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Stranger Things (Netflix) [Spoiler Thread]


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18 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 Making the case for Stranger Things as an anthology...

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/16/stranger-things-season-2-anthology?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Not sure that citing American Horror Story or True Detective is going to make your case for you though. Loved the first season of each of those shows, but could leave everything else.

 

Yeah - is there an anthology season show that maintains its quality? Neither of the two you mentioned have.

Fargo, I'd agree with but is it really an anthology? Only in the changing of cast - it's still the same world and often characters. So if the argument for stranger things is to have a different cast/characters in the same world where the underneath plays a part and there are telekinetic kids, then I'd be with that idea.

I think I said a while back I'd be cool with them skipping a decade and emulating TV/film from each decade.

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On 8/7/2016 at 6:06 AM, Kyoshi said:

Yeah, I guess we'll never agree on this.

But you and me will. You are exactly right. I also think of Hopper's arc are particularly compelling. 

Spoiler

In those final moments after 11 dies, and Hopper is trying to save Will, reliving his own failure to save his daughter--that was brought together perfectly. 

 

 

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Saw some theorising on twitter that I don't know that I completely buy, but it has convinced me there is more going on than I'd realised.  The timing of Will being saved and Eleven disappearing is a little too close together, we never see them both in the real world at the same time (other than in El's flashbacks), and there is a fair bit going on with Eleven that could map across to projections of Wills desires/fears.  I feel like she is a literal person that did exist on her own, but I think there is also a connection here.

After the time jump at the end everyone seems to be playing the 'act like everything is normal' act a bit too well other than Hopper, I wrote it off as just maintaining appearances at the time and while there are nods to things that happened, like Nancy having more affection for Jonathan, I'm not ruling out the possibility of some memory alteration having gone on. 

Most compelling to me though is that there is a line there which can really read as 4th wall breaking meta commentary - after Will kills the demogorgon with a fireball in their closing campaign, Lucas (I think?) raises the objection that "The campaign was too short, it doesn't make sense".  Objections about plot holes may well be intended and part of where they are going forward with it.

Also on the Lucas front, one thing I didnt consciously notice and appreciate was that the character he is concerned about being a 'Lando' does in fact Lando them for pretty much precisely the Lando reasons, really quite excellent.

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Liked the Red Letter Media review. Seems pretty fair. One loved it and one merely liked it. The big funny guy who only 'liked it' I have to say I agree with. His opinion is that the show is a great love letter to 80's movies, and has a lot of style and is done really well, but its story isn't really strong enough to push it into the great category. Thats pretty much how I felt about it too. 

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21 hours ago, karaddin said:

 

Most compelling to me though is that there is a line there which can really read as 4th wall breaking meta commentary - after Will kills the demogorgon with a fireball in their closing campaign, Lucas (I think?) raises the objection that "The campaign was too short, it doesn't make sense".  Objections about plot holes may well be intended and part of where they are going forward with it.

Also on the Lucas front, one thing I didnt consciously notice and appreciate was that the character he is concerned about being a 'Lando' does in fact Lando them for pretty much precisely the Lando reasons, really quite excellent.

4

Oh this is why I came here  yesterday to post in the first place--and I forgot. I watched Stranger Things a second time with my son this week, and the last bit with Lucas objecting to the shortness of the campaign. Something like: "What about the lonely knight, the mysterious flowers in the cave, and the proud princess?" Yeah--I agree, these are all loosely veiled references to the season, aren't they? I figured the lonely knight was Jonathan, the princess Nancy--so their unresolved relationship, and of course the mysterious flowers in the cave seemed like to me the strange hatched egg in the Upside Down.

 

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Does anyone know what the Duffer brothers have slated next?

We watched Wayward pines.... S1 was good for broadcast TV...and they did much of the writing... S2 was atrocious... and they weren't involved..... there are so few good writers out there that I feel compelled to support these kids

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1 hour ago, Martini Sigil said:

Does anyone know what the Duffer brothers have slated next?

We watched Wayward pines.... S1 was good for broadcast TV...and they did much of the writing... S2 was atrocious... and they weren't involved..... there are so few good writers out there that I feel compelled to support these kids

Didn't know they were involved in WP. Personally I thought that was a potentially good show that was pretty must lost to me by the 4th episode, at that point I realised it was kind of empty and possibly trash. 

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23 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

Oh this is why I came here  yesterday to post in the first place--and I forgot. I watched Stranger Things a second time with my son this week, and the last bit with Lucas objecting to the shortness of the campaign. Something like: "What about the lonely knight, the mysterious flowers in the cave, and the proud princess?" Yeah--I agree, these are all loosely veiled references to the season, aren't they? I figured the lonely knight was Jonathan, the princess Nancy--so their unresolved relationship, and of course the mysterious flowers in the cave seemed like to me the strange hatched egg in the Upside Down.

 

Exactly! The Duffer Bros. originally planned this as a movie then developed it into a series. I think this was their acknowledgment to fans they only had one season to tell their story, they know they left things in the air, and hopefully fans liked these characters enough to demand another campaign/season.

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I'm not one to binge but I watched this in like 3 sittings. Pretty much whenever Hopper and Joyce were on screen were my favorite bits. I thought the Christmas light scene was the best of the show.

I thought the two kids who bullied the main crew of kids and Steves two friends were way over the top though. That scene where the kid pulls the knife and then Eleven comes to the rescue was really bad imo. 

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Duffer Brothers have writing credits on 4 and co-executive producer credits on 2 episodes of Wayward Pines.  In an interview they said WP gave them the experience that know what it takes to run a show, so Netflix took a chance on them.

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On 8/20/2016 at 10:27 AM, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Didn't know they were involved in WP. Personally I thought that was a potentially good show that was pretty must lost to me by the 4th episode, at that point I realised it was kind of empty and possibly trash. 

I could not agree more. I really wanted to like that show. Stuck it out through the whole first season. It just wasn't very well executed. Maybe it was because it was a primetime show on Fox. I have the impression that Netflix gives it's showrunners a lot more freedom.

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Damn good show this. Excellent acting and direction. They made the dark forest scary in a way I haven't experienced since Twin Peaks. It was surprisingly emotional as well. I nearly tore up when the Moby song started playing in the last episode.

It wasn't without its flaws though. I found it weird that the government (who we saw early was capable of cold murder when it suited them), to simply let everyone go afterwards. Wouldn't they have murdered everyone to make sure their secrets didn't spread?

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On 8/17/2016 at 1:38 PM, OnionAhaiReborn said:

Finished this last night. Absolutely loved it. 

My only gripe was that Hopper sold out Eleven in the end. Thought it was out of character of him in two regards- one, losing his daughter is such a huge part of his characterization that it felt wrong for him to not be very protective of this girl whose suffering he has some sense of from his investigation (she, and not Will, has more obvious parallels to Hopper's daughter). Two, it's a dumb move. He's so sharp throughout and then he decides he can trust the baddies to leave the boys and everyone else alone in exchange for El? I guess maybe it would have worked out that way if things had gone to plan instead of going nuts, but I don't buy it. 

Why do you think he's leaving Eggos in the woods at the end?  He feels guilty as shit.  But more importantly, how else is he going to get out of the situation he's in?  Either he does something or nobody goes after Will, and there's nothing valuable enough to trade to the government except El's location.  Its shitty, but I can't really see anything else for him to do there.  

Demogorgon's strength and powers also seem somewhat related to the emotions of the people around it.  Barb gets immediately grabbed because she's feeling depressed, friendless, alone and afraid.  The military guys at the end are scared and following orders to kill it, but the kids are fucking furious (and terrified, yes) but basically trying to fight it off with rocks.  It has a ton of issues manifesting in homes, especially when Joyce decides to defend her home, but in the school it just bursts through the walls instantly.  Will was able to hide in Castle Myers for a week because its his safe place, and once he finally gets exhausted and worn down, the monster gets in. There's alternative explanations for most of this behavior, but the dream-logic of it makes some sense to me.  (El being the Demogorgon or its direct creator somehow are also things I'm thinking about).

Incidentally, in DnD, the Demogorgon is a monster from another plane that can sometimes be summoned to this one to fuck up shit.  This sounds familiar. Thessalmonsters are a template that is applied to existing monsters to make them more monstrous-y, and they're weird infertile aberrations.  

e:  Dustin also complains that they never found out about the weird flowers, the lost knight, or the proud princess. The flowers map pretty well to the monsters's realm (and its giant tulip head), the lost knight is El (she shows up and saves them repeatedly, and is, well, lost) and the proud princess is...I'm really not sure on that one.  Either way, there's some message there, especially given the significance of their DnD game in the first ep.  

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13 hours ago, The Monkey said:

It wasn't without its flaws though. I found it weird that the government (who we saw early was capable of cold murder when it suited them), to simply let everyone go afterwards. Wouldn't they have murdered everyone to make sure their secrets didn't spread?

The show has a number of bits of bad writing, brainfarting that you really have to not think about or you will turn the show off. Like how did a county sheriff manage to sneak his way into a top security facility, except that the plot demanded it. Why did they just let him go with only a crappy bug in his house? What did they think he was going to do? Stuff like that sort of ruined the show for me a bit.

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