Completed Season 3, I enjoyed it but it was basically more of the same. Season 1 was the best for me so far, as it felt new and nostalgic, and the characters were super awesome. And everything was like a learning curve, S3 you kinda knew what was going to happen to an extent and the "kids" are getting older now and loses that big of magic S1 had
just finished S3. loved the first 2, this not so much. it had some decent moments - though i'm not sure where all the love is coming regarding the neverending story song-piece. stupid and cringey imo (i do love the song though)
Just some 'musings', if you will, on the negatives for me...
how many more Arnie and/or Predator references do they need to shoehorn in? at some point that gets old and silly.
Wills character is irrelevant now, him rubbing his neck and looking like a rabbit in the headlights got boring and pointless pretty quick. his bro Jonathon was also a pointless character inclusion, at least as far as S3 went. i really like him in the previous seasons but this time round he just seemed like the un-named Ensign from every old Star Trek episode waiting to be killed off during the first landing party trip. either give him a reason to be there or have him off at work experience elsewhere for the season.
Erica can just **** off - must every tv show and film have a 'sassy' mouthy female black character?
this was 80's America, I get they like parodying stuff, but there's not a cats chance in hell a bunch of Russians were walking round small town America without causing a stir - that premise was just stupidly nonsense. an actual void into another dimension is more believable than that scenario.
Jim and Joyce teenage love-in - repetitive and boring - to paraphrase Murray Bauman, either knob or shut up.
Billy - wasted character, could have done so much more with him.
if S4 turns out to be a - hopper was sucked into the Upside Down when the machine went boom while everyone else in the room got vapourized, russians have re-opened the void and found him - then that's right up there with the Dallas/Bobby Ewing murder/dream shenanigans level of crappy writing (how's that for 80's nostalgia!!)!
what i really liked...
the character development of Steve, Dustin and Robin was very good. Seemed to be genuine chemistry between them.
El, and Max are very very good and seem to get better with each series. Millie Bobby Brown (were her parents on a wind up?!), in particular, seems set for a long career in TV/Movies, great actress, imo.
Cary Elwes really hammed it up as the Mayor, awkward and awful but great fun.
the Murray Bauman character, brilliantly bonkers. captured the 80's Cold War tinfoil hat wearing paranoia perfectly.
they missed a trick killing off Alexei - the pair of them could have been be used to great comedic effect in S4 or even in a spin off.
over all i wouldn't say i didn't enjoy S3 but just that it could have been better and i felt the writing maybe got a little bit lazy. as a whole, 3 very good seasons, only slightly let down by S3.
I enjoyed it and disliked it. The character direction for the adult actors was so far from what we've had before that I felt like I was watching a romcom at times (a bad one). Some of the product placement was hilarious though - 'Anyone fancy a Burger King?'. To be fair though, when I think of Stranger Things I now think of Burger King haha!
Not sure if i've mentioned it here but I said it to my GF that I think they will struggle to keep Jonathan and Nancy relevant or have a major role in S3 as their arc has sort of ended after S2. Their arc was definitely the weakest this season compared to the rest of the characters.
If they was to do a S4 though I do wonder if they will keep them in as major characters or just cameos in smaller role per episode and then have them appear in some epic finale, this would also apply with Will as-well as he was just a character there with spider-sense.
I'm still undecided if or how much I truly enjoyed the show. The initial mania of it put me off for a year or two; it took a concerted effort to revisit the first season after giving up after episode 2 and I then I banged through the lot in a few weeks. I enjoyed the nostalgia, I enjoyed the many 80's references, I enjoyed the parallels and plays to Stephen King's The Mist, rightly or wrongly. Ryder annoyed the hell out of me; Harbour saved the show.
I'm still undecided if or how much I truly enjoyed the show. The initial mania of it put me off for a year or two; it took a concerted effort to revisit the first season after giving up after episode 2 and I then I banged through the lot in a few weeks. I enjoyed the nostalgia, I enjoyed the many 80's references, I enjoyed the parallels and plays to Stephen King's The Mist, rightly or wrongly. Ryder annoyed the hell out of me; Harbour saved the show.
Ryder was excellent in the first one, it is only in the 3rd her and Harbour had the crap romcom thing going on. And why was Harbour such a miserable dick in S3?
I just finished through the 3 seasons last night (not all in one night), season 1 and 2 were great but season 3, I dunno it just seemed off, maybe there was too much focus on comedy and the romances ? Didn't really like the Russian arc either, it was a little OTT and less believable than the prior arcs (how the hell did they manage to build a massive base underground with nobody noticing anything ?) and the main Russian villain, too much like terminator (I get that was kind of the point but again throws off the believability the show had in prior 2 seasons), didn't care much for Mike or Will either, Mike was annoying and Will was just a radar for "him"
S3 was pretty poor tbh, the 'plot' such as it was was laughable, I'm not the kind of person who analyses every little detail of every plot looking for flaws but the 'Russian base under shopping mall' was a plot hole that could not be ignored. It wasn't even a plot hole tbh, it was a premise hole. The tried to lighten the mood and make a coming of age comedy mixed with a horror story and failed miserably, the 'comedy' Russians were just laughable as villains, the nod to Terminator was tiresome and there were too many carachters with nothing to do. Can someone pleae kill off that Sheriff for god's sake?
It's like they gave up and didn't even bother trying with it. They'd already maxed out on the 80s nostagia vibe and they'd hit the mark with it no doubt, but 80s nostalgia isn't enough.
S3 was pretty poor tbh, the 'plot' such as it was was laughable, I'm not the kind of person who analyses every little detail of every plot looking for flaws but the 'Russian base under shopping mall' was a plot hole that could not be ignored. It wasn't even a plot hole tbh, it was a premise hole.
The world they are based in is very much rooted in American 80's pop culture and tropes, the hidden Russian base under that monument to Capitalism the Mall is very much the sort of story you'd see in some of the old 80's films and stories (it has quite a twilight zone feel to it), it's no more absurd than say Red Dawn.
On a related note, I read the second book tie in the other day (which has Harper telling 11 about a big case from his days in the police in NY), which was enjoyable and did a bit more world building and possibly explains part of the reason when face with 11 and the upside down he took it fairly well.
Yes of course, the upside down is by its very nature supernatural for want of a better word. That doesn't mean that it is realistic to believe that Russians operating within the constraints of our 'everyday' experience would be able to build a giant undeground facility underneath a shopping mall in 80s America without being noticed.
The upside down is fantastical, the 1980s Russians are moribund. So in this case the fantastical is actually plausible and the moribund isn't.
The whole show depends on us accepting that the upside down is 'real'.
Yes of course, the upside down is by its very nature supernatural for want of a better word. That doesn't mean that it is realistic to believe that Russians operating within the constraints of our 'everyday' experience would be able to build a giant undeground facility underneath a shopping mall in 80s America without being noticed.
The upside down is fantastical, the 1980s Russians are moribund. So in this case the fantastical is actually plausible and the moribund isn't.
The whole show depends on us accepting that the upside down is 'real'.
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