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March 28, 2024, 08:06:25 AM

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Stranger Things S4

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

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Poobum

Was watching that thing where people eat hotwings and have a stilted conversation, Milly Bobby Brown was on it and it was extra stilted. Didn't realize she's really really posh, annoyed me, not watching anymore.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

What level of heat did she achieve?

Pink Gregory

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on June 06, 2022, 12:55:18 PMWould you even get taken to one of these juvenile hall things for rollerskating someone? It seems like such a relatively minor offence that I thought you'd spend a night in the cells before being let out with maybe a court date to attend in future.

and plus it's a first offence so it wouldn't be incarceration, surely, or is that not the case for violent crimes?

I just sort of assumed that California hates Eleven

Pete23

They write it like EVERYONE hates Eleven; classmates, fellow psychics, boyfriends - even Hopper last series was a dick to her. Once she gets her powers back she's totally within her rights to burn it all down (Eleven as the Big Bad for series 5?)

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

I want the school bully to appear in a future episode, but just stood in the background with a wonky nose.

Poobum

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on June 06, 2022, 01:17:44 PMWhat level of heat did she achieve?

Had a breakdown after Da Bomb and turned American.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on June 06, 2022, 03:42:10 PMI want the school bully to appear in a future episode, but just stood in the background with a wonky nose.

I was shouting at the TV when that horrid little shit got skated.  "Go on!  Double tap!  Make her regret it!"

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Pink Gregory on June 05, 2022, 08:23:03 PMReveals are never as good as the mysteries, are they?

Also I feel like someone asked the writer's room what the worst thing they could think of and someone was just shouting
Spoiler alert
baby on fire!  BABY ON FIRE!
[close]



Just surprised they didn't drop a Brian eno song over it

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Quote from: Poobum on June 06, 2022, 04:26:15 PMHad a breakdown after Da Bomb and turned American.

A trifling 135,600 scoville units. Absolute shambles of a human being.

grainger

Quote from: Ant Farm Keyboard on June 05, 2022, 01:34:11 PMThe vendetta against D&D players sounds quite out of place. It takes one segment in the news to make them an oppressed minority, which doesn't hold water. Heavy metal would make a much more likely target for the media at the time, and racism, reliable and untimely as it is in American society, is almost totally absent from such a show.

I have to disagree. There was a large religious-driven backlash against D&D. There were organisations like BADD trying to get D&D banned, and even in the UK, the Evangelical Alliance were trying the same thing (but it never got the same popular traction here). There was even a movie about the perils of D&D, starring a young Tom Hanks.

As with any moral panic, the criticisms of the game wasn't consistent, but they included the claim that D&D players were toying with Forces They Don't Understand, that the spells in the game were real (and evil), and that dungeon masters were manipulating hte players in their games into cults. There was also the belief that it led teens to commit suicide.

The D&D panic never got the game banned, but it did get plenty of potential players banned from playing, by their parnets. However, it overall backfired, giving free publicity to the game, and seems to have boosted sales. Nevertheless, TSR (the publishers) were worried enough that they removed most mentions of demons and real-world religion in the 2nd edition of AD&D.

Ja'moke

Yeah, D&D was a big part of the Satanic Panic.

phantom_power

Quote from: BritishHobo on June 06, 2022, 11:25:29 AMI think from what I've read, people's problem is more with Will than Robin, in that the creators and actor have talked about his character as if they've done something really special by leaving it up to the viewer to accept that he could well be gay. I think I agree with them that that's just not good enough, given what other shows do, and what they've done with Robin. The problem is less that they haven't made him openly gay, and more that they're celebrating it interviews when, well, they've not really done anything.

I think you have to take era-appropriateness into it as well though. If Will is gay, in the early 80s, he may well not feel comfortable telling anyone else about it. He may not even admit it to himself. I think that is fair enough to show his sexuality in looks and implication given that. I think the Duffers have said there will be more made of it in part 2 of S4 so we will see


Overall I have really enjoyed this half season. People say it is bloated but I don't think that is the case. It is long, yes, and not all of it is necessary for the plot, but I like spending time with these characters, and the look and sound of the show is great as well. I don't like this idea that the plot of a show has to be pared to the bone in order to not be bloated. If people were bored during bits of it then fair enough I suppose. I just know that I wasn't bored at all really and it had many great bits per episode. It could have had an hour or two shaved off the run time but I don't think it necessarily should or that it would have made the show better. Much of the character development and interaction might have been lost

jobotic

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on June 06, 2022, 12:55:18 PMWould you even get taken to one of these juvenile hall things for rollerskating someone? It seems like such a relatively minor offence that I thought you'd spend a night in the cells before being let out with maybe a court date to attend in future.

Did seem a bit odd. Wouldn't you just appear in court at a later date? Not transported to Parchment Farm

surreal

Quote from: phantom_power on June 09, 2022, 11:43:04 AMI think you have to take era-appropriateness into it as well though. If Will is gay, in the early 80s, he may well not feel comfortable telling anyone else about it. He may not even admit it to himself. I think that is fair enough to show his sexuality in looks and implication given that. I think the Duffers have said there will be more made of it in part 2 of S4 so we will see

I'd suspected that is why he is carrying around that painting he wanted to give to Mike, keeps putting it back into his bag.  Also the shot in the schoolroom where the girl touched his foot and smiled and he just flinched and pulled back.  Sure something is going to be revealed, maybe he'll become the bullying target rather than 11.

Quote from: Ja'moke on June 07, 2022, 07:41:13 PMYeah, D&D was a big part of the Satanic Panic.

Yeah, I actually find that aspect of the story very plausible, especially in light of QAnon.

grainger

On the "D&D danger" front, reading about the dissapearence of James Dallas Egbert III and how it was blamed on D&D is interesting, and it was surely in the Stranger Things writers' minds.

grainger

And there was Patricia Pulling, who started B.A.D.D., a prominent anti-D&D campaign, after her son tragically took his own life.

Icehaven

I just watched episode 7 thinking it was the last one and found it extremely unsatisfactory, so glad to hear it actually wasn't (although the gap is weird, why not just wait and release it all at the same time? Artistic decision to try and stop people bingeing it all at once or just Covid?)

Had to laugh at how the walkie talkies were basically stand-in mobiles, as if the writers have forgotten how to write stories without them.

jobotic

Aw, even though its all silly nonsense that Max-centric episode made me well up.

She's a good actress that Sadie Sink



But how is Hopper running about Siberia with no shoes on and smashed feet? I mean come on

Inspector Norse

Watched the first four of these and though I'm not going back through the thread in case of spoilers, I'm guessing my thoughts are similar to others in that I think the show is still great when it plays to its strengths - the gang doing shit together in Hawkins (any scene with Joe Keery and/or Maya Hawke is a winner), the second-hand nostalgia tripping through '80s pop culture and the final age of pre-Internet innocence - but has been stretched very thin by the needlessly bloated running times, is far less surefooted when it tries new stuff, and is starting to feel a bit too much like it's just rehashing its own self.

Most of the California stuff, from the totally one-dimensional "bullying" storyline to the doofus stoner pizza guy, was cack. But the gunfight chez Byers was a pretty effectively jarring way to kill all that shit off.

phantom_power

Quote from: Inspector Norse on June 11, 2022, 10:35:27 AMfrom the totally one-dimensional "bullying" storyline

This does pay off later in the series and is sort of integral to Eleven's story

Pink Gregory

Nancy and Robin is a great pairing; they're almost a double act at points

BritishHobo

I really liked Robin's inability to stop talking in some of those scenes, some nice writing there.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Quote from: Icehaven on June 10, 2022, 03:44:29 PMI just watched episode 7 thinking it was the last one and found it extremely unsatisfactory, so glad to hear it actually wasn't (although the gap is weird, why not just wait and release it all at the same time? Artistic decision to try and stop people bingeing it all at once or just Covid?)

Apparently, mostly Covid.

Some people suspect that it's a way for Netflix to maximize subscriptions and fill up the numbers, instead of having people who get one month to watch all of the season then cancel, as they're only interested in that show. I think that would be a very unlikely strategy, as these mega-fans would either watch the episodes three or four times to get every detail, or just download them illegally if they're broke. And that would be a fringe phenomenon anyway.

The most likely truth is that they needed time. For instance, CGI has been slowed down by the pandemics, especially as many people in the industry have to work from home, and Stranger Things has bunch of scenes that involve CGI.
So, it was either waiting until July to release the entire season (also preventing the show from getting any Emmy Awards, especially in the technical categories, this year), which wouldn't be the best moment in the year to binge on 11 or 12 hours of a season, or cut it into two parts. As it was announced a few days ago that the finale would ultimately be 139 minutes instead of the previously mentioned 150, it simply means that they didn't have the entire season ready for May.

thr0b

Really enjoyed this volume. I don't get the complaints of it being bloated; it's taking its time to tell the stories it wants to tell. Some might be superfluous, some might pay-off. All have been entertaining.

Worst bit? Episode 7 featured some very ropey CGI of the de-aged Eleven's head of a different body. It was like Partridge in school.

grainger

I agree - I've really enjoyed this season so far. I don't get the criticisms at all.

There are occasionally very silly moments, such as people jumping to the right answer to something based on seemingly insufficient info, but otherwise it's been great.

Icehaven

Quote from: Ant Farm Keyboard on June 12, 2022, 09:12:53 AMSome people suspect that it's a way for Netflix to maximize subscriptions and fill up the numbers, instead of having people who get one month to watch all of the season then cancel, as they're only interested in that show. I think that would be a very unlikely strategy, as these mega-fans would either watch the episodes three or four times to get every detail, or just download them illegally if they're broke. And that would be a fringe phenomenon anyway.


That's almost exactly what we did with Prime so Mr. Haven could watch Picard (except it was a month's free trial rather than paying for one month) but yeah I doubt enough people do it to make it dictate how shows are released.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Besides, nobody watches Picard more than once.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I think the show has seen diminishing returns since the first series, particularly in third series. Add to that the long wait since the last one, plus the newly extended running times and I just wasn't all that bothered about the new series. Nevertheless, I've got a week off work and little else to do so I finally checked it out and I'll be damned if it didn't draw me back in.

I would agree that it was less fun when it ventured outside of Hawkins, particularly the California stuff, and it could certainly stand to be trimmed down. I was never actually bored though. The laboratory flashbacks were particularly drawn out, but I liked how the resolution of it ties everything together.

I have a hard time believing that Max feels anything other than utter loathing for Billy, even with his last minute sacrifice.

Is it supposed to be bad that 11 clumped the bully in the face? I cheered when it happened. The only sad part was that she didn't clobber the rest of the little bastards, then head to Hawkins and do the same to that basketball twerp.

Did anyone else think of this whenever they said the baddies' name?

badaids


Ever since the first series you're picking a good episode here and a good episode there, but it's in the main a horrible rambling mess. 

Most of the actors are genuinely terrible apart from Dustin, Erica and a couple of others.  The rest of the characters and plot have totally lost touch with the charm and warmth that it had in that first season, they've cheapened that with all the 80s nostalgia callbacks and dull sidequests.

And I don't get why hasn't Stephen King sued them for ripping off It?  You know, the whole town is cursed and its linked to a group of kids that live there thing.