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

Slydice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119156235#Comment_119156235

Good question I think and I'm not sure. Something I wondered about too. What came to mind was

Spoiler Warning

At first as 001 was flying in it, the placelooked so similar to the hollow earth place in the latest Godzilla vs Kong file.

I think key there was that it looked kind of primordial or untouched in an upside-down sense. No vines obvious.

The episodes displayed 001 and 011 are both very powerful.

They didn't establish who has the most power but they are very close either way. They had both spent some powers doing different things when the came into conflict.

A key point seems to be Nancy spotting the upside-down creation date being the moment 001 and 011 had their showdown.

SO... all together then.. what comes to mind for me is:

- they both threw in huge amounts of their power/energy at the same time

- combined they made a huge power/energy force

- probably it's the combination/clash of their power/energy which ripped open/created this upside-down world/multi-verse/parallel universe thing

- 001 got chucked in and probably the monstrousness of the place was more him changing it and without him it may well have been a kind of lifeless snapshot of the world at the moment of the 001/011 clash

Mad_maxx

Was I the only one who spotted weird psych ward guy as Vecna early on ?

Thecageyone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119159807#Comment_119159807

Define 'early on' - because he really only came into it near the end, Hindsight is great

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119159972#Comment_119159972

I mean episode seven early on , before they even showed his back story

TheValeyard

I really enjoyed it. Very good season overall... So far.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119160785#Comment_119160785

You might want to spoiler that first post, just to be safe.

Spoiler Warning

As for figuring it out, I swear I saw the actor's name in one of the earlier episodes but he himself wasn't in it, so I assumed he was playing Vecna, so technically I had it figured out very early on, but completely by accident. I hadn't made the connection to the young boy though, mainly because I forgot it's set in the 80s so I didn't think the age lined up.

flazio

Just finished episode 4.

Sadie Sink, just, wow.

Hope that girl has a bright future ahead. She deserves it.

Also side note, I've been loving the pair up of Nancy and Robin.

2smiggy

Found that the best season yet. Really looking forward to the last 2 episodes. Like 2 movies really !

The Black Oil

Watched episode 4 last night. I'm more interested in the setting and characters' personalities, motivation and interaction than the Upside Down, etc.

Also, shout out to the colossal walkie talkies.

Homelander

Really enjoyed it and the attention to detail is just superb - a really top notch production and the actors are fantastic.

My only gripes would be the Russia plot was a bit ham-fisted and a few characters - Will and Lucas spring to mind - are pretty much just window dressing at this point.

But very solid entertainment and an easy recommend. Only two extended episodes left to wrap it all up - not just the main plotlines, but a ton of smaller scale threads as well that I presume they will seek to give some closure to.

flazio

How is this working again? A couple more episodes of Season 4 in a couple of weeks, then The Final Season 5 later next year?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119165200#Comment_119165200

Two feature length episodes at start of July to finish S4 and set up S5. Then S5 at some point in the future. I don't think they've started filming it yet, so next year might be optimistic.

PsychoPete

I thought season 4 was the last, didn't think they could drag it out for another season

dominatinMC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119165239#Comment_119165239

I thought they were finishing with S4? Didn't know there was going to be another

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119165480#Comment_119165480

Nope. S5 is the last one. Shouldn't be as long a wait between 4 and 5, but given they're literally still working on these last 2 episodes of S4, I can't realistically see S5 being out until 2024.

Snake Plisken

Well I spent the entire Bank Holiday Binging Stranger Things. I had watched Season 1 before and loved it and I had started watching episode 1 of Season 2 when it first released but it didn't catch me like the first season So I had heard that Season 4 was as good as the first so decided to catch upnand happy that I did enjoyed all episodes it was great as always love the throw back references to 80's movies and nostalgia. Even small references live I was watching episode 5 when Hopper was speaking with Damitri I recognised the music from the end credits of the Hitcher. Had to double check it and yes it was!

Also great to see the use of Running up the hill being used as Max's theme and love that it has opened up a new audience to Kate Bush. Saw this on Facebook that she is delighted about it's use in the show

Amenhotep

Just saw Ep 4 "Dear Billy" .. wow what an episode, and what an actor that Max kid is - brilliant.

All the characters in this show are really well cast...

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I was looking at Netflix's weird viewing figures and they're saying Stranger Things was watched for 5.1 billion minutes over it's first weekend. Roughly speaking there's about 10 hours in the season, so basic maths says if we assume that those 5billion minutes were all 1 individual account binging all 7 episodes, that's about 50 million people. Which seems about right, I think. Given it's a global release.

Also possible that's 100 million accounts getting through half the episodes at a slower pace.

I don't know why they uses these weird metrics but I think it's safe to say it's a success.

Snake Plisken

It's good that it continues to be a success for Netflix. With the recent stock decline they have been cancelling a lot of shows although I wonder will they cut back on some of the budget for season 5 seeing as its $30M per episode.

I do expect season 5 will be split in two to keep subscription numbers up. I'm kind of surprised they don't go with an episode a week that would reduce the amount of customers leaving the service.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I think the weekly release of episodes should have been their first step when trying to turn things around recently. Maybe not for everything, but they could seriously reduce their output if they didn't feel the need to have something big and new nearly every week.

That said, I'm not sure they'll do it with Stranger Things. I saw the Duffers reply to Stephen King on twitter when he said it was "lame" that they split the season. They basically said it had to be split because they were still, at that point, working on the episodes. New run times were released yesterday, so I assume they've finished now.

pixelburp

Seems like the best of both worlds would be ala Amazon: release 3 or 4 episodes in one go then weekly for the rest. Tease people in then stagger out the hype for a little longer.

But if nothing else Netflix seem a bit all over the place with decisions, while also appearing a bit stubborn too.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168907#Comment_119168907

I like that they split it as it means that binge watchers cant accidentally spoil things for people who have to watch it slowly. At least we can mostly enjoy the finale together.

johnny_ultimate

I get that season splits are a practical way to deal with lengthy post-production (as well as buy a platform or TV network some prolonged interest in their big-name shows), but a 7/2 episode split is still a bit odd to me. I mean, there is a relatively natural break narratively, but something closer to a 50/50 split still seems like a better way to handle it, ala Better Call Saul.

CastorTroy

Haven't read all the comments here about season 4 so I'm sure I'll be repeating things.

The whole Hopper storyline, while I liked it did take away from the more interesting Hawkins story. Same with Will and Mike. Thankfully not too much time was spent with Will and Mike.

Lucky that Dustin gave them his girlfriend's exact address and they remembered it.

Good to see they had a poster for The Last Dragon in the video shop.

Brief_Lives

I also agree that the Russian thing is a bit pointless,

Spoiler Warning

the fact that they were able to hijack the plane, get into the the russian prison, not to mention the fact that Hopper was able to escape and get caught again... just didn't fit in this story....

I will say it was a nice surprise to see Jaqen H'ghar again..

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168973#Comment_119168973

I think they wanted it to launch on that weekend in the US because its like a big holiday long weekend type of thing. And the only way to do it was to split it, but as you say, they could have split it differently and kept some of the eps back for the second half.

Although pacing wise it felt like it was either where they did split it, or after episode 4, it didn't really feel like there was any other "natural" splitting point.

Snake Plisken

I think a perfect split would have been at the end of episode 4. Where it fades to black that would have been a real cliffhanger with a main character's fate hanging in the balance. Also don't understand why the last two being nearly 4 hours in total they couldn't split them out to 3 or even 4 1 hour episodes.

Anyway looking forward to how they wrap this season, I'll be trying to watch it on the July 1st before we seeing something on YouTube that could potentially spoil it for us.

The Black Oil

Bunch of articles out there saying peanut butter was more so hard to find, rather than banned in the USSR. In case anyone was concerned.

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119170261#Comment_119170261

I didn't even give that a second thought because it sounded like a Russian thing to do

The Black Oil

Peanut butter is the cornerstone of the decadent West alright.