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

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.

Not doing anything in windowless rooms/sets.

Like they seriously spent $30 million on each episode in this season? That is fucked up.

The money's not going to CGI, hope Winona's getting $8mn per episode.

when I used to play D&D as a teenager one thing I remember is the beginnings of campaigns were always a lot of fun because of all the unanswered questions and fun threads of mystery, whereas the middles/ends where you finally get to the "big plot" are always kind of a drag

they’re spending that much because Stranger Things is one of their few big reliable worlwide hits.

The form is definitely down this season. Just finished episode 2, eleven plot utter garbage, Russia plot annoying, Nancy and co plot boring, Vecna + Eddie/dusty/Steve/max/Robbin surprisingly pretty great? I think much of its greatness is in it being a reprieve from the monotony of the rest of the show, helps to get over it campiness.

Despite my complaints, I’m in for the ride, already three seasons invested and I don’t disrespect the sunk cost fallacy

This season is as good as all the other seasons. Which is to say: middling-to-decent. The show has never been much more than a genre/era pastiche with a sprinkling of decent horror elements. I still like watching Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour and Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery (I would honestly just as soon watch a Hangin' With Steve & Dustin spinoff tbh) do their thing, and Maya Hawke and the new metal dude have potential, so even if most of the rest of the cast is less compelling and even when the plot feels a little redundant, it's still a solid C+ vibe like it's always been.

I'm not sure if I want to continue and see if it improves any.

Totally agree with f.hazel too

I can only take so much John Hughes teen angst. Much of what I've seen so far comprises too-long scenes of unspoken tension/one-sided argument/sullen miscommunication, it's pretty enervating to watch.

A lot of the time, nobody seems to be able to get a simple point across without an argument or moment of conflict, it's like watching Hollyoaks but with a bit more murder.

That little Netflix 10sec zip-ahead button is coming in really handy.

i still think the first season was basically brilliant. yes because of the novelty but it was also efficient and genuinely suspenseful.

i thought the season was overstuffed and mostly agree with josh's point that each scene goes on for way too long, and the russia plot was entirely pointless. but the stuff that worked really worked—the hawkins stuff in general was on par with season 1, imo. and the cast is incredible.

not exactly looking forward to the two jumbo episodes that will close out the season, but this is my wife’s absolute fav show so i’ll be watching regardless

I really liked the first three seasons!

I am enjoying this now (halfway through episode 6). I think what annoyed me most was the school scenes. The El getting bullied was unbearable (not because of sympathy, because of how stupid and contrived it was). I’m even liking the Russia stuff after it went unexpectantly off the rails. It just started with two weak episodes.

If nothing else, I'd think y'all would appreciate the scene where a Kate Bush song literally saves a character's life.

Would have been better if it was something like Eddie Murphy's "Party All the Time."

Saw the last ep of this batch. Too long. Too much talking. Too much Russia. Too silly. Not silly enough. And now Voldemort, too.

this season seems fine (I've watched one episode) you are all a bunch of whiners

https://i.insider.com/629699353050690018311c4b?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp

Yeah season is fine and the show knows when it is being ridiculous; it is self aware, this is often intended (for example, the entire skating rink bullying and laughing at Eleven). Just try to have fun with it.

That skating rink bullying stuff and laughing at Eleven was supposed to be ... fun? Oof.

i do think the show is in a weird space (and maybe always has been) where it's not sure if the target audience is gen x people who are nostaligic for the 80's or younger people (who are now older teenagers) who want to watch people their own age, and as a result the tone of the show drifts a bit. this doesn't really bother me, but my kid (almost 16) last night was rolling their eyes at Eleven's voice over in the opening episode. I was like yes of course it is cheesy, what is the problem?

show has been in a descent ever since its apex, which was the ep where they showed up at school dressed as the Ghostbusters, and a bully walked by and yelled - "who ya gonna call? THE NERDS!"

but i will start this soon.

Meant have fun with the show despite its over the top cheese, but yeah tbh even that scene amused me with its heavy handed "so we see here, in case you aren't aware, that Eleven is struggling with bullies. We wanted to make sure that was established. Is everyone clear? No? Can we get another goon to laugh and point? Just want to make sure." Which is pretty true to actual 80s teen movies?

xxp

If nothing else, I'd think y'all would appreciate the scene where [show hidden text] literally saves a character's life.

― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Thursday, June 2, 2022 10:10 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

episode 4 was the clear highlight of the season, and one of the best episodes in the show's history.

Eleven bullying/end of episode 4/end of final episode: the problem with this season (I can’t remember if it was always like this?) is its just too heavy handed. It doesn’t just spell everything out for you, it forces it down your throat to make sure you don’t miss a bit of it at all. I don’t think it is self-aware about this. There was no irony in showing that tattoo at the end of the final episode, instead it felt like either the show is too eager to waste time or it does not respect the audience’s intelligence.

^^saying all that, I actually liked this season lol. Just too many instances of banging a point over my head as the viewer. Edit out 15ish% of the fat and this is probably my favourite season?

My kids told me there is some controversy over filming parts of this season in a former Nazi camp, which makes all the tattooed numbers stuff that much more icky.

xpost This season would be fine if it just moved instead of spinning gears. It's season 4, we get it, time to get going, you know?

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.

This totally.
The Vecna reveal was actually pretty decent but it toooook soooooo looooonnnngg
The Russia stuff was SO TERRIBLE

Dustybun carries this show.
If every single one of the bullies doesn't end up in a dumpster at the end I'm quitting Netflix.

each bully is going to get their own Netflix standup special

That was Netflix's takeaway from Chappelle's last special

Based on S3 and my 20-minute peek into S4, one of the main problems--the main one, maybe--is that, unfair though it may be, some kid actors were not meant to be anything other than kid actors. Their acting is just very awkward when they get older. On the old Roseanne show, Darlene made the transition from energetic kid to brooding teenager brilliantly; D.J., on the other hand, who was so weirdly funny early on, just wasn't very good as a teenager. For me, that was the case with at least two or three of the characters on Stranger Things.

cmon name names

Dustin would be one; even worse, I thought, was Mike. (Had to check the name.) If you don't have that problem, I'm sure everything is a lot more bearable.

Huh. I feel like Dustin is one of the few having fun with this lucky role. Steve, too. Max is good as well. Now Lucas, Mike, Will, Nancy, Eleven, Jonathan (does he count as a kid? he looks like he's 30) none of them can act at all, to various degrees. The adults are all ... fine. Winona has nothing to do here (including acting). Gelman is mostly hammy. Hopper is good, though. He's surprisingly versatile for a lunk, which is why it was dumb to literally lock him in a prison this whole season. They should have locked the kids in a Russian prison instead.

Dustin does seem to be still popular. In S3, I thought he'd lost whatever it was that made him so good dancing at the prom to "Time After Time."

hope (really-)high top fades come back in style thanks to Lucas

The actor playing Eddie has big RDJ energy, Marvel should sign him up for some lame Tony Stark JR TV show.

that’s interesting, i think the real problem is that the whole hawkins crew can act circles around the california crew (except argyle, he’s a cliche but the actor is likable enough to make it work)

xps to josh

The actor playing Eddie has big RDJ energy

Yeah, another reason why sidelining him for two entire episodes (so, about six hours) made no sense. Hey, let's introduce this new livewire character with lots of energy! And then ... let's lock him away so we can focus on all the moping!

No one strikes me as a bad actor in this show but many characters strike me as pooooooooooorly written/not-fun. Agree that Hawkins Crew >>>>>>>>>> Cali Crew.

will appears to be wearing the same shirt that he did in S1, which is now small enough on him that it has fused with his own flesh

i am watching because my kids are crazy about it. “this is the best series i’ve ever seen”

first ep of new series pretty rough in terms of graphic child death, not a fan really

Just wait until they flash back to the graphic child deaths in every single episode. In case you missed those details.

I’ve just finished episode 4 (so, like five hours in) and it’s odd that it feels like the table is still being set, rather than the plot fully underway. Not much to add other than I agree with a lot of the points above: too many disconnected groups of characters, longer running times haven’t added to the show at all, and I just fast-forward through the Russian stuff. The cast is too big—I don’t think Will or Jonathan, for instance, have mattered at all to the plot so far. Writing that, I realize that I don’t care much about the main cast from the first season anymore—Mike and Eleven don’t interest me much either yet this season. If it were up to me, I’d reduce the young adult case to Robin, Steve, Dustin and one or two others. Also have noticed a lot more flashing back to things that happened only one or two episodes ago.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned it before - is it too obvious? *has* it been mentioned? - but the new series of Stranger Things has made Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" come back into the pop charts here in jolly old blighty, at number 8:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61685561

My initial reaction was "how does that work", and then I remembered that you can buy music over the internet. Perhaps she'll finally crack the elusive US market. Three months from now Kate Bush will get a cheque for £15.45 for all the streaming royalties. She has even acknowledged this fact (the chart placement, not the fact that you can buy music over the internet) on her website:
https://www.katebush.com/news/stranger-things

At this point my mind is pinging because I'm sure I first read about this on a forum very recently, possibly Ilxor itself. My internet search history has "stranger things baltimora" in it on 01 June, but nothing from Ilxor. Someone else must have pointed this out already. They must have.

In her message Kate Bush uses the phrase "bated breath", which she could so easily have misspelled, but she didn't because she went to grammar school. When I was a kid there was a Children's BBC TV show called Running Scared that had "Running Up That Hill" as the theme tune. Even as a kid I thought the show was punching above its weight. I learn from the internet that it also had Brian Eno and Jon Hassell on the soundtrack. I wonder if the producer picked up the phone and thought "if you don't ask, you don't get".

Stranger Things.

nice.