Sci-Fi Stranger Things (Netflix) - Part 1

[BrollySupersj]

Well, with all I've seen, I think I'm glad I lost interest with season 4. Honestly I felt season 3 would have been the best place to stop, but that's just me. And there is nothing in season 5 that sounded really good. Vecna's cool entrance was kinda neat. But at the same time I hate his backstory. I wish it didn't come to this.

 

[blueharvest]

‘Stranger Things 5’ Hits 34.5 Million Views After Volume 2 Drops, Helping Netflix to Its Best Christmas Viewership Ever

'Stranger Things' Season 5 hit 34.5 million views during the week of Volume 2's debut.

variety.com

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Dave McFly]

I kinda wanted to see that but NONE of the 3 theaters within driving distance did not have it not even Buffalo where they usually get the stuff my 2 near me do not.

 

[Lily Adler]

I smell Netflix release strategy for the DCU.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Broseph44]

For me it was such a perfect ending and amazing series finale. They nailed it. One of my favorite shows of all time easily. I was an emotional mess. Cried my eyes out and I personally am very fulfilled. Bravo to all

 

[Sawyer]

No lies detected.

Finale was decent, though.

 

[squeekness]

Yeah, I can't complain. It didn't blow me away but it satisfied.

 

[blueharvest]

Netflix Crashes as ‘Stranger Things’ Finale Premieres, Second Time This Season

Netflix went down and crashed as the 'Stranger Things' Season 5 finale premiered.

variety.com

 

[Drizzle]

I thought it was a solid finale.

Spoiler

The first hour had me kind of exhausted with everything. As much as I never wanted Steve to die, the fakeout in the beginning with the long cut to black had me rolling my eyes. It was so cheap, almost like they were winking at us "You guys didn't think we'd ACTUALLY kill Steve, do you?" The fact that every major character survived is such a copout for this show. Like, yeah, not everything has to be Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead but for a show like this to have all the main players survive was an odd choice. It wouldn't have had to be a character that everyone liked, either. How Murray survived the whole show blows my mind. But Kali died, I guess. So there's that.

I liked the return of the Mind Flayer but I did laugh at first that Joyce got to deliver the killing blow on Vecna. Like they remembered that Winona Ryder was around. But then she delivered that f-bomb and it's like I was watching Heathers again.

I did really like the second hour or so after Eleven's "sacrifice". Which, I thought at least Millie Bobby Brown gave her first decent performance all season when saying goodbye to Mike. I didn't shed any tears over her "death" because I was sensing it could be another fakeout and sure enough...but this is one I didn't mind. Let Eleven have peace.

But the real meat was the 1989 flash forward. I'm just happy the one part of the show to take place after I was born was good. Also it was at least nice to see the younger actors playing closer to their own ages, even if it was only for an hour. I liked Dustin's speech, but it would have been better if the Principal was this antagonist they'd been dealing with the whole show. Instead it was like "Who's this guy?" Robin crying on the roof got me, as did the end of the group's DnD game. I really liked where each character ended up.

And appropriately, since there were a bunch of endings we got a Return of the King-style animated credits scene. I knew something like that was coming when the opening credits rolled without, well, credits.

One big criticism I have about it was characters disappearing. Where was Robin's girlfriend in the epilogue? They bothered to bring her into the Upside Down and Will's coming out group but she just straight up didn't even get a mention as to what happened to here. Second was Linda Hamilton. Why was there no closure at all there? It's a little more than just "oh, they went away when the Upside Down disappeared." You're telling me there was no time for that?

Stranger Things 5 had a couple of lows but the highs were high. The Will reveal at the end of episode 4, Max waking up, and the second half of the finale were among the best parts of the series for me. None of the later seasons ever recaptured that magic of the first season but it was a fun ride overall.

I wouldn't say the plane stuck the landing but it landed. Are there better finales? Sure. But this was nowhere near the worst list.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Yeah it was a perfectly fine finale that was mostly satisfying but I am kind of surprised by how safe it felt overall although it kind of fits with the rest of this season overall. It was a fun ride but I'm honestly curious about revisiting the first season again since so many people seem to love it.

Now maybe it's just me but I've honestly enjoyed the later seasons more atleast seasons 3 and 4 with this season probably being right in the middle. It didn't blow me away or anything but there are definitely much worse ways to end a show.

 

[TheGDBatman]

I’ll post my expanded thoughts later, but I thought the ending was perfect. The emotional beats really worked from me, and I thought the last 20 minutes or so were perfect.

 

[Still Wynning]

Spoiler

Yeah, you can definitely tell all of the scenes of the characters crying at the end was not just the actors performing.

 

[Steyin]

Finale was fine, but in all honestly I found so many fan theories more interesting.

 

[titansupes]

Just finished it-- Overall very underwhelming final season, but yeah, the finale itself landed really well. No major twists or anything, but emotionally satisfying and that's the main thing for me.

 

[BlackFox]

Yeah it was a decent end, like Lord of the Rings it had 16 endings that felt a lot longer than the actual final fight itself but people love these characters so I get it and it was pretty well done to be fair, they all got a decent send off and their moments. I'm still not sure what Linda Hamilton was doing or even what her characters point was but thats a minor issue in the overall bigger picture.

Overall a decent final season.

 

[Breogan]

"...Cause spiders are the fiercest killers in the animal kingdom ...go!"
\

Instead of something Metal or rock anthem, Prince and Purple rain horrible choice took me out of it gave me Batdance nightmare flashbacks, don't think that's what they were going for.
And they could have cut the ending character melodrama moments in half.
Otherwise it was a fine end.

 

[Drizzle]

Some day after thoughts since watching it again this morning:

Overall I'm seeing more positive reaction to the finale online than there was for Vol. 2's drop last week (not even counting the homophobia about the Will scene, there was some sloppiness in those episodes). I think it would have just been better if they released this with that. They would have missed out on the finale box office last night which I guess is the bigger picture for them but episodes 5-7 would have gone over better with the finale following them immediately.

I also realized that Dustin's graduation speech is totally meant to mirror what Eddie wanted to do when he graduated in season 4. Nice callback.

I saw this post and I think I pretty much agree with it for my stance on the show, with the exception of 2 and 3 being more equal for me (both being a slightly on fire horse like S2 is pictured here):



The first will always be the best but whatever lows the following seasons had, the highs were high. 5 stumbled along the way but the last hour or so was among the best this show has ever been.

 

[The Joker]

This had to be the safest finale to a series I've ever seen.

Spoiler

After the third or fourth near death/last second save of a prominent character I knew nobody of significance was going to die. These people are fighting intergalactic monsters in world ending scenarios but you never feel any of them are in legit danger. Heck the Wheeler parents can get shredded to bits by a Demo and live. Of course the only character who did die was one that nobody really cares about.
All the theories of Kali being a Vecna/Mind Flayer minion would have been more interesting than what we got. Five seasons and I think the only character who died that people gave a damn about is Eddie. He was killed off in the season he was introduced. I don't think the Duffer Bros expected him to be as big of a hit with viewers as he was.

Vecna and the Mind Flayer were defeated so quickly and easily that I couldn't believe it. I was expecting a surprise rise up and round two battle. But no. They went Avengers on them with their guns and flame throwers and stuff and won. Why is it Demos aren't phased by weapons like that, but The Mind Flayer went down like a sack of spuds.

Again I don't know why Linda Hamilton was in this. It must have been an easy pay check or something because it can't have been work gratification. Her character was so under used and forgettable. I think she had like three short scenes and about four lines in the that entire 2 hour finale where she does nothing interesting at all, and then just vanishes after El's "death" scene.

The emotional wrap ups for the characters was nice and all, but after such an unsatisfying final season it just didn't hit as hard for me as it should have. Its probably my least favorite season because of so much missed potential.

 

[DyeLorean]

The series went off the rails. For me, anyway. It went too fantastical for the way it was set up from the beginning.
Having said that, I think they nailed the ending. I loved it.

 

[Link]

Seasons 1 and 4 remain my favourites, but this was a decent finale and an adequate final season. Very safe, though. You can almost feel the cold sweat running down the showrunners' backs while remembering what happened with Game of Thrones. I enjoyed the kaiju battle, but the real meat and potatoes of the episode (and the season) was the final hour. To me, the two-hour runtime was entirely justified for this and helped tremendously with pacing. We got an actual wrap-up instead of a stinger, and that's very satisfying. Stranger Things is a wonderful, if flawed, series. It's almost fantastical how an innocuous, quirky sci-fi show turned into the biggest thing on planet earth, but here we are. I'm looking forward to rewatching it all, one day.

 

[Drizzle]

Seasons 1 and 4 remain my favourites, but this was a decent finale and an adequate final season. Very safe, though. You can almost feel the cold sweat running down the showrunners' backs while remembering what happened with Game of Thrones. I enjoyed the kaiju battle, but the real meat and potatoes of the episode (and the season) was the final hour. To me, the two-hour runtime was entirely justified for this and helped tremendously with pacing. We got an actual wrap-up instead of a stinger, and that's very satisfying. Stranger Things is a wonderful, if flawed, series. It's almost fantastical how an innocuous, quirky sci-fi show turned into the biggest thing on planet earth, but here we are. I'm looking forward to rewatching it all, one day.

Which they thankfully didn't make the same mistakes of completely throwing character development out the window. Everyone pretty much stayed true to who they were. But one thing they were afraid to do that Game of Thrones wasn't and that nobody gave them flack for even in the final season was to kill off some more characters. Not that I wanted anyone to die but did the show really need Murray to survive? Could Ted Wheeler not have gone out fighting the Demogorgon? I'm glad that everyone but Kali survived but they could have offed some characters that nobody really cared much about. The stakes could have been raised a little bit.

I agree that 1 and 4 are my favorites too.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Season 5 had a lot of issues…probably the most issues of any season…but the finale was solid if still handwavey if you know what I mean.

 

[Link]

Which they thankfully didn't make the same mistakes of completely throwing character development out the window. Everyone pretty much stayed true to who they were. But one thing they were afraid to do that Game of Thrones wasn't and that nobody gave them flack for even in the final season was to kill off some more characters. Not that I wanted anyone to die but did the show really need Murray to survive? Could Ted Wheeler not have gone out fighting the Demogorgon? I'm glad that everyone but Kali survived but they could have offed some characters that nobody really cared much about. The stakes could have been raised a little bit.

I agree that 1 and 4 are my favorites too.

My takeaway is that Eleven pretty much died, but someone at Netflix demanded that that door must be at least partially open for a possible legacy show down the line lol.