Stranger Things

[Phillip Gastone]

Welcome to Derry is also good.

[JoelF847]

Oh, and also The Magicians is a lot of fun

[ericthecleric]

Thanks for the replies, especially to you Joel for that big list!

I've made a note of the shows you recommended.

[Aberzombie]

Phillip Gastone wrote:

Welcome to Derry is also good.

Yeah, I thought that show was pretty decent. They did a good job building off the movies, and even including little bits from the book about the Black Spot and Dick Halloran.

Although there were other parts I wasn't too fond of, mostly stuff that I thought went against stuff from the book. Granted, it's been a decade or (now almost) four since I read the book, so I might be misremembering things.

[Tristan d'Ambrosius]

There's a big difference between 10 years (a decade) and 40 years (four.) What are you saying here? That you haven't read the book since the 1980's?

[Aberzombie]

Well, it came out in 1986, so....

Although I did start to reread it a year or four back. I should really pick that back up again.

[Tristan d'Ambrosius]

Oh, so one or four is supposed to be a humorous turn of phrase. Got ya. Not that funny.

[Aberzombie]

Well, not everyone has my awesome sense of humor.

[Aberzombie]

Watched the three newest episodes last night, and thought "Huh. That's interesting."

Spoiler:

I don't think I've ever seen a wormhole depicted as a physical location (let alone a mirror image of the local it connects to). It's certainly....creative.

I did think the discovery of a book to explain things was very appropriate to the D&D theme.

Just when I was starting to like Derek as one of the few interesting additions to the cast, they make him just roll over for Vecna. Meanwhile, the other kids go all cult.

The scenes with Dustin and Steve were excellent. "You die, I die."

Damn! I had forgotten how tiny 008 was.

Murray is awesome.

What happened to Mr. Wheeler? Seems like he's just been forgotten so mom could have her second Supermom moment. It's a shame, considering he was just as ballsy as her in defending his family.

I still think this show suffers from way too many cast members. And they go ahead and add two more people to the team (Mr. Clarke and the candy striper). The character bloat seems to just be forcing them to waste more time on characters with no real contribution to the story (like Robin, Erica, Max, Murray, Karen Wheeler). I was kind of hoping they'd at least start killing some folk off, but it appears maybe the Duffer Brothers don't have the stones for that.

I also found myself fast-forwarding through some scenes that I found boring and unnecessary. And I had to turn the sound down when they started playing that damnable Kate Bush song AGAIN. It's a good song, but not THAT good. I got tired of it in Season 4.

I'm glad the show is finally coming to an end, and look forward to the finale, if only to see if they actually do kill some characters off (which I think they might). Still, with some of the revelations over these last few episodes, they could easily spin this off in a different direction. Not sure the Duffer Brothers are creative enough to do that.

[Aberzombie]

So, let me get this straight....

Spoiler:

A handful of Demogorgons (backed by Vecna) wipe out an entire base full of soldiers in a few minutes, barely breaking a sweat. However, when a handful of kids armed with molotovs, spears, and a single flamethrower take on a giant kaiju/Lovecraftian monster (also backed up by Vecna), the bad kaiju goes down like a bowling ball on a water slide? Even taking into account Eleven and Vecna going head to head, that Mindflayer should have destroyed those kids.

And speaking of...It would have been cool if they had played up the mindflayer angle a bit more this season, instead of wasting so much time on their vastly bloated cast.

Linda Hamilton was totally wasted in this.

And I'm amazed they didn't find some way to keep Kali alive as well. The Duffer Brothers have become nearly spineless when it comes to killing off cast members.

I sat through that last hour, but thought it was mostly a waste. Better writers could have condensed that into about 15-20 minutes.

I thought this last season was very weak. Overall, seasons 1 and 4 are the best. Season two, three, and five were meh. I'm just glad it's finally over. I'll give the Duffer Brothers and Netflix credit though. They created a TV cultural phenomenon, especially considering how much time passed between seasons 4 and 5, and how many people kept interest and/or excitement.

Would I ever rewatch this? Maybe season 1, but overall I'd say "no".

[Aberzombie]

Apparently, there was a conspiracy about a secret 9th episode being the true finale, and that it was going to be released a few days ago. Coincidentally, that day was when Netflix apparently crashed. It's crazy what people will believe.

Still, it's got to suck to be the Duffer Brothers and have people be so disappointed in the finale of your big hit they believe in a conspiracy like that. Then again, they got paid, so I'd bet they're not too upset.

[JoelF847]

While it wasn't explained in the finale, I didn't have an issue with the party harming the giant monster fortress. It's pretty easy to head cannon that on it's home plane it's vulnerable, but if it had made it to the upside down and then Earth, it would get greater and greater DR to the point where conventional weapons wouldn't hurt it.

[Phillip Gastone]

Sparing a few minutes for Hamilton to get a 'You have failed us.' from other military types would at least tie up that loose end.