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Stranger Things S4

Started by Bad Ambassador, May 26, 2022, 02:23:37 PM

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Bad Ambassador

This launches tomorrow, and I've not seen as much publicity for it as I'd expect - although my sister earlier sent me a picture of a giant billboard in whatever French train station she's in.

It's split into two volumes, with the first covering seven episodes and the second, released on 1 July just two. To make up for this, the first six episodes run between 63 and 77 minutes and the last three are 98, 85 and 150 minutes. The season finale is basically three episodes bolted together.

I'm still intrigued as to where this is all going, I enjoyed the first three seasons and liked the merger of 80s nostalgia and coming of age stories with monster grue. Steve is one of my favourite characters, having evolved from arsehole bully into genuinely nice guy, who's only supportive when the girl he's got a crush on tells him she's gay.

The other major element is that the creators have said the fifth season will be the last, so with an endgame in mind this is going to ramp up now. I'm excited.

BritishHobo

Wait, is this one not the last one? Oh, bloody hell.

I do like the show, but I feel like it's squandered a lot of excitement in the big gaps between seasons, and the relative directionless of the last two.

Bad Ambassador

The long delay is partly from COVID, but also the massive amount of footage. It's effectively a 13-hour movie, with a $270m budget that took over a year to film. These things take time to plan and write, as well as the extra shooting time for COVID.

olliebean

150 minutes? Fucksake. I probably won't have got around to watching that before season 5 comes out.

Part of the point of wanting to watch a TV series instead of a movie for me is not being in the mood to sit through more than an hour at a time.

imitationleather

I'm sure it won't be a bloated and overblown mess.

AsparagusTrevor

I watched the first episode and it made me realise I couldn't remember much of what happened in seasons 1-3 (even with the recap) and probably should've done a rewatch in the 3 year gap. Oh well.

Mr_Simnock

Loved the first episode, set a lot of interesting stuff up

Spoiler alert
glad 11's powers don't work, that bit in the school where she went to hurt that bully could have ensured the series delayed after the recent school shooting, 'optics' and all that
[close]

Ja'moke

I've seen all 7 episodes of Part 1.

It's overly long, and a couple of the side plots drag big time.

But when it plays to its strengths (the group camaraderie / cool monster fights) it's still really good.

Dreading that 2 and half hour finale though.

I'm recapping each ep for those interested: https://www.tvinsider.com/1045590/stranger-things-season-4-premiere-recap-the-hellfire-club/

Sonny_Jim

I did not enjoy the narration in the first episode.  Not sure why, just found it exceedingly irritating.  Nice to catch up with everybody, felt Max was basically just angsty teenager and could have done a much better job making the character more interesting.  Keen to see where this going but I got a feeling Chernobyl is going to feature at least in passing.

hamfist

Just watched ep 1 - I found the "good mood all is well" overall vibe went on a bit long. But I wondered if the flashback to what 11 did at the lab is a foreshadow of what is to come at school

bomb_dog

Watched the first two episodes, and like everything else these days, it could have easily been covered in half the time.

$270m this thing cost. Roller rink in Ep2 looked nice though.

PlanktonSideburns

Coming straight to this after Derry Girls has given me serious montage with a pop song fatigue

"I'm just going to chuck all these empty boxes out back"

(Girls just wanna have fun plays as plankton breaks down a load of cardboard and shoves then in a wheelie bin)

C_Larence

Suffers from the same issue that every previous season has had, which is that every time Nancy is on screen I'm extremely uncomfortable at how thin she is.

BritishHobo

I've just finished episode 3, and while I'm enjoying this season a lot more than the last one,
Spoiler alert
the ending of the episode feels like the lead-in to the finale. Seems bonkers now all the set-up is in place, that there are still six episodes to go, some feature-length.
[close]

There's been a lot of
Spoiler alert
filler in that ending alone; the constant showing of all of the elements of plot as they're explained to Eleven, etc, which is precisely what gives it the atmosphere of all the pieces being in position for the showdown.
[close]

Poobum

Finished the first 7 and it is amazing how bloated it is. You could cut at least 2 hours without loosing anything. This was really problematic with the big reveal, instead of it hitting you with any impact it's dragged on so far past your realization that you no longer care.
Spoiler alert
Could have been done in one flashback instead of five
[close]
. The actor who plays Will is so bad that it distracts me in every scene, same with Eleven's boyfriend whose name I can't even remember. Thankfully there are a lot of good performances elsewhere and the new guy is likeable. The Dustin and Steve scene are always fun and they improve any character they interact with. Do like it overall, but it's not something I'd ever re-watch.

Ja'moke

They'd have been better off putting the whole Hopper storyline into one single 40-45 minute episode and shaving the excess of the other episodes. The stuff in California really drags too.

The best stuff is with the crew in Hawkins, all the best characters are there (Dustin, Steve, Robin, Max), and the stuff with Eleven at the lab.

Poobum

I thought the Hopper thing was gonna be
Spoiler alert
he'd somehow got powers from being hit by the laser thingy and was gonna be the reason for the Kamchatka explosion
[close]
would have been awesome.

BritishHobo

Yeah there was an awful lot of filler in there. I would agree that everything going on in Hawkins was fun and entertaining, and everything else has dragged.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

I don't like that Millie Bobby Brown. She seems to wander around thinking she's the hot shit acting wunderkind, but I think she is rubbish and has a stupid, pointless middle name.

Dex Sawash

that's like her prerogative, man

Ant Farm Keyboard

The most ridiculous moment in the stuff I've watched so far (first five episodes) involves Max and the letters she wrote.

Spoiler alert
It's near the end of episode 4. She goes to the cemetery to read a letter to her dead step-brother. Everybody else in the car knows that she can end up being possessed by the demon at any minute, yet they let her alone, because she has to read loudly an entire sheet of paper in which she shares her thoughts to her brother, allowing the actress to deliver some pointless monologue. And, ten minutes later, they finally realize that something is wrong as she hasn't moved.
[close]

And I agree this season is terribly bloated. For a show about dreams and hallucinations, they sure don't want to leave anything to the imagination. Every bit that could just ask the audience to connect the dots gets some development, because the writers-producers think they have a good idea, which actually brings very little in the end. It's totally the opposite of these 80s mid-budget thriller films that they are trying to emule, where the pace was brisker and they had to focus on a couple of set pieces, especially as they couldn't develop SFX for everything.   
As a consequence, as many of you say, the pacing can get very distracting. There were a few moments when I thought it was a natural point to conclude the episode, only to realize that there was still 30 minutes to go. There's no real buildup or payoff during each episode, they just go on and on, until some cliffhanger.

And I disagree about the actor who plays Will. For the first time, he doesn't look like Kate Micucci in drag.

jobotic

I fucking hate the lab bits. Scared kids with numbers instead of names. Just freaks me out.

C_Larence

There was one shot in the lab I really liked. The kids were walking single file from left to right into another room and the shot transitioned into 11's heart rate monitor moving in the same way. There's a few flourishes like that per episode which I've really enjoyed.

Sonny_Jim

Quote from: Ant Farm Keyboard on May 31, 2022, 01:55:45 AMAnd I agree this season is terribly bloated. For a show about dreams and hallucinations, they sure don't want to leave anything to the imagination.
My 13yr old kid pointed out we must have seen the flashback of Max's stepbrother dying about 8 times.

Nice to see Kate Bush back in the charts due to being featured.

Blue Jam

Just come to this very late and started watching season 1 this week. Good innit? Does it stay good?

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 02, 2022, 08:14:22 PMJust come to this very late and started watching season 1 this week. Good innit? Does it stay good?

It's wildly different every season I think, first season is pretty ace, but hard to say if you would like subsequent ones or not - my partner likes subsequent ones more than me, I think the actors hold it together for me

Ja'moke

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 02, 2022, 08:14:22 PMJust come to this very late and started watching season 1 this week. Good innit? Does it stay good?

I remembered not enjoying Season 2 as much but thinking Season 3 was a big improvement, felt a lot more fun. Season 4 has its highs and lows so far.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 02, 2022, 08:14:22 PMJust come to this very late and started watching season 1 this week. Good innit? Does it stay good?

I find that I have a lot of time for the early bits of the season when it's setting things up, kids being kids in the 80s, relationships forming and changing (which are the parts I liked of S3), with a light touch of mysterious goings on.  As soon as anything becomes explicit I lose interest, S3 is quite bad for that.

S1 is still quite good, I think it's diminishing returns after that, although the cast are pretty much always on form.

Dex Sawash


I'm sticking with it because I like the characters/setting. The story is daft/bollocks-y enough to not take itself too seriously.

 It also makes me feel special when they drop hometown easter eggs with names of things being from around Durham NC (where I live)

Sonny_Jim

Just finished watching it.  So fucking bored for large parts of it and just when it would start to get good, it would switch plotlines and start again.  Really annoying. 

But when it's good, it's really good and a lot of fun so it's worth persevering.