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

a prepare-wolf, surely

(throws you a milkbone)

This show is a one season wonder to me, but a great one.

I recently watched S1 again with my 12yr old and it's really good. I'd forgotten the emotional wallop of Hopper's story - he holds the whole thing together, I think.

Things I only just realised: David Harbour is married to Lily Allen.

^very recently! i saw the wedding photos a few weeks back and was surprised too - didn't know they were a thing.

Yeah this show has just been diminishing returns for me, I don't anticipate watching the next season unless everyone says it's greatly improved. I liked that they went for a new locale and a different tone in S3, but ultimately it was still pretty bland

they need some different baddies and they need to kill one of the kids

i know exactly which one too

S3 was definitely better than S2, but I think it had more to do with the change in locale and the additions to the cast. Keeping the same big bad was annoying.

OH WTF NETFLIX: https://io9.gizmodo.com/dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-has-been-canceled-by-ne-1845132612

Sorry, wrong thread!

i just started S3 with my kids and a few things are rubbing me the wrong way

- hopper had some issues before but now he's just a fuckhead? weird flex for the moral center of your show
- the extremely distasteful stepbrother/MILF scenes
- the SAW overtones with the possessed stepbro
- all the kissy couples shit. these are basically middle schoolers, it's dumb
- eleven buying girl clothes at the mall like it's the key to being a real person. where's the badass eleven i loved??

also something different about the color grading - feels more contrasty/vivid/blown out than previous seasons

in any case it feels kind of... curdled now somehow

on the other hand, every single scene with steve, dustin and the ice cream girl is absolute solid gold and could watch forever, so...

the extremely distasteful stepbrother/MILF scenes

Which did, though (I thought), produce the sublime inversion of a very famous Fast Times at Ridgemont High scene. Other than that and Ice Cream Girl, I don't remember liking much else from S3.

where's the badass eleven i loved??

We try not to think about that episode anymore

Eleven, are you listening? pic.twitter.com/sluiUvrSZN

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) May 6, 2021

Still no date?

I have my calendar circled for Nope

New big bad is named Vecna, apparently after the lich from D&D. Cowards wouldn't go with the gelatinous cube.

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/stranger-things-big-bad-vecna-dungeons-dragons/

Yeah, I saw the picture of the lich on twitter yesterday and got pretty bummed that they spoiled that for us. I'll remove bookmark from this thread as well, for now.

Oh shit, sorry! I figured since it was so prominent in all these articles and they released the name they weren't even trying to keep it secret, so I didn't even consider it a spoiler.

well, YOU didn't spoil it. I just think it would have been cooler if the dork-asses at Netflix would have saved the big bad reveal for the show. I dunno though, I'm on new medications this week, so possibly twitchy about things that don't really matter.

I'm not even deeply emotionally invested in Stranger Things anymore. It has been a while since the previous installment. But I'm still looking forward to it, in a ritual sense.

Also, my daughter's playing DnD with her friends now, so there's a nonzero possibility that one or more of them will influence her to get interested in it. I am holding out hope for that because it would mean that she is watching a tv show with a story/plot rather than just Five Nights at Freddy's/SIMS/Minecraft YouTubers yelling at the screen, etc.

(I did show her the S1 opening D&D scene when she first started playing, but she wasn't interested beyond that)

I’ll keep watching out of a sense of completism.

Yeah the only reason I'm remotely interested in S4 is that we've been watching (most, there has been some judicious scene skipping - but more often to do with the weird Billy/Mrs. Wheeler subplot than scares) it with our son and he's super excited for it.

I haven't really liked this show since S1 and I should just jump ship. If it was the final season, I might watch for completism - e.g. I plan to finish Killing Eve despite it following a similar track to Stranger Things quality-wise

This sounds ridiculous:

You’ll find awesome merch and photo ops, as well as realistic Hawkins hotspots like the palace arcade, the beloved Scoops Ahoy, and even the Bayers’ living room to name a few. And once night falls, you better “hold onto your butts muchachos!”

the final episode of this season is two and a half hours long lol

i have read that it leans further into the dread/horror aspect which was what turned me off last season so i doubt i'll be checking this out, as much as i loved those stupid sailor outfits

Don't have Netflix anymore, so I'd presumably have to acquire it by other means and that feels like too much work.

lol at “6 months later” and half the kids look like they aged 4 years.

Really trying to decide if I’m up this, or am more inclined to experience this through podcast recaps

the final episode of this season is two and a half hours long lol

― Number None, Friday, May 27, 2022 5:26 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Last episode is not 2 hour 30 min, it is 1 hour 40 min.

there's two more episodes being released in July

I do not care enough about these characters to spend this much time with them.

Don't have Netflix anymore, so I'd presumably have to acquire it by other means and that feels like too much work.

First episode dragged pretty hard setting up where everyone's at. Some good spooky moments but 'I don't care enough about these characters' OTM.

I have to keep watching though because it's one of the shows my mom picked to talk about this time. At least it's not ST: Discovery.

I may have said this upthred for previous seasons but ur enjoyment of this season will depend heavily on ur desire to hang out w ur TV friends and your enjoyment of the actors who portray them.

It’s fun and dumb! It always was!

I think I'm going to pass. I started watching the first episode and quickly realized a) I remember virtually nothing from S3, b) which I didn't like anyway, and c) don't want a rerun of Killing Eve, where I watched four or five episodes of the final season and just haven't gone back.

Holy shit episode 2 is bad.

Every scene of every episode of this season just goes on sooooo much longer than it needs to, reducing both the scares (spooky) and comedy (not funny) to camp at best. The scene where a character unfurls an epic letter to read at a grave? My kid exclaimed "oh my gaaaawwwwwd" and I could hear her eyes roll.

read that Netflix spent almost $30 million per episode in this season while proclaiming that it will stop green-lighting expensive vanity projects like The Irishman. don't know if that is true, but if it is- ugh

This season took the wrong lesson from " The Irishman," because every episode feels like it's four hours long.

“This tendency to do anything to attract talent and giving them carte blanche is going away,” says one source. Talent be damned

I liked it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I may have said this upthred for previous seasons but ur enjoyment of this season will depend heavily on ur desire to hang out w ur TV friends and your enjoyment of the actors who portray them.

this basically. i like the characters. it was fun to see them do their thing. yeah it's funny because they are all 4 years older than last time

So much Russia stuff.

This season is almost as bad as the last "Halloween" movie.

Every time someone says "guys," take a shot.

Every character except maybe Dustin seems to be utterly lost and blank, it feels like most of them just stand there and don't even say anything? And all the drama arises from nobody saying anything they are thinking to anyone else? Will and his older brother don't ever do anything? The entire Russia subplot is comically stupid and also boring. The only good scene was when Eleven clocked her bully with a skate, but then they immediately went back to everyone standing around not doing anything.