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March 28, 2024, 11:21:03 AM

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Stranger Things (Season 3)

Started by BritishHobo, March 21, 2019, 09:49:51 PM

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BritishHobo

There's a new trailer out for this, and it is really fucking good

Without giving anything away, I really like the look of the whole thing, especially the summery feel, after season 2 was very Halloween focused. They've made it look really properly wistful about getting older and your friendships changing, which is a really clever way to deal with the very visible ageing of the characters. It could so easily have been more of the same, but it looks to be evolving in a really natural, interesting way.

ToneLa

I might give it a chance but couldn't finish series2. Just felt the novelty wore off

rasta-spouse

Yeah, I rarely quit a series a few episodes in. But Stranger Things S2 was just coasting by pressing my nostalgia button and nothing else.

I would've stuck with it (so it may have improved as it went on) but the feeling of being manipulated by a forced love of the 80s was too much. 

grassbath

It is rubbish, do not watch under any circumstances.


Ja'moke

#5
It's a return to form after what I thought was a lackluster second season (I've seen all of S3 because I'm recapping it at TV Insider). There's some great body horror stuff, but also a much lighter touch and humour to it. The shopping mall setting works really well too. Also, Maya Hawke (daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, and looks exactly like both of them) is fantastic - this will likely be a breakout role for her.

EDIT: Forgot to say, the product placement is obnoxious this season. Two words: New Coke.

Inspector Norse

I'll watch it. In about a month when I'm back from the summer holiday.

I find it's a show where I can overlook the odd falseness of the setting. The Duffers were, like me, born in the early '80s, and for them, like me, I think that this isn't nostalgia for the time and the trends but for their televisual representations. Lots of the pop culture details are inaccurate or overdone, and the plotting is sometimes wonky or lacking consistency (I still can't make myself like Creepy Photo Stalker Big Brother even though he's supposed to be one of the good guys), but the charm of the performances is a big part of the appeal and they hit a very comforting and convincing way to combine the various archetypes, influences and cliches. It's not a Great or Important show but a very likable one if you don't work hard to persuade yourself otherwise.

That bit where Eleven went to Chicago and joined the naffest gang ever was horrible, though.

BritishHobo

I'm about halfway through. Was Hopper always this fucking unhinged, or have they really dialled it up? It seems like the latter. He was a lunkhead before, but always smart and caring behind it. So far this season he's like a caveman who's just been unfrozen after millennia and is going around bopping people with a big club because he has no conception of modern human behaviour.

Ja'moke

Quote from: BritishHobo on July 04, 2019, 10:47:09 PM
I'm about halfway through. Was Hopper always this fucking unhinged, or have they really dialled it up? It seems like the latter. He was a lunkhead before, but always smart and caring behind it. So far this season he's like a caveman who's just been unfrozen after millennia and is going around bopping people with a big club because he has no conception of modern human behaviour.

They've definitely dialled up the surliness.

Gulftastic

I think they realised that, Dustin aside, the main lads have grown bland and awkward and so gave the lasses a lot more to do. Good move. Introducing Uma Thurman's hot daughter was wise too. Liked her character a lot.

Always love Dustin and Steve scenes.

Piggyoioi

Well made, but i just found that all very repetitive - i think im done. The plots seem to echo the previous seasons too obviously, even the rhythms of the episodes within this season seemed to become predictable, this feels more like some extra comic adaptation to an original series rather than a continuation of a main plotline.

Enjoyed the Dustin, steve, uma thurman stuff. When did the cop guy stop taking his lithium?

Head Gardener


Mister Six


Chollis

That was good fun

spoiler - hopper's definitely still alive isn't he

Rev+

Loads of fun, that.  Much better than the second series, and if I were arsed to rewatch it, probably better than the first.  Splitting the characters up into teams for pretty much the whole of the run made so much sense, and allowed them to keep it pacey.

And yeah, obviously on that spoiler.  There are loads of people online trying to look for details that hint at that thing not being the case, certain shots, lack of evidence and whatnot, the post-credits scene, but as has been pointed out it's probably not just period detail that when some of the characters hide out in a cinema the film playing is Back to the Future.  We'll probably be revisiting that explosion.

RDRR

Never particularly enjoyed this show before but thought this series was good. Mostly anyway. I thought for a bit they were going to find out the thingy is allergic to New Coke.

wooders1978

The little kid is a shit character and fucking annoying

Poobum

I was rooting for the regurgited kebab monster, would love to be part of it's sticky gestalt.

holyzombiejesus

Just watched the last episode. Bit of an odd series, much of it being awful. The 'comedy' seemed to have been much more fun for the actors than the viewer, some of the plot lines (even allowing for the generally daft nature of the show) were just ludicrous and the little black girl was irritating as fuck. I'd like to have seen more of Will - I think the actor who plays him has a real vulnerability that was missing from this series - and far less of the whole Hopper/ Winona/ Murray stuff. There was some very good stuff too - as usual it looked lovely and I agree that Maya Hawke's character was great - but I felt that the decision to spread the action over a wider area and split the boys up made for a poorer series. Thought Hopper's letter was one of the best moments in the series. That's him in the Russian cells at the end, isn't it?

Icehaven

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on July 14, 2019, 10:25:45 PM
That's him in the Russian cells at the end, isn't it?

I reckon.
Anyway yep it was more of the same really wasn't it? Enjoyable enough, apart from Hopper, who seemed to be behaving like an absolute mentalist for the first 5 episodes or so and even doing that excruciatingly irritating thing of treating Joyce like a fantasist for thinking something was amiss despite it happening TWICE before. His apparent entitlement over her going out with him was pretty hideous too but presumably intentionally so, it being a period piece and all.
Anyone else think the actor playing Will seems to have matured more than the others, which is kind of unfortunate given his character is supposed to be the one that hasn't? He's the only one who's voice has broken and he's at least as tall as the rest of them, if not more.

Bently Sheds

Will's only purpose in this series was to fondle the back of his head and say "He's here!"

Must be a choker for the kid to go from the main character that everyone is bothered about to being just a plot device.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Just got around to watching this over the last few days. The fact that I didn't immediately binge it upon release seems sort of significant (also, I was busy with series 3 of Jessica Jones) but I enjoyed it overall. That said, it did perhaps feel a little bit off.

As many people have pointed out, Hopper was a complete caricature. I was genuinely surprised when his gambit of freeing Alexei actually worked, as I didn't expect this version of Hopper to be that shrewd.

Billy's whole arc felt kind of botched. Having him go from scary step brother to full on monster would have been more effective if that first aspect of the character hadn't been resolved in season 2. His presence was further neutered by showing us too much of the Mind Flayer's blob monsters early on. I think he should have been the primary menace for the bulk of the season, possibly combining his role with Russian Terminator bloke, before going all body horror transformation in the finale. Maybe his seduction of Mrs. Wheeler could have been a calculated move to sow division among the main characters - it would have dovetailed with the recurring theme of the kids' developing love lives.

The mall setting sort of epitomises it all. It was the first time the show felt like an overly broad Vice City/The Goldbergsesque parody of the '80s, rather than the authentic feeling pastiche it was before.

This video sums it up quite well: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zp03MXF9Cw

All that said, I did still find it enjoyable and compelling for the most part. Ironically though, I can't help but look back at the first series with a similar feeling of nostalgia as the show does to the '80s.

Small Man Big Horse

I finished it the other day and then forgot all about it, which isn't a good sign. But in brief: I didn't mind the first two episodes but thought they were a bit too silly and the plot lacking, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth were decent enough, nothing amazing but I liked the squelchy body horror elements and Steve and Dustin and Uma Thurman Jnr were relatively amusing. Then the seventh was shitty filler, and the eighth rather bland and mostly predictable. Given that they ruined Hopper I wish they'd had the courage to kill him off, so it was annoying to see them suggest in the credits bit that he was still about. I'm not sure how either given that Winona Ryder rushed over to see if he was alive straight after blowing up the Russian's electrical gun thing, and that the American's had broken in to the base seconds later, but hey, I guess they somehow grabbed him and ran away when no one was looking. If next season is, as promised, the last one I'll probably watch it, but if it's not then I think I'm done with the show.

Inspector Norse

Quote from: Inspector Norse on July 04, 2019, 06:40:14 PM
I'll watch it. In about a month when I'm back from the summer holiday.

I did and I thought it was uneven, enough good stuff to keep me watching.

My biggest problem was with the way they made Hopper just spend the whole series shouting and grunting: he was always surly and difficult, but likable with it, whereas he lost his third and indeed second dimensions in this one and was just irritating for the most part. Yeah, that's obviously him in the Russian dungeon, so I hope they bring him back down to earth next time round.

Billy's character was pretty underwhelmingly developed too, a pretty clichéd backstory and I thought he should have got a bit more to work with as the actor was quite promising in that sneeringly mysterious way.

The teens' various relationship dramas were a bit awkwardly-handled (I loved the bizarre Dustin-Suzie song break in the final episode, though), but then isn't that the case with teens? And Will, who seems perhaps the most natural of the younger actors, was basically just a radar.

On a more positive note, it's the rest of the actors that really make the show: another strong showing from Winona Ryder, and Joe Keery/Steve Harrington is just great - I really enjoyed his interaction with Maya Hawke: the bathroom scene was a great showcase for them. I hope we get more of Cary Elwes in the future, as he's always fun to watch, and the guy playing Alexei was really good too. It's these performances and the strong characters that elevate it above the lazy criticisms into something more than just a collection of '80s pop culture nods. Sure, there is that, but they're amusing and smart rather than cynical, and it's got lots of heart even if they make missteps.

Glyn

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on July 19, 2019, 03:11:49 PM
Given that they ruined Hopper I wish they'd had the courage to kill him off, so it was annoying to see them suggest in the credits bit that he was still about. I'm not sure how either given that Winona Ryder rushed over to see if he was alive straight after blowing up the Russian's electrical gun thing, and that the American's had broken in to the base seconds later, but hey, I guess they somehow grabbed him and ran away when no one was looking.
My guess was that he took his chance to jump through 'the rift' before she pulled the switch.

Really enjoyed this season, just seemed to have a lot more sense of fun than season 2.

phantom_power

Quote from: Bently Sheds on July 15, 2019, 07:15:14 PM
Will's only purpose in this series was to fondle the back of his head and say "He's here!"

Must be a choker for the kid to go from the main character that everyone is bothered about to being just a plot device.

That isn't really true. He was fairly fundamental to the whole "moving on from childhood" theme of the season.

I think Hopper's change in character was explained in the note at the end. He was starting to feel things again after so long being numb after the death of his daughter, and he couldn't handle it.

Overall I think this was a pretty great season. The characters are fun to spend time with, the plots dovetailed nicely and the effects were excellent. Ryder really came into her own this season as well, after just playing "worried mum" for lots of the last two seasons. Dustin and Steve were great, as was Steve and Robin. I thought Erica was fun as well, seemingly on my own on that one though