Stranger Things [Netflix] [*** Spoilers ***]

Franz Von Peppercorn II

FunLover18 wrote: »

I find Mike to be much more detestable bit Eleven seemed particularly stupid this season. That bit they're shopping and she asks "how do I know what I like?", I can't even put into words to express how ridiculous that is.

You guys know her backstory right?

FunLover18

Franz Von Peppercorn II wrote: »

You guys know her backstory right?

Yes but we're talking about the concept of liking or not liking something. I don't care how isolated her life has been, she likes things (eggos) and doesn't like other things (the mind flayer), she shouldn't have to ask how she know if she likes something. I mean, even if you give her the benefit of the doubt and say she hasn't been clothes shopping before, she has seen clothes and is aware of the concept of different styles.

I actually like Eleven but in the show someone needs to start addressing the fact that she is a literal moron. How are they not more concerned? She doesn't know how to tell if she likes clothes but she has a boyfriend?? It's going to get creepy if she's still this thick in two years and Mike's trying to get her into bed.

Always Tired

I think you are way, way off base. I think it makes perfect sense that she wouldn't know what clothes to get as she isn't in school and only knows the boys. Max is the first girl her age that she is friends with, and she is isolated out in the cabin with Hopper. She doesn't seem 'thick' to me at all because of this.

And I think MBB does a fantastic job portraying a traumatised girl coming out of her shell and hitting puberty. She really went for it in the scenes where she is using her powers too.

FunLover18

Always Tired wrote: »

I think you are way, way off base. I think it makes perfect sense that she wouldn't know what clothes to get as she isn't in school and only knows the boys. Max is the first girl her age that she is friends with, and she is isolated out in the cabin with Hopper. She doesn't seem 'thick' to me at all because of this.

And I think MBB does a fantastic job portraying a traumatised girl coming out of her shell and hitting puberty. She really went for it in the scenes where she is using her powers too.

Like I said, I like Eleven and I think MBB I fantastic in the role but the character is thick, it's not her fault. It's due to her circumstances, I feel bad calling a fictional character thick but there's no way around it. How much time has passed in the show between seasons 2&3, and she's still acting like an alien who's never encountered humans before. How are the other characters not getting exasperated and, like I said, concerned. It's clearly not in her best interest for Hop to keep her isolated like that and I would genuinely be worried about her in a romantic relationship.

But looks I know it's a TV show and none of the above is keeping me up at night, it's just something that was in my head as I watched it.

Bigbagofcans

Jjjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

I find Eleven to be the most annoying character. Seems to be a terrible actor but the show is so great, I'll put up with her.

I don't find her annoying I must say, and I think she is a brilliant actor.

Robin is a great new addition to the cast. Erica I found to be very irritating.

pixelburp

Thing about Mike is, if you go back and watch Seasons 1 and 2, he was always a cocky, angry little sh*t. He seemed really quick to anger, often screaming at his parents during various points of previous seasons over innocuous things. I had always wondered if this was intentional, or simply the way the actor just chose to play it. I wondered if this might eventually get addressed in-story.

Season 3 seems to have leaned into this and confirmed that, yes, Mike is supposed to be kinda horrible and in approaching puberty his a$$holery is now entering a bigger, broader phase, mixed with all those hormones. Watching him get shot down in Episode 1, his smug sneer wiped off his face, was poetic

In general Stranger Things brilliantly portrays kids & teens exactly as they behave normally. Too many writers just end up writing these precocious mini-adults, or melodramatically sulky teens - this show nails the tone perfectly.

Franz Von Peppercorn II

If I had any complaints about the kids it would be that they all act too normal given what they have undergone. Except for EL.

But I don’t really have that complaint because the show wouldn’t work if they acted with the PTSD they should have.

brevity

Series 3 was absolutely brilliant. Loved all of it. Robin and Steve were the highlight for me. Alexi and Murray too.

It was just so much fun.

Enjoyed it.

Much more gore this time around.

Eleven is only 15 years old, not sure about the others. Dustin still looks like a kid.

I'm really glad

11 wasn't the one to defeat the monster with her powers... would have been too samey

Steve was my favourite character and worked well with his ice-cream slinging side kick.

P.S. I think the Duffer Brothers must secretly hate the Prom King, jock type... they give Steve an awful time!

astrofool

My guess is (after ending spoiler)

Hopper escaped into the upside down, and was somehow retrieved by the Russians, it would be too odd not to show him being vaporised if he really was gone (though lesser writers have tried it)

Kermit.de.frog

Episodes 1 - 4 were painfully boring.

Second half really pacy and much better.

The script has really deteriorated since last season in my opinion. The characters pull it through though.


Best part of the season:

Steve and Robin after they were drugged by the Russians

P.S where is that "lost sister" of Eleven mentioned in S2? She just sitting on her ass somewhere or somethin?

alchemist33

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Episodes 1 - 4 were painfully boring.

Second half really pacy and much better.

The script has really deteriorated since last season in my opinion. The characters pull it through though.


Best part of the season:

Steve and Robin after they were drugged by the Russians

P.S where is that "lost sister" of Eleven mentioned in S2? She just sitting on her ass somewhere or somethin?

Let's hope we never find out!

Kermit.de.frog

So that arc has been quietly dumped?

Drumpot

Really enjoyed that. It’s pure 80s nostalgia and fan service. I mean the terminator baddy, the Russians, the zombies... what’s not to love?

Mantis Toboggan

"I'll dump your ass" from El, hilarious.

yerwanthere123

Two episodes into the new series and I'm disappointed so far. I trust it'll get better though.

pc7

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Two episodes into the new series and I'm disappointed so far. I trust it'll get better though.

I found first 4 a bit rubbish, last 4 it really picks up, stick with it.

alchemist33

I thought the first two were a bit dull, but it certainly did improve.

pinkypinky

Very minor spoiler but

it took until episode 6 before I realised the very annoying Erica is Lucas's sister.

Overall 8/10.
Loved Robin and Steve
Pleased

Suzi was real and enjoyed the Neverending Story duets

Exploding rats absolutely disgusting. Had to look away.

Jurgen The German

Really enjoyed it, far, far better than season 2 and i think it edges season 1 for me too. Just a whole lot of fun, a harder edge to it than previous seasons, alot of the humour was quite knowing, it's become a bit meta in the 80s references but for me it's done with a level of fondness that makes it palatable. All in all very enjoyable and im looking forward to seeing where season 4 goes. Hop was the stand out this season for me, loved the interactions between him, joyce and Smirnoff.

pinkypinky

Also how did I not recognise Cary Elwes as the mayor?!

yerwanthere123

pc7 wrote: »

I found first 4 a bit rubbish, last 4 it really picks up, stick with it.

Good to hear. It's a bit strange though, the first two drew me in straight away.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Just finished it. I found the opposite to the couple of posts above there. I found the first few episodes more enjoyable, more in the vein of S1, and as it went on I found I was struggling to pay attention to some of the plots.
I don't know why but I found Hopper really irritating this season and found his sections really hard to get invested in, which was a shame because I enjoyed Joyce, Baumann and Alexi in the few scenes they shared.
Also Jonathan and Nancy, who cares! Their side plot last year was one of the weakest parts and I found the same this year. I know that's how this show works, people are split into groups and in the end they all come together, but I felt this series they got the mixes a little wrong.
I did love Steve/Robin/Dustin/Erica though. Erica's line delivery could stand to be a little less "sassy" but I found her quite funny once their adventure got going.

Long story short.... I enjoyed it probably more than S2, but I don't think it will ever top S1.

Oh and I hope the American in the credits scene is ***** and not ******.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

It didn't take away from how i felt about this season or how i judged it but i did get the impression from most of the episodes there was clearly a female empowerment vibe thrown into this season.


Sign of the times more then anything i guess

I don't know that it was about female empowerment, as such, but I do remember some criticism after S2 that they had 3/4 female leads and there were only 2 or 3 scenes in the entire season where they actually interacted with one another, and the El/Max ones were mostly El being jealous.

I assumed that's what the scenes this season with Max and El being all "sisters before misters" were about.

They didn't do a whole lot better with Joyce or Nancy though. Maybe next season Nancy might get to spend time with literally anyone other than Jonathon.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

5555555555 wrote: »

Yeah every episode seems to have scenes where females characters lecture/belittle male characters. Very tiresome.

I can't say I noticed this much other than the brief Max/El/Mike stuff in the early episodes, which I thought was fairly standard teen relationship stuff, and they balanced it out fairly well when Mike argued the point about El not being a machine and the others being to reckless with her powers.

flazio

Hopper does seem to be a polarizing character alright. I've seen people like Evan Rachel Wood (had a role in HBO's next Game of Thrones, Westworld) going so far as calling him "Toxic" and that women should stay away from men like him in real life.
Bit of a stretch in my opinion, he's a stressed out father of one teenage girl so I'd give him some slack. Overall I think they portrayed him as a regular guy flaws and all.

I reckon the way it ended gave Harbor some options for next season had his version of Hellboy been a success.(it wasn't) We could find out the American they left in the post credit scene was him, or someone else depending on his availability.

Overall I liked the season a lot. Only criticism I'd throw at it was the sassy little sister didn't come across as funny as I think the writers had hoped.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

flazio wrote: »

Hopper does seem to be a polarizing character alright. I've seen people like Evan Rachel Wood (had a role in HBO's next Game of Thrones, Westworld) going so far as calling him "Toxic" and that women should stay away from men like him in real life.
Bit of a stretch in my opinion, he's a stressed out father of one teenage girl so I'd give him some slack. Overall I think they portrayed him as a regular guy flaws and all.

I reckon the way it ended gave Harbor some options for next season had his version of Hellboy been a success.(it wasn't) We could find out the American they left in the post credit scene was him, or someone else depending on his availability.

Overall I liked the season a lot. Only criticism I'd throw at it was the sassy little sister didn't come across as funny as I think the writers had hoped.

I saw the ERW stuff, and to be fair, if you were basing it off just this one season I'd agree with her. He just came across as a horrible character this season. I was talking about this with someone on Twitter and they thought it was supposed to be a kind of PTSD situation, where he was just struggling with all that had happened over the first 2 seasons, but I didn't get that at all. He just seemed like a very angry and aggressive dickhead.
S1 Hopper was a classic grumpy and belligerent on the outside but quite soft on the inside reluctant hero kind of guy, still not recovering from his daughter's death.
S2 Hopper had moved on from his loss, was less isolated in his life, had a new kind of family with El and was trying to balance keeping her safe while still allowing her to live a life, so any frustration or anger was understandable.
S3 Hopper..... he just seemed really angry and unlikable for the most part, and with no explanation. I think they tried to explain it away with the talk he was going to give to Mike and El but even that only explained his anger towards Mike.

Anyway.... it's not like he was so bad he ruined the season or anything. It just felt extremely noticable and almost like he was a completely different character.

it felt an odd way to write him when they also seemed to be really pushing him and Joyce as a couple. He was constantly shouting at her and criticising her and then they tried to play it off as "sexual tension". Which I think is where people were getting the "toxic" thing from. Also if that ending was planned from the start it's an incredibly strange decision to make him so annoying. As soon as he went into the room with the drill I was hoping he would die! And I found Max with Billy more emotional than anything Hopper related.

Irish94

Not much love for Hopper's heart to heart letter here, I really really enjoyed that scene. Very emotional and nice end to the episode.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Irish94 wrote: »

Not much love for Hopper's heart to heart letter here, I really really enjoyed that scene. Very emotional and nice end to the episode.

I liked the letter but it felt like the only glimpse at S1/2 Hopper we got this season. It didn't have much impact for me though because at that point I was already sick of him.

I thought the way they edited the end scene was odd too, because we saw them all leave the house and drive away but then they did a montage over the letter of them leaving the house. I wonder was it added in as an after thought or something?

The Black Oil

Third episode brought the humour, which I liked and then had that horror nod of an ending. 4 I thought had good energy. And the car borrowing in 5 skirted a little close to self-indulgent for my tastes. I will say there's the odd moment where it's almost too light for me, just the odd fleck now and then e.g. Steve and Dustin.

As for Chief, interesting that this is a point of a discussion here too. The other day AV Club ran a headline that was in essence 'Why is Hopper an asshole Stranger Things 3?' or something to that effect, and I don't think they're the only outlet running that. I didn't click as I've not finished it yet, but yes, he's shouting an awful lot this year and is a little hard to root for. Glad they got Joyce out of her store and house. Did enjoy how she spoke her mind in 5.