[Netflix] Stranger Things

[Baroquen]

No, they announced the fifth/final season awhile back. I'm not sure exactly when, as I just got caught up now. But I don't think the fifth season was meant to be a surprise.

I liked it a lot. No big spoilers but just to be safe...

Spoiler:

I wasn't surprised to see the group split into different combinations, but it was jarring seeing them so far away from one another, and NOT getting back together before the big finale/fight. I can understand the complaints about pacing and padding, but it didn't bother me. I kind of enjoyed the longer movie-esque lengths of the episodes. I saw the One twist coming, but not the Henry piece. I liked the new characters, though the D&D lynch mob plot was very annoying. Definitely got Empire vibes as things wrapped up and everyone looks toward the next season.

Also - I just read a pretty lengthy Deadline interview with the Duffer brothers. Interesting insight (IMO) into how they put the season together. I'm hoping it won't be years before the final season.

[Sudy]

I didn't have any issues with episode length until the final one. That 150 minutes is a big ask. That's There Will Be Blood length. But I made it through with minimal interruption, and I think it was fairly successful. It was certainly cinematic. I think this was the only way to do justice to the entire cast. I wish they hadn't delayed the final two episodes though.

Spoiler:

- The musical montages were great, but the editing of the action sequences drove me crazy. It's like we'd swap back and Jason had been strangling Lucas for five minutes straight. Obviously this is a standard technique and the audience intuits it as part of the language of filmmaking, but it felt excessive.

- Jason was one dimensional, but his character suited the period perfectly and he provided a menacing human antagonist the kids' age. They sure didn't afford his death much ceremony. I'm also fine with Argyle, though he should have been used more sparingly. Yeah, Eddy was awesome and I'll miss him, but he went out well. I mean, it's absurd everyone else survived. Nice to finally see Jonathan given a reason to exist other than to help create romantic tension in his absence from Hawkins.

- How did the Wheelers still have power when molten rifts had quadsected the town? The townsfolk sure didn't seem to be rushing to get out of there.

- Learning about the creation of the Upside Down was incredibly cool. (More please.) Vecna's a great villain (even if his dialogue's a little trite at times), but it would have been cooler if there'd been clearer clues to his existence in earlier seasons. I presume he only existed in loose outlines, if at all.

- I'm still not convinced there's zero CGI used on little Eleven. I can't shake the uncanny valley vibes. Either there's been some digital manipulation or that kid's a Japanese robot.

- I was surprised the western surfer pizza dude was bought off for a single joint. I assumed he was already stoned.

- I was beyond pissed that Google suggested "Max Mayfield death" when I searched for the character's name while watching the previous episode. I guess it wasn't an accurate spoiler after all. Kind of. Still shitty.

- Yeah... as much as I love Hopper and Jaqen, Russia was way too drawn out. If they didn't want those characters to show up in the U.S. till the final episode, they should have just condensed the scenes into fewer episodes. Probably doesn't help that Murray started to get on my nerves as a full member of the cast this season. Yuri's shtick got old quick, too.

[hepcat]

Hepcat's just being a grump, Hopper and Joyce make a great couple.

I like them individually (even if Ryder has a tendency to overact), but those two just have no chemistry in my opinion. The reunited love scene was supposed to be sexy, but it felt like watching my parents trying to get it on.

[Skinypupy]

Spoiler:

- I was beyond pissed that Google suggested "Max Mayfield death" when I searched for the character's name while watching the previous episode. I guess it wasn't an accurate spoiler after all. Kind of. Still shitty.

This is why I knocked out the last two episodes back to back last night. I had already been spoiled on one major plot point on a random Twitter post (not the one you mentioned, thankfully), and didn't want to spoil any more. To the show's credit, that 4 hours simply flew by.

My guess on a major plot point for Season 5.

Spoiler:

Max will remain in a coma until things seem completely hopeless for the gang. Eleven may even have been killed and/or incapacitated. Max will then awaken and finish off Vecna, having absorbed some of El's powers through the "touch of life" (or whatever that was).

Also, I was quite shocked when they

Spoiler:

actually started breaking Max's limbs. I honestly didn't think they'd take it that far with one of the main characters.

[msduncan]

thoughts on the main characters situation:

Spoiler:

The reason they don't kill more main characters is because this entire series is a love story to the 1980s. During that era of television and movies, the great majority of the time the main characters would live. If they started adhering to the 2000s and beyond trend of slaughtering main characters -- it simply would not fit with the very very expertly crafted ode to that era that they are forging here. It's VERY 1980s that the main characters -- the heroes -- find a way to survive insurmountable odds. Anything else would just not fit.

[hepcat]

If you hate spoilers, then avoid the yahoo news page while watching any show. They're notorious for putting the name of dead characters right in the goddamn headline so you can't miss it even when you're not reading the damn article. It's infuriating.

[Skinypupy]

[EvilHomer3k]

Hepcat's just being a grump, Hopper and Joyce make a great couple.

He's always a grump but sometimes he's correct grump. Not this time, though.

[Holman]

Hepcat's just being a grump, Hopper and Joyce make a great couple.

I like them too. There's a nice "divorced parents getting a second chance at love" story there.

I finished everything tonight and really enjoyed it. My only nitpicks have to do with bloat, and mainly in the action sequences.

[Holman]

Regardless, I liked the first episode - felt like a good transition from last season. I'm just not entirely buying the D&D element - namely the club and the cast of characters. While I wasn't in high school in 1986, I'm having a hard time believing those high school kids (as portrayed) were D&D fans.

I was high school class of 1987, and in my circles D&D was definitely a drama-club thing. But then I was at a small Evangelical school, and there was really only one obvious metalhead. And in fact he did play RPGs with us.

Presenting it this way, though, let the show really run with the Satanic Panic angle. I mean, "Hellfire Club"? Rock on!

[hepcat]

Good lord, I’ve opened a can of worms, haven’t I?

Look, I like them individually (even though Harbour made an absolutely unnecessary Hellboy remake), but I just felt like there was no chemistry between them in the show. Their (thankfully brief) love scenes felt awkward and forced to me. That’s all I’m saying.

Of course it might also be largely due to Ryder’s overacting. She goes to 11 when she should be at 6 way too often.

….oh god, I’ve grabbed another can of worms off the shelf and torn the lid off, haven’t I?

[Sudy]

I'm not sold on them either but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. Harbour elevates everything. Part of the problem is I can't remember all the events leading up to this and I think I skipped watching recaps before this season.

I like Ryder but her character's kind of... wispy, neurotic, and excessively vulnerable. Or maybe that's just Ryder; I don't think I've seen her in anything else in a couple or decades. But she's the only one I look at and think "she's acting".

[Zarathud]

Of course it might also be largely due to Ryder’s overacting. She goes to 11 when she should be at 6 way too often.

….oh god, I’ve grabbed another can of worms off the shelf and torn the lid off, haven’t I?

You’re going to have to eat those worms. Because More Ryder is a Good Thing.

[hepcat]

I should love Ryder. I grew up watching her and she was of course a childhood crush of mine, just as so many others around my age. But I just find her acting to be so over the top at times that I have to chuckle at the scenery chewing that goes on.

Maybe because I'm used to her acting style from her early years, which was always low key in my opinion?

I guess I'll turn in my geek card.

[naednek]

I should love Ryder. I grew up watching her and she was of course a childhood crush of mine,

I think we just discovered the problem. Hepcat is jealous

[Smoove_B]

I thought I'd seen or read some interview where Harbour said he had a crush on her in the 80s as well and he was really intimidated to be working with her initially. But I guess they became friendly and so any of their "intimate" scenes felt more awkward to him. At least, that was his cover story. I'm confident I'd be star-struck around her.

I also learned yesterday that the actor playing Dimitri / Enzo had a rather important role in another series.

Spoiler:

Totally didn't recognize him as Jaqen H'ghar

[Holman]

I also learned yesterday that the actor playing Dimitri / Enzo had a rather important role in another series.

Spoiler:

Totally didn't recognize him as Jaqen H'ghar

I spent two whole episodes *certain* he was from that show but unable to remember the exact role. Finally I caved and went to IMDB.

Spoiler:

Legit Faceless Man!

[JCC]

Wow, totally didn't recognize him at all.

[hepcat]

I should love Ryder. I grew up watching her and she was of course a childhood crush of mine,

I think we just discovered the problem. Hepcat is jealous

[Holman]

[Smoove_B]

He denied it was about her forever. But then in 2008 Lloyd Cole confirmed it:

Spoiler:

Q – Been on a Matthew Sweet kick lately and had always heard Winona was written as a love song for Winona Ryder. So I did a search and actually found this 1992 interview with Matthew Sweet where he says it was none other than our Lloyd that suggested the title. True story, Lloyd?

<Another song on Girlfriend with a link to loneliness and movie actresses is “Winona,” with its plaintive chorus, “Won’t you be my little movie star.” “Actually, Lloyd Cole suggested I call it that,” Sweet explained. “I didn’t have a title for a long time and he knew that I liked the movie Heathers. He thought that we should call it `Winona’ because I wanted a kind of a country title and at the time she was still a lot more obscure. First of all it didn’t occur to me that there would be a lot of people giving attention to anything I did. And second of all it didn’t occur to me that people would think that it was about her. Then by the time the record came out she had actually heard the song through a guy at Rolling Stone and supposedly liked it so I thanked my friend for sending it to her because at the time I didn’t think the record was even going to come out. It was a really dark period and I thought, `Well at least Winona Ryder heard my record.’ “>

A – All true as far as I’m aware. What MS doesn’t admit is that he was somewhat obsessed with WR at the time and the song was obviously about her. I just persuaded him to fess up.

Other random trivia - he wanted to originally name the album "Nothing Lasts" - after the last track but Tuesday Weld's agent wouldn't let them use her photo if they did - so it was renamed "Girlfriend".

That album helped me get through my final year of high school. And now you feel old too.

[EvilHomer3k]

That album helped me get through my final year of high school. And now you feel old too.

Totally unrelated but we got some new neighbors over the weekend. They are 25 years old. My oldest is 19. We've been in the house for 19 years as well. It's one thing to think you are over twice the age of college kids but being over twice the age of your new neighbors is a different kind of feeling old.

[hepcat]

Build a campfire in the backyard, sit down next to it, throw a giant bear hide over yourself, and tell the neighbors to pull up a stump while you tell them stories about the days of their ancestors. Every so often, to punctuate your stories, toss a handful of something into the fire to make it crackle.

[raydude]

Spoiler:

- I was beyond pissed that Google suggested "Max Mayfield death" when I searched for the character's name while watching the previous episode. I guess it wasn't an accurate spoiler after all. Kind of. Still shitty.

This is why I knocked out the last two episodes back to back last night. I had already been spoiled on one major plot point on a random Twitter post (not the one you mentioned, thankfully), and didn't want to spoil any more. To the show's credit, that 4 hours simply flew by.

My guess on a major plot point for Season 5.

Spoiler:

Max will remain in a coma until things seem completely hopeless for the gang. Eleven may even have been killed and/or incapacitated. Max will then awaken and finish off Vecna, having absorbed some of El's powers through the "touch of life" (or whatever that was).

My hunch on Season 5:

Spoiler:

Vecna absorbs everything about the people he's killed and his most recent 3 kills were imprisoned in trees. But Max's death was different - she died before he fully absorbed her. Hence her "soul" or "essence" is in Vecna's mind jail but not imprisoned. She finds a way to free the souls of others that Vecna has killed and they assault Vecna from the inside, a la Freddie Krueger. Max's soul gets returned to her body.

[Skinypupy]

Spoiler:

- I was beyond pissed that Google suggested "Max Mayfield death" when I searched for the character's name while watching the previous episode. I guess it wasn't an accurate spoiler after all. Kind of. Still shitty.

This is why I knocked out the last two episodes back to back last night. I had already been spoiled on one major plot point on a random Twitter post (not the one you mentioned, thankfully), and didn't want to spoil any more. To the show's credit, that 4 hours simply flew by.

My guess on a major plot point for Season 5.

Spoiler:

Max will remain in a coma until things seem completely hopeless for the gang. Eleven may even have been killed and/or incapacitated. Max will then awaken and finish off Vecna, having absorbed some of El's powers through the "touch of life" (or whatever that was).

My hunch on Season 5:

Spoiler:

Vecna absorbs everything about the people he's killed and his most recent 3 kills were imprisoned in trees. But Max's death was different - she died before he fully absorbed her. Hence her "soul" or "essence" is in Vecna's mind jail but not imprisoned. She finds a way to free the souls of others that Vecna has killed and they assault Vecna from the inside, a la Freddie Krueger. Max's soul gets returned to her body.

Oooo, that works too. I like that.

[Daehawk]

[Blackhawk]

Spoiler:

- I was beyond pissed that Google suggested "Max Mayfield death" when I searched for the character's name while watching the previous episode. I guess it wasn't an accurate spoiler after all. Kind of. Still shitty.

This is why I knocked out the last two episodes back to back last night. I had already been spoiled on one major plot point on a random Twitter post (not the one you mentioned, thankfully), and didn't want to spoil any more. To the show's credit, that 4 hours simply flew by.

My guess on a major plot point for Season 5.

Spoiler:

Max will remain in a coma until things seem completely hopeless for the gang. Eleven may even have been killed and/or incapacitated. Max will then awaken and finish off Vecna, having absorbed some of El's powers through the "touch of life" (or whatever that was).

My hunch on Season 5:

Spoiler:

Vecna absorbs everything about the people he's killed and his most recent 3 kills were imprisoned in trees. But Max's death was different - she died before he fully absorbed her. Hence her "soul" or "essence" is in Vecna's mind jail but not imprisoned. She finds a way to free the souls of others that Vecna has killed and they assault Vecna from the inside, a la Freddie Krueger. Max's soul gets returned to her body.

Interesting ideas, but I had a different first thought.

Spoiler:

Season 5 will be (pretty obviously) about beating Vecna and closing the gate. Max was victim #4. The gate opening was bound to her death, and sure enough, it opened when she died. But with her only mostly dead, it seems possible that undoing her death would serve to close the gate I predict that searching for her 'soul' - perhaps in the Upside Down - to restore her to life will be a major plotline. Possibly in another 'split the party' sequence with several people in the Upside Down searching for her while others keep Vecna busy. And who knows, maybe closing the gate with him on this side and cutting him off from his home plane would weaken him somehow.

Spoiler:

- When Robin saw Vicki in the Army Surplus store, I legit thought it was an 80's Molly Ringwald deepfake for a sec.

Right there with ya. It didn't help that I had a major crush on her back when I was young.

[Daehawk]

Linda Hamilton Joins Stranger Things Season 5

It’s undeniably a huge get for Stranger Things, which has nabbed some major stars of the ‘80s in the past. There’s obviously Winona Ryder, who’s a member of the core cast as Joyce Byers, but the show has also featured Full Metal Jacket star Matthew Modine, Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund, The Goonies breakout Sean Astin, The Princess Bride’s Cary Elwes, and Mad About You star Paul Reiser.

And, as Stranger Things has to be nearing the ‘90s by now, Hamilton – who truly became an action icon in James Cameron’s 1991 classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day – makes a lot of sense. Plus, with Season 4’s finale basically teeing up a giant showdown with Vecna, the Hawkins crew is gonna need some muscle.