"Stranger Things" Season 4

Ep 5: Everyone spread out in Vecna's house for no reason! :D

And what a Kate Bush flurry I've been in all day now. I don't want it to end.
 
The guy with the long hair looking like CHER from the back is also making me smile.

These kids must have a pocket full of batteries to keep using these walkie talkies.
 
I hope Erica gets a bigger role in the next batch. I've re-started 7 after getting distracted by YouTube.
 
Really hoping the big finale is them doing the dance routine to Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) to defeat Vecra.

Can't believe volume 2 is only 2 episodes - I just assumed we were getting another batch of 7.
 
WOW at that first episode. The editing and pacing is actually quite marvellous, the way they present all the different new arcs simultaneously and the seamless transitions and sequencing was so clever. The poignancy of Max’s troubles mixed with the quirkiness of the Russian doll drama, and the mish mash of all the high school tropes. They’re entering sacred territory now that they’re in an 80s high school, but It never feels corny or even a pale imitation of the 80s movies - the costumes and music are all on point. The new characters are strong and well introduced and the ending/climax was genuinely creepy.

I’m very impressed!
 
Well that was an absolute ride. I don't think I've ever finished a series (albeit half of one) that quickly.

This season is definitely a step up, possibly the most fun since the first season and I'd argue the most well made season yet in terms of acting, directing etc.

SO many easter eggs it was easy to lose track and I need to go on a reddit black hole to find them all. Some really obvious and some wonderfully subtle... @COB I hope you spotted the Paul Reiser character calling El "kiddo"? :disco:

The only bit I wasn't keen on was the El / lab scenes, they started to drag and I just wanted to skip but I knew they were going to be part of the big reveal. Unfortunately I figured out very early that
the other helper was 001 and he was responsible for the deaths, not Eleven
but the larger spoiler
that he's actually the 'wizard' and that El had opened the original gate
I didn't see coming so it was, in the end, worth waiting for.

I think I like all the new characters, they're all playing other John Hughes / Robert Zemeckis / Steven Spielberg characters but it's done so well so who cares?

And the girl playing Max for all the awards, please.
 
Sadie Sink is a wonderful name and I agree definitely the stand out in this.

It is a big cast but most of the younger actors have turned out pretty good, and they have done well at pushing forward the better ones. I mean the characters that vanished for the last couple of episodes were not exactly missed.

I did really enjoy this run (especially the big Max one and the last one) but the episode lengths did feel a bit of a struggle a couple of times. The Eleven storyline was necessary but did feel repetitive, and I'm not sure that the vigilante basketball team warranted so much time.
 
I enjoyed it a lot but felt that splitting the cast up into five separate storylines made things difficult at times- were Mike, Will and Jonathan etc. even in that last episode? Their storyline seems entirely superfluous to this point.

The big reveal about YOU KNOW WHO I saw coming a mile off, but lovely little set up for the final two episodes.

And yes to a much larger part for Erica, please!
 
So I thought this was pretty great up until episode 4, but TBH the last three really dragged for me.

Maybe it'll all connect up in the end, but I'd really prefer that Hopper stayed dead. That entire plotline was just dead air and Murray irritatingly mugging for me. They didn't even give Winona anything to do.

The El getting her powers back plot was also just dull for me, and very repetitive. The last episode just felt like 90 minutes of exposition. It was also really fucking obvious where it was going.

I'd like it if they went back to basics for the next season and just focused on the 'kids' (who are now in their 20s to early 30s :D )
 
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I’ve really enjoyed S4 apart from the rubbish CGI and a few storyline’s (the vigilante’s, and Joyce and Hopper) which could have been cut and not made a difference.
There just is no justification for these long episodes when you’ve got these unnecessary and uninteresting stories.
SHORT AND SWEET please.
 
This show… I’m struggling. The promise of bush - for once - tempted me. And everyone said it is good but
giphy.gif
 
Well I’ll probably get through it but it just feels like it’s doing what it did in previous seasons but just taking a lot longer to get to the point.

A lot of story arcs but they are all tedious high school shit except for Winona doing some sort of Susan Mayer DH storyline
 
I feel like there’s a good story in there somewhere, but I’m feeling it groan under the weight of itself. Every character has their individual story arcs (or shared with someone) and suddenly are all dicks to everyone.

The basketball kid needs to cut his ties with these pricks. And the new characters are horrid.
 
I do think that the production has become rather ostentatious, to the point where the story feels like an afterthought. But I don't think that this season has been a drop in quality at all.
 
Every single scene in the prison was boring and tedious and shit.

The rest was pretty fun but I was only half-watching.
 
Have they used Spellbound by Siouxsie & the Banshees before? Or maybe I'm getting mixed up with True Blood. Anyway, I think they could have just wrapped it up here - I'll watch 5 as it's the final run, but it's definitely ran its course for me and doesn't seem to have anywhere new to go. Happy for Winona though obz.
 
I have a few thoughts on the last two episodes, but first off...
was that a rerecorded/alternate take of a line in RUTH when it was used in the final episode? I could have just misheard, but I'd swear she sang "it didn't hurt me" at the start...
 
There was ZERO need for the last episode to be that long, I felt like they dragged out the end so much, the overall story was good though.
 
Yeah the climax was pretty good but in particular the penultimate episode was just a slog, I half-watched it while doing other things.

Maybe an unpopular opinion but I can't fucking stand Murray. A quirky couple-of-scenes guest character promoted way beyond his entertainment value this season.
 
I spent most of his scenes thinking about how convenient it was that he happened to be fluent in Russian, they really would've been fucked if he wasn't :o
 
I spent most of his scenes thinking about how convenient it was that he happened to be fluent in Russian, they really would've been fucked if he wasn't :o
And with no trace of an accent!
 
PHEW I finally made it
Eps 7-9 did get my interest back again, but it's just so tropey. I stand by what I said earlier, that it's collapsing under its own hubris - I could accept such long episodes if it felt like it was justified. The Russia subplot was not interesting at ALL and had about 2 minutes of relevance to the plot except getting the grownups out of the way. The whole evangelical lynchmob storyline, where did that go? A minor obstacle in the finale and blondie getting gooped in half with little fanfare.

TBH I didn't like any of the new characters, Argyle was alright at a push but what a 1D character, dude! drugs! pizza! Eddie, who cares, well done you made a useless sacrifice to make a point.

Max is great, I hope they aren't benching her. I would've said Robin was great too but she ended up the token #nofilter character by the end.

Special mention to Mike, whiney little puke who was just scowly and unpleasant the whole time, and then we are supposed to believe he is the heart of the group? NOPE. And IS Will gay for him? Were we supposed to get that from him just staring and crying at Mike repeatedly? Oh and Murray needs to get gone right now.

Vecna was a decent villain, even if his plan was just asking to be thwarted. I didn't see who he would end up being (tbh I wasn't really interested in more Eleven backstory), but I like how they thought this was so shocking that they revealed it like 3 times and I think we were supposed to be shocked all three times? Ohhh the kid was send to that lab to be the assistant!! Ohhh he's got powers!! Oh Eleven made him into Vecna!!! Oh he's got a tattoo 001!!! I don't think you are able to reveal a twist more than once, right?

sigh
Anyway I think I liked this season more than season 3, but it did NOT justify the long runtime
And like a stupid anal completist that I am, I'm sure I'll try to get some closure on this in season 5 and whinge about it then too :)
 
I finished this a couple of weeks back but I do think it was a mass improvement on Season 3 and easily the best since the original. I enjoy it all, a lot, but it really is in that Killing Eve category of firing on all cylinders for a single season and then ever diminishing returns. I think I said that elsewhere but never mind. But it's still very good at what it does even if they've taken the piss with episode lengths.

However there is just too many cast members now and so many are not required. I get there's that friend group 80s adventure style vibe they want to keep up but this far in I think a shock death wouldn't go amiss and I was fully expecting it this season. That moment with Nancy falling into Vecna's realm would have been the perfect opportunity and hit HARD. But maybe they want to avoid that stuff and I'm being miserable wanting people to DIE :D

Eddie was an alright addition but a bit of a cop-out ending. And the one person they keep teasing us with PERIL is Max but she is obviously the one who must not die (quite rightly). I don't know, it just feels like Barb was the last shocker that hit home emotionally and I'm a bit surprised they haven't gone there again. Winona spent an entire season on a useless subplot - I would probably have killed Jonathan off at this stage to give her some meaty material and a good reason to hate that season's villain, because chasing around fawning over Hopper is really not it for me.

Vecna was brilliant however, I loved the twists and connection to Eleven and I didn't mind her story either, even though again, it was very much "here we go again".
Mini Uma Thurman is fun too but I'm surprised Will has been sidelined so much given he was the focus of Season 1 (well, he was mostly absent to be fair).

I guess there's nothing else quite like it despite any faults, the entertainment level is still top tier
 

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