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

pixelburp

Yeah, I saw Season 3's behaviour as similar to the above; that Will was suffering from arrested development or PTSD, given his experiences in the Upside Down. Everyone else was having a dose of the hormonal adolescents & Will wanting to recapture those days of just playing D&D.

Do remember the "... don't like girls" line though, and remember at the time wondering if there was more subtext going on.

Dodge

I thought that line was fairly pointed. The poster is clearly for Mike.

[SPOILER]There’s also the bit early on in season 4 when a girl in his class tries to play footsy with him and he recoils in horror [/SPOILER]

It can’t be a surprise IMO

2smiggy

anyone had a chance to watch the new episodes ? any spoiler free thoughts

d22ontour

The length of the last episode wasn't the issue people were making it out to be.

gmisk

I thought episode one of the final two was solid. At least it moved things along a bit. Still a lot of ground to cover in the last bumper episode!

The Russian part is still be far the least compelling which is a shame because the actors are excellent.

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Good riddance Papa...you twat!

It's been hinted the Will character is gay a few times. The chat in the pizza van was fairly obviously partially about him, you could tell by his brothers face. It makes sense they address it at some stage directly though probably. All the other young characters have had love interests or crushes.

Penn

Thought both episodes were great, some fantastic moments and scenes.

Theory regarding next season:

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I'm guessing Vecna has possessed Max, and that Max herself is dead. That's why Eleven couldn't find her when she went into her mind in the hospital.

They missed a chance to offload a few of the characters though. Only for it'd probably completely ruin Joyce, I'd be killing off Will and his brother whose name I can't even remember because he's just so nothing. Hope Argyle doesn't come back, his schtick got old after about 2 episodes. Wish Eddie would have made it but what a way to go out, he was one of the highlights of the whole season.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119278044#Comment_119278044

Why did you spoiler one bit and then give away a huge spoiler afterwards. Guess I know who dies now.

El Gato De Negocios

Just finished second last episode, really enjoyed it and the finale is nicely set up. Won't see it til Sunday so will avoid in here til then. Just want to mention the choices of music, feckin brilliant.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119278093#Comment_119278093

I spoilered a theory I have about the next season, because it may relate to future episodes.

I didn't spoiler who dies because it's commonly accepted that for streaming shows where all episodes are released at once, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read the thread until you've watched the episodes, because people can't have different discussions at different levels based on what episodes people may or may not have watched yet.

But fine, I've gone back and tagged it. Sorry, but if you haven't seen both episodes and you're on the thread, you're likely to be spoiled.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119278431#Comment_119278431

Whilst I agree with full season drops and spoilers to be expected it should be in the title spoilers ahead

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119278431#Comment_119278431

Fair enough I didnt know the new episodes had dropped yet so I came on. I just thought it odd you would spoiler some stuff and I dont see why you need to spoiler a theory tbh when all it is is speculation over actual stuff that happened.

johnny_ultimate

Thought the first of the two episodes suffered from the surplus of subplots and moving pieces, but to be fair they really pulled it all together for a suitably epic finale. Now I still think they could have shaved a good 30 mins off it without losing much - it’s no spoiler to say there are lots of character epilogues to get through, and plenty of scenes go on and on - but the action was suitably tense and the setup for the final season certainly well handled. At least there seems to be more of a plan this time, after much of this season was spent attempting to fix some of the tangents and dead-ends they sent characters off on at the end of season three. Maybe that was planned too, but it made for often frustrating television.

Maybe I’m being extra generous after seeing the embarrassing mess Disney made of Obi-Wan Kenobi (a show with action so bland it makes the terrible Rise of Skywalker look good), but at least you can see the absurd amount of money Netflix put behind this come through on screen. It’s still an obscene amount of money, but hey at least it’s well spent. But it’s well crafted beyond mere production values - some of the propulsive cross-cutting during the big, high-stakes climaxes was impressively handled.

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I would agree an opportunity was missed to not slim down the cast a bit more than they chose to - poor old Eddie was a fun and charismatic addition who sadly seemed set up to be killed, while some of the others who’ve long since run out of much narrative or character road are still about. For a season that had extremely high stakes, it almost feels like there needed to be more loss to really communicate the weight and impact of proceedings.

I usually reject the idea that shows need to kill off lead characters for narrative payoff, but for a show weighed down by the sheer amount of characters battling for screen time there was a good opportunity to tidy things up a bit for the final season. I mean, they (clinically) killed Max* on screen only to resurrect here then.

At least they’re all back in (Hellmouth) Hawkins now! And the psychotic jock got a suitably ruthless death.

*veering into the realm of dreaded nitpicking here, but the whole ‘Max is Vecna’s chosen one to kickstart the apocalypse’ conceit seemed a tad half-baked.

flazio

Watched episode 8 last night, episode 9 is the big movie tonight. Not much of a spoiler as it happens early on in the episode, but if you didn't see Will's true feelings in this episode, you never will.

PsychoPete

That was a fantastic series of television!

Spoiler Warning

Eddie blasting master of puppets on the roof of the trailer was pretty epic. Turned out to be a great character and a shame he went out like that. I do think they should have killed off one of the main characters aswell

Basq

Great final 2 episodes but like the end of season 3, could have lost a good 25 minutes off the end.

CastorTroy

Great finale and sets up the next season well.

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I agree they could do with cutting down the cast a bit. But while the likes of Jonathan are expendable, they probably don't want to deal with the fallout. Like for Eddie and Max by skipping ahead 2 days the immediate fallout was over and we got the scene with Dustin and Eddie's dad.

Of course it's a trap a lot of shows fall into. They don't want to kill off fan favourites. Look at something like Game of Thrones where early on they set it up that anyone could die, but as soon as they caught up with the books that changed.

As for Will, Jonathan was picking up on what he was saying, but it had me wondering would that have been something people would pick up on back then? At least Robin acknowledged the reaction she would get if people knew about her.

I thought Susie was going to go with them from her house.

Always weird seeing the Irish Film Industry thanked in these things. Didn't realise any of it was done in Ireland. But I do see them thanked more often these days.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119282666#Comment_119282666

I thought it was his uncle not dad?

CastorTroy

Ah yeah. Forgot.

Slydice

I got about 20 to 30 seconds in and then I was like.. nope I need that recap of the first seven.

It did help I think...

Watch This Before Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 | Netflix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec-EIWNGAZc

4.8: This reconnected me to the first seven episodes and that's fine I think. I needed a reconnect since the others felt like a binge and there was something of a disconnect from the wait.

Looking forward to the finale! I can imagine there's going to be

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some sort of big battle and it'll come down to vecna/henry/one (is he going to be nicknamed the slasher?) and Eleven.

It was cool seeing everyone all powered up .. both in Hawkins and at the base with Eleven.

I am guessing Eleven will get to Hawkins through that Nellis Air Force Base connection and Hopper and Joyce will also get there around the same - ish - time.

From the line from Brenner/Papa about wanting to keep Eleven back.. I'm almost guessing he thinks she has a bigger powerup in her. Maybe there's something big setup for a next season in that. Possibly a battle with the Soviets and their army of Mindflayer and Demogorgons.. who knows.

Azatadine

The last episode was way, way too long and full of fluffy filler.

Slydice

Finished! Right, I think it was a mistake to split it in two and whoever gets to binge the lot will have a better experiernce.

Overall it felt solid and had strong moments. Felt a bit like it dodged going all-out in return for a setup for a season 5.

4.10: I thought there was some solid moments in this. I think they did well holding together a story that was happening across so many locations. I never felt lost when a scene changed. I did think they had the option with the story to wrap it all up or setup for a season 5 and they went the season 5 route.

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The coolest scene had to be Eleven arriving to the fight, grabbing Vecna/Henry/One (any word on whether he's gonna be called slasher or slashes? 🙂)

The whole pulling him back and holding him immobilsed mid-air was cool.

I thought the use of Moby and When It's Cold I'd Like to Die was a bad choice for the deaths.. I thought they could've leaned better into the Kate Bush Running up that hill song at that point. A sad slow a cappella mix might have worked there.

Then Moby and When It's Cold I'd Like to Die might have felt more consistent with the season one use.. in either the scene where Dusty tells Eddies uncle Wayne about Eddie... or when Eleven reunited with Hopper/Will reunited with Joyce.

The ending was cool though. Feels like there's a huge battle gonna kick off. The main crew are on site, the baddies are on site, the military are there .. both sides I think.

Future: Yeah, a season 5 on the way for sure, no doubt! 🙂

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Eleven gonna be powering up like Dragonball Z I suspect! .. which might well be cool.

Also expecting it to feel a bit more like end-80s/early-90s just based on how the colouring and feel changed at the end of the last episode.

I have to throw a shout-out to Joseph Quinn playing Eddie Munson who totally reminded me of Robert Downey Jr. / Tony Stark at many different points in the season.

gmisk

Spoiler Warning

Finished last episode. Overall really enjoyed it, I did take a break I must admit. They definitely blew the budget. I must admit I kind of thought they might kill off some of the main characters....but who did we lose in that episode?

-Eddie? (new this series but really good)

-Boring main jock 1....zzz.

-Max still alive in a coma so clearly will play a role in next series.

At least the Jonathan character actually finally got to do something approaching acting in this episode.

The kid playing Dustin got to show he can act the scene opposite Eddie's dad he was excellent.

I don't think the kid who plays Will is a great actor I must say....

But so glad they are all back together again especially Hopper and Eleven.

Sets up nicely for the final series god knows where it will go (let's hope it is the final one...we don't need spin offs etc either! But I doubt Netflix are going to want it to end)

flazio

@gmisk The Duffers have already announced that Season 5 will be the last. They're already working on a new project with MBB.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119286598#Comment_119286598

I know that....but spin offs...Netflix will definitely want them let's be honest

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Just finished the last episodes tonight. Weirdly I think they could have both trimmed about half an hour off and/or split that last episode into 2 episodes pretty easily. The point where [Redacted] appears in the gym was almost exactly the half way point of that episode. Would have had people clicking the "next episode" button immediately if it faded to black then.

I agree with what most people have said already. There's still too many cast members, too many characters to be trying to divide storylines between. I really liked Will's little personal side plot and his scene with Jonathan was lovely, but that aside the entire California crew (bar Eleven) could have been off screen all season and it wouldn't have mattered. They felt shoehorned into Eleven's storyline and they probably could have had her do all she did from the lab anyway. Tweak a bit here and there and that all could have played out the same way.

I'm not actively rooting for anyone to die but it does feel like someone other than newbies should be dying here and there. I would have left Hopper dead in S3 though, no question. Again that storyline felt like something shoehorned into the main plot just to keep him around.

All in all though, despite the above complaints, I thought S4 was a return to form and assuming S5 picks up immediately and we're straight into the action, the bloated case might not be as big a problem as it was this season.

lynchie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119282666#Comment_119282666

Dublin based vfx company involved in it https://ssvfx.ie/about/ Assume they received funding through screen Ireland hence the govt recognition in the credits

Thecageyone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119283244#Comment_119283244

I agree, the last 2 ep's are way too overblown tbh, and some of the characters just come off nauseating for it - Like Will, Max and Mike and Eleven! it's getting very tiresome - how many close ups of her struggling with her powers do we really need??

How do we do spoiler tags btw? the old method does not work

Dodge

Loved both episodes. Don’t think they dragged at all. Every season has had its ‘after the final battle’ scenes and these were all useful in setting up season 5

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119287093#Comment_119287093

To spoiler tag, highlight the text you want spoilered, then click on the Edit Paragraph icon (image of same shown below). It's either at the bottom of the text box on mobile, or at the left side of the text box on browser.

Then click on the Quotation marks and an option for spoiler tagging should appear.

Penn

One issue I had with the ending:

Spoiler Warning

I was hoping that given the actors ages and how they've gone well past their characters ages, we might get a bit of a time jump. I think this season was set in 86, so setting the final season in 89 and ending the 80's with the final season of the show would make sense. But given how S4 ends, it's hard not to see the next season having to pick up exactly where this one ended, which means the gulf in ages will become even more apparent.