Sci-Fi Stranger Things (Netflix) - Part 1

[Drizzle]

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.

The reason I believe Eleven survived is because of the sonic cannons having no effect on her. It's like the last shot of Inception where it's technically ambiguous but it leans into the positive ending more.

But yeah, given how much studios have been running nostalgia into the ground I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see an Eleven and Mike movie or miniseries in the future where he tracks her down in the '90s and they're running from the government. Could also explain why Linda Hamilton just vanished. It could be something. Not that they should bring the Upside Down back again but there's always reason the government would be hunting down a girl who has powers.

 

[DyeLorean]

Season 1
Season 4
Season 3
Season 2
Season 5

Easiest ranking. Although the final episode is way above the average of the season.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Watched it this morning....it was decent. Could've been A LOT worse but...easily couldve been A LOT better.

As others have said, it was safe. Just when I thought we were nearing the end of the episode...I still had 44 minutes left and was like....what else is there to do? Those last 44mins easily could've been cut down to 15-20mins. I think doing a montage and voiceover of what everyone is doing and ending on the "new gen" would've been a lot better than dragging it on.

If El couldn't stay with the group she deserved a far better send off. The emotional weight of it needed to be upped. Buffy sacrificing herself for Dawn emotional weight. Unfortunately a lot of the acting wasn't strong enough to sell the material they were given. The amount of times where they just had El staring seemed ridiculous.

And they just ignore the military after this. Linda Hamilton's character just....exists? They could've easily killed her, wreck the center and erase files on El.

Vecna was also taken out so easily and became a joke to a degree. Where were the demogorgons? How come everyone got out basically unscacthed?

 

[Dave McFly]

Spoiler

that shot of Eleven doing her super jump, opening up the the chest of the 'fortress' and doing the landing and rolling to her feet and chopping down Vecna was the highlight to me.

wow

 

[Lily Adler]

 

[squeekness]

Beats the hell out of the Dexter finale, lol.

 

[Drizzle]

From what I've seen, the Breaking Bad finale was the only one that I'd consider perfect with no notes.

The Stranger Things finale was good but the first hour wasn't as strong as the second. After a second viewing I'd put it comfortably in the "good finales" category. It's far from perfect but it was a good sendoff.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Breogan]

Curious where the Loc-Nar will show up next?

 

[Sawyer]

Guys, please, Stonathan is all I have left…

 

[Drizzle]

View attachment 160394

Guys, please, Stonathan is all I have left…

Spoiler

Well, it's not like they said they'd be anywhere near the WTC. Still not as dark as the show having Will going to college in Milwaukee in 1989, of all places.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Different decade......curious to see if they go forward or backwards in time. I think going backwards would be a lot more interesting than going forwards in time because I want to see how people in various time periods of the past would handle these monsters and how creative those people in that time period would get.

That's why I liked the last Predator movie Prey, as it took place during the Colonial period of American history.

Having said that, I can see them wussing out and moving forward in time.

 

[squeekness]

Different decade......curious to see if they go forward or backwards in time. I think going backwards would be a lot more interesting than going forwards in time because I want to see how people in various time periods of the past would handle these monsters and how creative those people in that time period would get.

That's why I liked the last Predator movie Prey, as it took place during the Colonial period of American history.

Having said that, I can see them wussing out and moving forward in time.

I agree that going backwards in time would be the more interesting take.

 

[Drizzle]

Speaking of, I'm actually curious where all the songs are. There was "Upside Down" and that Butthole Surfers song but they've been leaning hard on "Running Up That Hill" and of course they played that Moby song again. By comparison seasons 3 and 4 had a ton of needle drops. I refuse to believe they had a low music budget for this.

This is a new "eat crow" post for me because the soundtrack delivered in the finale. "Purple Rain" surprised me but it was used well and I loved the David Bowie version of "Heroes" playing over the illustrated credits.

 

[Dr. Evil]

For me a sci-fi series or movie is best when its set in a specific time period and then you have a spinoff where you go backwards in time or forwards in time (if it's set in the distant past) just to see how those people in that time period deal with monsters or aliens. Prey (the Predator movie from 2022) I thought should have still gone the historical time period route either going backwards (ie. Predator in Feudal Japan or during the Roman Empire) or even forwards (Predator during the Civil War or Predator during World War II).

I don't want a Stranger Things Spinoff set in the 2000's or present day or even the far future. I want the spinoff to take place in the past. I would not mind it at all if they made the spinoff take place a decade before Episode 1 of Season One of Stranger Things or even going back a bit further to the Era of the Vietnam War.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Sawyer]

If you laugh, you go to hell.

 

[kguillou]

Finally caught the finale. I've had mixed feelings on season 5 as a whole, I've felt the pacing was off, there's been way too much exposition and "planning" scenes and not enough action and character moments. So I went into this finale skeptical if they can stick the landing. And I'm not gonna lie...

I loved this, y'all. I really did.

Its not perfect, there's nits to pick but man this just worked on an emotional level for me and I felt like the Duffer Brothers gave these characters a great, emotional sendoff. I'm really satisfied with this ending overall.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[TheFuture]

I always love reading Kojima's takes on media, and I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Lou was based heavily on Eleven, especially in DS2.

 

[Still Wynning]

Finally caught the finale. I've had mixed feelings on season 5 as a whole, I've felt the pacing was off, there's been way too much exposition and "planning" scenes and not enough action and character moments. So I went into this finale skeptical if they can stick the landing. And I'm not gonna lie...

I loved this, y'all. I really did.

Its not perfect, there's nits to pick but man this just worked on an emotional level for me and I felt like the Duffer Brothers gave these characters a great, emotional sendoff. I'm really satisfied with this ending overall.

A bad ending can tarnish an otherwise good or even great show. But, like with this show, a somewhat saggy or rough and inconsistent middle can be saved by a great conclusion.

That got me emotional.

I can’t believe the show is over. Still doesn’t feel real.

 

[Sawyer]

As emotional as the finale was, and although I did really enjoy parts of the last few episodes, the holes and the dangling threads just keep becoming more apparent with time.

The funniest of which, though, is all the characters who cross paths with Hopper (ahem, Max and Mr. Clarke) and should really be reacting like “Whoa! Jim Hopper? Didn’t you DIE two years ago??” and instead are like “Oh, hi Jim.”

Like, do we think his deputies even blinked when he walked back into the Hawkins police station?

 

[Drizzle]

As emotional as the finale was, and although I did really enjoy parts of the last few episodes, the holes and the dangling threads just keep becoming more apparent with time.

The funniest of which, though, is all the characters who cross paths with Hopper (ahem, Max and Mr. Clarke) and should really be reacting like “Whoa! Jim Hopper? Didn’t you DIE two years ago??” and instead are like “Oh, hi Jim.”

Like, do we think his deputies even blinked when he walked back into the Hawkins police station?

I'm guessing that Hawkins, Mr. Clarke included, caught wind that Hopper was alive in that brief period between when season 4 ended and when the military quarantined everything, which was probably soon after but not instantaneous. You're right about Max though since she would have been in a coma. I'm really starting to believe that rumor that there was a lot of stuff cut from the season before it dropped, specifically that there were scenes with Eleven and Will going into Vecna's mindscape and meeting up with Max before she woke up. That could have been a way for Eleven to explain that Hopper was alive and it would have made for a better reunion between El and Max other than El walking in and going "I can't believe you're here" after she wakes up. I could definitely buy that there was a real reunion scene between those two.

There was apparently also more dialogue between Max and Will in those scenes which would have explained why they seemed closer after she woke up. That didn't feel as off to me anyway since while the show didn't really establish any kind of bond between Max and Will, they did hang out in the same friend group for like a year between seasons 2 and 3.

 

[Lily Adler]

Duffer Bros. confirm this is why the Reagan Administration ignored the AIDS crisis.

 

[Ninjablade]

I find myself very much in the camp of the finale was pretty trash and that the emotional bits in the second half feel incredibly hollow. The ending in particular feels like I just watched the ending of the first season again except worse because of how reductive it is for most of the characters as the context is vastly different. All in all a lot of wasted potential for a show that seemed to have re-found its footing after season 4. The Duffers stumbling though this media tour the last few days only makes it worse.