A thread for Stranger Things, the "Goonies meets X-Files" new Netflix series (with SPOILERS!)

The narrative structure is def the worst thing about this season

Just watched this. Liked it a lot. Worth it for the kids + el, the mum, nancy and jonathan and hopper imo. Tunnels/dungeon! Smoke monster. Demodogs.

Chicago punk gang scenes ... did not work for me. I get that they were going for: The Warriors, 80s movie punks, Akira; not sure why we needed a reference to Barbelith and King Mob though and the acting was not good. In my mind an 80s street gang should sort of resemble that Billy character; loads of mullets and hairspray and open shirts, not actual mohawks? Living in a warehouse and standing around a burning trashcan fair enough.

I guess the stylistic and narrative break just wasn't very well handled

Possibly something to do with Hawkins, like Twin Peaks, being not quite a 'location' as we would normally mean the term but ... something else?

Watched all of season one today its good it references many things and all the actors look like other actors from other things it made me feel good it's good

Like idk if you guys heard about this

I would have read the thread but -and I love the guy you know I do- tuomas takes are just so so bad and there was a few right off the bat and I couldnt

maybe it's cuz I don't watch a whole lot of TV but the whole John Hughes-meets-Alien vibe of this feels pretty unique in that it succeeds in both counts. thought it was cool that the last ep of the 2nd series could just kick the paranormal shit for a while and still be really watchable

It's really more of a two Stephens vibe tbh

I mean....really really

i was mega-stoke for S2 after finishing S1 but have not been able to muster up ANY enthusiasm for it now that it's here. been trying to pin down why this is and haven't really cracked it

felt the same about the first two seasons of the Homecoming podcast

you should watch it, it's really good.

dmac u shld watch s2 u mite like it

season 2 is solidly meh

That's ok life is solidly meh but it's worth catching once

I thought S1 was better if only because you really didn't know how far they were going to take it - if you don't know there's going to be a second season it makes you feel like everything's on the table. The ending of the first season is so extreme that it's hard to imagine a second one even existing. I kinda felt the same way...like why even watch this, what's left to do. S2 had some unnecessary parts (That One Episode with Eleven, Max's older brother, probably Max herself), and I thought the subplot with Dart was kinda dumb, because characters developing weird obsessions that cause them to lie to everyone and endanger their safety is one of my least favorite tropes. But as a whole it was very good. I love how Steve transforms from an unlikeable jerk to arguably the show's best character by the end.

u cant compare everything to yr first time frogs

itll never be the same

My older kid binged it on night one, but my wife and younger one have been catching up on season 2. Me, I've been popping in and out, but boy does this season seem like a few episodes of story padded out to whatever this runs. So much filler, scenes that go on twice as long as they should, and so on.

Same for the first season, I thought! For me it only cohered in the last 2-3 episodes. I haven’t seen the 2nd yet.

Ugh, just saw the ultra campy Chicago episode. And the melodrama across the board, it's just killing me. Plus these dum-dums are all acting like none of this shit has happened before. So much "Will!?!? Will!?!?! What's wrong, Will!?!?" Dudes (and mom), you remember he was abducted into another dimension and tormented by some evil creature, right?

My favorite half-assery might have been when they laid the meat lure for the demon dogs but then had to clearly wait for night - and the fog to roll in - to disguise the special effects. The biggest surprise for me in season 2 has been Steve, who is portrayed as a dude who would hate this show and resents being stuck in it. "Aliens" references through the roof in this one, too, but the execution is largely "Critters" level.

LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXyju7zFwyE

Hot Dog on a Stick? That's a California thing.

It’s delicious tbh

Is that the same as a corn dog?

It’s a hot dog on a stick

Not bad, but not as funny as actual mall promos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nm9WHBp3Lg

poll—best movie playing at crossgates mall's 10-screen theater:

MOSCOW
CHILDREN OF CORN
GREYSTOKE
ROMANCING
WHERE BOYS ARE
SWING SHIFT
UP THE CREEK
ICEMAN
FRIDAY THE 13TH IV
SPLASH

Children of the Corn or Splash, obv.

it's CHILDREN OF CORN

Greystoke, but Up the Creek has Tim Matheson and Flounder, plus Ghostbusters' psychic card student, Jennifer Runyon, so maybe that.

Romancing the Stone or Moscow on the Hudson or Friday the 13th IV. Up the Creek is the rafting sex comedy, right?

The Los Angeles Times said the film was "not as consistently amusing" as Police Academy but was "rambunctious and raunchy enough to divert undemanding audiences."(4) The Washington Post called it "a moist smut movie" in which the best performance was given by the dog.(5) The New York Times called it "a ridiculous ordeal, all right, but certainly not in the way the filmmakers intended."(6) Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune however said the film was "a good time", where Matheson, Furst and Helberg "play their roles with the same whimsical naturalness that made Bill Murray a star. They don't push themselves upon us, and that allows us to identify with them in a relaxed way. The result is a very tight script with breathing room. That's most unusual for a teen comedy, and that's why Up the Creek is one of the best."

it also has a title track on the soundtrack by Cheap Trick, so that's worth an extra point or two

a moist smut movie

all-time username material

Fake palindrome.

ahoy! ahoy. ahoy.

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E17/911010.jpg?b64lines=QWhveS1ob3k_Cg==

c'mon y'all. i don't care what your favorite movie from september '84 is. the thing is the funny space-saving titles. get with the program!

I can pray that this season is about an evil mall that's a portal to hell right?

Probably

Eliza otm twice btw

In keeping with the rest of the Hulk-esque abbreviations, shouldn't it be UP CREEK ?

Night of the Comet and Chopping Mall can finally get their due

Episode titles for Season 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH3kBCSfL-4

“Suzie, Do You Copy?”

“The Mall Rats”

“The Case of the Missing Life Guard”

“The Sauna Test”

“The Source”

“The Birthday”

“The Bite”

“The Battle of Starcourt”

the one from last season where she goes to the Big City and joins the New Mutants was pretty lol

Oh yeah! I had totally forgotten that was even Stranger Things, in my mind it was one of the Marvel Netflix shows. Well I guess it was.

yeah that didn't work at all. from my tldr post upthread:

el's solo episode (...) really points up how much the show otherwise relies on jumping from thing to thing. you get bored with a single plot like this because it's obvious how it's going to end. and yeah the Invisibles gang members were bad. her sis was cool but seemed way more interesting in the tease at the beginning of the season. turned out to be pretty one-dimensional(.) the stuff with el and her mother worked better. wish we'd gotten more of her and hopper talking through this experience at the end. "oh and i joined a murderous gang!" el is just less interesting when she's dealing with these other characters. it's in-character that she's reticent and blunt, but that doesn't always make for crackling dialogue scenes.

the one from last season where she goes to the Big City and joins the New Mutants was pretty lol

― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Monday, December 10, 2018 4:04 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh yeah! I had totally forgotten that was even Stranger Things, in my mind it was one of the Marvel Netflix shows. Well I guess it was.

omg I was convinced that was an episode of Orphan Black from ages ago. Not this.

that was like the opposite of a bottle episode

Spilling the drink on the counter episode

Very good--wouldn't say great--for a season-and-a-half. You've got the dreadful seventh episode after that (sent me scurrying for reviews to confirm that it was as bad as I thought it was), and I don't know about the finale, either, which I watched tonight. The whole climactic fifteen minutes didn't seem much more credible than straight-to-video sci-fi from the '80s...which as always, I guess, was part of the point.

ep 7 def felt like a dry run for a spinoff show but yeah it was just...off. like, it seemed intentionally bad.

can't actually remember how S2 ended. but that Snow Ball scene in the end was pretty nice