Stranger Things (Netflix Original)

[Powder]

So who here checked this out? It caught my interest, I heard good things, then ended up watching all 8 episodes consecutively with my mom. :tlol: It's one of those, you know? Just can't wait to see what's going to happen next.

For those of you not in the know, this is the general plot. Small town, boy goes missing, simultaneously a girl near his age escapes a laboratory. Lots of weird stuff is going down & all signs point to this lab. Scary stuff aside, it's for everyone. There are moments that cater to adults, teens, & kids respectively. You've got drama, terror, romance, friendship, fantasy, perseverance, conspiracy, all sorts of themes to keep you interested. It feels like Aliens meets Goonies meets Fringe. Best way I can describe it, honestly. One lead is the ever awesome Wynona Ryder, the rest are lesser known names who put in some powerful performances.

I really liked it a lot. I have complaints, naturally, but overall it was a cool original story wrapped up in real world conspiracy & 80's film homages. One of the best original scores I have ever heard, honestly. So dope. Some Vangelis/Richard Wright type ish.

These were my issues with it. Those pertaining to story beats will be spoilered. Aside from these things, it was perfect.

-It's a period piece, taking place in 1983, but not terribly convincing. Some of the clothes, & decor are on point, but a lot of the time it's easy to forget it's supposed to have been 30+ years ago. I think they could've done better in that respect.

-To me, the characters feel very much like characters, not real people. The actors' performances were fine, but they're pretty over the top & somewhat unrealistic in how they behave/respond to things. I have to figure it's fault of the writing. Given this is a love letter to (among other things) horror flicks of days past, I thought that may very well have been intentional, so it was a minor gripe (one that lessened as the story progressed).

-Some of the CGI is very unconvincing. Not a big deal, I guess, but it definitely gives this otherwise visually spectacular material a handicap. It's like mid 2000's quality CGI, maybe. ***



-The general effects are just fine, really! All the explosions, distortions, portal stuff, etc, no complaints. *** It's really just the beasts whose CGI falters.
They look pretty good in their own black environments, but when they're in the mortal plane it starts to cheese up. I found it a little jarring, but I openly have a bias against fully animated figures. I think they would've greatly benefited from using more traditional effects, you know, creature suits & whatnot. They could've just CGI'd certain movement, the faces, etc. Maybe that costs a lot more, I don't know.

-I think they took the Aliens nods a bit too far. Death by fire, slime laden hive-like territories, hatching from egg pods, their young reproducing in the digestive tract of a human host, etc.

-After all that happened, I was kinda let down that the 'big bad' of this series was just a couple of generic monsters. It's a very eccentric & thought provoking show, dealing with real horrors that took place behind the closed doors of facilities run by a government we're taught to believe has nothing but our best interests in mind. They're experimenting with mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, portals, shadow realms, just all kinds of crazy stuff. So why go through all of that just to make it a matter of creatures out for blood? Could've been something more cerebral, I think. No problem with their inclusion, but to give them the eventual focus, meh...

-We kinda get the death of "Papa" taken away from us. We all wanted to see that son of a bitch suffer, but instead he's just pulled off screen and it cuts to the next shot. C'mon. :tlol:

-Nancy stays with the douche bag after all that character development between her & John. Boo! John's not so bad after all, I suppose, but still. Oh well, points for not doing something predictably. The romance in general was a bit forced, I thought, but I almost always feel that way. I'm not a big fan of it.

-We're led to believe Hopper struck a deal with the devil, so to speak, as he gets in a car with the government dudes once everything blows over. You figure, damn, he's gonna be their new experiment or something now. But instead we see him bringing food Eleven. Soooo Eleven is not only alive & well but her captors employed a guy who foiled their operation & protected their victim to bring her snacks? I don't get it. I'm glad they're both well, but it doesn't make much sense to me. The head figures from the facility are all dead, what happens now? I needed more answers in the end.

-Tacked on backpedal ending. Another one of their horror movie homages that works against them. Everything's okay now... but it's not! Will is spitting up larval beasts! Oooh! Don't do that. A much better ending would've been shaving off that last family dinner sequence entirely.

[raph27]

Heard great things about it from friends. Unfortunately I don't have Netflix so I can't check it out.

[sdp]

I checked it out a while ago and loved it, people kept recommending it and I caved. I originally didn't want to watch it since 80s things or stephen king movies and pretty much all things people told me it was a love letter to I just didn't care for. I think it does the 80s thing really well, only during that time could the story make sense in the day of cellphones and the internet. You can still believe that somehow all these things can be so easily covered up.

Most people seem to have a problem with the ending but I liked it. Just like any thriller or horror movie it leaves things at the end. Apparently we're getting a second season that continues the story and that's a shame, I really wanted this to become an anthology show. Great first season, I'd just prefer this storyline to end there and see other new great ideas instead of milking this one to the ground.

[snake]

I've been meaning to watch this! After I finish my clone wars rewatch and Farscape watch I will.

[TurtleTitan97]

I finished it a couple of days ago. It was fantastic, looking forward to the second season.

[Toitlefan]

I also really enjoyed this show. I love how they went with the 80s theme and were able to pull it off. I liked the idea of the group of young friends battling a sci-fi creature while dodging their ignorant parents (though I guess not all were ignorant). It captured that E.T./Critters nostalgia pretty well. Like someone else said, I think they would have benefited from using less cgi and more older creature methods.

[Zak The Neutrino]

I just finished this last night. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to what they do with season 2.

[Allio]

Man, I do love these shows that does the whole

*here you go, here is "this cliche show" (ie stranger things started off like a typical 80's movie about a group of little boys)
*now here is some spooky **** going on in the background

[TurtleTitan97]

Netflix has officially renewed the show for 2017. They've also released a teaser featuring the titles for the upcoming 9-episode season: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/horror/netflix-officially-renews-stranger-things-for-season-2-check-out-the-first-a144917

[plastroncafe]

I loved this series so much. It was an awesome conglomeration of Spielburg, King, and Carpenter. It did a great job of turning a bunch of standard-for-the-day tropes on their head, had genre savvy characters, and told its story so well.

Can't wait for season two.

[TurtleTitan97]

New still from season 2. A preview is set to air during the super bowl.

http://i.imgur.com/vNI1vpX.jpg

[NinjaPug]

9Egf5U8xLo8

[TurtleTitan97]

Woohoo!!! :D

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

My little brother interrupted my current shows and made me watch the first two episodes of Stranger Things.

I'm usually not a fan of kids in TV or movies, but these kids are (for the most part) really, really good. Lucas is a bit too confrontational with Eleven to be believable, but eh, Eleven, Mike, Dustin (tcool), and Will are all great.

I am now hooked, and expect to have the marathon completed by next week.

RIP, Benny. RIP, Barb. :tsad:

[NinjaPug]

Love this poster

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEdOeD8V0AEhzaW?format=jpg

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Love this poster

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEdOeD8V0AEhzaW?format=jpg

Sweeeeeeeeeeet.

[NinjaPug]

vgS2L7WPIO4

[Powder]

Looks so good! Can't wait.

[sdp]

I loved Stranger Things but I really don't feel like returning to that story, so while I'm looking forward to it at the same time I am not.

[ProphetofGanja]

I loved Stranger Things but I really don't feel like returning to that story, so while I'm looking forward to it at the same time I am not.

http://cdn9.whiskeyriff.com/wp-content/uploads/could-you-not.png

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Man, it SUCKS to be Will. :tlol:

[ToTheNines]

FINALLY watched this after about a year of many people haranguing me to do so lol. I loved it!

Brown didn't have to display a particularly wide range of emotions, but she really nailed it as Eleven. She was my favorite character, but they were all great. Also loved the TMNT-esque dynamic between the boys, even if Will was just Donatello by default lol. Looks like he'll be a bigger part of season 2 though, so that's cool.

I was also pleased to hear that the Duffer Brothers plan to end it with season 4. I like my stories to have a definitive end, and I hate it when TV show either go on too long or get dropped before the creative team is ready to seal it all up.

[sdp]

I still feel it should've been an anthology series with each season doing something different. Still, I'll be all over S2.

[ProphetofGanja]

I still feel it should've been an anthology series with each season doing something different. Still, I'll be all over S2.

How would you have had them anthologize it? Other stories inspired by real-life shady military/CIA experiments and their aftermath or what?

[sdp]

How would you have had them anthologize it? Other stories inspired by real-life shady military/CIA experiments and their aftermath or what?

A twilight zone type of show where each episode can be anything they want, they can keep the whole retro theme.

The ending left me happy, it was a twist ending and I don't really feel like I need to know more about this specific universe.

[Andrew NDB]

Can we agree that Matthew Modine's character is definitely still alive? We never saw him die, nor did we see a body.

And they definitely left it open for more. We know next to nothing about the Upside Down or what those creature things even are. It's not even clear how the Upside Down works... if I punch a hole in my wall, is there suddenly a hole in the Upside Down? What happens in reality if I damage structures in the Upside Down? Alternately, if I'm in the Upside Down in a bathroom going #1, and in the real world, someone uses that bathroom and slams the seat down, does that mean bad times for me? Alternately, if I'm going #2 in the Upside Down and someone in the real world flips the seat up... do I, like, go flying through the wall behind me? What are the rules?

I was hoping the Upside Down was actually a post-apocalyptic future after a War of the Worlds-like invasion, but that's clearly not what it is.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Can we agree that Matthew Modine's character is definitely still alive? We never saw him die, nor did we see a body.

And they definitely left it open for more. We know next to nothing about the Upside Down or what those creature things even are. It's not even clear how the Upside Down works... if I punch a hole in my wall, is there suddenly a hole in the Upside Down? What happens in reality if I damage structures in the Upside Down? Alternately, if I'm in the Upside Down in a bathroom going #1, and in the real world, someone uses that bathroom and slams the seat down, does that mean bad times for me? Alternately, if I'm going #2 in the Upside Down and someone in the real world flips the seat up... do I, like, go flying through the wall behind me? What are the rules?

I was hoping the Upside Down was actually a post-apocalyptic future after a War of the Worlds-like invasion, but that's clearly not what it is.

Matthew Modine's character is only still alive if Modine wants to return. :tlol: (And he'd be crazy not to!)

I definitely want to see more of the Upside Down... that, for me, was the standout for the show. So much more to explore and explain...

[ProphetofGanja]

A twilight zone type of show where each episode can be anything they want, they can keep the whole retro theme.

The ending left me happy, it was a twist ending and I don't really feel like I need to know more about this specific universe.

It sounds like you just want to watch an anthology show. If you've already seen The Twilight Zone, check out The Outer Limits, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, or Monsters.

I like that Duffer brothers are building a mythology within Stranger Things, and that it is at least somewhat inspired by (what some kooky people claim to be) real events.

Can we agree that Matthew Modine's character is definitely still alive? We never saw him die, nor did we see a body.

Oh he's definitely out there somewhere...

And they definitely left it open for more. We know next to nothing about the Upside Down or what those creature things even are. It's not even clear how the Upside Down works... if I punch a hole in my wall, is there suddenly a hole in the Upside Down? What happens in reality if I damage structures in the Upside Down? Alternately, if I'm in the Upside Down in a bathroom going #1, and in the real world, someone uses that bathroom and slams the seat down, does that mean bad times for me? Alternately, if I'm going #2 in the Upside Down and someone in the real world flips the seat up... do I, like, go flying through the wall behind me? What are the rules?

I was hoping the Upside Down was actually a post-apocalyptic future after a War of the Worlds-like invasion, but that's clearly not what it is.

Yeah I hope we learn more about how the Upside Down works this season. It's only about a month away now I think

[The Deadman]

Stranger Things Will Likely Continue Past Season 4
Read more at http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/891917-stranger-things-will-likely-continue-past-season-4

[ProphetofGanja]

R1ZXOOLMJ8s

[ProphetofGanja]

Looks like you almost got your wish, sdp

Stranger Things Was Nearly an Anthology Series, Before Everyone Else Got on the Bandwagon (https://io9.gizmodo.com/stranger-things-was-nearly-an-anthology-series-before-1819685563)

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--gdVMOoeB--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/wzkcrzd9rsolgbywrbjm.jpg

That could've been cool, but I'm glad things turned out the way they did. The story told in Season 1 was definitely good enough to deserve a continuation.


uʍop ǝpᴉsd∩ ǝɥʇ oʇ ǝɯoɔlǝM

[sdp]

Well I'm still hyped for season 2 though since I had a blast with the first season, I just don't think the answers they'll slowly be revealing will be as good as what we may imagine.

[raph27]

Finally started it a while back and just finished season one today. I loved the season, can't wait to see what happens next!

[dl316bh]

I am excited for season two of Stranger Things, but I am also a little concerned, because the trailers were very light on Hopper punching people, which, as we all know, are the best moments of season one.

If Hollywood ever decides to do its whitewashing thing again, as they do, and remake Fists of Fury, they should just have Jim Hopper as the main character. Don't even explain it. He's just in Thailand now, punching drug smugglers in an ice factory. Only he survives.

That could've been cool, but I'm glad things turned out the way they did. The story told in Season 1 was definitely good enough to deserve a continuation.
Same. I like the cast and would like to follow them longer, so I'm glad this didn't turn anthology. That said, if they want to turn it into an anthology after the four or five seasons with this cast they plan on, or do another show set in the same world, I'll be right there.

[ProphetofGanja]

Season 2 Predictions from CBR (https://www.cbr.com/stranger-things-season-2-predictions)

https://static2.cbrimages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/stranger-things-season-2-monster.jpg?q=35&w=984&h=518&fit=crop

I am excited for season two of Stranger Things, but I am also a little concerned, because the trailers were very light on Hopper punching people, which, as we all know, are the best moments of season one.

At least we'll get to see David Harbour punching people (and monsters!) as Hellboy when that movie comes out in 2019

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Finish my Season 1 marathon tonight, start my Season 2 marathon tomorrow...

All I'm missing are the Eggo waffles!

[ProphetofGanja]

Finish my Season 1 marathon tonight, start my Season 2 marathon tomorrow...

All I'm missing are the Eggo waffles!

I'm at the same point just about, got the last two episodes of S1 to rewatch today so I'm fresh for S2 tomorrow. I'll probably only get to watch an episode or two tomorrow but I'll probably be almost done by the end of the weekend.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Working on Ep4 right now... maaaaaaaan, it SUCKS to be Will.

[Utrommaniac]

I'm slowly moving through it myself, on episode three

And El's mom died, what the sh*t?! when did that happen???

[Shark_Blade]

First episode is kinda boring aside from Kfc and the game arcade. I hope to see Barb back, I dunno.

On to 2nd Ep.

[Krutch]

Just finished.

My quick thoughts...

Overall, really enjoyed it. Almost at the same level as first season, to be honest. I liked all the new characters from Max, her psychotic older brother, and of course Superhero Bob. Liked how the villain was more of a sentient threat with a real plan as opposed to last season which felt more like a mindless monster. Each cool in their own ways, but I liked how clever this threat felt.

If I had a complaint it's that I found Eleven's storyline to be very boring until the last two episodes. I think this season would have benefited alot by never revealing she was in this season in the promotional material.

Think about it.

Hopper occasionally says he needs to be somewhere, freaks out when he's late, radio calls to her in one-sided conversations. Build intrigue what he's up to. Meanwhile, you'd have that moment where Max's skateboard pulls out from under her, but Mike doesn't see anyone. Then have Eleven enter the way she did, hair slicked back and looking badass after taking care of the Demodogs. Then when Mike says "Where have you been?!" Hopper admits he's been hiding her. Then when he asks where she went, she says "I went to see Mama." you'd be like WHAT?! Leave that for season 3. It's a small edit, but I think it would have gone a long way in tightening up the seasons pacing, since I never felt the Eleven/Hopper storyline clicked with me.

Also, a little miffed Mike never appologized to Max for being a total d-bag to her all season.

Other than that though, another stellar season. Hopefully Season 3 and 4 remain the same quality going forward.

[ProphetofGanja]

First episode is kinda boring aside from Kfc and the game arcade. I hope to see Barb back, I dunno.

On to 2nd Ep.

How the f#ck is KFC "exciting"?

And Barb is dead, she's not coming back. But hopefully she will receive justice for her wrongful death.

[dl316bh]

And Barb is dead, she's not coming back. But hopefully she will receive justice for her wrongful death.
It sounds like the show deals with it. I'm not going to see it for a week or so, until I can stream with friends, so I don't know how far it goes. Not too far, I hope. I'm a little worried they might try to wrench it in too much due to the reaction. It's a thing worth dealing with, but ultimately unimportant.

[Utrommaniac]

I've gotten to episode seven.

Finally something Eleven/Jane-centric.

[Utrommaniac]

And now that I've finished...

It's a bad week for characters I like getting eaten :lol: .
Bob was a pretty sweet character, even if he was just a little pushy on moving and giving Will advise that ended up being pretty terrible. Poor Will :cry: !

Max's step-brother can die in a ditch. I actually liked that he was depicted as a racist d*ck without outright saying it. Max finally standing her ground against him was the best. At this point, I don't care enough to even lock in his name.
(Here I am with the genocidal Krang as my favorite TMNT character, and yet it's this guy who gets under my skin and makes me cheer him getting sedated in the neck?)

I actually had trouble registering the Mind Flayer as a name too, even as "Shadow Monster". I just registered it as "the Virus" because that struck with me more. It was seemed a lot more frightening. "Shadow Monster" conjures up Lost jokes (even though it was "Smoke Monster" there...), and Mind Flayer came forward way too late in the season. So "the Virus" it was. It was ominous, it was accurate to what was going on with Will at the time. And the scariest part of all, it was a sapient "virus". Now, I'm not sure if that concept has been dabbled with in horror or science fiction before, but it's a pretty brilliant idea for a threat.

Steve was pretty awesome, right down to giving Dustin hair styling advice. Unfortunately, that advice came from the time of mullets starting to rule the Earth. I'm glad he completely ditched the "Troublesome Two", whose names I also didn't bother to register on account of how much I disliked them. He's a vastly better person without them and it shows. He even took Nancy leaving him for Jonathan pretty well. Good for him. His protection of the kids was awesome. He deserves good things.

The closure of Barb's death was good enough, but still incredibly sad.
There will never be a more serious edition of this:
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-01/9/10/asset/buzzfeed-prod-web-15/anigif_sub-buzz-10756-1483976468-2.gif

The entire epilogue was extremely sweet. Especially Hopper's official adoption of Eleven, even when, as said by Krutch, that storyline was a little unexciting.

I hope there's progress on Eleven's mom in the next season. Or do we call her Jane now?

It was a pretty great season, and I have no idea how it's going to be topped for the next.

[Andrew NDB]

It sounds like the show deals with it. I'm not going to see it for a week or so, until I can stream with friends, so I don't know how far it goes. Not too far, I hope. I'm a little worried they might try to wrench it in too much due to the reaction. It's a thing worth dealing with, but ultimately unimportant.

I had the thought that it would be kind of interesting if one day, Barb just shows back up at home with a headache. i.e., some kind of doppleganger grown by the Upside Down to some end. The people of the town embrace her but the kids are like, "No way that's Barb! We know she's dead!"

3 episodes away from the end of season 2. It's really, really good.

[Utrommaniac]

That might actually be really cool!

So then it would just be a matter of trying to figure out what sort of "thing" is posing as Barb and what to do about it. And THEN #JusticeforBarb can be a bit more of a thing. Maybe this time Nancy could be the Hero of the Day this time around after the imposter is exposed.
"Oh hell no, you do not get to pretend to be my dead best friend and get away with it. Here comes the Nail Bat, motherf*cker!"

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I don't know why everyone is complaining about the Eleven episode.

That is my favorite episode of both seasons, AND I want a spinoff of that gang. So good. :tcool:

[Utrommaniac]

It was a pretty cool episode!

But it seems to be the Eleven-Hopper moments that were some of the weaker moments.

They actually did blow up the windows with practical effects in the Big Meltdown scene, though. Which was pretty cool.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I was thinking last night, IDW needs to get the rights to do a Stranger Things comic.

I can't wait another whole year for more Hawkins goodness. I just can't!!!

[ProphetofGanja]

And now that I've finished...


I hope there's progress on Eleven's mom in the next season. Or do we call her Jane now?

It was a pretty great season, and I have no idea how it's going to be topped for the next.

I don't know how much more they could do with Terry. Maybe we get to see Jane visit her some more, but I'm pretty sure her mind is toasted beyond repair. Although if the Duffer Bros do flashbacks then we could see pre-mindwipe Terry in the middle of some LSD/mind control/truth serum experiments and that could be really interesting.

My hope is that Season 3 deals primarily with the other MKUltra children and the rest of the fallout from the experiments, and the Upside Down is put on the back-burner for most of the season, since it seems like for the time being they've successfully locked the Mind Flayer out of their plane of existence (although it is by no means giving up its mission of infesting all of Hawkins and beyond). And then at some point in the season the stakes get raised again when the Mind Flayer resorts to new, more subtle methods to try to break back into the plane where the characters reside. Maybe something like Andrew said, the Mind Flayer sends out a doppleganger of Barb or more likely one of the other people who went missing, somebody with less media attention surrounding them. Like the two guys who went missing while hunting in Season 1.

I like that Kali's powers were totally different than Jane's, it was neat to see how she used them to her and her crew of street punks' advantage. It would be cool to see what powers kids 1-7, 9, 10 and possibly those numbered past 11 have, if any others have survived.

I was thinking last night, IDW needs to get the rights to do a Stranger Things comic.


Count me in!

[Utrommaniac]

If Kali's age is any indication, 001 is probably very much an adult at this point and maybe a few of the others.

[Andrew NDB]

If Kali's age is any indication, 001 is probably very much an adult at this point and maybe a few of the others.

Are we sure there's even an 001? I tend to think at least a good % of 1-10 didn't make it, the earlier the number the less likely they survived.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Maybe the Duffer Bros would consider a spinoff show... "Stranger Things" continues to explore Hawkins and the Upside Down, and "Take A Number(ed Kid)" could explore all of the other experiments! :twink:

[ProphetofGanja]

It's also possible that each successive kid was more powerful than the last, so maybe 001 couldn't do anything more than just see what symbol was on a card being held up by an experimenter (like that scene in Ghostbusters), or something like that, so they might not have been experimented on for as long as some of the later kids.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

It's also possible that each successive kid was more powerful than the last, so maybe 001 couldn't do anything more than just see what symbol was on a card being held up by an experimenter (like that scene in Ghostbusters), or something like that, so they might not have been experimented on for as long as some of the later kids.

I dunno, I think control over minds is more powerful than control over matter.

[ProphetofGanja]

I dunno, I think control over minds is more powerful than control over matter.

It seemed like Kali's power had a pretty short time span though. Maybe if there's a 012 or 013, they could actually directly control somebody's thoughts, make them do whatever they wanted. Something like the Purple Man from Jessica Jones

[Coola Yagami]

So just bingewatched this bitch in 2 days.

I liked Eleven's little journey to find out more about herself,
but it was killing me that so many episodes were passing by and she still didn't meet up with the gang. I was glad she at least saw everyone again in the final episodes. Max was an interesting addition, but I couldn't stand her brother, which I guess made it more satisfying when he got taken down.

While I do enjoy the series, I honestly feel bad for the characters if there is a season 3. I mean, I'm sure season 3 will deal more with Kali and possibly other kids, and who knows, she might find Eleven and follow her to Hawkins, bringing all her drama along for the ride, and the shadow monster is still out there.

All I'm saying is, how much more of this **** can the characters take? I feel so bad for the mother. After all the emotional **** she went through in the first 2 seasons, she's gonna end up at the psyche ward after season 4 or 5. It's just too much for these guys to handle.

[Andrew NDB]

Saw all of it. Really good but... does anyone else feel like it was missing something?

I can't quite put my finger on it, but something just feels a bit off. The last third of the season, it didn't quiiite come together for me. What do I mean? Well, the big payoff with Dart after all that time with the kids and him just equated to him not eating them late into things, randomly (I was expecting some kind of Jurassic World-esque Raptor scene with it coming to their aid or something, anything). The whole thing with 008 herself didn't have any payoff at all. The kids didn't really have an actual confrontation with anything, just a lot of setup and then nothing, at at least a couple of points. All the hullaballoo about Steve and his bat and all he ever whacks this season is some vines in the tunnels. New character Billy eats up a lot of screentime but doesn't really have any purpose for being in this season beyond being a minor obstacle for Steve. 11's big triumphant reveal/return near the end and all she does it kill one of the "Demidogs"... and she does it off-screen. Her closing the gate was cool, but went off just as planned with no real suspense. Also, and it's just a personal thing, but the Mindflayer itself became a lot less scary to me as soon as we found out it wasn't a "The Mist"-style gigantaur monster but just a pesky non-corporeal gas cloud.

Now, I'm not saying it sucks at all, only that Stranger Things S2 just doesn't seem remotely as satisfying or self-contained as the first season to me. A lot of this season was, "Wait until next season, we'll address this and this and this" it felt like. I did kind of like how they attempted to make it the Aliens to the first season's Alien. i.e., the first one, there's basically one Demigorgon and he's big. Second one, there's many Demigorgons but they're smaller, and there's a Queen!

[ProphetofGanja]

I don't think anyone doubted it was coming, but Stranger Things is officially renewed for a third season

Stranger Things Officially Renewed for Third Season (https://www.cbr.com/stranger-things-season-3-renewal/)

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

#justiceforbenny
#justiceforbob
#bobnewbysuperhero

[Andrew NDB]

I don't think anyone doubted it was coming, but Stranger Things is officially renewed for a third season

Again?

http://collider.com/stranger-things-season-3-renewal-netflix/

[Andrew NDB]

No thoughts on season 3 yet?

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

No thoughts on season 3 yet?

I'm busy playing the Mass Effect trilogy and rewatching all of Deep Space 9. Gonna be awhile for the Cylons household. :tlol:

[IndigoErth]

Oh good, I wasn't sure there was a thread or how deep it might have been buried. And just finished it up last night.

That is one sad ending to the season.:tsad: Really hope and betting Hopper still exists...somewhere. That other dimension probably? Glad they hinted at a continuing onto a next season.

Really well crafted and heartfelt/tear-jerker ending with Hopper having still had that note tucked in his pocket and Eleven getting to read it.

What do the Russians even want with this other dimension anyhow... (Granted I guess that's predictable.) Wanting to use it to their own advantage seems a little foolhardy given the circumstances. Though what came out of that 'doorway' in that last and teased scene was exactly what I figured it would be.

Honestly, the only thing I'd change about this season is make a bit more monster-y sooner. And even though it was scary and gross in person, I do kind of miss the Mind Flayer being seen as the huge creepy shadowy thing over head.

[Andrew NDB]

That is one sad ending to the season.:tsad: Really hope and betting Hopper still exists...somewhere. That other dimension probably?

It sounds like it. Did you see the after-the-credits bit? Where they talk about "the American"? It's almost certainly him, still alive.

I know the Duffers have said there is one or two seasons left a while back. A finite number, for sure.

I think it'd be kind of neat if the final season, they skip ahead to like 2005, and recast all of the kids with adult actors.

[IndigoErth]

It sounds like it. Did you see the after-the-credits bit? Where they talk about "the American"? It's almost certainly him, still alive.
Oh, good point. I did see them say that, though wasn't quite sure what to think.

That would be neat if they did recast them as adults. Or save a recast for a second series and continue with a new arc.



Forgot to mention that I also loved how they threw the Neverending Story theme in there. Awesome shoutout to the nostalgia for so many (loved that movie as a kid -- seriously, who wasn't singing along?) and very fitting for this series. :D The little long distance girlfriend having a hand in saving the day, when she hasn't even a clue no less, was pretty cool.

The kids really kind of remind me of The Goonies sometimes, I'm surprised there haven't really been any references (or at least none I recall).

[Utrommaniac]

Yeah, I may have gotten a little weepy during the "moving out" scene.

I'm just hoping "the American" is a bait-and-switch...the Hop was definitely already gone before Joyce shut the machine down, so I'd imagine he went under the grates to escape because it was faster. And that's when he got caught.


I'd compare it to how Eleven escaped the Upside Down at the start of season 2.

One thing that was kinda sweet was Erica starting to come around to accepting that she too, is a nerd, and getting Will's D&D set.
On a final note, please just let Will play some D&D.

[Powder]

I really liked the first season.

2 & 3 felt so forced in so many respects. The romance, the humor, the excess of plots. Eh.

[ProphetofGanja]

I just finished Season 3 last night. Still not as good as that first season, but very enjoyable. There were some great horror moments when people’s bodies were commandeered into becoming part of a terrifying monster.

I’m still processing a lot of feelings about the plot so I’ll get to that later.

I will say that it’s becoming apparent to me that one of the Duffer Brothers’ weak points is editing/pacing. There were a few weird lulls in tension this season, where excitement was built up but quickly allowed to dissipate due to having to cut back to another group of characters, of which there were a LOT this season. Or like what was up with the last part of the last episode, the epilogue? It was shown so out-of-order chronologically, it just felt like it was done unnecessarily.

Hopper is definitely still alive

[newfan]

Well that was sad but yeah agreed with others:
They chose a death that would look obvious to kill him (also showing others blasted to mush) but without showing him get killed.
I liked the first season best over all.

[Andrew NDB]

Finished "Stranger Things" season 3. About as good as 1, or at least close to it. Way better than 2. They really planned this one out, this go around. That was a hell of a finale and a hell of a "boss fight." I could see nods to beats from Indiana Jones stuff and even "The Gate." Everyone got good moments this season, pretty much... it all feels pretty balanced.

* Disappointed about Billy. There was a huge opportunity to have him come back next season, a year or two later and have him be a completely different, very changed character with a ton of growth. Just thrown away at the end there. Too bad.

* Hopper. C'mon. Zero chance he's dead. If they'd at least not shown the catwalk there where he was was clean there might be doubt but, no... plus "the American" thing at the end. I think he might be the equivalent of what Will was in season 1 next season. I really wish they made it "appear" more definitive of a death, if only so I could buy it for now.

* None of Eleven's friends from season 2 show up or are mentioned? That whole plot from season 2 seemed so disconnected from everything else that season I had to assume it was to set up big stuff this season. Nothing, nada here about any of that. Though I can see how they might tie into her getting her powers back next season.

* Still waiting for Matthew Modine's character of Eleven's "papa" from season 1 to show back up. We sure never saw a body or a kill there either. Maybe next season will be a big return to the Upside Down with a lot of surprises. Like, everyone unites for a "Search for Spock" thing, but for Hopper, and it balloons from there.

* Gotta say, a much more satisfying villain this season. Which is the same villain as season 2... but now it's corporeal. Which is what bugged me about season 2. I found it hard to get too worked up about a giant smoke monster that can just completely live inside a 10 year old kid. And jesus, so gross. I'm pretty sure it had rib cage bones for teeth.

* Maybe I missed something... but OK. The Mind Flayer was supposedly locked in our world at the end of season 2, yeah (even though we saw it not in our world at the end of season 2)? That's what the kids say. But it can't do anything until the Russians began to open their gate, and then collapses if their gate closes? Why?

[Andrew NDB]

Crazy Evan Rachel Wood takes issue with Hopper's behavior this season.

https://people.com/tv/evan-rachel-wood-slams-stranger-things-character-jim-hopper/

[IndigoErth]

Yeah, some of his behavior was not so great. I hope if, or likely when, he is back it will lead him to calm down a bit.

I can't really fault the guy for going overprotective parent mode really. Having lost one daughter tragically and basically his whole world and then adopt another that comes from and still has some really special circumstances, and all the crazy, terrifying, mind bending, life risking stuff they'd gone through... yeah, I get it. But the handling of the little girlfriend/boyfriend situation... uh, no, bad way to go. Along with not properly handling his own feelings about change and wanting her to stay a kid, as well as some of the behavior with regard to his own wanted love interest.

I like his character for the most part, but those would definitely be some flaws to target for character development to grow past.

[Shinigami]

The kids really kind of remind me of The Goonies sometimes, I'm surprised there haven't really been any references (or at least none I recall).

You may have forgotten a lot of season 2. Bob and his treasure maps.

[Andrew NDB]

But the handling of the little girlfriend/boyfriend situation... uh, no, bad way to go. Along with not properly handling his own feelings about change and wanting her to stay a kid, as well as some of the behavior with regard to his own wanted love interest.

I like his character for the most part, but those would definitely be some flaws to target for character development to grow past.

I don't see anything wrong with imperfect characters. Zero. To want only the alternative is abhorrent.

[Sage Ninja]

I'm glad I watched the season before coming in here.

I was so sad they "killed off" Hopper. They've been trying to kill him since last season. I feel bad that as soon as Eleven gets a parental figure it's snatched away from her. One the things I really enjoyed about season two was the parental bonding Eleven and Hopper had. I'm sad that is gone. But the end credits where the Russian soldier (what are they KGB?) says "no, not the American." I really,really, hope that it is Hopper and they pull a season two Eleven is alive, curve ball at us.

I really like how Dustin and Steve have gotten closer and are like surrogate brothers. Though I feel kind of sad at how low Steve has fallen. I hope he starts to climb up soon. I felt for Dustin and too a lesser extent Will. Dustin seemed disjointed from the gang this season until the very end and no one really noticed he was MIA really until the **** hit the fan. I miss the close dynamic of the boys.

Actually I know this is a theme of the kids growing up and changing and maybe even drifting apart a bit, but I was a little saddened by less close they kids "party" was.

Without Will being directly affected by the upside down (save for the flutters he feels in his neck alerting him to something going on) I felt Will didn't have much presence as the other boys and felt like he was just there, save to get mad about how Mike and Lucas were obsessed with their girlfriends and being jerks about playing D&D. He hasn't even significantly interacted with Eleven yet and I think they have weakest rapport with each other. So it feels weird that she is going to be living with them.

I found myself slightly annoyed with the cliched way they "attraction" between Joyce and Hopper was handled. It was funny at points but and I do ship them, but ugh...

I like the new addition of the ice cream girl and Steve.

Lucus's younger sister I could take her or leave her, but I like her inclusion and I warmed up to her toward the end. I hope we see more of her involvement.

* Disappointed about Billy. There was a huge opportunity to have him come back next season, a year or two later and have him be a completely different, very changed character with a ton of growth. Just thrown away at the end there. Too bad.

I agree with this. I feel like Billy had potential to grow and become more than a stereotype. I liked how he had a moment of clarity and protected Eleven.

This show has tendency to off characters that were good or could grow. I'm still salty about Bob getting killed.


Also the number of people who know Eleven's secret is growing kind of big. :o It was also a tad jarring how much they boys grew since season 2 :o Maybe it would be in their best interest to skip more than just a year for season four.

[Utrommaniac]

Gotta say though, was kind excited by the possibility that Billy was going to killed in the first episode.

It was just...really great though that Mike's mom came to her senses around Billy, but man...that is one B O R I N G husband. Just...find someone your age, woman.


For Joyce, there's something nice about her not having to worry about Will for once. I'd guess that, because of everything that's happened "what's wrong with the magnets" could inevitably turn into something bad happening to Will. You'd think at this point that Hopper would be taking her a little more seriously with all the nonsense that's been going down

[IndigoErth]

I don't see anything wrong with imperfect characters. Zero. To want only the alternative is abhorrent.
https://media1.tenor.com/images/7dc8a3ccbcfc7916c44950e764ebcaf5/tenor.gif
Yeaaaah...pretty sure you probably know that isn't the point.

[Utrommaniac]

Yeah, I'm going to agree on Hop going way overboard with Mike on this one - especially since it causes a lot of the problems with the kids that inevitably sends Will on his breakdown (which...never gets addressed. Like that angle of the kid who hates baseball - which is own estranged abusive father frequently forced him to play - destroys Castle Byers with a baseball bat.)

I especially think that a lot of Hopper's attitude toward Joyce came from her (accidentally) standing him up on that date.

[Sage Ninja]

I forgot to mention that I really liked Eleven and Max becoming closer and becoming gal pals. With the way she seemed to get jealous of her in season 2 and snubbed her when Max extended her hand to shake hers, I was a little scared if how that would resolve it self (was Eleven going to get violent with max?) I honestly feel that that they killed the tension too quickly on the Eleven feeling worried/jealous of Max potentially taking her place in the group, but with the way the story line jumps ahead in time by several months or a whole year, I guess they could not keep up that misunderstanding between for that long a time.

I really enjoyed Eleven having another girl to interact with, it was fun to watch. I think she needs that and Max and her make a good duo. I like how Max helped her pick out a new look for her that she feels is all her own.

I was a little worried that Max was going to corrupt Eleven a bit and make her feel negative towards Mike. Other than that it was all good to me.

Gotta say though, was kind excited by the possibility that Billy was going to killed in the first episode.


I get what you are saying, because I really found Billy to be bland and a walking stereotype. But I felt he was just beginning to get some depth and I would have liked to see that expanded on, but they just killed him. Also I was a little surprised that Max seemed to genuinely care about him. Last season implied Billy was abusive toward her.

It was just...really great though that Mike's mom came to her senses around Billy, but man...that is one B O R I N G husband.

I seriously thought that she was going to go full cougar there for a minute. I like that she didn't do that, because she would destroyed her family. But The whole cougar bathing suit scene was cringy. :dead::sick: I wonder if they will ever do anything with the subplot of Mike's mom being dissatisfied in her marriage. Mike's dad really is just a barely engaged with his family guy. I like Mike's mom had more to do this season with her pep talk with Nancy and going for that story. But Jeez woman, keep better tract of your kids. When Joyce asked her if she knew where Mike and the kids were and she was all like, "uhhh...dunno. It's been days since I've seen them." I was like WTF? :blanksta:

You'd think at this point that Hopper would be taking her a little more seriously with all the nonsense that's been going down

Hopper was a tad flanderized in this season but he was combative/dismissive with Joyce because he was still salty about being stood up by Joyce.

That conspiracy theory guy made a come back and played an even bigger role than last season. I like him and I thought it was cool that he warmed up to Alexi (the Russian dude Hopper and Joyce captured) and that he helped in the final show down. I was worried he was going to get killed off. I liked how he went off on Joyce and Hopper and told them to get over themselves and just screw already.

He also made a pretty good point about Joyce that I think ties in to her attraction to Bob. He said she has been hurt and wants a nice guy to date (paraphrased) and to drop that sh*t and just admit she is attracted to an alpha like Hopper. It kind of made me wish that Bob had been spared last season, because it would have been interesting to see her come to grips with her desire to settle down with a nice down to earth guy and realize if that is what she wants, or to just go for Hopper. That line seemed to imply that Joyce's attraction to someone like Bob not be all the way genuine.

And one more thing:

Does anyone understand why exactly Eleven lost her powers? That thing was embedded in her leg and when she used her powers to rip it out suddenly her powers were gone. Did the monster absorb her powers? Is that what they were implying?

[Andrew NDB]

I was a little worried that Max was going to corrupt Eleven a bit and make her feel negative towards Mike. Other than that it was all good to me.

For a while I was a little worried they were going to go down a whole different route with Max and Eleven.

[Egon1982]

Did anyone noticed the Dark Crystal's Pod dance theme in the scene of Will the wise? that was a nice nod and a sneaky little self promo to another Netflix show coming next month.

And that scene where Dustin and Suzie sang Neverending Story was quite funny.

[Andrew NDB]

Did anyone noticed the Dark Crystal's Pod dance theme in the scene of Will the wise? that was a nice nod and a sneaky little self promo to another Netflix show coming next month.

It's been a lifetime since I've seen so it was lost on me.

And that scene where Dustin and Suzie sang Neverending Story was quite funny.

I loved it. The bit where they cut away to the Mind Flayer trogging along behind the car while the song is still playing... that made it really pop.

[Shark_Blade]

MY3oAyuYXmo

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Almost done watching Season 3.

Not enjoying it, really. Too many characters, with original characters just kind of meandering through the show. Lucas and Mike barely do anything the first half of the season except whine about girls, not played D&D, and done basically jack.

The horror is increased, but the actual reason to care about most of these characters feels drastically decreased.

Except Dustin and Steve. And Robin. Those three rock.

And why the fvck does Will have so little to do?

(Oh, and the whole Russian angle feels really cliche and 80's... right down to the big not Dolph Lungren guy.)

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Done with the season.

Once it finally got going, the last 2-3 episodes were great. But overall, Season 3 is a big step down in terms of overall. Seasons 1 and 2 worked a lot better IMO.

Also, there's no way the American is who we all want it to be.

RIP, Alexei. RIP, you-know-who. :tsad:

[Andrew NDB]

And why the fvck does Will have so little to do?

I think because he was really ran through the ringer for two seasons and they wanted to take it easy on him. Unforunately this seemed to translate into him not being given much to do but, yeah, whine about girls and say vaguely gay things to stoke the "OMG is Will gay??" hubbub.

(Oh, and the whole Russian angle feels really cliche and 80's... right down to the big not Dolph Lungren guy.)

Oh, I'm sure that's 100% what they were going for.

Done with the season.

Once it finally got going, the last 2-3 episodes were great. But overall, Season 3 is a big step down in terms of overall. Seasons 1 and 2 worked a lot better IMO.

You're kidding me. You liked 2 better than 3? How?

Also, there's no way the American is who we all want it to be.

No, it's not Hopper (though he's definitely alive... we saw that catwalk afterward and it was clean as a whistle)... my bet is Dr. Brenner.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I think because he was really ran through the ringer for two seasons and they wanted to take it easy on him. Unforunately this seemed to translate into him not being given much to do but, yeah, whine about girls and say vaguely gay things to stoke the "OMG is Will gay??" hubbub.

Yeah, they'll probably turn "Will is gay" into a thing. I would have taken that for just a "Will isn't horned up yet / hasn't hit puberty as hard as the others", but inclusion gonna include.

You're kidding me. You liked 2 better than 3? How?

A big reason I liked Stranger Things was the kids felt very far from stereotypical "TV" kids in the first season. They all made pretty smart choices compared to horror movie tropes and cliches. But "kids in love" always pisses me off, because it's always so petty and overwraught with emotion.

It's like how shows (cough CW cough) can't allow women to just be women or gays to just be gays. They have to be better and stronger and smarter and tell you so every five minutes, like Felicity or I'm sure their upcoming version of Kate Kane. Just let the kids be kids.

The last few episodes of 3 made up for the slog of the first 4-5 episodes. But overall, Season 2 still focused on the kids, the cast was nice and tight (for the most part), and I felt like all of the Party (Will, Eleven, Mike, Lucas, Dustin) were integrally involved.

Season 3, Lucas did the fireworks. That was it. Jonathan fixed a car. That was it.

(Oh, and I liked the "Eleven hangs out with her big sister" episode a lot more than most people in Season 2.)

No, it's not [redacted] (though he's definitely alive... we saw that catwalk afterward and it was clean as a whistle)... my bet is Dr. Brenner.

I really don't think [you-know-who] survived. I want him to have survived, but where could he have run or hid that would have saved him from getting dusted?

That's who I think it is, too. Papa.

[Andrew NDB]

I really don't think [you-know-who] survived. I want him to have survived, but where could he have run or hid that would have saved him from getting dusted?

Naw, if they were gonna kill Hopper they would have made it definitive like everyone else who has actually gotten killed off. Same with Dr. Brenner, who was "killed" off-screen (who we were literally told is still alive in season 2 by that guy that Eleven and her big sister screw with).

That said, I really wish they'd have made a better showing of it LOOKING like a definitive death for Hopper. That yanked me right out of the emotion of the scene and the epilogue.

Where did he go? If you look close you can see a ladder going down from the catwalk he was on... perhaps there, whisked off by Russians through their catacomb-like tunnels? Perhaps the energy shot him into the Upside Down or maybe the sister site in Russia?

Or, to your credit, maybe they did the "death" somewhat vaguely so that just in case David Harbour had to do Hellboy 2-6 back-to-back, they left themselves an "out" for the character.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Naw, if they were gonna kill Hopper they would have made it definitive like everyone else who has actually gotten killed off. Same with Dr. Brenner, who was "killed" off-screen (who we were literally told is still alive in season 2 by that guy that Eleven and her big sister screw with).

That said, I really wish they'd have made a better showing of it LOOKING like a definitive death for Hopper. That yanked me right out of the emotion of the scene and the epilogue.

Where did he go? If you look close you can see a ladder going down from the catwalk he was on... perhaps there, whisked off by Russians through their catacomb-like tunnels? Perhaps the energy shot him into the Upside Down or maybe the sister site in Russia?

Or, to your credit, maybe they did the "death" somewhat vaguely so that just in case David Harbour had to do Hellboy 2-6 back-to-back, they left themselves an "out" for the character.

I mean, they did obviously leave themselves an out so that they can bring him back. But I don't know that I'll find any explanation very believable. Destructive energy discharging wildly all over the place, disintegrating people at a touch, but somehow, our hero safely hid under a walkway and was dragged off to captivity? It strains my willing suspension of disbelief.

Although, yes... if the energy isn't disintegrating people but instead transporting them to the Upside Down... THAT I could believe.

It will be interesting to see where Season 4 goes...

[Andrew NDB]

Renewed for season 4:

https://netflixlife.com/2019/09/30/stranger-things-4-renewed-netflix-eerie-announcement/?fbclid=IwAR2lY9uoTlKVJ1ZN8wgnm9Jsgi-gprklxqJWtl6UPKQ0jBLeioZYc5RnmTc

Odd that it's just being renewed now?

[joe-eyeball]

Renewed for season 4:

https://netflixlife.com/2019/09/30/stranger-things-4-renewed-netflix-eerie-announcement/?fbclid=IwAR2lY9uoTlKVJ1ZN8wgnm9Jsgi-gprklxqJWtl6UPKQ0jBLeioZYc5RnmTc

Odd that it's just being renewed now?

Probably had something to do with the 9 figure overall deal Netflix signed with the duffer brothers. Negotiate with all the chips on the table then make an announcement. I don’t know

[Andrew NDB]

David Harbour wants you to text him. Seriously.

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/323146/stranger-things-david-harbour-wants-you-to-text-him-for-real/

[IndigoErth]

lol I hope he has a separate phone he actually wants to use normally.

Aka when celebrity extroverts get bored of the lockdown. :tlol: I don't need a conversation with him...all I need is a rough date of the next season premier.

[ZariusTwo]

Season four will be split into two volumes, and the show will come to an end with season five

https://deadline.com/2022/02/stranger-things-renewed-season-5-final-season-4-premiere-date-1234935526/

[Andrew NDB]

It seriously feels like a lifetime since season 3.

[joe-eyeball]

It seriously feels like a lifetime since season 3.

Yes and I’m so tired of these stupid split seasons!

[Andrew NDB]

The full trailer:

xHktptbE4JY

I like what I'm seeing but I wonder/worry if they're going to go in and explain everything. I'm not sure if they should explain why the Upside Down is.

[IndigoErth]

Haven't even looked at any trailers and avoiding them, just want to dive into it when it comes out. Already did a rewatch of it last month. Most I know is what we'd probably all been assuming since the end of the last season and seemed like a given, luckily. (But I really don't know about that shaved head, hope it eventually grows back in the series. lol)

[Andrew NDB]

So it's back. Saw the first episode. Kind of a snooze until the last maybe 4th of the episode. My guess is we see how the Upside Down got created and by who, who is probably the same puppeteer of the Mind Flayer.

And yeah. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm guessing it's T-minus something until they make Will gay.

[joe-eyeball]

Watched the first two episodes and they were both a bit of a bore. Damn near every episode of the first three seasons had a fun factor that went with them and so far this has almost none. I understand that they are trying to evolve these characters because they are all in high school and older. So perhaps they are displaying the teen angst and a bit more seriousness because that’s how they wanted this season but I just miss the goofiness of previous seasons.

[Andrew NDB]

Just finished episode 4. It does get a lot better, more interesting.

I knew the Hopper transport was never going to go according to plan, but I wasn't thinking it would go that far off the rails. And when the other military guys show up and start shooting up that house... wtf. A lot of really great moments so far. Also, are we supposed to forget about seeing the Russians feeding people to Demigorgons in Russia at the end of the last season? Is that not a thing to be followed up on?

[joe-eyeball]

Yeah it finally picks up the pace in the 4th episode and has some interesting scenes for sure.

[Andrew NDB]

Saw the end of it.

I thought it was awesome! It got a little overblown when the bad guy was explaining his origin story but I was on board with almost everything else.

[Coola Yagami]

Saw the end of it.

I thought it was awesome! It got a little overblown when the bad guy was explaining his origin story but I was on board with almost everything else.

How many dicks did Will suck?

[Warhorse]

How many dicks did Will suck?

None, but it seems like he has a crush on his buddy, Mike. And it's the real reason why he is so hostile towards Eleven. He's jealous. This whole part really sucks though because in real life, the actors of Will and El have become really good friends just like Steve and Robin in the show, and it's a shame they don't take advantage of that.

With that aside, I have to agree with most on the internet, Max/Sadie was the stand out. That Running Up the Hill scene is just perfect.

I wonder how many are going to recognize the Russian guard? He's Jaquen H'Gar from Game of Thrones. Interesting, the man of many faces set to fight the creature with no face.

The shootout scene was pretty tight. I hope they have more scenes like that. I'd love to see something like this with Hopper and Nancy taking out them military rogues, that is, if they survive this season.

[Andrew NDB]

Ah! I knew I recognized that Russian guard from somewhere. That was bugging me.

[Warhorse]

Oh, the second he came on, I was like "where did I see him before?" I didn't want to stop watching and risk the show being spoiled for me, so I just stuck it out till the end, then went on Reddit and the second I seen people making comments like "a man has no face", and all that, it's when it clicked. I felt so stupid for not recognizing him sooner because Jaquen was one of my favorite characters in GOT.

[Andrew NDB]

With that aside, I have to agree with most on the internet, Max/Sadie was the stand out. That Running Up the Hill scene is just perfect.

bV0RAcuG2Ao

Yeah, that was great. That scene and its buildup and payoff simultaneously made me both care about Max (which I never did up until that point), understand her, and become afraid for her immediate fate. Beforehand I was like, "Good!" when it was revealed she was marked for death by Vecna, but as this scene ramped up I quickly became, "Aw, I don't want to see this kid get killed like that."

And the buildup was so perfect. They'd established the song with her from earlier episodes. By that point we knew well how Vecna disposes of his victims because we'd seen it a few times already, as in... once they start to float, that's just seconds away from being it! I was 50/50 on it being a triumphant breakaway or it being her doom. I couldn't call it. They were playing it like it was a big goodbye with the little montage that it almost seemed like the end for her. Even the running away part, it seemed like any one of those big fragments could be it.

[Warhorse]

Curious about Nancy. Seen in the trailers that Eddie plays his guitar and is this going to be what brings her back?

I also wonder how in the beginning, Chrissy wanted to try some drugs and we got Jonathan being a full blown pothead and if this might come into play?

[IndigoErth]

Finished up this first main batch of eps last night. Not bad, wasn't sure at first, but got pretty good and glad they have started tying the upside down and previous monsters (that I was really kind of missing well into it) in with Vecna...
...and gave his humanoid appearance a reason for what it is. I was almost questioning if it was/connected to the father, knowing he had to be too old though, but liked that twist with the son. Interesting he started out with powers all on his own.

The whole thing with Eleven in the later half of it seemed rather long winded and has her out of the actions for too long, imo, but liked that it was used to go into some of the backstory, others who went through those experiments and how the first gate was opened. Though we kind of need an answer how 001 ended up working for them. Wonder if that chip was not just a tracker but also somehow controlled him.

Really liked the evolution of the relationship between Hopper and the guard. Kind of hoping the guard escapes with them to the U.S. and sticks around for a bit.

Maybe Will is jealous with a crush on his friend and I was wondering...though on the other hand there's also potential jealousy that he and Mike were best friends long before this girl came along and got in the way and when Mike comes to visit, all this attention is on Eleven instead, setting Will up to experience normal friendship growing pains of getting older.

An article also mentioned that the day Mike arrives is Will's birthday, reveled in a previous season, so maybe, as suggested by the article, he's also upset that no one remembers.

While on the topic of a character's orientation, there is also Robin. Unlike a lot of media that keeps preferring the angle of unclarified and unspoken potential sexual tension that makes you wonder for an uncomfortably long period of time and then suddenly have that annoying "surprise" reveal that two characters are indeed into each other... I appreciate that we just know this fact about Robin, like it's no big deal, and she just seems like a normal teen who is anxious and unsure if someone she is into could feel the same, with the added risk of trying to find out. And even if I could do without watching women make out with each other, at this point the show still has me rooting for her.

Nancy...I'm a little confused why she ended up pulled back in and wound up in the pool when trying to leave. I get that she's probably got some guilt from her friend's death, making her a potential target of Vecna like the others, but not sure about her getting pulled back in rather than just falling onto the mattress and having the trance-like episode. Unless one of the "vines" or something snatched her away and I missed it.

Steve... I can't help but wonder if he's "infected" with something after those bites. It would give his character a reason to become a little more interesting aside from mostly being the tag-along ditzy guy.


After The Mind Flayer being the scary sky monster (and probably some of my favorite scenes), was a bit disappointed with Vecna being the big foe this time around, but hopefully that is going somewhere deeper.

[Andrew NDB]

Yeah, Steve got burrowed into pretty badly. Something definitely is going on with those wounds. Crap, Steve might really be in danger. The subplot with Nancy and him falling back in love could just be a parting gift before he's killed off.

Maybe at some point he explodes and a bunch of bat babies come out of him?

[IndigoErth]

True... pushing the audience in the direction of thinking they may get back together might be setting up for their heartbreak if he dies or dramatic tension if he comes close to death. edit: Or he lives but he's just the vessel that brings the newest crop of creatures into the normal dimension. Much like Will throwing up the Demodog "leech."

Hell I thought those bats were just going to kill him off right then and there.

[Andrew NDB]

They spent a LOT of time with him and those bats. Has to be more to come on them and what they did to him.

[Andrew NDB]

ms3Ryz5IUAw

[IndigoErth]

Sadly they don't have my size (why no medium?), but thought I'd toss the link in here. Walmart has a preorder for a Funko Pop! Hellfire Club tee. :tcool:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Funko-Pop-Boxed-Tee-Stranger-Things-Hellfire-Club-L/370606595?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0

(Way is XL the cheaper one? Weird.)

[CyberCubed]

So I watched this entire show for the first time. Some thoughts:

Mike and Will have ridiculous hair styles, they look like the Beetles from the 60's rather than the 80's

I'm surprised Nancy had a sex scene in Season 1. I know the actress is older in real life but since she looks really young it was surprising to see.

I'm kinda tired of the constant bullying scenes. Every kid on this show is bullied and it gets enough. Eleven being bullied in Season 4 was especially pointless, especially since the kid who threw soda on her was even worse than Angela and she did nothing to him.

The whole Russian subplot bores me and feels like it's just to give something for Winona Ryder's character to do. After Will was saved she would have just been as irrelevant as the other parents. Hopper should have just died at the end of Season 3. These scenes drag in the prison.

For a show set in the 80's there's a lot of gay and lesbian characters. What teen in 1985 would he openly lesbian and their friends accept it? I was in High School in 2000-2003 and even then nobody was openly gay or lesbian. And here we are 15 years before that?

[CyberCubed]

Why is Will so damn gay? Everytime he's on screen he's on the verge of bursting into tears. He always had this weird look on his face like he's about to cry too. He's such a pansy I can't stand him anymore. Is this what homosexuals were like in the 80's? No wonder they were bullied back then.

[Andrew NDB]

Ironically the only one who definitely would be getting bullied (Will), doesn't. He should be getting stuffed into lockers and Tombstoned into toilets.

[IMJ]

Love the show but I'm having a hard time digging into it. I'm only at episode 2 or 3 at this point - basically Dustin just went and found his punk-D&D buddy in the shed after the death of the preppy chick in his trailer.

I'll get through the season of course, but it's not grabbing me like previous seasons where I power watched those suckers. The bad guy - Vecna is interesting. Reminds me a lot of the monster from "The Keep". Creepy hellish bastard.

[Andrew NDB]

Love the show but I'm having a hard time digging into it. I'm only at episode 2 or 3 at this point - basically Dustin just went and found his punk-D&D buddy in the shed after the death of the preppy chick in his trailer.

I'll get through the season of course, but it's not grabbing me like previous seasons where I power watched those suckers. The bad guy - Vecna is interesting. Reminds me a lot of the monster from "The Keep". Creepy hellish bastard.

Everyone seems to agree that episode 4 is where it all "clicks." Smooth sailing from there.

[CyberCubed]

The season was slow to start. Besides that the Russian subplot just drags way too long and feels like it's from some other show. I can't imagine the shows young target audience like teens and early 20 year olds caring about Hopper in a Russian prison in Siberia. He's way out of their age range and they can't relate to him like all the kids on the show.

Will also is a gay homosexual useless crybaby who drags down every scene he is in. If I knew he would turn out like this they should have just left him lost forever in Season 1. His face is so painful to look at too, he always looks like he's 2 seconds away from crying and then that's what happens. I don't mind gay characters but going full homo with them is too much for me to handle.

I liked the climax episodes even though a lot of what they do with Eleven is basically just a mix of Star Wars Force powers and Dragon Ball Z stuff at this point. Hell mostly Jean Gray too, just get her mad or think about her friends dying and she'll save the day.

[NinjaPug]

They should've had Hopper actually be dead at the end of S3 and remove the whole Russia subplot that was nothing but filler this season.

[CyberCubed]

They should've had Hopper actually be dead at the end of S3 and remove the whole Russia subplot that was nothing but filler this season.

Yeah I felt his death at the end of Season 3 was a fine end for the character. The Russian subplot felt like it got way too much screentime this season, and it feels like they just need Winona Ryder's character something to do.

It's also noticeable how Mike doesn't really have much purpose anymore either? He seemed like the main character of the show besides Eleven when it first started, and here he was barely involved in any of the climatic final battle. He felt sidelined the entire season like he serves no real point anymore. The whole Mike/Will/Jonathan trio basically felt irrelevant given they skipped over them in a few episodes.

They should just focus on Nancy, Steve, etc. and that's really all you need now

[Andrew NDB]

Just finished 9.

I'm OK with the Russian subplot as long as it pays off. So far beyond the revelation that the Russians are experimenting on Demigorgons (?)... there isn't much? And what was that thing in the containment unit swirling around? Did they capture the Mind Flayer?

And yeah, the lesbian/gay melodrama could be lost. If this was a show in 2005 or 2015, sure.

[CyberCubed]

Yeah why are they applying 2020 era social norms and tolerance toward gays in a show set in 1986? Were there gays and lesbians in 1986? They certainly wouldn't be open about it and teens/young adults certainly weren't open about it back then.

I was in High School in the early 2000's from 2000-2003, and even as recent as that nobody would ever admit to being gay, and the only lesbians you saw were the ones in the online pornos and not in real life unless two girls were dared to kiss or something.. I know the show is written now but certainly back in the 80's when gay's were made fun of all the time (watch old 80's era movies and see how they treat gay people as jokes back then), and you'll see what it was actually like.

It's honestly revisionist history that girls want to be lesbian in 1986. WTF.

[Andrew NDB]

In the early 90s it was unthinkable anyone in school would "come out," to friends or otherwise. By the mid to late 90s you would start to see a tiny bit of that, at least anecdotally, but almost all of them were getting beat up, killed, or having to transfer schools.

In 1986? Yeah right. Maybe 1 or 2 in San Francisco or something, and they probably kept it to themselves. This is revisionist history.

[joe-eyeball]

This season is quite easily the worst one overall despite being the most ambitious in scope. It was bloated with too many characters and subplots that didn’t really develop all that well. It lacked a fun factor that was found in the previous seasons. And with every episode running over in length it kind of stripped away an episodic television feel to the series. And it just continues the lather, rinse, repeat format the show has followed each season. Overall has this show really taken any big risks with its storylines? Doesn’t seem that way to me.

[Zulithe]

Yeah why are they applying 2020 era social norms and tolerance toward gays in a show set in 1986?
I was in HS in the 90s, and there were many openly gay students. This was in the suburbs, not even a large city. Both of the gay characters in Stranger Things, set a little more than 10 years before my time, are not open about it; Will hides it entirely but his brother senses it. Robin also hides it, and only tells Steve after they had been through a lot of **** together.

I promise you that many gays particularly pre-90s can relate very strongly to Will, who hides his sexuality because he feels nobody will accept him.

While it's easier now (still not super easy, and still hard in certain more conservative areas), being a gay teen when you feel like you have to hide your sexuality, while other gay teens are also hiding theirs for the same reason, feeding into this cycle of feeling alone and without a partner when all your peers are dating the opposite sex with ease, is a strongly relatable experience and the show gets that across well.

It looks like Robin might have come full circle in her arc. The series now needs to give Will some kind of comfort in the next (and last) season, because having him agonize over Mike for all this time is rough to watch and not fair to his character to keep him in that agony. It's also very clear they are setting up Will to be a little more proactive in the plot for Season 5 with how he "senses" Vecna and/or some other upside-down power near the end again.

[CyberCubed]

So then I don't get it, does Will have a crush on Mike? Because it's not really made clear, and obviously he knows Mike/Eleven are a couple and want to get back together. So I don't get why he cried in the car after telling Mike how special he was to El.

His whole character makes no sense. I can't even stand looking at him because his face looks so weird even in other scenes where nothing is happening, like he's constantly about to burst into tears. What a goddamn loser.

[NinjaPug]

What is everyone's understanding of the hierarchy of the Upside Down?

Originally I thought the Mind Flayer was in charge with Vecna being his general as the MF is essentially the hive mind of everything in the UD. In the finale we learn that Vecna stumbles across the MF and forms him into the shape of a spider. Is Vecna in control of the MF?

[Andrew NDB]

So then I don't get it, does Will have a crush on Mike? Because it's not really made clear, and obviously he knows Mike/Eleven are a couple and want to get back together. So I don't get why he cried in the car after telling Mike how special he was to El.

At this point they've written themselves into a corner. They have to make Will gay for Mike or they will incur the wrath of the SJW mafia. Even if that wasn't the original plan though I suspect it was.

I have to admit, as these actors age and TPTB are witnessing it (obviously)... maybe some plans have changed? Mike standing next to Eleven doesn't look as great as it did 3 seasons ago, and I'm talking about how the Mike actor looks now. He's a fairly awkward looking dude.

They might just actually make Mike gay for Will, at this point. And that's a big happy point to land at in season 5.

"I love you Eleven, but I am in love with Will." And Uma Thurman's kid seals the deal with some other chick to boot. Because that is introduced here as a "shucks, she can't make it happen as a high school lesbian in 1986" No. Clearly there's a payoff coming.

[CyberCubed]

It does seem like they're pushing Eleven away from Mike, sort of realizing as they've grown up and they're grown apart a bit and are better off as friends. I don't think Mike will be gay though, because it doesn't seem likely. If Will is gay they'll probably introduce some new character for him, just like Robin suddenly got some random lesbian girl introduced out of nowhere instead of making say Nancy into a lesbo.

Besides that my other least favorite character is probably Erica, if only because she has the trope of being the "always in the right" black girl persona. They left her out of this season a lot compared to Season 3 but she's kinda annoying IMO. The less we see of her the better.

To be honest I'd watch a whole spinoff of Nancy, Steve and Robin. At this point I enjoy them more than the young kid protagonists. Give them guns/swords/weapons like we saw in the finale and they can turn them into the next gen of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or something.

[Warhorse]

It does seem like they're pushing Eleven away from Mike, sort of realizing as they've grown up and they're grown apart a bit and are better off as friends. I don't think Mike will be gay though, because it doesn't seem likely. If Will is gay they'll probably introduce some new character for him, just like Robin suddenly got some random lesbian girl introduced out of nowhere instead of making say Nancy into a lesbo.

Besides that my other least favorite character is probably Erica, if only because she has the trope of being the "always in the right" black girl persona. They left her out of this season a lot compared to Season 3 but she's kinda annoying IMO. The less we see of her the better.

To be honest I'd watch a whole spinoff of Nancy, Steve and Robin. At this point I enjoy them more than the young kid protagonists. Give them guns/swords/weapons like we saw in the finale and they can turn them into the next gen of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or something.

What? You don't like Dustin? He's like the best character in the show. In fact, I would say Steve really grew as a character thanks to Dustin.

[CyberCubed]

I like Dustin, I didn't mention him there. I think Mike and Jonathan have gotten really boring, Will has always sucked, and Lucas is just there for me, and his sister is annoying.

I like Max a lot and Nancy and Steve, Robin is cool too. I feel most of the other characters don't have much to do anymore and it shows.

[Warhorse]

I like Dustin, I didn't mention him there. I think Mike and Jonathan have gotten really boring, Will has always sucked, and Lucas is just there for me, and his sister is annoying.

I like Max a lot and Nancy and Steve, Robin is cool too. I feel most of the other characters don't have much to do anymore and it shows.

Agree. Heck, I would like to swap out all the Beyers and replace them with Suzies family since they seemed to be more entertaining.

I wonder if Steve and Nancy are a wink to the Ninja Turtles, along with Argyle. Seen people mention that Argyle reminds them of Michelangelo (he's a surfer dude who is laid back and likes pizza), then you got Nancy that wants to be a reporter and you got Steve with the bat with nails. All he needs is a hockey mask.......

[Andrew NDB]

Saw the finale now. It was more "Empire Strikes Back" and "Inception" than the big triumphant good vs. evil battle it seemed like was being setup. The good guys pretty much failed on all of their goals. Vecna still opened up his super gate and survived, killing a ton of people. About the only victory of any kind was undoing Max's death. I do like that the good guys brought guns to battle Vecna. It's so stupid in things like It Chapter 2 where nobody thinks to bring even so much as a handgun.

Didn't like how casually Jason was disposed of. It seemed so expected that he'd just be fodder in the end, which is exactly what he was. I was thinking they'd give him an arc over this season and the next and kind of "Redeem" him. Eddie, too. Creating him just to kill him off in the same season, meh.

Also, the more I think about it the more it seems that nobody really had any growth this season except maybe Max (she got her closure). Eleven got her powers back, sure, but what about everybody else? There is the tease of Steve and Nancy getting back together and Jonathan and Nancy's relationship being on the rocks... by the end of the season, we're right back where we started with that. We began this season with Eleven giving Mike the silent treatment and that's exactly how we end. Will is a closeted homosexual at the beginning pining over Mike and that's how we end. Uma Thurman's kid, the same thing, except maybe that band check is like-minded after all (or maybe not?). Eddie had a great arc but he's killed off.

And I bet Max wakes up with some kind of superpowers. Or maybe she's blind, but she can see what Vecna sees or something.

Also, I'm not sure it's clear how the Upside Down itself -- specifically, with the version of Hawkins that's like a snapshot of Hawkins in 1983 -- was created. Vecna arrives in that dimension and sees Demigorgons around, makes the Mind Flayer... but then what? How do all the Hawkins buildings and such populate there? And what was Vecna doing between 1983 and 1986? Specifically between seasons 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4? That seems like a lot of hanging out by himself in the Upside Down doing a whole lot of nothing.

Originally I thought the Mind Flayer was in charge with Vecna being his general as the MF is essentially the hive mind of everything in the UD. In the finale we learn that Vecna stumbles across the MF and forms him into the shape of a spider. Is Vecna in control of the MF?

That was interesting. Clearly he finds the "dark energy" nexus (the same swirly stuff the Russians were containing in that little cell) and takes it and creates/controls the Mind Flayer. From the way Will was talking it seems like it's an extension of Vecna.

*edit: On a second glance, it looks like Jason might be OK in the Upside Down. At first it looked like it just ripped him in half and left him like that but on closer inspection it looks like he is wholly being absorbed into it.

[IndigoErth]

Little predictable that Eddie was going to end up being the one who dies, but relatively decent season overall. Glad Hopper did get back home in the end of it, been waiting for that scene for so long.

But nothing came of Steve's nasty encounter with those bat things last month? Aw come on. lol

So then I don't get it, does Will have a crush on Mike? Because it's not really made clear, and obviously he knows Mike/Eleven are a couple and want to get back together. So I don't get why he cried in the car after telling Mike how special he was to El.
To me that scene, when he turned away to the window teary eyed, read as Will in fact being in love with his friend but accepting that he has to let him go.

Furthered my belief that that is the case when he was stirring up the salt water with his brother who clearly knows and talked to him, but wasn't going to directly bring it up himself.

I didn't quite buy the speculation after the prior eps, but yeah... I feel those scenes kind made it clear in a quiet, indirect way.

Similar story with Robin probably having to accept that the girl from band may not be available to her romantically either, but hopefully she's still found a new good friend who gets her and her zany personality.

[CyberCubed]

Will is a homo

[Andrew NDB]

Confirmed -- Will is a raging homosexual:

https://www.darkhorizons.com/schnapp-on-wills-truth-in-stranger-things/

And yeesh... wait a minute here. They're going to use season 5 to get into Will and his connections to the Upside Down, at the same time they're presumably going to have him come out on the show since this is the last season? And at the same time Uma Thurman's daughter will find proper lesbian love? Has the Upside Down been an allegory for closeted homosexuality all along?

[Turo602]

I don't think they confirmed the "raging" bit.

[Leo656]

I don't think they confirmed the "raging" bit.

Right? :lol:

Andrew's one of my favorites, but a LOT of his posts do kinda come off like a classic example of "How to say gay people make you very uncomfortable without actually saying 'Gay people make me very uncomfortable'." It's the little things, such as the chosen adverb in this specific case. The character can't just be "a homosexual" but "a raging homosexual", specifically. :lol:

I'unno man. Sometimes I wonder how much of this is gentle ribbing and how much of it is textbook "I don't hate gay people, BUT..." kinda stuff.

[Andrew NDB]

It is 83% more fun to say "raging homosexual." Admit it.

[CyberCubed]

Will's actor says his character has a crush on Mike and that's why he was crying in the car. That makes no sense, Will was telling Mike how much he loved his girlfriend at the time and wanted them to get back together, I don't know why he'd then cry over it if he liked Will.

Will is such a gay crybaby gay homosexual homo. And yes I said that to emphasize it. :cry: Why would he be sitting there crying all the time if he had a crush on his friend when he knows his friend was in a relationship with a girl?

What a gay homo. Someone needs to beat him up and steal his lunch money. Some kids deserve to be bullied.

[Leo656]

It is 83% more fun to say "raging homosexual." Admit it.

I generally call them "Homo-Skillets."

I heard it on Robot Chicken once like 10+ years ago and it's never left me. :lol:

[Andrew NDB]

Will's actor says his character has a crush on Mike and that's why he was crying in the car. That makes no sense, Will was telling Mike how much he loved his girlfriend at the time and wanted them to get back together, I don't know why he'd then cry over it if he liked Will.

Will is such a gay crybaby gay homosexual homo. And yes I said that to emphasize it. :cry: Why would he be sitting there crying all the time if he had a crush on his friend when he knows his friend was in a relationship with a girl?

What a gay homo. Someone needs to beat him up and steal his lunch money.

https://cdn.darkhorizons.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/schnapp-on-wills-truth-in-stranger-things.jpg

Some kids deserve to be bullied.

Well, I don't disagree there. Generally speaking.

[Turo602]

The scene would make more sense if you weren't watching in 1.5 speed.

[IndigoErth]

That makes no sense, Will was telling Mike how much he loved his girlfriend at the time and wanted them to get back together, I don't know why he'd then cry over it if he liked Will.
Spoken like someone who has never experienced unrequited feelings for anyone and was painful to accept.

Because Mike will never feel the same and Will started to accept that fact. That is painful for most people.
Why would he be sitting there crying all the time if he had a crush on his friend when he knows his friend was in a relationship with a girl?
He held out foolish hope like many young people will. But Mike is his friend and only wants him to be happy, so of course he tried to be encouraging, even while it hurt to say it and accept that he has to let Mike go.

[CyberCubed]

1. Will knows that Mike/Eleven have been a couple for what is it...about 5ish years by Season 4? I forget how much time has passed, but its been at least a few years given how young they all are in Season 1.

2. Literally in the SAME scene has Mike wondering if he and Eleven will ever get back together, and Will gives him a whole encouraging speech how he's "the heart" and Eleven and him need each other.

So him doing all that and bursting into tears because he has some gay homo crush on his friend who he knows had a girlfriend for the last 4-5 years makes no sense. Even if he DID like him that way, he should know good and well he's "taken" and Mike is probably straight 100% anyway.

So him crying just looked forced and stupid. You can make Will a homosexual without going full Gay Lord over it. Now he's just a crybaby homo who gets no sympathy from me. He's the type of kid you'd see others yelling, "HOOOOOMOOOOOOOO!" down the Gym locker room or whatever. "HOMO!' "Hoooomooooooo!"

[Turo602]

1. Will knows that Mike/Eleven have been a couple for what is it...about 5ish years by Season 4? I forget how much time has passed, but its been at least a few years given how young they all are in Season 1.

2. Literally in the SAME scene has Mike wondering if he and Eleven will ever get back together, and Will gives him a whole encouraging speech how he's "the heart" and Eleven and him need each other.

So him doing all that and bursting into tears because he has some gay homo crush on his friend who he knows had a girlfriend for the last 4-5 years makes no sense. Even if he DID like him that way, he should know good and well he's "taken" and Mike is probably straight 100% anyway.

So him crying just looked forced and stupid. You can make Will a homosexual without going full Gay Lord over it. Now he's just a crybaby homo who gets no sympathy from me. He's the type of kid you'd see others yelling, "HOOOOOMOOOOOOOO!" down the Gym locker room or whatever. "HOMO!' "Hoooomooooooo!"

Were you molested as a child or something?

[CyberCubed]

It doesn't make sense to write a gay teen in the 80's like this.

[Andrew NDB]

It doesn't make sense to write a gay teen in the 80's like this.

I mean, it's true. Kids just weren't wired like this back then. It wasn't a thing. Definitely not in Indiana, particularly.

[Turo602]

Well, you guys sure seem like experts on what it was like being gay in the 80s. But it seems like a dumb thing to nitpick given all the bullsh*t that happens in the show. Somehow THIS is the only thing that sticks out as odd or off for the 80s...

[Leo656]

I mean, it's true. Kids just weren't wired like this back then. It wasn't a thing. Definitely not in Indiana, particularly.

Very first Comment under the article You posted:

i know how some will react to this announcement, but as a gay kid growing up in the 80s, the way this has been written was pretty spot on to my experience growing up.

Hmmmm. Hmmm.

I begin to suspect that several people here who clearly never met a gay person until they were in their 20s (or 30s!) are maybe not the best authority on the subject of Where, When and How gay people existed in the Long Long Ago. :lol:

Well, you guys sure seem like experts on what it was like being gay in the 80s. But it seems like a dumb thing to nitpick given all the bullsh*t that happens in the show. Somehow THIS is the only thing that sticks out as odd or off for the 80s...

I've never seen an episode of this show and honestly don't even really get what it's supposed to be about.

I just think it's funny how rampantly and unashamedly far-right and intolerant most of the people on this forum are, only to claim "I'm actually not, though" if ever called out. :lol:

Like, I laughed at the guy last year who said this place was turning into Breitbart. But given how the people here talk about gay people, not to mention the RvW "debate" and all the conspiracy-mongering that's allowed to go un unchecked... yeah, I kinda think I may have "Ha-ha'ed" too soon. Starting to think that idiot might have been ahead of the curve after all.

[CyberCubed]

I was in High School in 2000-2003, which is well after the 90's, and even in the early 2000's NOBODY would admit they were gay. Not a single person I knew back then (and by this I mean virtually everyone, even people you didn't speak to), was gay. If anyone was, they hid it well enough.

The moment someone would be revealed to be gay the gossip would spread through the whole school and the person would never be able to live it down. So it just never happened.

Gay's were just not a thing back then. And the only lesbians people spoke of were the ones in the online pornos but not in real life.

[Leo656]

I graduated in 2000 you numbskull. One of the guys was Obviously Gay from Day One of Freshman Year. It wasn't even a "secret" and aside from the usual snickers about it nobody actually gave a sh*t. It probably helped that he was a nice guy and friends with all the hottest girls in school. But he very openly existed and to my knowledge never caught sh*t over it.

Not to mention the number of girls I knew back then who were openly getting it on with each other, but I'm assuming by your logic "girls don't count" or "that's different" or something.

I know that a good percentage of your gimmick is being ostentatious for a reaction but as you begin to get old I'd hope that it starts to become less satisfying. Trolls are bad enough, middle-aged trolls are just sad. People pushing 40 should not be "stirring sh*t for the lulz" on a message board. It's just... weird.

[Turo602]

I don't even understand what CyberCubed is even trying to get at at this point either. Will and Robin are still closeted and that's literally been there thing this whole season.

[CyberCubed]

It must be different where you live, because there was definitely no openly gay people in my school for all 4 years. And as I said, people used to yell out "homo" down the Gym locker room or the halls all the times to tease/mock people and those people weren't even gay. Now imagine if people actually *were* gay it would be 10 times worse.

If there were people who were actually gay at that time, they kept it to themselves and hid it well enough that nobody knew. There was definitely no "Hey I'm coming out as gay everyone accept me" thing back then.

[IndigoErth]

Can't say I knew of anyone verbally openly gay in my school... but listen youngins youngerins, I graduated in '97 and we had a kid a grade ahead of me who was the known cross dresser...prob a trans women today, but wasn't a term back then. Only ever saw him/her (not sure what they actually went by) dressed in girls clothing. Pretty sure (s)he was into guys though, from second hand talk.

Also a pair a girls a grade ahead who shared my Graphics Arts 'major' that always seemed a little uncomfortably closer in their friendship than most and I always suspected they may have had more going on...

[Leo656]

Guy a grade ahead of me who we all knew from Kindergarten was a Mormon. Who wore a skirt sometimes. Don't think he was actually gay so much as just had a strong "F*ck 'em if they don't like it" kinda vibe. Huge TMNT fanatic, incidentally.

Sadly he got hit by a truck and died like a month after he graduated. :ohwell: Whole school was devastated. If he HAD been gay, nobody would've given a sh*t. He was super well-liked and popular. Hardly anybody even questioned the occasional skirt.

Half the Drama kids in my high school were at the very least bi. The "parties" (read: orgies) they'd have at the richest kids' houses when the parents were out of town were legendary. Even the football kids were jealous; they got laid a lot too, but the Drama kids got better drugs (and as a result, hotter chicks). But man, you'd hear some stories come Monday morning. "Someone saw _____ in the bathroom with _____ at the cast party; I didn't even know they were gay!"

Kinda funny, kinda sad story came out of that group. The head cheerleader (who was also one of the higher-ups in Drama) was going out with this really popular guy everybody liked, I *think* he was another Drama kid. Everybody was jealous of him for being the one who got to f*ck the head cheerleader, all that stuff. Her family would take him with them on exotic vacations and all that, they were together for the first three-ish years of High School, everybody swore they were gonna get married. So either Junior or Senior year, I forget, but she has the guy come with her and her family to Cancun over Spring Break. When we all got back to school the next week, everybody noticed how the girl was all gorgeously tanned but looked completely miserable, and how she and the guy weren't even talking to each other anymore.

Come to find out, while they were on the trip she was apparently gonna ask him to marry her... and he thought that would be the best time to come out and admit to her that he was gay. :teek::lol: That was a situation, for sure. But again, nobody gave him a hard time about it. I mean sh*t, gay or not he still got to f*ck the girl everybody in school wanted to f*ck but couldn't, for three whole years or so, so f*ck it, he still came out way ahead of anybody who would've hypothetically picked on him.

Couple'a guys on the soccer team were f*cking each other, too, that I'm aware of. And one of the soccer coaches got fired for f*cking one of the guys on the team.

I also knew plenty of guys and girls both who were looking forward to going to college in another state specifically so they could expand their sexual horizons. Plenty of them WANTED to experiment with being bi/gay... just not with people they'd known since Kindergarten. Which I guess makes sense; where I lived a large number of the kids you graduated high school with were the same kids you knew when you were 5, and the others still lived only 5 minutes away so you still knew them even if you had a different elementary school. I can definitely understand some guys not wanting to give their first blowjob to the kid they saw poop their pants at the zoo in First Grade. :lol: Lots of my friends were like "I wanna figure some stuff out, but I prefer to do it where not so many people 'know' me." Honestly makes sense.

Granted, this is NJ, and NJ most certainly IS the best place to be (if you can afford the godforsaken property taxes, which I guess is the price one pays for being in such a great place). But I find it hard to believe that things were THAT much different or more sheltered elsewhere. You guys make it sound like as late as 2000-whatever kids were getting stuffed in trash cans for being gay. Texas, maybe. I am quite sure they still do that there NOW, actually, but most places are and have been a lot more enlightened for a very long time.

No, over here you don't get sh*t on in school for being gay, you get sh*t on for being poor. Being gay is Just Fine but if your Dad loses his job and your family now has to downsize from a house to an apartment, you need to learn how to throw a punch because kids will NEVER let that "crime" go unpunished. I once stuffed a rich kid in a trash can my Senior year after he went on a rant about how all the kids from my town were "trash"; I disagreed, and chose to make my point using him as a visual aid. :trazz: That high school was all kids from two adjacent towns, one Rich and one Poor; and while yeah, the kids from the "poor" town were a bit rougher around the edges, a ton of the kids from the "rich" town were snorting coke and shooting heroin on the daily by age 15 - including the kid I stuffed in the bin - so it's like, okay, you got money, you're still garbage. Worse garbage, even. Like yeah, the kids from the "poor" town were a bunch of potheads who got into fights, but Jesus, at least they weren't sticking f*cking needles in themselves every day when they got home from football practice like the rich kids were. Jesus.

Anyways yeah, nobody where I live gives or gave a sh*t about gay people, sounds like y'all just had sh*tty schools OR are just making sh*t up for lulz, I can buy either one. There's also the fact that many people here tend to come off like people who either didn't have a ton of friends, OR kept a small circle, whereas I was friends with "everyone" and so would have been exposed to much larger "sample size".

[Andrew NDB]

Season 5 trailer.

PssKpzB0Ah0

You KNOW Eddie is there and alive, probably under the thrall of Vecna. :)

[IMJ]

Ah.

A new "season". :roll:

[Andrew NDB]

Uh oh... David Harbour accused of harassment and bullying by Millie Bobby Brown. "Pages and pages" of allegations.

https://www.thewrap.com/stranger-things-star-millie-bobby-brown-harassment-bullying-claims-david-harbour/

On the one hand this is Millie Bobby Brown we're talking about, so it could be as dumb as Harbour doing perceived "micro-aggressions" against her, or whatever.

[Andrew NDB]

It's back... tonight.

[neatoman]

It's back... tonight.

HeaczvNbofM

[CyberCubed]

Watched the first 3 minutes of episode 1 of the new season, did they seriously just show Will get deepthroated by tentacle rape? WTF?

(Is that why he turned out gay?)

[Andrew NDB]

Did a quick fast forward through without dialogue (I hate that I do this sometimes, but it's like skipping to the last few pages of a novel, right?) and haven't properly watched anything. But I can confirm...

So no trace of Eddie yet, but very little Vecna until the end, so who knows what's really going on with him and his inner guard. DEFINITELY can't rule Eddie out yet. I did see that the Indian girl like Eleven from season 2 DOES appear, so it's great that that finally does pay off.

[CyberCubed]

So I watched all 4 eps, the 4th ep was the best but overall the season is kind of middling so far. For one there are way too many main characters now, way too many kids to keep track of, and a lot of them just don't have that much to do anymore. Max spent the first two eps in a coma, and only got to do things in the last two. Mike and the black kid are basically background characters in their own show. Robin and the others are ok, but they're all basically just there for Marvel quips now. Even Eleven has kind of run dry using her Jedi powers.

The government plotline is pretty dull, I wish they didn't take so much time.

Also apparently Will's now "the gay character" who is basically also "the chosen one" who is now using his gayness to literally awaken his super powers. I wish I was making that up but I'm not. Granted it's nice they finally gave Will something to do after neglecting him in the last season or two (I don't even remember), but now he's literally unleashing 'the power of gay" to save the day.

[sdp]

i only watched the first season, i really enjoyed it. But I felt that was all i wanted from that universe so i didn't care to watch the rest. Is it worth watching the whole show now? Or should I just keep my fond memories of S1.

[Andrew NDB]

i only watched the first season, i really enjoyed it. But I felt that was all i wanted from that universe so i didn't care to watch the rest. Is it worth watching the whole show now? Or should I just keep my fond memories of S1.

There's definitely great stuff in season 3 and especially 4.

[CyberCubed]

i only watched the first season, i really enjoyed it. But I felt that was all i wanted from that universe so i didn't care to watch the rest. Is it worth watching the whole show now? Or should I just keep my fond memories of S1.

I can't speak for the show as a whole as I don't remember much, but the main cast gets very bloated as it goes on (there's like 10+ kid/teen main characters, then parents and other characters), and most of them kinda get lost in the shuffle.

We're on the final season and half the kid characters are all interchangeable at this point besides like 2-3 of them.

[Andrew NDB]

Watched the first 3 so far (1 left). Really? Let's get revenge on the republicans by lampooning an 80s family? And making them out to be "monsters" from a 2025 lens? Ridiculous. And now there's bunches of gay teens in the 80s in Indiana getting together... what a fantasy land wish-fulfillment revisionist history this is.

Show-wise it's a fairly slow burn so far. Coming out of the last season I really thought we'd get a much more damaged and barely alive Vecna, but here he seems stronger than ever.

What's going on with the music? Where's all the synth stuff? We got a little bit in the first episode and now it's gone. That was a HUGE part of the original Stranger Things experience.

[sdp]

Is it still set in the 80s or are they now in the 90s?

[CyberCubed]

I think only 3 years passed in-universe, even though the kids aged 10 years in real life since the show started in 2016...lol.

Kids who were infants in the first season are now 14.

[Andrew NDB]

Basically a year passes between each season. Season 1 began in 1983 and season 5 is in 1987. Season 4 was in March of 86 and Season 5 is in the fall of 87 so about a year and a half between the last season and now.

So it's not TOO terrible.

[CyberCubed]

It's so weird to me to see openly gay and lesbian teens in the 80's. I was in High School in the early 2000's from 2000-2003, and even back THEN nobody would admit to being gay. Like just admitting it would make you an outcast in school at the time. Lesbians were only a thing you saw in the online pornos but never in real life.

And that was what it was like as "late" as the early 2000's. Yet here we are 15+ years prior.

[Coola Yagami]

Basically a year passes between each season. Season 1 began in 1983 and season 5 is in 1987. Season 4 was in March of 86 and Season 5 is in the fall of 87 so about a year and a half between the last season and now.

So it's not TOO terrible.

I know it's a show and we need conflict to keep the series going to get multiple seasons, but damn. These kids have been facing the Upside Down and demogorgons and whatever else their entire childhood going into young adulthood. Sucks for them.

[Andrew NDB]

Should we talk about the pickle they've written themselves into? They're clearly setting up Will making a pass at Mike at some point. Eugh. Any bets on how that's going to go? Probably they'll have Mike freak out at first, then think about it a little bit, then come back and give him a great big smooch in the series finale.

You can tell because they've made Mike pretty much asexual this season, for now. Only plutonic vibes from him toward Eleven now, who he doesn't even seem to overly care about at all anymore.

It's so weird to me to see openly gay and lesbian teens in the 80's. I was in High School in the early 2000's from 2000-2003, and even back THEN nobody would admit to being gay.

Yeah, a bunch of gays and lesbians in high school in Indiana in the 80s? It just wasn't a thing and it's a very weird wish fulfilment. But like most of Hollywood, they don't care about ACTUAL representation, just their ideal version of it. Even retroactively. Which of course, ironically, is misrepresentation in and of itself.

[Andrew NDB]

e0Eo0D038rQ

[Andrew NDB]

Saw all the new ones. Good but not great. I was imagining we'd have gotten a lot more crazy stuff in these "middle" episodes but mostly it's just a lot of people/kids shouting at each other in rooms. They left a LOT to wrap up with just 1 episode left and I'm not sure how they're going to do it satisfyingly.

And I'm STILL betting on Eddie. They keep mentioning him. Also, they're suddenly inferring that the Mind Flayer is something other than Vecna? Huh?

[Andrew NDB]

Watched the series finale. Not great. Pretty definitive, though... there really isn't anything else to possibly do after this. Watched a review that sums things up pretty well, my general sentiment: "it's sad that a show that started 10 years ago about 4 boys and their weird friend Eleven ends as a big 'girls get it done' bonanza." It's true. The male characters effectively did nothing meaningful in this finale.

[CyberCubed]

The season overall was kind of meh but I liked the finale a lot. The big group fight against the giant monster controlled by Vecna was great. The soldiers sideplot was completely pointless though, especially since they let them go at the end. Linda Hamilton was completely wasted too, she did practically nothing. Also do none of the soldiers care that a few of them were shot and killed by the protagonists? I mean I'm sure those guys are dead who were shot with the machine guns.

I did like Winona Ryder chopping off his head while they showed flashbacks to all the kids experiences. And the 40 minute epilogue showing them graduate, the older kids talk about their jobs, and the final dungeons and dragons scene realizing El was alive and then passing it to the younger generation like Holly was also fantastic.

Also it's 1989, none of these kids have a Nintendo? (NES?) By then kids were playing videogames more than that table-top stuff. Also where are the TMNT action figures, at this point the TMNT craze was huge.

[ToTheNines]

If you want to believe the TMNT crossover comic is canon, maybe that’s why they don’t exist as a cartoon in Stranger Things.

[CyberCubed]

Maybe, I consider it canon.

Also does anyone else think the actor who plays Mike is really damn ugly? His face is so weirdly structured and boney, when he was screaming out, "Eeeeeeellllllll" at the end it looked like his skeleton was trying to leap out of his skull. Man he is so damn ugly, I can't see him with a career after this show.

[Andrew NDB]

Maybe, I consider it canon.

Also does anyone else think the actor who plays Mike is really damn ugly? His face is so weirdly structured and boney, when he was screaming out, "Eeeeeeellllllll" at the end it looked like his skeleton was trying to leap out of his skull. Man he is so damn ugly, I can't see him with a career after this show.

If they ever do another Ghostbusters sequel he will most likely be back. Similarly if they want to do a Stranger Things reunion movie or something in 10 years. But that's about it. He's done. The novelty of Finn Wolfhard died when he stopped being a cute, small sarcastic child and turned into a really weird-looking gangly adult and now is only getting work that he's already grandfathered into from previous stuff like Frozen Empire and these last couple seasons of Stranger Things.

Millie Bobby Brown also... some really bizarre acting in this.

[CyberCubed]

Also no major characters deaths, all the main kids survive (and yes El is alive), but I'm surprised they killed off that Indian girl. I mean she was ugly as hell especially with the shaved haircut, but I'm surprised they were allowed to kill of a minority. I'm sure there's someone on twitter or reddit somewhere "raging" that only the brown Indian girl died.

[Andrew NDB]

Also no major characters deaths, all the main kids survive (and yes El is alive), but I'm surprised they killed off that Indian girl. I mean she was ugly as hell especially with the shaved haircut, but I'm surprised they were allowed to kill of a minority. I'm sure there's someone on twitter or reddit somewhere "raging" that only the brown Indian girl died.

All of that, and the Indian chick still had a better story arc this season than any of the main boys. We should've had a minimum of 2 main character deaths this season. Instead, they import a character that hasn't been seen since an episode of season 2 that nobody liked (I liked it, personally) so that they could have someone to kill off.

Things that still don't make any sense:

* Season 4 showed and told us that Henry Creel killed his parents when he was 12. And at that time he instantly went into a coma and was delivered to the care of Doctor Brenner and all that. He NEVER went to high school or anything. Yet in his mind this season, he was attending high school and even putting on plays, in a school occupied by people he wouldn't know like the Wheelers and Hopper? Did the writers forget their own scripts from last season? Very, very sloppy stuff.

* The Mindflayer wants to merge Earth with the Abyss world... but how would that make any sense with its actions in Season 3, becoming a great big meat puppet in the real world marching around Hawkins absorbing bodies? How does that get him any closer to merging worlds and, in fact, wouldn't that just unnecessarily expose himself to risk? You think he'd just keep a low profile while Henry is developing his plan.

* If Mike's hypothetical story about Eleven at the end is even mostly true, that'd mean Mike was kissing a mental projection from the Indian girl and not a mental projection from Eleven, right? Also, it's highly unlikely the Indian girl would have survived that long as she got shot at close range and was bleeding out pretty heavily right away. The only way this works is if she never got shot and that was just imprinted on the mind of Hopper and it was all planned out. But it doesn't really work because they wouldn't have had time to plan that given they got unknowingly ambushed by the military guys. I think what the Duffers are planning is that Linda Hamilton's character and the military guys DID get Eleven, and she'll be stashed away for 10 years to be studied and take blood from so they can unlock some other Upside Down-like thing. Just in time for the Stranger Things reunion movie or show.

* Where's all the Demigorgons in the Abyss OR the Upside Down this episode? We don't see a single one, and they just got done telling us the Demigorgons COME from the Abyss world. Also, where's all the swarms of bat creatures from the last season? It should have been a shooting gallery for the gang when they arrived in the Abyss and that also would have given everyone a lot more to do.

* Where could that piece of the Mindflayer (or whatever it was) possibly have come from to infect young Henry Creel? The Upside Down wouldn't be created for another 20 years and that Upside Down was the only way to get to the Abyss, where the Mindflayer is from. It was SUPER lazy storytelling to literally make Creel's heel turn into a mystery box they don't explain. It would have been better just to leave him naturally evil and super-powered by random genetics than this.

* Why does the Mindflayer want to merge the Abyss with Earth, exactly? They keep saying that's what it wants to do over and over again but they don't offer a single reason that could explain the rationale there. And Creel is just going along with it, for what reason?

* There isn't going to be any sort of an investigation into Hopper and Nancy murdering like 20 US Army soldiers in cold blood? Those guys weren't like some kind of dark ops, secret division or anything... they were just normal, everyday US Army soldiers following orders and trying to do their best to contend with a town invaded by alien/demon things that have been snatching up and killing kids for 4 years by that point.

[CyberCubed]

I haven't watched the older seasons in a few years so I don't remember the Henry stuff. I really got to marathon the whole show now that it's over because I've literally forgotten most of the key details of each seasons. I'd be surprised if they retconned stuff from the main villain from just one season before, but I don't remember.

The lack of any other monsters outside the giant one was odd, probably a budget reason? They put all their special effects department on the giant monster fight (looks like a creature I fought in a videogame, but can't remember which one), so they didn't have time for anything else.

I did comment on the death of some of the soldiers being overlooked was weird, especially since they let all the kids go at the end (off-screen, we don't even know why when they skip ahead 18 months)

[Andrew NDB]

I haven't watched the older seasons in a few years so I don't remember the Henry stuff.

ALL of the Henry stuff was in the very last season. There was no Henry prior to season 4.

(off-screen, we don't even know why when they skip ahead 18 months)

I think a combination of wanting to hand-wave away the military presence in Hawkins and forcing a bookend with the kids' graduation. Which would have been 18 months later. But obviously you still end up with stuff like Derek (the fat kid) and Holly looking exactly the same as 18 months before that.

[CyberCubed]

Oh man, I didn't even realize Holly and Derek looked exactly the same despite being 18 months later. And when you're a young teenager you age rapidly between years. Man that's a plothole I didn't even think about.

The writers cleverly disguised this with the main cast making them look older by simply using the actors "real life" haircuts and looks and not being 80's styled anymore (and all the girls were wearing make-up), so they all looked older despite those scenes likely being filmed the very next day from the previous ones.

But yeah, Holly and Derek looking exactly the same, that fat kid should be a lot taller (and either lost weight or gotten chubbier as most fat kids are that age), and Holly should be much taller and look well...more adult (don't want to sound creepy here but you know what I mean)

[sdp]

man, glad I stopped at S1, I had a blast, didn't feel I needed more from the show. The 'cliffhanger' at the end of S1 is just a normal trope for the genre, I didn't need it 'resolved.

Stranger things should've been an anthology show, with S2 being something different.

[Andrew NDB]

Honestly, they could have just satisfyingly ended it with season 4. All they had to do was show Vecna definitively burned to death on the ground and then don't do the portals ripping open throughout Hawkins. Season 4 inferred that Vecna was either controlling the Mind Flayer or WAS the Mind Flayer, so no need to see anything more there with Vecna dead.

Probably would have been better off than what we got.

[CyberCubed]

Watching the ending again, did it ever strike you just how white this cast is? All the main kids are white besides one black kid, all the older kids are white, all the adults/parents are white, etc. And besides when they brought the minor indian girl back, there were no minorities throughout most of the show and especially in this season. For a netflix show airing between 2016 and now, I'm really surprised just how "white" the cast is.

I mean I guess it's true to the 1980's, as minorities didn't really exist back then. Like back then EVERYONE was white, and you had maybe 1 token black friend like in this show. You never saw Asians unless you ate at a chinese restaurant, and muslims just plain did not exist. Hispanics? Hardly any.

I guess they wanted to keep spirit to the 1980's when everyone was white. Minorities weren't really invented yet in that time era.

[Andrew NDB]

This almost works. Just needs at least a few bats in there.

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[IndigoErth]

Decent final season and last episode was pretty good. The rare show that didn't make the ending feel rushed. My favorite monster is the original 'big bad' and exists as a physical creature? I do wish there was some kind of explanation why it wanted all this though... what was its point? Is it like one of the cosmic monters?

I also kind of wish though that we got confirmation that Eleven is still out there, rather than doing the old loose speculation, open to interpretation thing. I was half expecting it to end with briefly hearing her voice on the radio, but no other characters hear it. But if she still exists... I'd like some one-off future thing, even a short comic, that at least allows poor Hopper to know she's out there and okay.

Side note... you guys see there is an animated series coming? "Stranger Things: Tales from 1985." Saw it listed and "coming 2026" when I searched something else. If you ask me... an adaptation of the TMNT crossover might fit nicely into that!

[XERO]

The fact that the final line of the show wasn't "Well... stranger things have happened" irks me in ways I can't even fathom.

[IndigoErth]

Aw, well thanks, now I'm annoyed they missed that opportunity as well.

[CyberCubed]

The show ended fine, although I think Season 5 as a whole was the weakest season, but I'll need to rewatch all the seasons to remind myself of them. I am surprised they gave Holly such a big role in the final season, she was practically the main character. Why give a big role in the last season to a character who was a toddler for the first few seasons? Although Holly's actress was really good. That fat kid Derek was fine too, he reminded me of all the fatso kids that used to be in my classes back then.

[Andrew NDB]

I am surprised they gave Holly such a big role in the final season, she was practically the main character. Why give a big role in the last season to a character who was a toddler for the first few seasons?

Can you believe Holly is supposed to be 7 in this latest season but the actress was 14?

[CyberCubed]

Can you believe Holly is supposed to be 7 in this latest season but the actress was 14?

Yeah, that's crazy. I mean I can understand it in that they don't think a 7 year old would be a very good or believeable actress in the role Holly had, but even then...the actress really was 14 in real life playing a girl half her age. She was a tall teenage girl too, when she was standing next to Sam wasn't she nearly the same height?

I mean if I didn't know their ages I would have assumed she was 13-14 like she is in real life. Imagine taking her scenes seriously if it was an actual 7 year old girl doing the acting and leading the other kids away from danger? Or Sam talking as seriously to her if she was 7 and not a teen?

[Andrew NDB]

Yup.

Also... how did Max graduate when she was in a coma for almost 2 years?

[Andrew NDB]

fUiJulYbUaE

So a pumpkin becomes a demigorgon or... something? Looks corny.

[Andrew NDB]

I guess the cartoon is already out? Totally didn't notice.

https://comicbookmovie.com/tv/netflix/stranger-things/stranger-things-tales-from-85-rotten-tomatoes-score-revealed-as-animated-prequel-hits-netflix-a227506

[cammy85]

Looks like it! 10 episodes. 27-32 minutes in length.

[Andrew NDB]

And get ready for more... it has been renewed for season 2.

https://www.darkhorizons.com/stranger-things-tales-from-85-renewed/

[IndigoErth]

Animated series was fine for the most part. Though kind of an odd fit just throwing it in the middle of the universe like that with events that then just don't come up in the main series, of course. And I guess a new friend they then forget about.

Some of the casting is pretty good and in the ballpark enough to work, esp Dustin, who for a sec I thought still had the original actor as VA. Eleven bugs me though, her sharp attitude is way too mild now.


That said, with an animated series existing and an art style that would fit pretty decent... I will be disappointed if they do not take the opportunity to do the TMNT crossover with the Mirage (or Mirage-like) Turtles.

[sdp]

No, keep TMNT separate. Of course they were going to make a cartoon. The IP is huge with kids and with adults for the most part being through with the franchise they can continue to milk it with kids.

[IndigoErth]

Isn't still milking TMNT for kids exactly what Paramount wants, too, though?

Side note, I meant more of a side thing, not part of the main animated series.