I'll go ahead and say it. First season is okay, and after that it's downhill. Each and every season. I'M SORRY. IT'S THE TRUTH. ONE DAY EVERYONE WILL SEE. From the get go, the series was all about emulating things that were seen before and creating a false sense of nostalgia. It's obvious. There was little to no 100% creative decisions there.
Spoiler: Stranger Things was always a mediocre tv show and most of the time doesn’t really meaningfully differentiate itself from the pastiche of references it is based on.
First things first, Murray is a goddamn Treasure and I will fight you. Celestial Shinobi or not. Second I thought it was pretty obvious the russians were in Hawkins to exploit the tear 11 Made. I figured they ran across some readings when it happened, and through spies and research found out it was in Hawkins, so set up a lab.
they did in the earlier seasons, esp season 1. off the top of my head, there's the breakfast scene in the first episode where Mike pours syrup in her eggs to annoy her, the subtweeting each other at dinner about Steve ("What's your test on, human anatomy?") and then immediately covering for each other when the parents ask what they're talking about, Mike's disgust when Eleven calls Nancy's photo "pretty," Nancy trying to get Mike to talk to them on the walkie and the kids debating about whether they can trust her because she's his sister, their conversation at the end of Season 1 when Nancy says, "no more secrets, okay?", and Mike stealing Nancy's money to go to the arcade. but yeah they've completely lost that in the later seasons, it's like they barely even know each other.
Visually, seasons 1 and 2 looked like the 80s. Season 3 looked like a stylized, modern homage to an 80s music video. It was pretty, but felt really out of place to me.
It was during the summer, the colors were supposed to be brighter. Just like season 4 was a little brighter than season one or two as well. They are following the 80's well
stranger things suffers from what i call fanfiction syndrome. i used to write fanfictions as a 12 year old where i would only have 10 chapters planned out, and then i would write additional chapters just by making up stuff as i went. that's what i think happened after the 1st, maybe 2nd season, where they started adding and adding lore that is really last minute and feels so unplanned.
ik ur joking but i think they established (or maybe i js assumed idk) that dart wasn’t completely part of the hive mind because will coughed him up and essentially raised him in his body himself
Well, Billy and Will were part of the hive but escaped it by being reminded of a good part of their past (Billy's mom at the beach and Will with his mother and brother, even tho it was harder for him), so Dart being raised by Dustin clearly makes sense with the fact that he spares Dustin and his friends at the end, he got saved from the hive even before joining it (sort of)@@frankieholt6721
Problem with modern media is that you can't have isolated stories with a beginning, middle and ending, everything must turn into a brand, and that's what killed stranger things.
I agree with you, but I've heard bullying was normalised in the 80s, and so people were a lot less unfiltered to pointing and laughing and publicly embarassing people
El's bullying plot actually had the opposite effect for me. It made me like her less because I was getting annoyed whenever they gave that plotline any screentime. I'm saying this as someone who loves all 4 seasons and used to rank el in my top 3 characters
I actually started disliking her a lot bc she somehow became a notorious liar for no reason!? like her writing that bs letter to Mike about all the stuff she made up was infuriating 😂
@@alliwhite3941i didn't have problem with her as a person, but it definitely pissed me off when she said "you don't understand" to Mike regarding the bullying. like honey, that's Mike wheeler. he jumped off a cliff to save Dustin's life because he was being attacked by the bullies.
> Shows us his pre-Stranger Things Stranger Things music > The music is actually realy good > Tells us he was a trend setter > The music is nowhere to be found What's up with that buddy, huh? Why show us those gems, and just lock them away?
The thing about Season 3's aesthetics is that they are super indicative of the Marvel-ization, the push towards imagined nostalgia vs realism. What I'm saying is that making everything colorful and neon is cool and all, but the 80s was BROWN. Season 1 was so accurate because it was so BROWN. Everything was BROWN!! So all that neon, all those colors, yes for sure so groovy so rad and yes people wore colors but every interior you went into in the 80s was deeply tan, mauve, and brown.
The color palate in the 80s changed to pastels and neon, after the release of Miami Vice, and the popularity of the New Wave and Hair Metal. The earthy color palate of the 70s carried over into the early 80s. So the accuracy of the color palate in Season 3 depends on the year in which it purports to take place.
I think what could have been interesting for Joyce’s character in season four would be to reiterate the fact that she’s a single mom struggling to make ends meet now having to financially deal with a move and a third kid. I thought it could really bring the stories back to a human level because that was season one’s greatest strength. Grounding a fantastical storyline with real people experiencing real and relatable emotions.
She seemed rich suddenly?? She had to ask for advances to pay for fairy lights in S1, but she cashed out $40k (more than 110k in today's money) in one day to pay a ransom?? And with zero hesitation, Murray didn't even say like "can you afford that?" It was just "ok let's go get 40k in cash from the bank"
Steve had so much potential. They could have leaned into his backstory with his absent parents and Barb literally getting murdered at his house, taken his character development from the preppy popular kid further. The writers could have brought up literally any of the torture or things he’d gone through, but instead I feel they’ve reduced him to the air-head comic relief. Trying to get back with Nancy reverses both of their character development and growth. S1 and S2 Steve will always be top tier Steve
One thing you mentioned several times in passing, that I think is really important, is that the show started with the Upside-down being unknowable, the motivations were completely outside our understanding or comprehension. That made the show great. Trying to turn the whole thing into a big-bad conscious being was bad enough, but at least the Mindflayer was still an "Other" that we couldn't understand. It was still imposing and unsettling. Now the bad guy is literally just a human who thinks like humans do, but is the bad guy and has super powers. It completely wrecks the whole concept. It might have been fine if he was just a new bad guy, but they had to retcon and try to tie everything together, and as you point it is does not remotely make sense.
Having Hopper spend an entire season escaping a soviet prison feels like the type of plotline the CW would come up with during the "past their expiration date" seasons that all their shows went through.
There was nothing sadder than doing as much retcons as possible to make it seem like Vecna was always behind everything, for a final showdown to at least end the series in a good note, only for the generic bad end plotwist to take over because netflix wanted another season.
I was bummed out when at the end of S3 we found out that Hopper isn't actually dead, but I was actively upset when Max didn't die in S4 and Eleven suddenly have powers to reanimate people. Why would I care for the plot armour?
Just realized that the writers are going to absolutely respond to the criticism of "the show doesn't kill off enough main characters" by killing people off even if its unsatisfying/poorly executed in Season 5
Almost like there's a theme here. Almost like, every time, good writers write a good A-to-B finished show, and it's really great... ... and then they're told to just keep writing it, even though it's done. And almost like that's always when all these shows get worse. Almost... like stories should end.
the mindflayer was a 1000x better villian then whatever the last guys name was, number 1 or something? they should kept it as some kind of unknowable creature from another dimension to keep the mystery/horror to it. imo.
Joyce carried season 1 but her character has declined in writing every season im hoping they can redeem her and give her some good scenes since they said season 5 is going to be a lot of like season 1 but on a bigger scale
Season 1 is the best no contest, it was the most suspenseful. But Season 2 had the best action. The gang fighting their way out of Hawkins lab, Steve and some of the kids confronting the demodogs from the bus, and Eleven's epic return. It also had the most satisfying conclusion at the Snow Ball.
I just watched the whole series for the first time over the last couple of months. I really enjoyed it. I generally have high standards so this show was a pleasant surprise. I did not notice a decline, but I think a lot of that is not suffering through years of waiting for new seasons and also not taking part in any fan discourse. I thought Max was going to die. The way they played flashes of clips of her from previous seasons felt like a send off. I think others were in my shoes if the scene was so powerful the song was charting again.
I didn't enjoy Season 3 and it made me not watch Season 4 until like a year after its release because I just couldn't be bothered, but when I finally got round to it I was very positively surprised. I really enjoyed it tbh, it was probably my second favourite season after 1. I hope Season 5 is as good.
It's a big issue when the horror comes from the unknown and then you keep exploring the unknown until it's intimately known. It retroactively makes the original sense of horror feel less intense when revisiting it.
Something that I've come to the realisation of these last couple of years is that, if it takes a show well over a year to create the next season, then the writers most likely don't have an overarching plan for the plot, and the show will inevitably be doomed to fail; whether it be by losing its fanbase from having to wait too long, or by ruining the world they created by not knowing when to stop.
Yeah, this is for sure the vibe. Every time a new season comes out, I get a little excited. But every time it ends I think “huh, I don’t know if I really want to watch the next season of stranger things…” I also have the (maybe) spicy opinion that Hopper should have died in Season 2, either in the finale or in Bob’s place. It would have HURT but like a good kind of hurt-plus anything is better than Magnum PI Hopper. David harbour is way too good for that
the fact that they couldnt bear to kill off any characters because 'muh precious fan favorites!' so instead the cast is too big and they did character assassinations instead of just killing them off 🙃
this video was a fun watch but i have to disagree with u saying that max didn't have a big role in season 3. her relationship with evilbilly was pretty good imo, with her being conflicted because billy is her stepbrother but he's possessed by an evil eldritch monster and is trying to conquer the world was interesting to me. also her friendship with Eleven was cute and helped make Eleven feel more human imo
I am convinced that I was the only person in the world who actually liked S2E7. When my mom and I finished watching it, she immediately said "I didn't like that episode," to which I was like "You just didn't get it," but apparently everyone agrees with her. To me, the episode was about Eleven making a choice. The whole season, she was trying to figure out where she came from and who she was, and in episode 7, Eight offered her an answer: she came from horrible things and her purpose could be to avenge what was done to her and her mother. It's a classic temptation arc, where a character is at their most vulnerable and is offered a path of villainy, and when Eleven chose to reject that path, at least for me, it felt really satisfying, it felt like her coming into her own and solidifying her own identity. Up until that point, she'd been searching for answers, and by extension, herself; the choice she makes at the end of episode 7 is her finding herself, deciding who she wants to be and what her life means, and that allows her to come back and save the day as a confident hero rather than a confused, lost little girl. For that reason, S2E7 felt vital and pivotal to me personally, and I really liked it. But apparently, I'm the only one who saw it that way… V_V
my thoughts on stranger things is that each season should have focused on a new set of preteens in a new town, with slightly different weird things going on that still related back to the upside down and the secret gov experiments. in this version, s4 would bring together the characters to share their knowledge to defeat an apocalyptic monster and the gov program
It started as a series aimed at adults who were kids in the 80s (the nostalgia effect), the problem is that it has now become a series for teens/young adults so killing the main characters would be a big shock
i literally despised season 4 and its lack of ground or direction, no mystery, shit characters, too much damn romance that makes no sense, if you watched season 1 right after 4 it would feel like 2 completely different shows
whoa, this is my fifth video from you, and the first when I found out what you look like and about the music???!!!! After that 12th-minute mark, I gotta subscribe. Great work and a lot of heart put into a video. Thank you
Really enjoyed this video and I broadly agree with most of it, but I've gotta say, the Season Four countdown to Max's first encounter with Vecna is without a doubt one of the most exciting parts of the show, especially because it really, REALLY felt like they were gonna kill her right there. Like, the whole time I was waiting for them to figure out how to "cure" her, how to break her free of the curse, but when she started rising into the air I lost my SHIT because I genuinely believed she was gonna die. And then she DIDN'T, in a really great scene where it feels like Max outsmarts Vecna for potentially the first time in his long, strange life. I agree that they definitely need to kill more characters and should have been doing that for a while, but to be honest that only made me MORE sure they were going to kill Max there, and surprised me even more that she didn't.
TBH I think that instead of Chrissy, season 4 should have started out by killing Mike. he didnt have anything to do in the series anymore, but he was important to so many other characters and the protagonist of the first season. Him dying would have established the stakes, and been a good motivation for most other characters to get back into action. Plus, grief storylines for everyone! It's free money.
I actually liked season 3 for its camp and silliness as well as Dacre's performance as Flayed!Billy but you really hit the nail on the head with the character assinations and the narrative choice (telling us everything before it happens). Sooo freaking true. I also agree about Billy's death. It was lazy in an attempt redeem withiut putting in the effort. I wouldve found it far more interesting for them to have had a truly terrible, damaged character actually change for the better. Also I HATED season 4. So glad someone else shared that sentiment.
Season 1 was so nostalgic. I was born in the 80’s an while many of my memories are gone from that time, I still have a few…..wearing jelly sandals, a puffy rainbow shirt (which didn’t represent anything other than a rainbow), the old school flooring of a McDonald’s, metal cigarette trays in my moms Pontiac, that lawn chair your skin would stick to in the summer. *sigh*
The original allure of Stranger things was "hey grownups can't save the day because they're not taking it seriously, plus they're not as open-minded and creative as the kids"...seeing kids beat monsters with turn-table RPG strategies was a fun nod to growing up, playing games, and always dreaming of your own quest as a child, and Stranger Things was a realization that "yeah, maybe I didn't want that after all"...I hope for a strong finisher in S5 but I found the last few episodes of season 4 so slow
Back when Season 3 and 4 came out I looked around for videos or post like yours. I couldn't find one. I'm glad some one else feels the way I do about this beloved show.
This was a very satisfying watch - I think you actually discussed every single issue I've had with the series, safe for my personal pet peeve of "German actor badly fakes a Russian accent because who's gonna tell the difference lol" (it's me, I can tell, you did a bad job). It's such a shame because with the consistently solid character writing - you are right about Eddie predictably being S4's Designated Disposable, but I still wish he'd been S4's Robin - they could have easily pulled of what the Duffers had originally planned AND still tied it back around. Can you imagine how incredibly good it would have been to have several (seemingly) unconnected seasons of people encountering supernatural shit and then have one where it all connects because the Upside Down is just a parallel world that somehow is connected to ours in random (?) places, and/or spreading like a fungus mycelium? They still could have kept giving us tons of characters, played with tropes and references and do one of my favorite things in storywriting, making it all connect meaningfully after a long build-up. Or - not! Because yes, the absolute worst thing about S4 was turning a perfectly surreal, ominous, cosmic horror setting into "ok listen this all makes sense, it's TRAUMA" - and then not even make it make sense.
I think the best thing they could do for next season is strengthen the dynamic between Mike and Eleven. I think that ( as extreme as this is) killing off Mike is a great way to close the story. Mike’s character has floundered after season 2, and if done right some decent character work combined with a sacrificial death could be just what Mike’s character needs to solidify his place in the story.
Forgot Stranger Things was a thing, thought it was a COVID fever dream lmao. At this rate they're going to go with the Attack on Titan route and split the final season into 8 more seasons spread about 9 years apart with the final 30 minutes made into a two part movie that will only be showed at select theaters and if you didn't get a select theater to see it at sucks-to-suck I guess. 🤷♂💀
lmao, finally, thank you! I dislike the 4th season, mostly thanks to the Eddy and Vecna, mostly Vecna because when primordial chthonic evil starts speaking or blabbering out their plans - everything loses its edge and unpredictable wonder, you don't talk it out or reason with xenomorphs or a tornado and that's why xenos and natural disasters or even zombies are so good and scary, it ruined a lot of Stranger Things for me (tbh ever since Mindfrayer was shown to be able to "talk/communicate"), so my fav seasons are 1-2 while 3-4 is some weird experimentation with how to scoop up some plot/content for the current run. I think 4th season was liked mostly due to the fact writers managed to squeeze in Vecna (alter 11's past) in an okish way, because most of the fan love that I've seen is directed either to that idiot Eddy (poor cute baby) or towards Vecna (he's so badass) or both.
I wish they would have kept the stakes smaller like in season 1. It felt much more like a mix of horror and mystery. The other three seasons just rip off every 80’s horror movie to a pint to where it’s not satire, it’s stealing plots from other films
My friend called Series 1 a "properly class bit of TV" and they're so true, hearing you go back through it made me want to rewatch it. It's so well made, so well told, it's brilliant and not. surprise it was as big as it was.
Genuinely I think they just didn't film fast enough, the kids aging so much kind of ruined it. They should have filmed multiple seasons at the same time.
Season 4's ending could have been solved so easily. Have all the sappy ending stuff happen like normal, then fade to black. Fade in over the town, and it says "2-3 years later," THEN have the town crack open. The kids are going to look 30 akd and still have to play freshmen. This isn't Spider Man 2000!
Stranger Thing look like a dnd play with a (very good) DM improvising most of the campaign 😂 But if for a tabletop experience it's really good, it's not for a show with that audience.
hoppers character reset may have something to do with how hard it is a for single dad to raise a teenage girl. all the clips you show compare to other season revolved around him trying to deal with the kids growing up and him not being able to cope with that.
This was SOOOO VALIDATING holy shit. I will die on the hill that ST should’ve ended after season 1 and remained an obscure cult classic. Joyce Byers truthers unite.
i cant believe youtube has been hiding this account from me. first of all, ABSOLUTE BANGERS with the music you made for this video goddamn. second, thank actual god im not alone in how ive been feeling about this show. i feel seen, i feel heard.
Hopper's character was bothering me from the jump in S3, but the kicker for me was when he burst in on Max and El all drunk and angry ... that was so scary!!! And the girls didn't react at all, like?? They're like jeez what's this guy's problem lol, like Hopper is so scary and violent in that moment, there's no way that would be their reaction. Especially considering El's traumatic past AND Max's experiences with Billy.... It's just played off as comedy, but it was so concerning (and ofc not at all in character). The idea that Hopper from S2 would get completely wasted and scream at El and tell her she can't do anything right is just insane.
On s2 they talk about if the info on the gate comes out the ussr Soviet Union would take advantage of it , I agree with some of your takes but a lot of your takes seem like you weren’t paying attention
A 2 and a half hour video that at its core is why fans of stuff get annoyed when their favourite show starts being made for wider appeal. Because it stops being what it originally was and becomes the same as everything else. I feel you man.
We re-watched seasons one through 3 to prep for season 4 . . . and it made season 4 that much more depressing. The tracking-shot of the gun fight in Will's house is really the only thing that stood out for my wife and I, and my son dropped out of watching it about half way through (and he is/was a die-hard Stranger Things fan, too). I'll watch the fifth season but I'll probably wait until it's all aired and then binge it.
STRANGER THINGS MAKES ME MAD WITH ALL OF THE COOL PLOT LINES THEY COULDVE EXPLORED MROE BUT THEY GOT RID OF THEM. I was hoping for so much more with El’s mom
I remember when that Lost Sister episode happened. I just…stopped watching the show. I was like “it’s gonna get worse from here” and just stopped watching. I only watched scenes that people shared later on like “Running Up That Hill” with Max and some other avec a scenes. I’m satisfied having stopped when I did.
Hopper was such a great example of a more traditionally masculine father figure having emotional intelligence, and they absolutely decimated him in season 3. I'm not sure if I was supposed to believe he was regressing because of his environment or something? like it was all making him hypervigilant to the point of harming his relationships, but that went nowhere because he "dies." I also found it kind of yucky to have posed Billy as a racist abuser but then try and get you to feel bad for him last minute because his mom left him when he was a kid? I had no reason to care if he died because he was a terrible person even if it was realistically due to his environment. I get that season 3 takes place around a mall, but it felt like the show was just yelling in your face "don't forget the 80s is happening!!" Haven't watched season 4 and all I know is that Eddie is cute as fuck but of course they killed him because they can't kill any of the mains yet. The Vecna stuff is kind of interesting, but I refuse to believe the people who say it was planned the whole time.
Can't remember much about the later seasons, but the first one felt like an indie film. The characters live their lives organically, discovering mysteries as they go. Everything is connected in a way that's natural because of the way every plot line is set up. Later seasons felt like they had this ultimate goal that was bigger than life. In S1 the goal is just "Find Will" and everyone happens to stumble upon something strange. Which is definitely why I remember everything about the first season and not much about the later ones...
S1>S4>S2>S3 for me. I thought 4 was absolutely brilliant and still one of the best shows ever made, but the only problem I had with it was they just keep introducing new characters to kill them off when Eddie and even Chrissy were honestly so loveable and great characters that deserved more. S3 wasn't a bad show, it just had too much of a contrast between funny and then gory and violent, it had a very different vibe to 1 and 2. They were both brilliant as well, I only preffered 4 over 2 because I wasnt the biggest fan of the plot in 2, but that might just be idk. Overall this is a brilliant show and not one season was bad, they just have to remember the vibe that made this show such a big deal imo
I feel the same about season 4, what a letdown. For some reason, I bought into season 3 from the start and love it. Sometimes, you see something that is a lil' stupid, but it communicates it really clearly... Or I was just in the mood for something dumbed down. But I am a season two (I don't think Noah is getting enough praise for his acting there) and three enjoyer. Season 4 and its ridiculous Russian plotline can demo-gorge on deez nutz
I disagree so much with your view on Steve. He was never an asshole jock who evolves into a character with a good heart. We as an audience kept expecting him during Season 1 to fall into that trope but he never does. And I looooved the baby dermogorgon, I thought it was a really cute storyline. When you have a pet you love it and you don't care if it kills another animal. You protect it like your own.
There are a lot of problems with s4, but the big one, for me, is Eleven's storyline. I know teenagers can be real c**ts, but watching her get bullied like that was just too much for me. It's like, hasn't she been through enough? Her father didn't love her and used her as a lab rat. I could have sworn he died in s1 but somehow he's still alive even though she deserves to never have to look at his face again. I mean, that scene where she snaps and hits the girl with the roller skate was painful, and not in a way that was interesting or emotionally cathartic. She has an (adopted) mother who loves her and a friend who is her age who knows everything she's been through. Shouldn't she have at least a few friends or a hobby that helps her deal with all the high school drama? The other characters had relatively normal childhoods. She deserves one, too
Bro I must be small minded, because I’ve enjoyed this ride. Lol maybe it’s because I suspend my disbelief, but I was genuinely shook at the Vecna being 001 reveal. 😂
I do feel like the choice of the creators to completely ignore the Lost Sister episode because of audience reactions is a good example of them being too eager to please the fans. Like yeah, it was a weird episode in the context of the 2nd season, but at least it was expanding the world and potentially move the action outside of Hawkins. But they chickened out, and now it feels even more like a pointless detour because they never bothered coming back to it.
Netflix: ehhhhh… I guess we’ll let you make your little story, just cuz we’re so risky like that. Netflix after the success: you’re making more of that and nothing else ever
Looking back on it, S1 is kind of convoluted as well. How did the demigorgon not just kill Will? Where did the shotgun go? How does Will even know how to interact with the real world much less survive for how long in the upside down without food or clean water? How does the Demigorgon even exist? Like what sustained it before the crossover happened? How does it have a predator nature without anything to prey on, but then learns it but also doesn’t act on it instantly when given the chance with Will? Instead it stalks and toys with it prey as if it has a higher intelligence? Now if they showed that they’ve tried the experiments before and constantly failing, losing people to the upside down, introducing flesh, prey, to the demigorgon, that would explain a little, but it’s implied 11 is the first time that’s happened and we know there’s more than one, so how? It’s not a happen chance situation where this being manifested in an alternate reality. Was it an eldritch being in a long slumber or did it not even exist until its existence was awakened by 11 seeing it, like a schrodingers cat or quantum physics thing where it being observed changes how it’s perceived, because it’s being perceived?
I think for some of these questions it's just continuity errors (like the shotgun?) The other questions are true but it would break the mystery of the first season, and it kinda requires a suspension of disbelief that you need in most fantasy media. All very good questions but in the context of S1 it's not the main focus to fully flesh out the other dimension, it's following people as they try to find a missing boy. Revealing the answers would only hurt the story, because we learn information with the characters. We're just as in the dark as them, other than giving small glances of Will when necessary. And when it ends, we understand what is necessary. I do agree with the stuff about how Will learnt to communicate, and about why the monster even has a prey instinct, but for the first season it definitely wasn't necessarily needed to explain those things. Maybe for later seasons, which did try to show/explain more mechanics of the upsidedown. But imo that kinda ruined the atmosphere around it because it's no longer this unknown force. It's just a malicious mirror dimension with inexplicably evil monsters inside. It could be interesting if the upsidedown was always the main focus, but it wasn't. It was more of a backdrop to explore the characters and the horrors of having to deal with a missing loved one.
Feel like this is an unpopular opinion at least in this common section but seasons 2 and 3 were undoubtedly my favorite seasons. I think the pacing was really good, the characters and their interactions felt so natural and the characters were so well written.
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I'll go ahead and say it. First season is okay, and after that it's downhill. Each and every season.
I'M SORRY. IT'S THE TRUTH. ONE DAY EVERYONE WILL SEE.
From the get go, the series was all about emulating things that were seen before and creating a false sense of nostalgia. It's obvious. There was little to no 100% creative decisions there.
what is that lofi song playing at 00:24
Spoiler: Stranger Things was always a mediocre tv show and most of the time doesn’t really meaningfully differentiate itself from the pastiche of references it is based on.
16 year old u was cooking dang
First things first, Murray is a goddamn Treasure and I will fight you. Celestial Shinobi or not. Second I thought it was pretty obvious the russians were in Hawkins to exploit the tear 11 Made. I figured they ran across some readings when it happened, and through spies and research found out it was in Hawkins, so set up a lab.
What’s weird is that Nancy and Mike never have sibling moments it’s like there’s not even related
They do in season 1 but I really wish they had more
they did in the earlier seasons, esp season 1. off the top of my head, there's the breakfast scene in the first episode where Mike pours syrup in her eggs to annoy her, the subtweeting each other at dinner about Steve ("What's your test on, human anatomy?") and then immediately covering for each other when the parents ask what they're talking about, Mike's disgust when Eleven calls Nancy's photo "pretty," Nancy trying to get Mike to talk to them on the walkie and the kids debating about whether they can trust her because she's his sister, their conversation at the end of Season 1 when Nancy says, "no more secrets, okay?", and Mike stealing Nancy's money to go to the arcade. but yeah they've completely lost that in the later seasons, it's like they barely even know each other.
Oh quit your bitching its not about them its a supernatural show
Season 1: Finding will.
Season 2: Saving will
Season 3: ingnoring will
Season 4: the 3rd will
Season 5: Will's revenge
Season 6: Will’s Odyssey
third-will-ing
Will 2: Electric Boogaloo
I’m starting to hate Will fans…
Visually, seasons 1 and 2 looked like the 80s. Season 3 looked like a stylized, modern homage to an 80s music video. It was pretty, but felt really out of place to me.
My uncle straight up said "is that what they think we were wearing in the 80's?" when I had s4 playing in the background lol.
I've been saying this ever since s3 came out. It feels like the stereotypical ¨neon¨ 80s
It was during the summer, the colors were supposed to be brighter. Just like season 4 was a little brighter than season one or two as well. They are following the 80's well
You complain but I love it it makes you feel like you're in an 80s Dreamland
@@blazeit-sw5wzyep you're right they don't get it
stranger things suffers from what i call fanfiction syndrome. i used to write fanfictions as a 12 year old where i would only have 10 chapters planned out, and then i would write additional chapters just by making up stuff as i went. that's what i think happened after the 1st, maybe 2nd season, where they started adding and adding lore that is really last minute and feels so unplanned.
I think also a lot of the making up was just giving fan service too which unless it makes sense shouldn’t be done
If we assume that all demogorgons are a hivemind controlled by Vecna, this implies that Vecna spared Dustin because he likes nougat 😂
That's his real Kryptonite
ik ur joking but i think they established (or maybe i js assumed idk) that dart wasn’t completely part of the hive mind because will coughed him up and essentially raised him in his body himself
Well, Billy and Will were part of the hive but escaped it by being reminded of a good part of their past (Billy's mom at the beach and Will with his mother and brother, even tho it was harder for him), so Dart being raised by Dustin clearly makes sense with the fact that he spares Dustin and his friends at the end, he got saved from the hive even before joining it (sort of)@@frankieholt6721
@@frankieholt6721 didn't will just cough up a slug like the one that was in Barb's mouth? Like black and spotty?
Problem with modern media is that you can't have isolated stories with a beginning, middle and ending, everything must turn into a brand, and that's what killed stranger things.
Also, they made El’s bullies beyond unrealistic. It’s season 4 and we already root for el, we don’t have to have her bullied into us liking her
I agree with you, but I've heard bullying was normalised in the 80s, and so people were a lot less unfiltered to pointing and laughing and publicly embarassing people
El's bullying plot actually had the opposite effect for me. It made me like her less because I was getting annoyed whenever they gave that plotline any screentime. I'm saying this as someone who loves all 4 seasons and used to rank el in my top 3 characters
I actually started disliking her a lot bc she somehow became a notorious liar for no reason!? like her writing that bs letter to Mike about all the stuff she made up was infuriating 😂
@@alliwhite3941i didn't have problem with her as a person, but it definitely pissed me off when she said "you don't understand" to Mike regarding the bullying. like honey, that's Mike wheeler. he jumped off a cliff to save Dustin's life because he was being attacked by the bullies.
hopper's persona reset hurt me like mad. He was built amazing first and second season, and then...
I liked Murray when he was just a conspiracy theorist with a lucky theory. When they tried to expand him beyond that he failed hard.
> Shows us his pre-Stranger Things Stranger Things music
> The music is actually realy good
> Tells us he was a trend setter
> The music is nowhere to be found
What's up with that buddy, huh? Why show us those gems, and just lock them away?
Don't laugh, this ain't reality /tv/!
"We don't want people upset" It's a HORROR series, you're supposed to be upset, that's its whole point.
"We don't want people upset"
*Proceeds to kill Bob and Eddie, two of the most kind and great character in the show, like they were nothing*
The thing about Season 3's aesthetics is that they are super indicative of the Marvel-ization, the push towards imagined nostalgia vs realism. What I'm saying is that making everything colorful and neon is cool and all, but the 80s was BROWN. Season 1 was so accurate because it was so BROWN. Everything was BROWN!! So all that neon, all those colors, yes for sure so groovy so rad and yes people wore colors but every interior you went into in the 80s was deeply tan, mauve, and brown.
The color palate in the 80s changed to pastels and neon, after the release of Miami Vice, and the popularity of the New Wave and Hair Metal. The earthy color palate of the 70s carried over into the early 80s. So the accuracy of the color palate in Season 3 depends on the year in which it purports to take place.
@@CountBrass Oh that is such a good point, I forgot about the pastel to weird southwestern motifs transition that happend in the early 90s
I think what could have been interesting for Joyce’s character in season four would be to reiterate the fact that she’s a single mom struggling to make ends meet now having to financially deal with a move and a third kid. I thought it could really bring the stories back to a human level because that was season one’s greatest strength. Grounding a fantastical storyline with real people experiencing real and relatable emotions.
She seemed rich suddenly?? She had to ask for advances to pay for fairy lights in S1, but she cashed out $40k (more than 110k in today's money) in one day to pay a ransom?? And with zero hesitation, Murray didn't even say like "can you afford that?" It was just "ok let's go get 40k in cash from the bank"
@@reigen8320i think the 40k was hoppers money from the gov has hush money or something
Season 3 felt more like an weird 80's film adapted by the events of Stranger Things than an direct continuation of Stranger Things.
Steve had so much potential. They could have leaned into his backstory with his absent parents and Barb literally getting murdered at his house, taken his character development from the preppy popular kid further. The writers could have brought up literally any of the torture or things he’d gone through, but instead I feel they’ve reduced him to the air-head comic relief. Trying to get back with Nancy reverses both of their character development and growth. S1 and S2 Steve will always be top tier Steve
One thing you mentioned several times in passing, that I think is really important, is that the show started with the Upside-down being unknowable, the motivations were completely outside our understanding or comprehension. That made the show great. Trying to turn the whole thing into a big-bad conscious being was bad enough, but at least the Mindflayer was still an "Other" that we couldn't understand. It was still imposing and unsettling. Now the bad guy is literally just a human who thinks like humans do, but is the bad guy and has super powers. It completely wrecks the whole concept. It might have been fine if he was just a new bad guy, but they had to retcon and try to tie everything together, and as you point it is does not remotely make sense.
Having Hopper spend an entire season escaping a soviet prison feels like the type of plotline the CW would come up with during the "past their expiration date" seasons that all their shows went through.
There was nothing sadder than doing as much retcons as possible to make it seem like Vecna was always behind everything, for a final showdown to at least end the series in a good note, only for the generic bad end plotwist to take over because netflix wanted another season.
I was bummed out when at the end of S3 we found out that Hopper isn't actually dead, but I was actively upset when Max didn't die in S4 and Eleven suddenly have powers to reanimate people. Why would I care for the plot armour?
season 1 was fuckin insane but then netflix realized they were sitting on a cash cow waiting to get milked
Just realized that the writers are going to absolutely respond to the criticism of "the show doesn't kill off enough main characters" by killing people off even if its unsatisfying/poorly executed in Season 5
Almost like there's a theme here.
Almost like, every time, good writers write a good A-to-B finished show, and it's really great...
... and then they're told to just keep writing it, even though it's done.
And almost like that's always when all these shows get worse. Almost... like stories should end.
I was 19 when S1 came out. I'm 54 now !
the mindflayer was a 1000x better villian then whatever the last guys name was, number 1 or something? they should kept it as some kind of unknowable creature from another dimension to keep the mystery/horror to it. imo.
Joyce carried season 1 but her character has declined in writing every season im hoping they can redeem her and give her some good scenes since they said season 5 is going to be a lot of like season 1 but on a bigger scale
the worst thing for me was the absence of mystery, like it's not even scary anymore just typical
I feel like Steve and Max are the most popular characters in the show right now which could explain why the writers refused to kill them off.
Season 1 is the best no contest, it was the most suspenseful. But Season 2 had the best action. The gang fighting their way out of Hawkins lab, Steve and some of the kids confronting the demodogs from the bus, and Eleven's epic return. It also had the most satisfying conclusion at the Snow Ball.
I just watched the whole series for the first time over the last couple of months.
I really enjoyed it. I generally have high standards so this show was a pleasant surprise. I did not notice a decline, but I think a lot of that is not suffering through years of waiting for new seasons and also not taking part in any fan discourse.
I thought Max was going to die. The way they played flashes of clips of her from previous seasons felt like a send off. I think others were in my shoes if the scene was so powerful the song was charting again.
I didn't enjoy Season 3 and it made me not watch Season 4 until like a year after its release because I just couldn't be bothered, but when I finally got round to it I was very positively surprised. I really enjoyed it tbh, it was probably my second favourite season after 1. I hope Season 5 is as good.
It's a big issue when the horror comes from the unknown and then you keep exploring the unknown until it's intimately known. It retroactively makes the original sense of horror feel less intense when revisiting it.
Two best things they can never recreate from Season 1: the horror and the cast's cuteness (due to young age).
Something that I've come to the realisation of these last couple of years is that, if it takes a show well over a year to create the next season, then the writers most likely don't have an overarching plan for the plot, and the show will inevitably be doomed to fail; whether it be by losing its fanbase from having to wait too long, or by ruining the world they created by not knowing when to stop.
Yeah, this is for sure the vibe. Every time a new season comes out, I get a little excited. But every time it ends I think “huh, I don’t know if I really want to watch the next season of stranger things…”
I also have the (maybe) spicy opinion that Hopper should have died in Season 2, either in the finale or in Bob’s place. It would have HURT but like a good kind of hurt-plus anything is better than Magnum PI Hopper. David harbour is way too good for that
the fact that they couldnt bear to kill off any characters because 'muh precious fan favorites!' so instead the cast is too big and they did character assassinations instead of just killing them off 🙃
Also you’re so right about the way this series has power crept and you should say it. The way they ignored injuries was infuriating
this video was a fun watch but i have to disagree with u saying that max didn't have a big role in season 3. her relationship with evilbilly was pretty good imo, with her being conflicted because billy is her stepbrother but he's possessed by an evil eldritch monster and is trying to conquer the world was interesting to me. also her friendship with Eleven was cute and helped make Eleven feel more human imo
Never killing main charectors just makes the show so boring. Its only ever new charectors that die
Why have I got a feeling the final series will have Chernobyl, they keep edging closer to spring 1986
I would have KILLED for stranger things to be an anthology series where it follows different kids and new monsters in a different decade
It's hardly declining though, it's their most successful show to date.
I am convinced that I was the only person in the world who actually liked S2E7. When my mom and I finished watching it, she immediately said "I didn't like that episode," to which I was like "You just didn't get it," but apparently everyone agrees with her. To me, the episode was about Eleven making a choice. The whole season, she was trying to figure out where she came from and who she was, and in episode 7, Eight offered her an answer: she came from horrible things and her purpose could be to avenge what was done to her and her mother. It's a classic temptation arc, where a character is at their most vulnerable and is offered a path of villainy, and when Eleven chose to reject that path, at least for me, it felt really satisfying, it felt like her coming into her own and solidifying her own identity. Up until that point, she'd been searching for answers, and by extension, herself; the choice she makes at the end of episode 7 is her finding herself, deciding who she wants to be and what her life means, and that allows her to come back and save the day as a confident hero rather than a confused, lost little girl. For that reason, S2E7 felt vital and pivotal to me personally, and I really liked it. But apparently, I'm the only one who saw it that way… V_V
Oh, my God.
Can it truly be?
Someone... actually hates Murray as much as I do??
my thoughts on stranger things is that each season should have focused on a new set of preteens in a new town, with slightly different weird things going on that still related back to the upside down and the secret gov experiments. in this version, s4 would bring together the characters to share their knowledge to defeat an apocalyptic monster and the gov program
It started as a series aimed at adults who were kids in the 80s (the nostalgia effect), the problem is that it has now become a series for teens/young adults so killing the main characters would be a big shock
i literally despised season 4 and its lack of ground or direction, no mystery, shit characters, too much damn romance that makes no sense, if you watched season 1 right after 4 it would feel like 2 completely different shows
whoa, this is my fifth video from you, and the first when I found out what you look like and about the music???!!!! After that 12th-minute mark, I gotta subscribe. Great work and a lot of heart put into a video. Thank you
"A show they barely promoted." Dude i couldnt get away from stranger things ads in 2016 prior to release.
Seasons 3 and 4 of this show have been just plain embarrassing.
Really enjoyed this video and I broadly agree with most of it, but I've gotta say, the Season Four countdown to Max's first encounter with Vecna is without a doubt one of the most exciting parts of the show, especially because it really, REALLY felt like they were gonna kill her right there. Like, the whole time I was waiting for them to figure out how to "cure" her, how to break her free of the curse, but when she started rising into the air I lost my SHIT because I genuinely believed she was gonna die.
And then she DIDN'T, in a really great scene where it feels like Max outsmarts Vecna for potentially the first time in his long, strange life. I agree that they definitely need to kill more characters and should have been doing that for a while, but to be honest that only made me MORE sure they were going to kill Max there, and surprised me even more that she didn't.
TBH I think that instead of Chrissy, season 4 should have started out by killing Mike. he didnt have anything to do in the series anymore, but he was important to so many other characters and the protagonist of the first season. Him dying would have established the stakes, and been a good motivation for most other characters to get back into action. Plus, grief storylines for everyone! It's free money.
Season 1: Mystery
Season 2: Continuation / Action
Season 3: 80s Vibe
Season 4: Horror / Comedy
You just perfectly articulated everything I’ve been thinking about this show for years. Thank you!
Honestly, how does literally ANYONE, find season 2 good?
Because like he explained there was actual character development and it still kinda leaned on ST1
I actually liked season 3 for its camp and silliness as well as Dacre's performance as Flayed!Billy but you really hit the nail on the head with the character assinations and the narrative choice (telling us everything before it happens). Sooo freaking true. I also agree about Billy's death. It was lazy in an attempt redeem withiut putting in the effort. I wouldve found it far more interesting for them to have had a truly terrible, damaged character actually change for the better.
Also I HATED season 4. So glad someone else shared that sentiment.
Season 1 was so nostalgic. I was born in the 80’s an while many of my memories are gone from that time, I still have a few…..wearing jelly sandals, a puffy rainbow shirt (which didn’t represent anything other than a rainbow), the old school flooring of a McDonald’s, metal cigarette trays in my moms Pontiac, that lawn chair your skin would stick to in the summer. *sigh*
The original allure of Stranger things was "hey grownups can't save the day because they're not taking it seriously, plus they're not as open-minded and creative as the kids"...seeing kids beat monsters with turn-table RPG strategies was a fun nod to growing up, playing games, and always dreaming of your own quest as a child, and Stranger Things was a realization that "yeah, maybe I didn't want that after all"...I hope for a strong finisher in S5 but I found the last few episodes of season 4 so slow
Back when Season 3 and 4 came out I looked around for videos or post like yours. I couldn't find one. I'm glad some one else feels the way I do about this beloved show.
This was a very satisfying watch - I think you actually discussed every single issue I've had with the series, safe for my personal pet peeve of "German actor badly fakes a Russian accent because who's gonna tell the difference lol" (it's me, I can tell, you did a bad job). It's such a shame because with the consistently solid character writing - you are right about Eddie predictably being S4's Designated Disposable, but I still wish he'd been S4's Robin - they could have easily pulled of what the Duffers had originally planned AND still tied it back around. Can you imagine how incredibly good it would have been to have several (seemingly) unconnected seasons of people encountering supernatural shit and then have one where it all connects because the Upside Down is just a parallel world that somehow is connected to ours in random (?) places, and/or spreading like a fungus mycelium? They still could have kept giving us tons of characters, played with tropes and references and do one of my favorite things in storywriting, making it all connect meaningfully after a long build-up. Or - not! Because yes, the absolute worst thing about S4 was turning a perfectly surreal, ominous, cosmic horror setting into "ok listen this all makes sense, it's TRAUMA" - and then not even make it make sense.
I think the best thing they could do for next season is strengthen the dynamic between Mike and Eleven. I think that ( as extreme as this is) killing off Mike is a great way to close the story. Mike’s character has floundered after season 2, and if done right some decent character work combined with a sacrificial death could be just what Mike’s character needs to solidify his place in the story.
So no matter if you think season 4 is good or bad we can all agree max is the best part of season 4
First season felt like 80s cosmic horror, The Upside Down being a mysterious, eldritch and all-consuming dimension.
Forgot Stranger Things was a thing, thought it was a COVID fever dream lmao.
At this rate they're going to go with the Attack on Titan route and split the final season into 8 more seasons spread about 9 years apart with the final 30 minutes made into a two part movie that will only be showed at select theaters and if you didn't get a select theater to see it at sucks-to-suck I guess. 🤷♂💀
lmao, finally, thank you!
I dislike the 4th season, mostly thanks to the Eddy and Vecna, mostly Vecna because when primordial chthonic evil starts speaking or blabbering out their plans - everything loses its edge and unpredictable wonder, you don't talk it out or reason with xenomorphs or a tornado and that's why xenos and natural disasters or even zombies are so good and scary, it ruined a lot of Stranger Things for me (tbh ever since Mindfrayer was shown to be able to "talk/communicate"), so my fav seasons are 1-2 while 3-4 is some weird experimentation with how to scoop up some plot/content for the current run.
I think 4th season was liked mostly due to the fact writers managed to squeeze in Vecna (alter 11's past) in an okish way, because most of the fan love that I've seen is directed either to that idiot Eddy (poor cute baby) or towards Vecna (he's so badass) or both.
Since 2016 and I’m keeping on saying that this show should have been a mini series
Stranger things should've been an anthology series with each season being a different story.
I loved season one, thought season two was 'meh', and I LOATHED season three and jumped off the train. Good to know I made the right call.
I wish they would have kept the stakes smaller like in season 1. It felt much more like a mix of horror and mystery. The other three seasons just rip off every 80’s horror movie to a pint to where it’s not satire, it’s stealing plots from other films
My friend called Series 1 a "properly class bit of TV" and they're so true, hearing you go back through it made me want to rewatch it. It's so well made, so well told, it's brilliant and not. surprise it was as big as it was.
Genuinely I think they just didn't film fast enough, the kids aging so much kind of ruined it. They should have filmed multiple seasons at the same time.
they also literally could have fixed this by writing it so that the plot timeskips to have the actors be close enough to age-accurate
Season 4's ending could have been solved so easily. Have all the sappy ending stuff happen like normal, then fade to black. Fade in over the town, and it says "2-3 years later," THEN have the town crack open.
The kids are going to look 30 akd and still have to play freshmen. This isn't Spider Man 2000!
Stranger Thing look like a dnd play with a (very good) DM improvising most of the campaign 😂
But if for a tabletop experience it's really good, it's not for a show with that audience.
hoppers character reset may have something to do with how hard it is a for single dad to raise a teenage girl. all the clips you show compare to other season revolved around him trying to deal with the kids growing up and him not being able to cope with that.
This was SOOOO VALIDATING holy shit. I will die on the hill that ST should’ve ended after season 1 and remained an obscure cult classic. Joyce Byers truthers unite.
i cant believe youtube has been hiding this account from me. first of all, ABSOLUTE BANGERS with the music you made for this video goddamn. second, thank actual god im not alone in how ive been feeling about this show. i feel seen, i feel heard.
Hopper's character was bothering me from the jump in S3, but the kicker for me was when he burst in on Max and El all drunk and angry ... that was so scary!!! And the girls didn't react at all, like?? They're like jeez what's this guy's problem lol, like Hopper is so scary and violent in that moment, there's no way that would be their reaction. Especially considering El's traumatic past AND Max's experiences with Billy.... It's just played off as comedy, but it was so concerning (and ofc not at all in character). The idea that Hopper from S2 would get completely wasted and scream at El and tell her she can't do anything right is just insane.
On s2 they talk about if the info on the gate comes out the ussr Soviet Union would take advantage of it , I agree with some of your takes but a lot of your takes seem like you weren’t paying attention
A 2 and a half hour video that at its core is why fans of stuff get annoyed when their favourite show starts being made for wider appeal.
Because it stops being what it originally was and becomes the same as everything else.
I feel you man.
We re-watched seasons one through 3 to prep for season 4 . . . and it made season 4 that much more depressing. The tracking-shot of the gun fight in Will's house is really the only thing that stood out for my wife and I, and my son dropped out of watching it about half way through (and he is/was a die-hard Stranger Things fan, too). I'll watch the fifth season but I'll probably wait until it's all aired and then binge it.
STRANGER THINGS MAKES ME MAD WITH ALL OF THE COOL PLOT LINES THEY COULDVE EXPLORED MROE BUT THEY GOT RID OF THEM. I was hoping for so much more with El’s mom
damn eleven cannot stop opening these fucking portals
I remember when that Lost Sister episode happened. I just…stopped watching the show. I was like “it’s gonna get worse from here” and just stopped watching. I only watched scenes that people shared later on like “Running Up That Hill” with Max and some other avec a scenes. I’m satisfied having stopped when I did.
Hopper was such a great example of a more traditionally masculine father figure having emotional intelligence, and they absolutely decimated him in season 3. I'm not sure if I was supposed to believe he was regressing because of his environment or something? like it was all making him hypervigilant to the point of harming his relationships, but that went nowhere because he "dies."
I also found it kind of yucky to have posed Billy as a racist abuser but then try and get you to feel bad for him last minute because his mom left him when he was a kid? I had no reason to care if he died because he was a terrible person even if it was realistically due to his environment.
I get that season 3 takes place around a mall, but it felt like the show was just yelling in your face "don't forget the 80s is happening!!"
Haven't watched season 4 and all I know is that Eddie is cute as fuck but of course they killed him because they can't kill any of the mains yet. The Vecna stuff is kind of interesting, but I refuse to believe the people who say it was planned the whole time.
Can't remember much about the later seasons, but the first one felt like an indie film. The characters live their lives organically, discovering mysteries as they go. Everything is connected in a way that's natural because of the way every plot line is set up. Later seasons felt like they had this ultimate goal that was bigger than life. In S1 the goal is just "Find Will" and everyone happens to stumble upon something strange.
Which is definitely why I remember everything about the first season and not much about the later ones...
I was on board most of the way but once they suggested the single mother had $40,000 just lying around I could no longer suspend my disbelief
Hopper being stuck in a loop where his entire person gets resetted would've made an interesting plot if the writers were aware of it
S1>S4>S2>S3 for me. I thought 4 was absolutely brilliant and still one of the best shows ever made, but the only problem I had with it was they just keep introducing new characters to kill them off when Eddie and even Chrissy were honestly so loveable and great characters that deserved more. S3 wasn't a bad show, it just had too much of a contrast between funny and then gory and violent, it had a very different vibe to 1 and 2. They were both brilliant as well, I only preffered 4 over 2 because I wasnt the biggest fan of the plot in 2, but that might just be idk. Overall this is a brilliant show and not one season was bad, they just have to remember the vibe that made this show such a big deal imo
I feel the same about season 4, what a letdown. For some reason, I bought into season 3 from the start and love it. Sometimes, you see something that is a lil' stupid, but it communicates it really clearly... Or I was just in the mood for something dumbed down. But I am a season two (I don't think Noah is getting enough praise for his acting there) and three enjoyer. Season 4 and its ridiculous Russian plotline can demo-gorge on deez nutz
Well, when you take 3 years in between seasons people are going to lose interest, I have and I was an avid fan of the series.
I disagree so much with your view on Steve. He was never an asshole jock who evolves into a character with a good heart. We as an audience kept expecting him during Season 1 to fall into that trope but he never does.
And I looooved the baby dermogorgon, I thought it was a really cute storyline. When you have a pet you love it and you don't care if it kills another animal. You protect it like your own.
There are a lot of problems with s4, but the big one, for me, is Eleven's storyline. I know teenagers can be real c**ts, but watching her get bullied like that was just too much for me. It's like, hasn't she been through enough? Her father didn't love her and used her as a lab rat. I could have sworn he died in s1 but somehow he's still alive even though she deserves to never have to look at his face again.
I mean, that scene where she snaps and hits the girl with the roller skate was painful, and not in a way that was interesting or emotionally cathartic. She has an (adopted) mother who loves her and a friend who is her age who knows everything she's been through. Shouldn't she have at least a few friends or a hobby that helps her deal with all the high school drama? The other characters had relatively normal childhoods. She deserves one, too
Bro I must be small minded, because I’ve enjoyed this ride. Lol maybe it’s because I suspend my disbelief, but I was genuinely shook at the Vecna being 001 reveal. 😂
Good news is- Noah has probably guaranteed that at least one main character will no longer be protected by plot armor lol.
When did he say that
I do feel like the choice of the creators to completely ignore the Lost Sister episode because of audience reactions is a good example of them being too eager to please the fans. Like yeah, it was a weird episode in the context of the 2nd season, but at least it was expanding the world and potentially move the action outside of Hawkins. But they chickened out, and now it feels even more like a pointless detour because they never bothered coming back to it.
Netflix: ehhhhh… I guess we’ll let you make your little story, just cuz we’re so risky like that.
Netflix after the success: you’re making more of that and nothing else ever
I miss the horror elements in the earlier seasons
Looking back on it, S1 is kind of convoluted as well. How did the demigorgon not just kill Will? Where did the shotgun go? How does Will even know how to interact with the real world much less survive for how long in the upside down without food or clean water? How does the Demigorgon even exist? Like what sustained it before the crossover happened? How does it have a predator nature without anything to prey on, but then learns it but also doesn’t act on it instantly when given the chance with Will? Instead it stalks and toys with it prey as if it has a higher intelligence?
Now if they showed that they’ve tried the experiments before and constantly failing, losing people to the upside down, introducing flesh, prey, to the demigorgon, that would explain a little, but it’s implied 11 is the first time that’s happened and we know there’s more than one, so how? It’s not a happen chance situation where this being manifested in an alternate reality. Was it an eldritch being in a long slumber or did it not even exist until its existence was awakened by 11 seeing it, like a schrodingers cat or quantum physics thing where it being observed changes how it’s perceived, because it’s being perceived?
I think for some of these questions it's just continuity errors (like the shotgun?)
The other questions are true but it would break the mystery of the first season, and it kinda requires a suspension of disbelief that you need in most fantasy media.
All very good questions but in the context of S1 it's not the main focus to fully flesh out the other dimension, it's following people as they try to find a missing boy. Revealing the answers would only hurt the story, because we learn information with the characters. We're just as in the dark as them, other than giving small glances of Will when necessary. And when it ends, we understand what is necessary.
I do agree with the stuff about how Will learnt to communicate, and about why the monster even has a prey instinct, but for the first season it definitely wasn't necessarily needed to explain those things.
Maybe for later seasons, which did try to show/explain more mechanics of the upsidedown. But imo that kinda ruined the atmosphere around it because it's no longer this unknown force. It's just a malicious mirror dimension with inexplicably evil monsters inside.
It could be interesting if the upsidedown was always the main focus, but it wasn't. It was more of a backdrop to explore the characters and the horrors of having to deal with a missing loved one.
Feel like this is an unpopular opinion at least in this common section but seasons 2 and 3 were undoubtedly my favorite seasons. I think the pacing was really good, the characters and their interactions felt so natural and the characters were so well written.
Bro really thought he invented 80s synthwave