Stranger Things

[Katniss]

Ended up finishing the season about an hour ago  

Spoiler

 

Holy crap, Noah Schnapp's acting this season was so good. I really felt for Will and what he was going through.

Max is a great new addition to the group and I look forward to learning more about her next season. I agree with termi; I'm curious to see more of her home life. She and Lucas were cute together tbh. Billy, on the other hand, is a straight-up dick. Maybe he gets it from his dad?

I was honestly sad when Bob died because I really grew to like his character. He was kinda dorky but also so nice. #justiceforbob

Loved how Steve took care of the kids and developed a little friendship with Dustin.

I liked seeing Dustin and Lucas's families. Dustin's mom is lovey and Lucas's younger sister was hilarious. 

Hopper is Eleven's dad now and that makes me so happy. Eleven meeting her birth mom was heartbreaking, especially after El got that flashback of her mom and what happened to her after Eleven was taken away

I actually liked Steve and Nancy as a couple so I was a bit bummed to see them break up but I'm okay with Nancy and Jonathan. I'm happy that Nancy got to work out her feelings of grief and somewhat expose Hawkins Lab. Interested in what the ramifications of that tape coming out will be.

I wonder if Kali will come back into play later on. I thought it was interesting to spend an entire episode with Eleven and another girl who was experimented on and the episode was a cool yet unexpected break from the norm.

 

Overall I enjoyed this season a lot. I laughed, I cried, and I was on the edge of my seat. This season was such an enjoyable ride.

(And I recommend watching the Beyond Stranger Things episodes that start playing after you finish the finale. It's a cool little look back at the season with insight and behind-the-scenes info from the producers, creators, and stars of the show.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Katwoman

[terminoob]

10 hours ago, Katwoman said:

Ended up finishing the season about an hour ago  

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Holy crap, Noah Schnapp's acting this season was so good. I really felt for Will and what he was going through.

Max is a great new addition to the group and I look forward to learning more about her next season. I agree with termi; I'm curious to see more of her home life. She and Lucas were cute together tbh. Billy, on the other hand, is a straight-up dick. Maybe he gets it from his dad?

I was honestly sad when Bob died because I really grew to like his character. He was kinda dorky but also so nice. #justiceforbob

Loved how Steve took care of the kids and developed a little friendship with Dustin.

I liked seeing Dustin and Lucas's families. Dustin's mom is lovey and Lucas's younger sister was hilarious. 

Hopper is Eleven's dad now and that makes me so happy. Eleven meeting her birth mom was heartbreaking, especially after El got that flashback of her mom and what happened to her after Eleven was taken away

I actually liked Steve and Nancy as a couple so I was a bit bummed to see them break up but I'm okay with Nancy and Jonathan. I'm happy that Nancy got to work out her feelings of grief and somewhat expose Hawkins Lab. Interested in what the ramifications of that tape coming out will be.

I wonder if Kali will come back into play later on. I thought it was interesting to spend an entire episode with Eleven and another girl who was experimented on and the episode was a cool yet unexpected break from the norm.

 

Overall I enjoyed this season a lot. I laughed, I cried, and I was on the edge of my seat. This season was such an enjoyable ride.

(And I recommend watching the Beyond Stranger Things episodes that start playing after you finish the finale. It's a cool little look back at the season with insight and behind-the-scenes info from the producers, creators, and stars of the show.

Spoiler

100% agreed about Schnapp, particularly episodes 5-7 when the Mind Flayer was starting to take over. The seizure he had towards the end of 5 was horrifying.

I would hope Kali comes back into play. It felt like she had unfinished business that Eleven can help her with now that the Upside Down is (seemingly) taken care of - though I'd imagine Kali winds up in Hawkins rather than the other way around. Besides, she's only number 8. Logically there should still be 1-7, 9, and 10 still out there (if not more [unless I missed a bit in season one where they said every other test subject had died]), and if their dad is still alive and the Upside Down is closed, then it'd make sense to explore that plot for at least season three.

 

[Clappy]

Man where do I even start with this season?  It's been the one thing I've been wanting to comment on about here the most since the last time I logged on.

Spoiler

For starters, I do legitimately love this season.  Not as much as the first one, but I loved the slow build to the back half of this season where all the action happened...well except for that one episode, which I will comment on later.  Most of the characters are still freaking amazing, even though the chemistry still felt a bit off at times.  I get why they had Eleven separated from the group for nearly all of this season, but her chemistry with the guys really helped developed my adoration for this series.  But hey, it's not all bad because her chemistry she developed with Hopper was really special.  Next to Dustin and Steve, Eleven and Hopper were my favorite pairing of this season as we got to see Hopper become a parent again and Eleven have a real parental figure in her life that's not Brenner.  But speaking of Eleven, let's talk about the Upside Down.  One of the things the producers promised to explain more upon this season.  If anything, I understood more about the Upside Down in Season One far more than I did in Season 2.  Hell, I understand Will's connection to the Upside Down far more than I do Eleven's.  Eleven opened and closed the gate and has telekinesis yeah I get all that.  But if she has all that, shouldn't she also be able to destroy The Mind Flayer by association?  Closing the gate shouldn't be the only resolution to getting rid of that damn thing.  That may nitpicking on my part because I saw Eleven take down a demigorgon pretty easily this season.  But Joyce taking five whole episodes to try out her heat theory was insanely stupid when Will mentioned in Episode 4 that The Mind Flayer likes it cold.  Eh whatever.

So let's talk about Max and Billy.  I like the idea behind another new kid to the cast in theory.  But I did not like what Max brought to the table storywise.  She just felt ridiculously forced into everything going on, which at one point I felt like even the series acknowledged that by her constantly bringing up that she wasn't there the first season.  And it's not like Max didn't have chemistry with the gang because she absolutely did.  I just didn't see the point of including her in to everything's going on besides starting up drama between Lucas and Dustin as well as for Eleven to misinterpret flirtation with Mike.  As for Billy, I thought he was more interesting and I wanted to see more about him and what's going on with him.  He's clearly fucked up from growing up in an abusive household and his intense hatred for Lucas.  I sensed a bit of racism far more than I did him being protective of Max.  Out of all the new characters introduced this season, he's the one I want to find out more about in Season 3.

The Nancy/Jonathan/Steve love triangle is still a freaking mess.  Even as someone who shipped Nancy/Jonathan, I just couldn't believe how they treated them post hooking up.  It never got mentioned again and yeah I understand with how everything was picking up afterwards, but not even acknowledging it outside of the two smiling at each other in the final two minutes of the season is definitely not enough.  Hell, to be honest, I think I might have switched ships after this season to Nancy/Steve because Season 2 Jonathan was VERY boring.  If there was any character this season that got less interesting to me, it was Jonathan.  Season 1 Jonathan was charmingly awkward, despite being slightly creepy.  Remember when Jonathan was taking creepy pictures of Nancy last season?  Because this season surely forgot about that.  Steve Harrington on the other hand was the freaking MVP of this season.  Kinda like how Dustin was my favorite of the main cast last year, Steve was without a doubt my favorite of this year.  Even though I thought he redeemed himself last season, it's like the Duffys felt like he needed to be given even more likeable characteristics this season.  Right down to his amazing bonding with Dustin.  The two screen stealing characters from the past two seasons formed one hell of a bond that I can't wait to see more of.  I seriously want to see a more grown Dustin quoting KFC's slogan and spraying Farah Fawcett hairspray in his hair for a whole season like right now.  He was already charming enough and now he's too charming if at all possible, not a complaint mind you.   I've already lost count of how many times I've quoted him from this season on social media to my friends talking about this show.  

Let's talk about the Stranger Things kids.  All of them are such good actors.  We already knew Mike was a freaking rising star and that Dustin was the fan favorite of last season, but I think it's gone under the radar how good Lucas and ESPECIALLY WILL are.  Despite how much more screen time we got of Dustin's home life and his bond with Dart, every time I saw Lucas interact with his sister, it was equally as good.  And despite how useless Max still felt, his chemistry he formed with Max was genuine and real.  It made me happy to see them kiss at the end of the season because that relationship build was worth it.  And dear god Noah Schnapp did a damn good job acting this season.  His seizures scared the hell out of me far more than the jump scares from the demidogs did.  Like I had to mute the television at times and compose myself because they felt so freaking real.  Any thoughts I had about how well Will was going to be integrated in with his best friends for a whole season were immediately nixed.

Okay I pushed this off long enough.  I did not like Eleven's story.  I get why they did it because of course it needed to be built upon, but they could have resolved this in less than an episode if at all possible.  She could have seen what happened to her mom and then just went from there.  That entire Eleven bottle episode did absolutely nothing for me.  It was without a doubt the worst episode of the series, but even then, it wasn't that bad.  We knew that there were ten others out there.  But Christ, I just did not like Eight.  She was not an interesting character with the short amount of time we got to know her and her incredibly uninteresting cast of misfits.  I understand that we needed Eight as a moral compass for Eleven, but you know what could have made her inclusion worth it?  If we got the slightest bit of doubt from Eight as a character that she didn't need to be angry all the time to unleash all this built up anger she has.  Eight was such a fucking brat, which might have been the point, but there wasn't anything interesting enough for me to feel any sort of remorse.  I've read countless of online articles about The Duffy Brothers defending The Lost Sister and I can't say that I completely blame them for trying something new so we don't get more of the same.  But if this was an experiment for a Stranger Things spin-off of some sort, then this didn't work at all.

But yeah, despite everything I've said today, I do love this season.  It was worth the 24 hours of on and off binge watching.  I can't wait to see what's in store for Season 3.  Will the Upside Down be reopened?  Is Brenner still out there?  Are we going to get an entire subplot about #JUSTICEFORBOB (I hope not, Bob got a very good sendoff, even though he's an absolute fool for leaving the gun on the desk)?  Whatever may happen, this is still the best Netflix original series and is worthy of the massive cultural phenomenon that has come with it.

 

[terminoob]

9 hours ago, Clappy said:

Man where do I even start with this season?  It's been the one thing I've been wanting to comment on about here the most since the last time I logged on.

  Reveal hidden contents

For starters, I do legitimately love this season.  Not as much as the first one, but I loved the slow build to the back half of this season where all the action happened...well except for that one episode, which I will comment on later.  Most of the characters are still freaking amazing, even though the chemistry still felt a bit off at times.  I get why they had Eleven separated from the group for nearly all of this season, but her chemistry with the guys really helped developed my adoration for this series.  But hey, it's not all bad because her chemistry she developed with Hopper was really special.  Next to Dustin and Steve, Eleven and Hopper were my favorite pairing of this season as we got to see Hopper become a parent again and Eleven have a real parental figure in her life that's not Brenner.  But speaking of Eleven, let's talk about the Upside Down.  One of the things the producers promised to explain more upon this season.  If anything, I understood more about the Upside Down in Season One far more than I did in Season 2.  Hell, I understand Will's connection to the Upside Down far more than I do Eleven's.  Eleven opened and closed the gate and has telekinesis yeah I get all that.  But if she has all that, shouldn't she also be able to destroy The Mind Flayer by association?  Closing the gate shouldn't be the only resolution to getting rid of that damn thing.  That may nitpicking on my part because I saw Eleven take down a demigorgon pretty easily this season.  But Joyce taking five whole episodes to try out her heat theory was insanely stupid when Will mentioned in Episode 4 that The Mind Flayer likes it cold.  Eh whatever.

So let's talk about Max and Billy.  I like the idea behind another new kid to the cast in theory.  But I did not like what Max brought to the table storywise.  She just felt ridiculously forced into everything going on, which at one point I felt like even the series acknowledged that by her constantly bringing up that she wasn't there the first season.  And it's not like Max didn't have chemistry with the gang because she absolutely did.  I just didn't see the point of including her in to everything's going on besides starting up drama between Lucas and Dustin as well as for Eleven to misinterpret flirtation with Mike.  As for Billy, I thought he was more interesting and I wanted to see more about him and what's going on with him.  He's clearly fucked up from growing up in an abusive household and his intense hatred for Lucas.  I sensed a bit of racism far more than I did him being protective of Max.  Out of all the new characters introduced this season, he's the one I want to find out more about in Season 3.

The Nancy/Jonathan/Steve love triangle is still a freaking mess.  Even as someone who shipped Nancy/Jonathan, I just couldn't believe how they treated them post hooking up.  It never got mentioned again and yeah I understand with how everything was picking up afterwards, but not even acknowledging it outside of the two smiling at each other in the final two minutes of the season is definitely not enough.  Hell, to be honest, I think I might have switched ships after this season to Nancy/Steve because Season 2 Jonathan was VERY boring.  If there was any character this season that got less interesting to me, it was Jonathan.  Season 1 Jonathan was charmingly awkward, despite being slightly creepy.  Remember when Jonathan was taking creepy pictures of Nancy last season?  Because this season surely forgot about that.  Steve Harrington on the other hand was the freaking MVP of this season.  Kinda like how Dustin was my favorite of the main cast last year, Steve was without a doubt my favorite of this year.  Even though I thought he redeemed himself last season, it's like the Duffys felt like he needed to be given even more likeable characteristics this season.  Right down to his amazing bonding with Dustin.  The two screen stealing characters from the past two seasons formed one hell of a bond that I can't wait to see more of.  I seriously want to see a more grown Dustin quoting KFC's slogan and spraying Farah Fawcett hairspray in his hair for a whole season like right now.  He was already charming enough and now he's too charming if at all possible, not a complaint mind you.   I've already lost count of how many times I've quoted him from this season on social media to my friends talking about this show.  

Let's talk about the Stranger Things kids.  All of them are such good actors.  We already knew Mike was a freaking rising star and that Dustin was the fan favorite of last season, but I think it's gone under the radar how good Lucas and ESPECIALLY WILL are.  Despite how much more screen time we got of Dustin's home life and his bond with Dart, every time I saw Lucas interact with his sister, it was equally as good.  And despite how useless Max still felt, his chemistry he formed with Max was genuine and real.  It made me happy to see them kiss at the end of the season because that relationship build was worth it.  And dear god Noah Schnapp did a damn good job acting this season.  His seizures scared the hell out of me far more than the jump scares from the demidogs did.  Like I had to mute the television at times and compose myself because they felt so freaking real.  Any thoughts I had about how well Will was going to be integrated in with his best friends for a whole season were immediately nixed.

Okay I pushed this off long enough.  I did not like Eleven's story.  I get why they did it because of course it needed to be built upon, but they could have resolved this in less than an episode if at all possible.  She could have seen what happened to her mom and then just went from there.  That entire Eleven bottle episode did absolutely nothing for me.  It was without a doubt the worst episode of the series, but even then, it wasn't that bad.  We knew that there were ten others out there.  But Christ, I just did not like Eight.  She was not an interesting character with the short amount of time we got to know her and her incredibly uninteresting cast of misfits.  I understand that we needed Eight as a moral compass for Eleven, but you know what could have made her inclusion worth it?  If we got the slightest bit of doubt from Eight as a character that she didn't need to be angry all the time to unleash all this built up anger she has.  Eight was such a fucking brat, which might have been the point, but there wasn't anything interesting enough for me to feel any sort of remorse.  I've read countless of online articles about The Duffy Brothers defending The Lost Sister and I can't say that I completely blame them for trying something new so we don't get more of the same.  But if this was an experiment for a Stranger Things spin-off of some sort, then this didn't work at all.

But yeah, despite everything I've said today, I do love this season.  It was worth the 24 hours of on and off binge watching.  I can't wait to see what's in store for Season 3.  Will the Upside Down be reopened?  Is Brenner still out there?  Are we going to get an entire subplot about #JUSTICEFORBOB (I hope not, Bob got a very good sendoff, even though he's an absolute fool for leaving the gun on the desk)?  Whatever may happen, this is still the best Netflix original series and is worthy of the massive cultural phenomenon that has come with it.

 

Spoiler

I don't think I understand what you're getting at in regards to Eleven v. Mind Flayer. She's able to open and close the portal, but why would that mean she could destroy the Mind Flayer by association? Just because she can close the portal doesn't mean the Upside Down is gone or she has total control over the monsters in there. From my understanding that dimension just kind of exists on its own and she just so happens to have the power to access it (for whatever reason). If you open a door and there's a pack of hostile bears being led by a lion on the other side of it you don't have the power to just will that away. Your best bet is probably just lock the door back up and walk away because you're severely outclassed in that fight. I'm with you on not totally knowing Eleven's connection though - I thought her powers were influenced by the Upside Down or that she was the one manifesting the Upside Down (like her fears and anxieties personified themselves into these things because of her powers and the Upside Down is really a symbol for her subconscious and inner thoughts, which is why she can access it and traverse that weird astral plane and her fears and anxieties were really amplified this season so that'd explain the Demidogs and how powerful the Mind Flayer is compared to the Demigorgon and why Hopper needed to be with her when she closed the portal because she needed that love and security to be able to shut her monsters out for good and whatnot [or maybe it's a place where everyone's fears and anxieties exist, who knows]), but I think she honestly might be nothing more than a key to a lock (why she was made who the fuck knows).

I liked Max's inclusion to the group just because a transfer kid was a very real life thing to have happen (maybe an 80s movie thing too but off the top of my head I can't recall any movies with a transfer kid other than Clueless). I think she could've been integrated better, but I liked the idea to add in a new kid to open up storylines and character relationships. We got a lot out of the dynamics of the group last season, and she was an interesting curveball to throw in there (except for that ridiculous "flirty" scene with Mike because it felt like the only reason that was there was to keep Eleven out of the group just a little bit longer).

Good to hear I'm not the only one that had a problem with Eleven's story this season. One of the biggest problems I had was just how long it took to get resolved. If we didn't get that tease of Eight as the opening scene of the season then I might've liked it a bit more, but having that on the back burner all season was just... an odd story choice. Have that as the stinger at the end of the episode leading into Eleven going to find her, not as the hook of the season that doesn't deliver until the season's almost over. It felt like we should've been introduced to Eight in, like, episode two or something.

 

[Katniss]

Season 3 trailer is here!!!

 

[WhoBibbles]

1 hour ago, Katniss said:

Season 3 trailer is here!!!

 

Yay Steve and Dustin!!!

Best duo of last season. So fucking can't wait for this season.