So y'all binge watched Season 2 yet?
What did you think?
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What did you think?
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Stranger Things
- Thread starter Colonel Thunder
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I liked this season a lot, it had a satisfying ending - though I won't say more about that unspoiled.
I liked Hopper getting to adopt Eleven in the end and for her to get the chance to have a childhood that isn't filled with demons, or at least temporarily isn't.
I'm wondering where the series will go next, but there's a lot of hooks it could use - I'm just worried about whether it will keep the tone similar throughout.
I'm wondering where the series will go next, but there's a lot of hooks it could use - I'm just worried about whether it will keep the tone similar throughout.
I'm with Andy in that Steve is bae. I'm surprised but pleased that Season 2 gave him more cool stuff to do than Jonathan and Nancy.
The only thing that was weird to me was when episode 7 transported us from Hawkins into weird live action anime.
I really liked the Season 1 ending, but man I gotta hand it to season 2's ending. Even if it's just temporary, everything ended so well (minus the lost superhero). Everybody got to be happy and get what they wanted, and that winter ball was cute AF.
The only thing that was weird to me was when episode 7 transported us from Hawkins into weird live action anime.
Steve was great and all, but everybody knows that Bob was the true hero of this season.
Rest in peace you beautiful goonie. When they said he was the founder of the AV club, I knew exactly what they meant. Such a good tribute to the man who probably helped inspire a lot of what Stranger Things became through movies like the goonies, at least for the kids.
Fuckin' hell such a good season. Really the only slightly weak episode was Elevens dedicated episode, and even that was pretty good. Everything was fantastic, I wish Mike was nicer to Max. And holy FUCK when El snubbed Max as well, that fuckin girl HAS GONE THROUGH ENOUGH.
Bob is easily the season's MVP. That cunt is off chops. RIP, the second that fucking mop fell I knew life was too good to be true.
Really loved the Uneasy truce between the Lab and the main characters. The lab clearly did/still does some evil shit but they're also the only people that can help. Had a great dynamic. And the head scientist has a fantastic voice. What is that accent? I want that bloke to read an audio book, I don't care what, I'll listen to it.
Really vibed with Max and the broken home thing, thought it was a great addition to the kid group of "outcasts". That shit fucks people up.
Bob is easily the season's MVP. That cunt is off chops. RIP, the second that fucking mop fell I knew life was too good to be true.
Really loved the Uneasy truce between the Lab and the main characters. The lab clearly did/still does some evil shit but they're also the only people that can help. Had a great dynamic. And the head scientist has a fantastic voice. What is that accent? I want that bloke to read an audio book, I don't care what, I'll listen to it.
Really vibed with Max and the broken home thing, thought it was a great addition to the kid group of "outcasts". That shit fucks people up.
See, I liked Max and Billy as characters, but they didn't really add anything to the plot. Dustin catching Dart to impress Max? He's a weird enough kid that he would have done it anyways. Driving the boys to the hole? These kids are smart enough to have convinced Steve to take them. The tension between El and Max? Nothing really came out of it. Billy being an Asshole didn't need to happen to make Steve look better. Steve still got dumped by Nancy, he still became a big brother figure to Dustin, he still took care of the kids during the demodog attack.
I'm hoping they'll be important to the plot next season. I'm especially interested in how El develops now that she'll be able to have a "normal" life, even having a couple female friends.
And what happened to the dead demodog in the fridge? They stuffed it in there, went into the tunnel, and then fast forwarded to the Snow Ball.
I'm hoping they'll be important to the plot next season. I'm especially interested in how El develops now that she'll be able to have a "normal" life, even having a couple female friends.
And what happened to the dead demodog in the fridge? They stuffed it in there, went into the tunnel, and then fast forwarded to the Snow Ball.
Regarding the end of Tag's post, I want to see a scene released several months from now where an exhausted character opens the fridge and shits their pants.
A lot of what happens in the end and in episode 7 is meant to be set up for the next season. I'm gonna assume that after so many spoiler posts, people who haven't watched the show yet aren't clicking into this thread.
Kali's gang are absolutely going to come to town next season and they'll most likely be antagonists for the beginning half until the Mind Flayer makes another move. It tried to take over El when she was closing the gate, but she overpowered it, so I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Kali inadvertently finds a way to it or vice versa and she gets taken over, but that's just a guess.
El snubbing Max is a good sign that she's marking her territory more or less. She's always been more instinct than person, it's why there's such a heavy parallel between her and the Demogorgon in season 1. She acknowledges that the gate is her fault, that all of this was her fault, but she doesn't know how to say that, so she just says that she's the monster. It's that inability to communicate heavily and a focus on the instinct that she knows well which causes her to act as though Mike is hers (which he totally is) and that anyone who could potentially come between them is maybe not an enemy, but not a friend, not in the way she knows a friend to be. I'm sure things will cool down when she realizes Mike isn't interested in Max at all, but it was necessary for Max to be in the group for El to feel somewhat challenged in her place and become jealous. The whole season, for El at least, was about her being challenged to grow up and realize just how much potential she has while also maturing into more than just the instinctual monster. Dealing with her family life, realizing it's more complicated than she knew with her sister, putting Mama to "rest" so to speak, all points to her settling down in her place as Hop's daughter, Mike's girlfriend, the party's Mage, and the de facto head of the group when she needs to be. Maybe not a leader, but a boss ass bitch for sure.
Without Max, that element wouldn't have been there as heavily because El wouldn't have needed to be jealous over anything. That's not to say that it's literally all because of Max, but it is one puzzle piece that fits into things and makes things work properly.
As for Billy, I do feel that he should have been more involved in things to give him more of a purpose, but having an antagonist that's still human and facing human issues entirely unrelated to the mind flayer or demodogs is a good way of keeping the show grounded. "Remember to plant your feet." He's there to ground the story in the actually important issues going on while all of the paranormal stuff is happening too. Sadly, he could have done all of this while still also becoming involved in the paranormal stuff. Had he chased them into the tunnels or something and then seen the demodogs and realized holy shit, something is not right and my sister is involved in it big time, it would have left him at an important crossroads for season 3 if whether or not he actually cares about her, whether or not to get more involved with that side of things like Steve did at the end of season 1, and it would have given more footing to him being the evil side of normalcy, the antagonist who, while still being an asshole who doesn't want or need to be redeemed, serves a specific, clear purpose of grounding the audience and the main characters alike. It would show that life doesn't stop just because monsters attack the town.
With Billy, they didn't completely drop the ball, they just didn't succeed with him entirely or, better put, they didn't go as far with him as they should have. Taking the evil of normalcy all the way into the tunnels and having the two separate evils acknowledge each's existence would have been top notch, mostly because we'd get a totally human reaction to the demodogs and the tunnels while also getting another look at the paranormal reacting to someone who knows literally nothing about what they're walking into. We got a little of that with Max, but everyone else has some measure of experience with stuff like this now and they told Max all about last season. Bob was also all about helping Joyce, so his gung ho nature is somewhat motivated by that. It's not a pure reaction to what's going on, not entirely. Billy is one of the only human characters who could have reacted to the paranormal in a way that would have given a different angle on things, someone who has enough shit on their plate that doesn't want to get involved with "whatever the fuck is going on."
And I ended up making a huge post, fuck. Suffice it to say, I think Max and Billy served their purposes, but while Max was done well and served the right amount of purpose, Billy did not or at least not enough. They could have used both of them more effectively, but I think what we did get wasn't inherently bad or flawed, it just wasn't enough good stuff.
Kali's gang are absolutely going to come to town next season and they'll most likely be antagonists for the beginning half until the Mind Flayer makes another move. It tried to take over El when she was closing the gate, but she overpowered it, so I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Kali inadvertently finds a way to it or vice versa and she gets taken over, but that's just a guess.
El snubbing Max is a good sign that she's marking her territory more or less. She's always been more instinct than person, it's why there's such a heavy parallel between her and the Demogorgon in season 1. She acknowledges that the gate is her fault, that all of this was her fault, but she doesn't know how to say that, so she just says that she's the monster. It's that inability to communicate heavily and a focus on the instinct that she knows well which causes her to act as though Mike is hers (which he totally is) and that anyone who could potentially come between them is maybe not an enemy, but not a friend, not in the way she knows a friend to be. I'm sure things will cool down when she realizes Mike isn't interested in Max at all, but it was necessary for Max to be in the group for El to feel somewhat challenged in her place and become jealous. The whole season, for El at least, was about her being challenged to grow up and realize just how much potential she has while also maturing into more than just the instinctual monster. Dealing with her family life, realizing it's more complicated than she knew with her sister, putting Mama to "rest" so to speak, all points to her settling down in her place as Hop's daughter, Mike's girlfriend, the party's Mage, and the de facto head of the group when she needs to be. Maybe not a leader, but a boss ass bitch for sure.
Without Max, that element wouldn't have been there as heavily because El wouldn't have needed to be jealous over anything. That's not to say that it's literally all because of Max, but it is one puzzle piece that fits into things and makes things work properly.
As for Billy, I do feel that he should have been more involved in things to give him more of a purpose, but having an antagonist that's still human and facing human issues entirely unrelated to the mind flayer or demodogs is a good way of keeping the show grounded. "Remember to plant your feet." He's there to ground the story in the actually important issues going on while all of the paranormal stuff is happening too. Sadly, he could have done all of this while still also becoming involved in the paranormal stuff. Had he chased them into the tunnels or something and then seen the demodogs and realized holy shit, something is not right and my sister is involved in it big time, it would have left him at an important crossroads for season 3 if whether or not he actually cares about her, whether or not to get more involved with that side of things like Steve did at the end of season 1, and it would have given more footing to him being the evil side of normalcy, the antagonist who, while still being an asshole who doesn't want or need to be redeemed, serves a specific, clear purpose of grounding the audience and the main characters alike. It would show that life doesn't stop just because monsters attack the town.
With Billy, they didn't completely drop the ball, they just didn't succeed with him entirely or, better put, they didn't go as far with him as they should have. Taking the evil of normalcy all the way into the tunnels and having the two separate evils acknowledge each's existence would have been top notch, mostly because we'd get a totally human reaction to the demodogs and the tunnels while also getting another look at the paranormal reacting to someone who knows literally nothing about what they're walking into. We got a little of that with Max, but everyone else has some measure of experience with stuff like this now and they told Max all about last season. Bob was also all about helping Joyce, so his gung ho nature is somewhat motivated by that. It's not a pure reaction to what's going on, not entirely. Billy is one of the only human characters who could have reacted to the paranormal in a way that would have given a different angle on things, someone who has enough shit on their plate that doesn't want to get involved with "whatever the fuck is going on."
And I ended up making a huge post, fuck. Suffice it to say, I think Max and Billy served their purposes, but while Max was done well and served the right amount of purpose, Billy did not or at least not enough. They could have used both of them more effectively, but I think what we did get wasn't inherently bad or flawed, it just wasn't enough good stuff.
I completely agree with you. Like I said, I liked the characters, my problem with them is as a writer. they only have so much time to tell this story, but these characters are puzzle pieces that could have been left out entirely without drastically impacting the story, and with how much time and plot they took up they should have had a decent impact on the story.
What I'm saying is that their characters, as they turned out, were kind of a waste of resources (time and creativity) that could have been used elsewhere(fixing the Chicago Arc)
What I'm saying is that their characters, as they turned out, were kind of a waste of resources (time and creativity) that could have been used elsewhere(fixing the Chicago Arc)
I thought the city arc was totally fine. I wanted more of what we got, but I don't think it could have been improved by removing Max and Billy from the story prior to the arc. In fact, without Max, El would never have run from Mike at the school if Max hadn't been there to make her jealous.
Basically, well have to agree to disagree, mostly as, also from a writer's standpoint, Max and Billy represent the two sides of normalcy remaining in the story. Max's normalcy being the "holy shit this is weird, let's see where it takes us" to Billy's "holy shit you're all weird, what the fuck" and that sense of normalcy is necessary to keep the show grounded in reality. Without them, the show goes so far and away from being about these human characters and more about the plot beats and that's never what you want. Focusing on these characters as humans is necessary and while Max and Billy do take up time and effort, I don't think that time and effort is wasted on them. They serve a purpose for this story beyond being characters like El or Will. That grounding in reality is extremely important and needed to happen or else you get that silly J.J. Abrams mystery box effect where the audience is forced to focus on nothing but the plot because the characters and their motivations get left behind on the cutting room floor in favor of making everything about El, her powers, as well as the upside down and the mind flyer.
Max and Billy are our slice of life and they were needed to help ground of lot of these characters in reality. Steve, Dustin, Lucas, etc. I could keep going with that point, but I won't. While the overarching plot may not have been entirely affected by the two of them, Max and Billy serve greater roles in other ways as supporting characters to the main ones while building themselves up as main characters for season 3. They're part of the world building that needed to happen.
Basically, well have to agree to disagree, mostly as, also from a writer's standpoint, Max and Billy represent the two sides of normalcy remaining in the story. Max's normalcy being the "holy shit this is weird, let's see where it takes us" to Billy's "holy shit you're all weird, what the fuck" and that sense of normalcy is necessary to keep the show grounded in reality. Without them, the show goes so far and away from being about these human characters and more about the plot beats and that's never what you want. Focusing on these characters as humans is necessary and while Max and Billy do take up time and effort, I don't think that time and effort is wasted on them. They serve a purpose for this story beyond being characters like El or Will. That grounding in reality is extremely important and needed to happen or else you get that silly J.J. Abrams mystery box effect where the audience is forced to focus on nothing but the plot because the characters and their motivations get left behind on the cutting room floor in favor of making everything about El, her powers, as well as the upside down and the mind flyer.
Max and Billy are our slice of life and they were needed to help ground of lot of these characters in reality. Steve, Dustin, Lucas, etc. I could keep going with that point, but I won't. While the overarching plot may not have been entirely affected by the two of them, Max and Billy serve greater roles in other ways as supporting characters to the main ones while building themselves up as main characters for season 3. They're part of the world building that needed to happen.
Most scenes start the way they mean to end, which leads to a lot of weird dialogue that doesn't go anywhere and filler flashbacks to help you remember what happened 5 minutes ago. The addition of another love triangle (love pentagram really) derailed a lot of more interesting conversations.
Max, Dart, the double agent plotline/trap, and the hotbox all felt like they could have been wrapped up a lot faster if the characters didn't constantly forget to their own dialogue from previous scenes.
And christ guys, how did you lay down the map exactly correctly without knowing what it was? Half those pages are just straight pieces. And what kind of measurement shit was wrapping around corners and not counting the floor? Why wouldn't they try to make it flat first before running it all along the ceiling?
Also the military can't coordinate shit as well as a bunch of kids not using their walkie talkies.
And christ guys, how did you lay down the map exactly correctly without knowing what it was? Half those pages are just straight pieces. And what kind of measurement shit was wrapping around corners and not counting the floor? Why wouldn't they try to make it flat first before running it all along the ceiling?
Also the military can't coordinate shit as well as a bunch of kids not using their walkie talkies.
I actually really liked that Billy wasn't brought into the paranormal stuff, as I felt there needed to be an antagonist that wasn't aware of what was really going on just seeing a bunch of fucking weirdos getting him in deep shit by running off with his sister. Just like the mouth breathers in season one his slow gradual realization of what's going on while still being a major pain to the protagonists will be something worth watching. I just figure considering everything they had to fit into this season him realizing and being forced to make a choice would have been too rushed as it took until what Episode 8 for us to even begin to understand what pressures he's under and why he seems like such a complete piece of garbage.
As for the Kali stuff, I really hated it, not because I don't like delving into El's story but because setting it outside of Hawkins really didn't make it feel like I was watching a Stranger Things episode. I like the idea of other test subjects being out there, I like El finding them, but everything else about the gang and putting goth-y makeup on El just didn't jive with me. Maybe if the episode went back and forth a bit more and we got some regular Hawkins stuff it would have been a bit more tolerable but it really almost felt like a spin off pilot (even though the actress playing Kali denied that rumor).
(All that being said holy crap is Kali hot)
Bob is the man, but I knew he was dead meat the second he started talking about BASIC. Anatron I also was like how in the fuck are they finding anything with this taped up scribbled map and maybe I'm dumb but it went way over my head how Bob was able to figure it out with so little information. I felt like the map was a huge step down from the Christmas light alphabet.
I know it makes sense theme wise but there's no way even in 1984 that they're playing Every Breath You Take by the Police at a school dance (I know it was a number 1 song but holy crap even back then they knew that was an incredibly dark creepy song).
Lastly I'm really interested to see what they do for season 3 now that the Lab is no longer a factor, they were great villains in the first season and perfect untrustworthy allies in the second. I think they'll be hard to replace but I'm sure the writing team is up to the challenge.
I could go on for longer but I'll stop for now, great show, great season.
As for the Kali stuff, I really hated it, not because I don't like delving into El's story but because setting it outside of Hawkins really didn't make it feel like I was watching a Stranger Things episode. I like the idea of other test subjects being out there, I like El finding them, but everything else about the gang and putting goth-y makeup on El just didn't jive with me. Maybe if the episode went back and forth a bit more and we got some regular Hawkins stuff it would have been a bit more tolerable but it really almost felt like a spin off pilot (even though the actress playing Kali denied that rumor).
(All that being said holy crap is Kali hot)
Bob is the man, but I knew he was dead meat the second he started talking about BASIC. Anatron I also was like how in the fuck are they finding anything with this taped up scribbled map and maybe I'm dumb but it went way over my head how Bob was able to figure it out with so little information. I felt like the map was a huge step down from the Christmas light alphabet.
I know it makes sense theme wise but there's no way even in 1984 that they're playing Every Breath You Take by the Police at a school dance (I know it was a number 1 song but holy crap even back then they knew that was an incredibly dark creepy song).
Lastly I'm really interested to see what they do for season 3 now that the Lab is no longer a factor, they were great villains in the first season and perfect untrustworthy allies in the second. I think they'll be hard to replace but I'm sure the writing team is up to the challenge.
I could go on for longer but I'll stop for now, great show, great season.
Apparently they confirmed that Doctor Brenner is actually alive somewhere. They wanna bring the actor back in his original role, so we'll see Papa again.
How that's even possible since we saw him get eaten by the monster is beyond me. At least... I'm pretty sure we saw the demogorgon pounce on him in season 1.
How that's even possible since we saw him get eaten by the monster is beyond me. At least... I'm pretty sure we saw the demogorgon pounce on him in season 1.
It's also such a nice juxtaposition to Steve's actions in season one from memory. At the eleventh hour cool guy Billy just cared about himself, whereas cool guy Steve realised he needed to help out some people in trouble.
And look i'll take any plot device that furthers my love for Steve.
Andy we are truly brothers
We all took this journey friend, fear not <3
Steve loves and Steve forgives.