Stranger Things: Too Old For This

[Werthead]

Well, the finale was underwhelming.

Spoiler

Nobody dies apart from Eddie - who's fate I think were pretty obvious - the college jock arseholes absolutely everybody hated and Brenner, whom everyone thought was dead anyway and whose return in the present day added nothing to the story.

The only real shock was the degree to which Max was wounded at the ending, but they still wimped out of killing her or anyone else we actually give a toss about.

Henry/One being the Mind Flayer - they are the same being - was fairly widely predicted and removes the problem of having two antagonists, but it's also odd. Why does he manifest as a giant spider thing apart from the fact his kid self liked spiders?

Excellent performances all around, of course, but the bloated run time was unnecessary - the penultimate episode even had a perfect episode break point at around the 45 minute mark - and it felt like this would have been a great ending to the series overall (literally change it so they kill Vecna and the Upside Down dissolves after killing him), but they decided to open it back up for a fifth season. There is the possibility of something interesting there, a larger-scaled story of the Upside Down invading the real world, but I suspect it will come down to the kids and adults coming up with various dubious schemes and then Eleven saving the day at the last minute with a hitherto unknown subset of her powers.

 

[Corvinus85]

Apparently Netflix crashed in the early hours. When I tried to watch chapter 8 it wasn't listed and had to go thru chapter 7, fast-forward and let the auto-play take over to go to ch. 8. Enjoyable episode.

Now to watch a long movie for the final episode. lol

[Ser Drewy]

Watched E8. I thought it was solid. I really don't care for the Russia stuff though. Every time we go there it almost feels like a different, barely related, and much more cartoony show. 

[SpaceChampion]

I'm into 8 now.  Eleven is Luke being told not to go save her friends.  If this ends with "No, I *am* your father!!" I'll laugh just as hard as when Scanners 2: The New Order did it thirty years ago.

[Corvinus85]

Solid finale, very emotional, but not sure about the direction the plot took near the end.

Spoiler

Killing Max was bold but then they wimped out, as Wert mentioned. But what bothered me more is that still was somehow enough for Vecna's plan to work. Max succumbed to her injuries, she wasn't consumed by Vecna like the other victims, so I'm questioning why a gate opened there.

I'm glad the Russia plot is over, and hopefully it stays over, though I have a feeling we may see Enzo and Yuri again.

The part with Eddie was great. I wish they had introduced the character in an earlier season, even if just in a minor role. 

I got annoyed that when Eddie and Dustin were reading to battle the bats there were no Conan references made. I mean, Eddie was pretty much the barbarian hero in those last moments. And then they go and fucking do it with Hopper and the Atlantean sword vs. the Demogorgon.  Of course if there was a Western sword the Soviets were to replicate and use in a prison death match, it would be that sword. 

El vs Vecna was another solid part of the episode. 

Yeah, the whole thing was maybe a tad too long, but I think there were a number of good character moments. The Nancy-Jonathan-Steve relation has gotten tedious.

Mrs. Wheeler's outburst at Mike when he came home was endearing.

I hope they do something worthwhile with Will in the final season. They certainly started doing something in this finale.

 

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

 

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Henry/One being the Mind Flayer - they are the same being - was fairly widely predicted and removes the problem of having two antagonists, but it's also odd. Why does he manifest as a giant spider thing apart from the fact his kid self liked spiders?

 

I'm not sure another reason is needed there. He never stopped liking spiders.

[Ser Drewy]

Watched the finale. I think I liked it in bits more than as a whole. It's also way, way too long; it dragged, especially the last 25-30 minutes. Their aversion

Spoiler

to killing any recurring characters is just diluting the show of tension,

and with the Russia material not feeling particularly relevant or interesting, it makes bringing Hopper back feel narratively cowardly. Also they use flashbacks in scenes way too often for my liking.

[RumHam]

Spoiler

I loved how random and horrific Jason's death was. He just happened to be lying in the wrong place.

At the end the newscaster is like "murdering cult leader Eddie has not been seen and is presumed dead." Always a good idea to just assume the murdering cult leader is dead.

I agree bringing Brenner back was largely pointless, and his betrayal of Eleven and Owens shortly before his death was also  pointless.

I wonder if we ever see 008 again, or if the negative response to that episode just caused them to abandon whatever plans they had for that character.

 

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

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I loved how random and horrific Jason's death was. He just happened to be lying in the wrong place.

At the end the newscaster is like "murdering cult leader Eddie has not been seen and is presumed dead." Always a good idea to just assume the murdering cult leader is dead.

I agree bringing Brenner back was largely pointless, and his betrayal of Eleven and Owens shortly before his death was also  pointless.

I wonder if we ever see 008 again, or if the negative response to that episode just caused them to abandon whatever plans they had for that character.

 

Spoiler

I wonder if Dustin told the police that he saw Eddie die in the earthquake, so he's presumed dead from a witness report,not just guesswork?

 

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

Was this there series finale, or is there more to come?

[SpaceChampion]

4 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Was this there series finale, or is there more to come?

One final season to come.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

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I wonder if Dustin told the police that he saw Eddie die in the earthquake, so he's presumed dead from a witness report,not just guesswork?

 

Spoiler

Maybe, but you think they would have informed his uncle in that case.

 

[Jaxom 1974]

Episode 8 in...and I realized how much I enjoyed not having the Pizza Brigade in Episode 7 at all...

[sifth]

So was I the only one who thought

Spoiler

the season would end with Henry now in Max's body?

 

[Winterfell is Burning]

There was a great two, maybe two and a half hours of story in the middle of these 3:30 hours of these last two episodes.

I agree the show could have ended right here if they wanted, and also that it was a major cop out

Spoiler

Not killing Max. I also bet if they knew just how popular Eddie would become with fans, they would haven't have gone with it either.

 

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, sifth said:

So was I the only one who thought

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the season would end with Henry now in Max's body?

 

It didn't cross my mind at all.

[Jaxom 1974]

Starting Episode 9 and before the opening credits, I kept wanting to yell out:

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WOLVERINES!

 

[Caligula_K3]

Spoilers for the whole season:

Spoiler

Agreed with the general consensus. Both episodes, but especially the finale, were way too long and drawn out. It was especially weird to go from the chilling imagery and sounds of the upside down fully invading Hawkins, to El saving Max, to about 40 minutes of reunions before we find out... the invasion apparently went through. Shouldn't everyone be a lot more scared than this?

 

The series is still pretty toothless; Eddie's death was expected, and they fooled me with Max for a second, but this would have been the time to raise the stakes by killing a main character. The Russia plotline could be entertaining, but it was overall a waste of time. The California road trip plotline was rarely enjoyable and definitely a waste of time.

 

But this was still a very good season- probably the best since season 1, and one of the better sci-fi fantasy seasons of recent memory. There was a lot to love in the finale, from Eddie shredding Master of Puppets to attract the bats to every scene with Max to Steve being his usual awesome self to Dustin's touching scene with Eddie's uncle. And the moment when Max "died", the clock chimed and the gate fissures started appearing was chilling.

I'm not really sure where they go from here, though. Why not just go hunting through the upside down to finish the job on Vecna/Mind Flayer while he's weakened? And why does the US army devote so many resources to tracking down 11 but none to keeping track of these portals to a hellscape dimension?

 

 

[Lord Varys]

Didn't like the Borg Queen Syndrom there. First you have the great idea of a hive mind thingy ... and then it is a stupid individual you have a history with which can be beat up and hurt. That's always the way to weasel out a more complex setting.

It could have made sense to have Henry as a kind of amplifier or catalyst helping the Upside Down hive mind being to expand into another reality ... but to make him the mind of all that is just wrong, in my opinion.

I've little issue with characters not dying - especially since Max clearly isn't the kind of character you should kill.

I felt the Brenner plotline kind of sucked - if you bring him back then change him at least, not make him a manipulative bastard again. Also, it was a pretty big letdown to not give Eleven some cool lines when the man was finally biting the dust - something along the lines of 'you sucker were never my 'father', thanks to you ashole I CANNOT EVEN WRITE PROPERLY and have to social skills of a zoo animal!'

This should have been the point where she is cutting through the entire shitshow.

Also, her kind of forgiving attitude towards Henry also pretty much sucked. At that point she must know how evil he was even before he ended up with Brenner.

[Fez]

On 7/1/2022 at 8:08 AM, Werthead said:

Well, the finale was underwhelming.

  Hide contents

Henry/One being the Mind Flayer - they are the same being - was fairly widely predicted and removes the problem of having two antagonists, but it's also odd. Why does he manifest as a giant spider thing apart from the fact his kid self liked spiders?

 

Spoiler

I would've preferred two antagonists; in something of a Sauron/Saruman relationship. I think it's really boring to have the ultimate big bad be a human instead of an unknowable eldritch god.

 

[RumHam]

Spoiler

It's also a pretty big retcon. Like the season three badie had a totally different M.O. and like, possessed people. Then fought Eleven as Billy and oddly didn't identify himself. Now it's realized all it had to do was kill four guilt ridden teens in a certain way?

I also feel like they showed us a baby Demogorgon this season and forgot we saw that in season 2 and it looked different enough that Dustin didn't immediately figure out what it was.