Stranger Things

Faltigoth

Faltigoth

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There were a few parts reminiscent of Aliens. The goo-covered tunnels, Paul Reiser/Burke, the way the dogs moved around the tunnels, the soldiers getting pwned at that one part where Smoke Monster Will sends them off to die, that definitely brought to mind the scene in Aliens where the whole squad gets their shit kicked in, down to watching the TV screens/vitals go blank. It had some of the vibes of it for sure, but the main thrust of things was quite different.

I guess I'm in the minority here, I really enjoyed the new characters, I thought the character development of the main cast was pretty logical, I thought Winona Ryder was excellent again, I thought Samwise Gamgee was good, I even liked the redhead and her brother, the 80s feels were spot on. I don't think I would make a very good critic.

I wouldn't put it on par with the first season, but its pretty damn close and I am interested to see where they take it, the guys making it said they had 4 seasons planned I think and I assume Netflix will give them money to make whatever the hell they want with this.
 
Del

Del

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I like how Eleven can read newspaper clippings when she can barely string more than 2 or 3 words together.
 
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Caliane

Caliane

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Del said:
I like how Eleven can read newspaper clippings when she can barely string more than 2 or 3 words together.
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ha. there were a few times things like that came up. Like, yes they are showing her, being poorly educated. but not nearly to the level she should be. cop dude is not sitting at home, home schooling.

soldier scene was hella "aliens". "we're surrounded!"

It should be renoted. the Duffy brothers were BORN in 84. So, alot of the nostalgia feels a bit weird at times. Because its not the nostalgia of someone that lived then, its from the nostalgia of someone that watched movies of that period.
s2 I think has been even worse with this. the music as noted.
 
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Tenks

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I liked the season well enough. I re-watched S1 just before watching S2 so I lack the rose tinted glasses and I felt for the most part the two seasons were equal. S1 was more cohesive. S2 was a bit all over but I found it actually a bit more entertaining. There was a ton of S2 where shit didn't matter. The ending was basically just killing a bunch of dogs. What about the storm? What about the giant shadow monster? Nothing really got resolved other than the gate closing.

Also episode 7 with the low-rent suicide squad was pure unadulterated cancer. Hoooooly shit that episode was bad and worthless.
 
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Royal

Royal

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I'll throw my hat in with those that really liked S2. Maybe not going into it expecting the same level of cherry poppin' goodness of S1 has something to do with that. Follow ups to an inaugural season of a show that borders on magical is tough to do and more often than not the effort falls shorter of the mark than what the Duffer brothers managed to pull off here. Far shorter.

Everyone fawned over MIllie Bobby Brown's performance in S1 and rightfully so. She was spectacular. But Will being missing for much of S1 sure helped her out there because we got a full dose of Will this time around and that kid can fuckin' act. It just drives home the extent to which they've hit casting gold with this show, all up and down the line up.

Like many others have mentioned, the Chicago episode was by far my least favorite due mostly to 8's crew being such a collection of unlikeables. To the point that I think they might have actually been going for that. My inner voice was just screaming for 11 to get the hell away from the lot of them. In the end it felt like a short cut to her learning more about her abilities from someone who was more seasoned but I wouldn't have wanted it to have been spread out across 2-3 episodes either so I was fine with the quick and dirty level up.

It did feel like they invested a little too much into Max's brother for him to end up being just a much less likeable version of Chet from Weird Science; a guy who likes being a dick for the sake of being a dick. I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt for now and assume they were laying some groundwork for S3 there.
 
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Fight

Fight

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Season 1- 9/10
Season 2- 7/10

Season 2 did a lot of things right, but some of the charm and originality has wore off.

The Good:
The kids. The nostalgia. The world building and coherency of storytelling. The final tug at the heartstrings dance at the end of the season. Steve's spiked bat. Dustin pretty much whenever he is on screen.

The Bad:
The overall atmosphere was not nearly as creepy. Season one had some real 'make you jump out of your seat' moments, but season 2 suffered from the fact that they already showed their hand. You knew what was making the creepy noises in the woods. You knew who was a un-touchable main-character and who was a 'red-shit' ready to get killed off. The world is better when the lab and scientists are evil master-mind bad guys and not the bumbling idiots we got in season 2.

Everything to do with Eleven was pretty annoying. Her quest to find her blubbering vegetable mom sucked. Her episode with the Chicago goons sucked. They should have just written her into the story-line to hang out with the other kiddos.

Mad Max and Psycho Brother. What was the point here? They both were ok characters, but they needed more of a purpose to justify such a large part of the season 2 story-line.
 
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Caliane

Caliane

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yeah, I agree the season lacked direction.
psycho older brother, is presumably a mashup of various older brothers/bullies. Bullies from goonies, nearly killing the brother on the bike. Johnny lawrence in Cobra Kai.e tc. But, it misses the mark. A few of the earlier scenes I thought was close. The absurd clearly 24yr old, going shirtless, pretending to be a teen.
(then suddenly abusive dad.)

The city overall plot was pointless/lame. but, I can get the influences. 80's punk of adventures in babysitting, TMNT, etc. I can understanding them wanting to touch on the hilarious movie/kids version of the punk scene that drenched cartoons and shit of the time. But, again, I think it missed the mark.

The ending was way off imho. the distraction, etc was decent, but not genre relevant. it was very modern.
Invaders from mars, and The gate should been good influences.

Season 2 kept skipping genres, is what Im trying to say. Characters then felt out of place because of it. And storylines felt dropped, or pointless.
 
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Sinzar

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I felt like the main point of the Chicago stuff was for the reveal that the head scientist guy "Papa" or whoever (forgot his name) from S1 is still alive, possibly setting up a storyline for S3.
 
kaid

kaid

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A lot of the eleven stuff I think was mostly world building for future seasons so it felt odd here but probably important going forward. Also
going to see the blubbery mom was important in that eleven has some closure there but now realizes her mom is basically broken and there is nothing left for her there so she can move on. This I think helps her finally accept the sheriff as a father and what is truly important to her which is why she went back willingly to the place she feared the most in the world. It also establishes her "papa" is probably still alive and eleven is not the only one with powers that may be walking around in the world. Also as annoying as some of the chicago stuff is it offered eleven a stark choice. Give into her rage at being tortured and abused and go full on vigilante hunting those who hurt her or going back to her friends and "family" to protect them. In the end her choice was a protector not an avenger.
 
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Quaid

Quaid

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This season was a trainwreck.

Better start paying some decent writers and stop leaning on the soundtrack.
 
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Mythas 5thboardnow

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I don't really know how they make a 3rd season. Sure that last shot exists, but if they succeeded at the end...then thats just another dimension right?!
 
Valishar

Valishar

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Sinzar said:
I felt like the main point of the Chicago stuff was for the reveal that the head scientist guy "Papa" or whoever (forgot his name) from S1 is still alive, possibly setting up a storyline for S3.
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The main point of the Chicago stuff was to give something for Eleven to do, in the guise of characterization and backstory. She's too powerful for the plot to have milling around otherwise the threat isn't really credible. Lazy writing? Sure, but it's the typical problem with characters like that.
 
Warmuth

Warmuth

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Mythas 5thboardnow said:
I don't really know how they make a 3rd season. Sure that last shot exists, but if they succeeded at the end...then thats just another dimension right?!
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I'm not sure whether they created the dimension or its always there. Either way someones going to fuck up and open another portal somehow would be my guess.
 
Royal

Royal

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Since it's a perverted reflection of this world I would assume that The Upside Down has always been there. And there could very well be multiple versions of it or multiple reflections each with their own distinctive divergences from this world.
 
M

Mythas 5thboardnow

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Right but that seems overly lazy writing...Oh noes mario your princess is in another cas...I mean another group of scientists have opened up another portal.
 
Royal

Royal

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They didn't kill the mind flayer ... it may find another means to opening the portal beyond piggybacking onto Will.
 
Void

Void

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I just finished it last night (later than I should have!), and I enjoyed it overall. Not as good as S1, definitely, but still good. I commented to a friend immediately after watching episode 7 (sister) that I really disliked that one in particular, and felt it could have literally been taken completely out without any real issues.

I also liked Steve best of all. Dustin is the best of the kids in terms of watching them on screen, but honestly I'd have watched an entire episode of just Steve. That's quite a change from how I felt in Season 1 when I couldn't get it out of my head that he was a young John Ralphio. Sure he redeemed himself in S1, but he was great in S2.

I was fine with the new girl, but thought it was dumb that Mike in particular kept telling her that she wasn't in the party. I get that they are kids and not very tactful, and she's a girl no less (although so was Eleven), but it just seemed forced and dumb, and I started getting tired of it. When her brother came on screen I literally thought, "What is this 30 year old guy doing here?" and then when he actually went to school, my eyes rolled out of my head. The scene with the MILF though almost redeemed him.

I liked the final battle being split into 3 groups, although Eleven's was the least satisfying. But really, I don't know how I would have made it any better, I mean that's just what she does, so I guess ok. But I liked the other two groups doing important stuff at the same time.

I'll definitely watch the next season.
 
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kaid

kaid

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Mythas 5thboardnow said:
I don't really know how they make a 3rd season. Sure that last shot exists, but if they succeeded at the end...then thats just another dimension right?!
Click to expand...

they did not kill the mind flayer and basically only closed the door and purged what was already on earth. The demigorgons were basically animals or near animals which was what they had attracted the attention of initially. The mindflayer thing is clearly intelligent and now knows earth exists. It is very possible it can open the way from its own side over time which is my guess where season three goes.
 
Koivu

Koivu

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kaid said:
they did not kill the mind flayer and basically only closed the door and purged what was already on earth. The demigorgons were basically animals or near animals which was what they had attracted the attention of initially. The mindflayer thing is clearly intelligent and now knows earth exists. It is very possible it can open the way from its own side over time which is my guess where season three goes.
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There's plenty of things to do for a season 3. Brenner's fate is left wide open. By introducing the sister, the show opens up possibilities that there are other kids (001-007, 009-010) with supernatural abilities. There might even be 012+, depending on how desperate the writers get. Leads to an easy plot: Brenner tries again, kid 0XX rips a new hole in the reality, Mind Flayer attacks. Since the center at Hawkings is closed, this has to happen somewhere else. Suddenly things are going to hell in somewhere else, and the only way to save the situation is for Eleven to reopen the portal and lead the charge into Upside-Down. This is just on the top of my head.

Also, in the speech to Jonathan and Nancy, Dr. Owens scares them with the idea what the Soviets might do if they knew the truth. Plenty of homages to the 80s spy thrillers for the Duffer Brothers to do.
 
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