Stranger Things

[Dogg Thang]

I am also only two episodes in and having a totally different experience to you. I love that they are really leaning into the horror in this one. Getting a lot of Elm Street vibes. I find myself invested in the kids a lot and I think I would compare that to season 2. That season lacked a kind of central hook in the way season 1 had, and so it became a character season and maybe that worked for some and not others but I went with it and I find myself going with it here too. The only thing is that I find myself oddly disinterested in the Hopper elements.

[Asura]

Maybe that's part of the problem; I'm finding the horror really ineffective.

->Open Spoiler<-

Like there's horror and there's horrific.

I think any movie or show can put something horrific onscreen.

Like you can have a movie show a possessed dog savage a child, or something, and while it might make me wince from the utter barbarity of it, I don't always find it scary just because someone's bleeding. Go far enough it might even make me feel slightly ill, but not necessarily scared.

To use another analogy, it's kinda like why it can be painful to watch a character remove a splinter in a movie, but then you see someone get torn in half in Starship Troopers and it's weirdly not as bad - because I've never been torn in half, but I've had a splinter (and I guess your brain does gymnastics to shield you from picturing it too much).

I found parts of season 1 genuinely scary. But I haven't felt that way about any of season 4. The closest it got was with the bit with the kid in the car, when the cop "recognises" him and that's part of the hallucination.

EDIT: I should add, this isn't really meant as a criticism of the show. "What scares you" varies from person-to-person and I'm sure there are plenty people who find s4 terrifying. Just for me, specifically, the "cosmic horror" elements of s1 were closer to what in fiction tends to terrify me.

[Neon Ignition]

Episode 3: Somewhat better but I think it's because it gives a sense of the season is finally going to move past the padding

[Neon Ignition]

Keeping it simple as it gets more into spoiler territory otherwise but Episode 4 = Much better

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I thought the start of ep4 was messy with so many threads but it really came together and ended on a high.

[Colin]

It's been a bit up and down but on the whole enjoyable for us. Episode 7 was, despite some glaringly obvious plot points, a tremendous way to finish the first half, loved it.

[Neon Ignition]

Finished the whole of Part 1 now, curious what Part 2 covers as from what has been delivered so far it doesn't need the gap at all. It definitely improves as it goes along and we got back into it. The only thing that never clicked with us was every single thing about 'Russia', such a drawn out drag that taps into how much the show sinks whenever characters are separated out from each other. Considering Eps 8 and 9 weren't made on their own they should be decent based on this though.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, I feel like the Russian story could have been wrapped in two episodes. But that must be related to the fact that there are so many characters now too. There were six or so separate story strands going on in every episode, which seemed a little excessive and it meant some of those strands really just got a few minutes per episode. But to me that had the effect of making them feel like they were going on forever rather than just getting the focus in a couple of episodes and moving on.

[Neon Ignition]

Definitely, toward the end:

->Open Spoiler<-

I feel like the Russia arc was unnecessary and weirdly stretched credibility too much

The jock boyfriend arc kind of petered out once he'd riled the townsfolk

And Will, Jonathon and Mikes road trip veered into padding as well with them going to that daft kids house then largely disappearing from the last episode.

I don't think that the missions to save Eleven or Hopper by the others works. It's the same issue Season 2 had of separating characters and distracting from the main plot to no gain, most if not all of those strands could be done faster and take place within Hawkins thereby removing the cheesy practicality issues too.

[Lebowski]

The big end reveal ties in Elevens links to the upside down perfectly and was a really satisfying end to the current run

->Open Spoiler<-

Pushing No1 into another dimension so he cant harm anyone loops it all back round nicely to how eleven opened the upside down and alerted what was their to the presence of our world, No1 being a foot solider for the mindflayer makes perfect sense with the timeline too and creates a nice loop back to the events of the Hawkins lab

Stick with them if your not sure like i was mid season the duffer brothers know what their doing. I didn't mind the length of episodes as it was nice that all aspects of the story got the attention it deserved.

[Neon Ignition]

There's two episodes left so this might be explained but I have thought of one thing that in retrospect I find questionable:

->Open Spoiler<-

Max's survival in Episode 4. It was a strong episode at the time and a good scene but in light of what Episode 7 reveals I find it incredibly unlikely that she would escape, the villain is way to OTT powered even before becoming what he is now

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah. I mean, it's made up so they can add any weakness they want and I'm guessing they'll have to cover why that particular weakness is a thing but, yes, it has been left unexplained so far. My other related question (and this may be there and I missed it) is:

->Open Spoiler<-

Why is it he only starts killing people again now after all those years? Is there a trigger or a reason for that? The Upside-Down has been pretty open for a while now.

In spite of the questions, I felt that reveal was very cool. Up until that episode, I didn't see it coming. And when it did, it answered a whole bunch of other questions I had.

[Neon Ignition]

->Open Spoiler<-

I think it was out the gate that we clicked he was number One, he had too much prominence and the character was too undocumented, but we didn't really piece him as being the same character as the season villain till sometime in the final ep itself.

It's definitely a puzzler as to why Vecna wasn't used in prior seasons to break through the Upside Down but, no idea if it'll be true, I've seen it speculated whether it will be revealed that

->Open Spoiler<-

Vecna is actually the main villain and he controls the Mind Flayer so has spent each season building his powers from being cast there through the victims in each season. I guess that would tie in with the MF's ability to understand English, the frozen in time element of the upside down and the main bond being between Vecna and the large spider-like Mind Flayer

[Dogg Thang]

I would find that pretty surprising.

->Open Spoiler<-

The Mind Flayer itself feels like the bigger, more cosmic threat. Even what Vecna has been doing in this season seems smaller and more personal. It's possible though and it does make a few things fit, I guess.

[Asura]

Hang on-

->Open Spoiler<-

Did I mis-hear? Someone said above they thought that Vecna was working for the Mindflayer; I thought that Dustin said it was the other way around?

My understanding is that Vecna is the big bad, and always was.

This is part of what I disliked about it, so I want to know if I literally mis-heard the one line where this is discussed.