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

Love Brett Gelman.

Watching this now. Aside from a few little problems (most of which have been part of the series from day 1) I really don’t get the hate. If you liked the first three seasons you’ll probably like this too. Sure, there are groanworthy moments, the Big Baddie is dumb as hell, and the usual anachronisms that indicate the writing team probably didn’t live through the times depicted (like the word “assholery” being coined by Max a full 20 years before it appeared in the real world), but for what it is it fits the bill fine — for me, anyway.

Also ffs at all the 30-year-old teenagers in this. A persistent feature of Hollywood teen movies of the 80s, but c’MAWN.

I wouldn't have minded all that stuff if the first episode hadn't been feature-length. It's easier to not start playing Tetris on your phone when each scene doesn't go on ten minutes too long.

New part out. Eh

Huh

This wasn't SNL on a Thursday night.

This was Wyoming's Republican primary debate. pic.twitter.com/PUHeOMdx7I

— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) July 1, 2022

Whoops, wrong thread

Everrrrrything takes sooooo lonnnnng

no spoilers, but we're watching the first of the two new ones and it suuucks. so dumb. hoping it gets better. why does one monster survive a million bullets and the other dies with one shot? why is Jonathan falling asleep on the six hour drive from salt lake city to Vegas? why did they even shave eleven's head again?

there's really another season after this?

Max and Hopper may be the only two actors this season.

This Russian comic relief guy sucks.

The reason anything happens in this show is "just because."

It's like they're comically averse to momentum. This is season ...4? Whatever it is, we get it, now get moving!

I've been watching everything from Ep2 of this season on x1.25 playback and still it's like fucking glacial, I should just step off.

This is like "Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors: The Extended cut."

And so loud. All of it so loud. My poor dogs did not enjoy being in the room with it.

Dogs are the best tv critics, mine barks at the television whatever is on and he's always correct.

why did I expect this episode to be anything but hot garbage, it was filmed with the rest of this season.

Dogs are the best tv critics, mine barks at the television whatever is on and he's always correct.

Ha! Mine normally don't care, which was why I noticed it. They had a real air of "Jesus, is this still happening?" when we started into the final hour last night, and I could only agree.

Despite the runtimes I felt like these last two moved much faster than the first batch of this season. Having the different locations moving toward the same point in time worked very well in that respect.

I stuck with it but yeah, fucking interminable. If I had a button that automatically jumped past any 'people emoting in rooms' scenes, the second episode would have been about a half-hour long.

And so loud. All of it so loud. My poor dogs did not enjoy being in the room with it.

The problem is that the dialogue is so much quieter than everything else, and the sound effects are on steroids.

“Here, let me staple that.” [ominous zoom-in on stapler] KER-CHUNK!!!!!!

Has anyone made a youtube supercut of every time someone turns away from the group, looks off in the distance, and shouts “Guys?…GUYS!” ?

That's become a running joke in our household.

God only knows when we'll get around to watching the final episode. Even one of my kids had just about had enough. She'd recently re-watched most of the other seasons with her cousin, and when the credits of this penultimate episode hit she immediately said she wanted to watch S3 again to remind herself that the show could be good.

Her theory of what went wrong with this one is basically the "high on their own supply" theory. That is, the show people think every single cast member and relationship is equally important and iconic, and therefore deserves as much screen time as possible. And yet, they keep adding new characters, who if only by dint of being new are often more interesting. Again, imo the only actors carrying any weight in this season are Hopper and Max, and the former has been relegated to a Russian prison camp (I have no idea why) the whole time. Tbf, my kid defended Wynona's acting in this season by citing the terrible dialogue she's been given to deliver, but my take is that a good actor (David Harbour, Sadie Sink) can rise above the campy melodramatic stuff.

In their defense, the rest of the crew features some performers with solid comedy chops. Dustin, Steve, Argyle, Murray. But this show is not a comedy, and their comedic relief comes off as yet more padding amidst all the oppressive portent.

This is like reading a book by having it spelled to you. Trust your fuckin audience just an IOTA for god’s sake.

Still enjoying, but increasingly grudgingly.

Bah, you grumpy old fucks :p

My daughter and I loved the finale. Yes it was overlong but there was certainly plenty of fireworks and also lots of feels and stake raising.

Also liked how everything was tied in to earlier seasons and the final shot definitely left me looking forward to next season

I guess I'm grumpy because I really enjoyed the first 3 series, despite always wishing it was a little pacier (can't defend the 'old' part tho lol)

There were many things about this season that I loved, particularly Eddie and Argyle. Joseph Quinn should give Charlie Heaton some tips on how to do a convincing American accent.

The last shot irrationally pissed me off. I thought, "Jeez, they just got home! Give them a minute to relax!" And what happened to Murray?

Older teen's spoiler-free take away from the finale: "It sucks."

We asked, is it because you didn't like it, or didn't like what happened? She said it's because the acting and writing were terrible. I'm kind of surprised, not that she thought it was terrible (I also think this season sucked, not least because of the acting and writing) but because she is by far the biggest fan in the house (had posters, shirts, etc.), and if it even lost *her* ...

The only major disappointment for me was that the Dean & Jerry dynamic of Steve and Dustin -- which had been getting funnier with each season -- was largely absent. My idea for a spinoff is having those two, in character, co-hosting a variety show set in the mid-'80s.

I'm about 20 mins in and so far the most annoying rhing is "cracks in dams create pressure, the pressure builds..." no, the pressure is constant, the cracks reduce the ability of the dam to withstand it.

I chuckled at the use of breaking something to demonstrate how things break.

"Here is this pane of glass." (throws brick) "Now it has shattered. Understand? We are in grave danger!"

(Calls to get pane of glass replaced)

so
slow
and did the baddy win in the end or not?
They took everything that was good about this show and spoiled it, BOOOOOOO

I do like Vecna's crib, very end-of-Labyrinth.

'Member Labyrinth?

"cracks in dams create pressure, the pressure builds..." no, the pressure is constant, the cracks reduce the ability of the dam to withstand it.

ah but what if this water is CLEVER, sensing the dam's weakness and exerting extra pressure there!

Disappointed none of the bullies ended up in a dumpster, try harder next time guys.
― kinder, Saturday, 20 August 2016 13:14 (five years ago)

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

― kinder, Saturday, 4 June 2022 09:25 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

This might be starting to look a little obsessive but come on, those rollerskate jerks needed some comeuppance or it's not a true 80s story.

Tbf, she did get a broken nose, one jock got a kick in the balls and main jock was literally cut in half by an earthquake.

pfft, they needed to get gunged or something

S4 really gives [insert your preferred worst season of True Blood] a run for its money. absolute chore to get through.

I never thought to compare ST to True Blood but wow, yes

Where did that fucking sword come from?

It was still sitting there from back when the prisoners were sent out to fight with melee weapons, when he originally escaped.

Oh fer fucksake

we finished it tonight & i’m just gonna say i enjoyed this season

i don’t have a lot of deep things to say yet but i think that all the dark teenager shit was so good. so many moments this season that really felt like stephen king done right, honoring the best most crushing moments in his best novels, just such a tonally ~right~ mix of teenage dark shit with supernatural gross weirdness

not a ripoff. not an imitation.
there were moments that were just like being huddled under my blanket with a flashlight still reading way after lights-out, or trying to sleep but hoping nothing bad happened to anyone while i was away. there were times this season, and esp the finale where, in the moment, those stakes still felt kinda real, in the best stephen king way possible. I was all-in. And i didn’t expect that.

i didnt love the russia storyline: it dragged a lot - but i could watch tons more of the rest of the gang having adventures together, because that shit was great

anyway maybe that makes me an old cornball … or maybe ~you all~ are a bunch of complainy complainersons! geez lol jk jk

but i will say: the actual ending? fuuuuuck that was on some lotr return of the king five-ending bullshit omg END jeez

the real mystery of season 5 better be what did erica find under lucas's bed? it was a hundred on the disgusting scale! the disgusting scale only even goes to ten!! my money is on demogorgon hentai, but that's no surprise, my money is on demogorgon hentai most of the time

VG otm with pretty much all of that. I enjoyed watching this season the most since s1, could have lived with less Russia and a better ending.

I still haven't seen the final episode, but I did have my daughter and her friend watch the original "Nightmare on Elm Street," and her take was that the creators of "Stranger Things" owe that movie "5 billion dollars."

Josh’s daughter OTM