is annoying. Nancy ages backwards like Benjamin Button. The D&D master looks like a cross between young Robert Downey Jr and Tom Hulce. They do a good job finding actors that look like they were plucked out of the 80s.

1st episode dragged especially basketball game and D&D, didn't care about those. But it gave some mystery for moving forward.

okay we need the rest of the group to chime and and tell me which direction Nancy is aging. kthxluvubai

[LeanMeanGM]

Middle aged dental hygienist.

She looked like a baby in Season 1. 

 

[NOTW]

1 hour ago, Agent23 said:

 

okay we need the rest of the group to chime and and tell me which direction Nancy is aging. kthxluvubai

 

18 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Middle aged dental hygienist.

She looked like a baby in Season 1. 

 

I actually see it both ways.  The awful hair and clothes they gave her give middle aged look, but her actual face and body still look like a 14 year old.  Whereas Will grew up and got a deep voice but they're still trying to have him be the little scared boy with his bowl cut.  Steve's joke about Dustin's teeth was funny too.

Eleven is confusing because in the flashbacks sometimes they used a different actress and sometimes they used her and made her look shorter.

[mikemack8]

Oh and of course they're going to end up having Will come out as gay at some point here

[LeanMeanGM]

9 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

Oh and of course they're going to end up having Will come out as gay at some point here

Thought the same too. He probably drew a naked picture of Mike or something. 

[mikemack8]

Just now, LeanMeanGM said:

Thought the same too. He probably drew a naked picture of Mike or something. 

Yeah I think they're laying it on pretty thick here with him and Mike's relationship - Will is clearly jealous of him and Eleven.  And that girl trying to flirt with Will in class - he was appalled  

[NOTW]

Finished the last episodes last night.  Thoughts:

Spoiler

 

The "Friendly Orderly" (how he's credited on imdb.com) being version 001 was obvious from his first scenes when he references version 1.  In the last couple episodes, it also became obvious he was the Vecna or at least somehow connected.  I didn't think he was the son in the family though.  And didn't expect them to retcon that it wasn't Eleven who killed everyone back then.  I thought it was cooler for her character that she did that and has had to learn to balance not "going to the dark side" with her powers.  This takes that element away, makes her more "vanilla."

Justice for Barb!

Not sure why Steve didn't try to get Nancy through the gate instead of standing there shaking her, which they know from seeing Max's experience doesn't do anything.  Have to get headphones of her favorite song.  Throw her through that gate man!

Just about every scene was dragged on way too long, wasting screen time with extra unnecessary steps. 

• Finding Max's favorite song going through tapes, arriving at Suzie's house wasting time seeing a bunch of kids making a movie, arriving to only realize Suzie doesn't have her computer there's another hurdle to get over, practically everything they did had added unnecessary steps to fill time.
• The Hopper/Russia story should have been condensed to 2 episodes.  Why do all that just to have him escape prison then get caught and put into another prison?  Lots of filler in that story line. 
• Same with Eleven.  Drop her in the NINA tank, let her see the memory of what really happened and move on.  That drug on forever. 
• The whole sequence getting into see Victor, just to find out playing music calms the mind.  It was ridiculous to begin with that the director of the place would let them in much less let them go in alone Silence of the Lambs style.  And then while they're alone with him make a quick phone call to the professor.  He would have done that while they're in his office.  The whole thing was dumb. 

The surfer pizza dude was annoying af and pointless other than being their taxi driver, and Jonathan's character was pointless as well.  

The agents are killed by military and the woman in charge of them doesn't show up/follow up, no more agents show up to assist?

A lot of the bad writing reminded me of the seasons of Lost when they didn't know how many more seasons they had so they kept stretching things out for no reason.  They should have just taken what's going to be 9 total episodes and condensed it into a more concise story and released it all at once.

 

 

[The_Omega]

4 hours ago, mikemack8 said:

Oh and of course they're going to end up having Will come out as gay at some point here

Maybe.  Looked to me like Will has a thing for 011, but we'll see.

[mikemack8]

8 minutes ago, NOTW said:

Finished the last episodes last night.  Thoughts:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The "Friendly Orderly" (how he's credited on imdb.com) being version 001 was obvious from his first scenes when he references version 1.  In the last couple episodes, it also became obvious he was the Vecna or at least somehow connected.  I didn't think he was the son in the family though.  And didn't expect them to retcon that it wasn't Eleven who killed everyone back then.  I thought it was cooler for her character that she did that and has had to learn to balance not "going to the dark side" with her powers.  This takes that element away, makes her more "vanilla."

Justice for Barb!

Not sure why Steve didn't try to get Nancy through the gate instead of standing there shaking her, which they know from seeing Max's experience doesn't do anything.  Have to get headphones of her favorite song.  Throw her through that gate man!

Just about every scene was dragged on way too long, wasting screen time with extra unnecessary steps. 

• Finding Max's favorite song going through tapes, arriving at Suzie's house wasting time seeing a bunch of kids making a movie, arriving to only realize Suzie doesn't have her computer there's another hurdle to get over, practically everything they did had added unnecessary steps to fill time.
• The Hopper/Russia story should have been condensed to 2 episodes.  Why do all that just to have him escape prison then get caught and put into another prison?  Lots of filler in that story line. 
• Same with Eleven.  Drop her in the NINA tank, let her see the memory of what really happened and move on.  That drug on forever. 
• The whole sequence getting into see Victor, just to find out playing music calms the mind.  It was ridiculous to begin with that the director of the place would let them in much less let them go in alone Silence of the Lambs style.  And then while they're alone with him make a quick phone call to the professor.  He would have done that while they're in his office.  The whole thing was dumb. 

The surfer pizza dude was annoying af and pointless other than being their taxi driver, and Jonathan's character was pointless as well.  

The agents are killed by military and the woman in charge of them doesn't show up/follow up, no more agents show up to assist?

A lot of the bad writing reminded me of the seasons of Lost when they didn't know how many more seasons they had so they kept stretching things out for no reason.  They should have just taken what's going to be 9 total episodes and condensed it into a more concise story and released it all at once.

 

 

Spoiler

I agree for the most part - cut out all this unnecessary filler and shorten the run times to 40-50 minutes each and this season is money.  I gotta admit though I laughed when the stoner kid was hitting the golf balls and making the fart noises after a successful shot  

 

1 minute ago, The_Omega said:

Maybe.  Looked to me like Will has a thing for 011, but we'll see.

I suppose that's possible - I just always assume every show has to find a way to shoehorn in an LGBTQ character

[NOTW]

2 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I agree for the most part - cut out all this unnecessary filler and shorten the run times to 40-50 minutes each and this season is money.  I gotta admit though I laughed when the stoner kid was hitting the golf balls and making the fart noises after a successful shot  

 

I suppose that's possible - I just always assume every show has to find a way to shoehorn in an LGBTQ character

They do already have Robin the lesbian.  

But Will sure did turn down that girl in class flirting with him pretty quick!  

[mikemack8]

4 minutes ago, NOTW said:

They do already have Robin the lesbian.  

But Will sure did turn down that girl in class flirting with him pretty quick!  

Oh yeah - duh.  They even did a small thing about her having a crush on the bandmate, which of course was just more filler.  Guess I forgot about that after SEVEN more hours of show  

[UK Eagle]

Spoiler

Finished episode and I can't take it any more. I just looked up how old the Actress who plays Nancy is vs the others

They could have removed at least 1 episode of content and not affected the overall story.  It's not bad bloat at all but the Russia part was stretched way too far for what it is in the overall story so far.  An excuse to keep David Harbour in the series. But enjoyable.

 

[mikemack8]

16 minutes ago, UK Eagle said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Finished episode and I can't take it any more. I just looked up how old the Actress who plays Nancy is vs the others

They could have removed at least 1 episode of content and not affected the overall story.  It's not bad bloat at all but the Russia part was stretched way too far for what it is in the overall story so far.  An excuse to keep David Harbour in the series. But enjoyable.

 

 The actor that plays Steve is older than her - he's 30!  

[UK Eagle]

Just now, mikemack8 said:

 The actor that plays Steve is older than her - he's 30!  

When they made the comment about him (won't spoil), I figured he was not just out of high school.  At least he doesn't stand as much as Nancy or Jonathan; Jonathan looks older than I do 🤣. 

[LeanMeanGM]

Why is Hawkins, Indiana the most devoid T&A city of the world? 

[The_Omega]

Steve and Dustin could have their own show. Steve telling Dustin that he was going to knock his new teeth out was one of the funniest lines in anything in a long time.

 

[DEagle7]

10 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Why is Hawkins, Indiana the most devoid T&A city of the world? 

The A died off with Barb

The T died off with Billy

[NOTW]

12 hours ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

Will is definitely gay.  

Nancy actress looks like she has an eating disorder or something.  Unhealthy.  Not a good looking girl at all.  Robin is a better match for Steve and much better looking than Nancy.   Dustin and Steve bromance makes the show.  

 

Robin is a lesbian, but her platonic friendship with Steve works.  In general I think the cast got too bloated, so less screen time to go around.  Do not care one bit about Suzie, surfer pizza guy, Russian translator guy, Yuri.  You're right, Steve's screen time with the younger kids "babysitting" is gold. 

This entire season kept different groups of the characters separated.  Usually when shows do that they join up at some point, which I imagine will happen in the 2 final episodes in July.  Poor choice to split the season this way IMO.  Should have done all episodes at once, trimmed the fat and focused on a tighter story line and fewer characters.

[LeanMeanGM]

4 hours ago, NOTW said:

Robin is a lesbian, but her platonic friendship with Steve works.  In general I think the cast got too bloated, so less screen time to go around.  Do not care one bit about Suzie, surfer pizza guy, Russian translator guy, Yuri.  You're right, Steve's screen time with the younger kids "babysitting" is gold. 

This entire season kept different groups of the characters separated.  Usually when shows do that they join up at some point, which I imagine will happen in the 2 final episodes in July.  Poor choice to split the season this way IMO.  Should have done all episodes at once, trimmed the fat and focused on a tighter story line and fewer characters.

There is definitely too many characters because I have no idea who Suzie is, unless that's Lucas sister.