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Post by haysoos on Oct 29, 2017 7:49:33 GMT -5
So I can't be the only one who binged watched the whole thing (and the Beyond Stranger Things follow-up). I'm just going to assume that anyone reading has already watched it, so this whole thread has a spoiler warning. Some thoughts - OMG! So AWESOME
- I wish Eleven had more chance to interact with the others.
- Poor Bob!
- Paul Reiser was perfect for Dr. Owen. Without saying a word, you're fully expecting a Carter Burke betrayal from the second he appears, and never fully trust him.
- El hates Max at first site? Seriously? Fuck off. Why do the only two female PCs have to instantly have to have an antagonistic relationship over boys? Before they even actually meet!!
- I love Murray Hargrove.
- I'm totally shipping Billy and Mrs. Wheeler.
- But I think Billy secretly has a crush on Steve.
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Post by 🔪 silly buns on Oct 29, 2017 16:53:57 GMT -5
Bob  |
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Post by 🔪 silly buns on Oct 29, 2017 20:59:59 GMT -5
I finally finished it and cringed throughout the whole prom scene for Dustin. Awww.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Oct 30, 2017 9:09:27 GMT -5
We watched six episodes Saturday and the remaining three last night. We both really enjoyed it - I thought it did a good job of expanding the world a bit, raising the stakes, but (for the most part) not short-changing the characters. The big exception there was probably Will (not that the actor got shortchanged - far from it -but now two seasons in we've seen the real Will for maybe an episode and a half or so, and most of that in severe peril). We also got less Mike, but that was less of an issue because of how Mike-centric the first season was. I'd also have preferred to have seen more of Eleven with the other kids. Hopefully next season they'll all be together more.
I liked most of the additions - Billy was awful, Max was a lot of fun, Reiser and Astin both played their parts perfectly. Some of the new character bits they did I thought really worked well - Dustin and Steve together was golden, Joyce getting to show a lot more emotional range, and Nancy and Jonathan being good older siblings. The set-up for next season was much more blatant this time, probably out of necessity - we're clearly getting more Bremmer (and hopefully Owen vs. Bremmer), and more of Eight and probably some of the other "numbers," plus I'd guess we'll see Smokethulhu make another incursion into Hawkins.
I thought the show did a very good job of not falling into a sophomore trap it could easily have fallen into, and I'm glad to have marathoned it before it got memed into oblivion. That said, I'm genuinely curious how this would play out watching it week-to-week; we watched the first season in three days and the second in two, so we've never really needed to wait more than a day or so to see a cliffhanger resolve itself.
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Invisible Goat
Shoutbox Elitist 
Grab your mother's keys, we're leaving
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Post by Invisible Goat on Oct 30, 2017 9:25:36 GMT -5
I was pretty disappointed with it for most of the season, I thought it was a pretty weak retread of the first season 1 with some lazy substitutions (Max for Eleven, crayon drawing for Xmas lights, Bob for Barb, etc.), but I think it mostly redeemed itself by the end. The strength is still in the actors and characters and that Snow Ball dance scene was great. Really enjoyed Brett Gelman's appearances too, as always.
It still sucked that Eleven was separated the entire time, and her standalone episode was rrrreally bad.
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Post by haysoos on Oct 30, 2017 16:51:29 GMT -5
I was pretty disappointed with it for most of the season, I thought it was a pretty weak retread of the first season 1 with some lazy substitutions (Max for Eleven, crayon drawing for Xmas lights, Bob for Barb, etc.), but I think it mostly redeemed itself by the end. The strength is still in the actors and characters and that Snow Ball dance scene was great. Really enjoyed Brett Gelman's appearances too, as always. It still sucked that Eleven was separated the entire time, and her standalone episode was rrrreally bad. You didn't like the Warriors and Darth Yoda teaching Eleven how to give in to the dark side? When they were the first thing we saw in episode 1, I thought we were going to get a whole bunch of going around and collecting the various Sestra Numbers from all around the world to build a superteam. I was thinking how in a regular TV series, we'd probably get about 1/3 of every episode this season following that story arc and how painful that would be. So it could have been worse. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2017 22:48:39 GMT -5
I loved it. I agree with all of the positive points above.
I thought it was really cool to have Sean Astin and Winona Ryder's characters dating, since they were both child stars in the 80s!
Teaming up other characters worked out great. Dustin and Steve, Lucas and Max, Hopper as Eleven's adoptive father, all amazing. I agree, Eleven was gone for too long, but loved when she returned.
Yay, Paul Reiser! A good guy scientist fighting against the other shitheads who just wanted to let Will die.
Also, I thought Noah Schnapp did a GREAT job. As some people said, Georgie in the start of the new IT didn't seem like having his arm bitten off really hurt that much. Will really sold the pain of the shadow thing inside him.
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Post by The Spice Weasel on Oct 31, 2017 22:59:08 GMT -5
The Steve & Dustin team up was by far my favorite. Steve was really great this season.
Reiser has the doctor shtick down.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 1, 2017 10:37:16 GMT -5
Finished last night. Really liked it overall, Paul Reiser was great, Sean Astin fit in pretty well.
I liked Max too, but Billy .... bothered me a little. He was (is) probably gay, right? That whole shower scene and the "Nancy's not my type" line. But they didn't go anywhere with that. And why the hell did he hate Lucas? Is he a racist asshole? I wanted there to be some hint at some motivation and there just wasn't.
Also Mike and Nancy's parents are The Worst.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Nov 1, 2017 10:46:54 GMT -5
Steve is the greatest and Dusty's prom hair absolutely made my night last night. Nancy is also the greatest and her give me the rifle moment made me woop. Mike's dad is literally just the lamest person. Really wish Bob wouldn't have died  While I get that El's standalone episode is probably necessary in terms of her overall arc leading into the following seasons god it was dull. I get that Eleven would be "who the fuck is this-ish" with Max but I do hope they become friends going forward. Billy is just so fucking ick on every level, especially with Mrs. Wheeler. I also thought the scene of his dad was kinda bullshit. A) Billy is blaming Max for them having to leave California because their parents wanted a fresh start away from Max's dad? Billy's dad instantly comes off as someone who would never in a million years do that. B) My friend also brought up the fact that Billy's dad also comes off as a dude who would long since have sent Billy off to Military school  |
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Nov 1, 2017 10:50:28 GMT -5
I liked Max too, but Billy .... bothered me a little. He was (is) probably gay, right? That whole shower scene and the "Nancy's not my type" line. But they didn't go anywhere with that. And why the hell did he hate Lucas? Is he a racist asshole? I wanted there to be some hint at some motivation and there just wasn't. Yeah that whole storyline just didn't have a payoff. They seemed to straddle the line between him being racist or just hating all the townies but leaning towards the former. I'll be honest though, I thought for a moment he was going to show up, barely escape a monster and end up joining the team for the final fight as a bickering partner for Steve and was very glad to not have to look at his douchebaggy self for the final bits so it bothered me less at the end. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 1, 2017 10:53:43 GMT -5
I liked Max too, but Billy .... bothered me a little. He was (is) probably gay, right? That whole shower scene and the "Nancy's not my type" line. But they didn't go anywhere with that. And why the hell did he hate Lucas? Is he a racist asshole? I wanted there to be some hint at some motivation and there just wasn't. Yeah that whole storyline just didn't have a payoff. They seemed to straddle the line between him being racist or just hating all the townies but leaning towards the former. I'll be honest though, I thought for a moment he was going to show up, barely escape a monster and end up joining the team for the final fight as a bickering partner for Steve and was very glad to not have to look at his douchebaggy self for the final bits so it bothered me less at the end. I could have accepted "hated the townies" except that he explicitly kept mentioning Lucas ... but without saying why. Blergh. |
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Nov 1, 2017 10:57:41 GMT -5
Yeah that whole storyline just didn't have a payoff. They seemed to straddle the line between him being racist or just hating all the townies but leaning towards the former. I'll be honest though, I thought for a moment he was going to show up, barely escape a monster and end up joining the team for the final fight as a bickering partner for Steve and was very glad to not have to look at his douchebaggy self for the final bits so it bothered me less at the end. I could have accepted "hated the townies" except that he explicitly kept mentioning Lucas ... but without saying why. Blergh. Well Lucas is the only one he ever sees talking to her directly as far as I can remember. I do wonder if he was originally more explicitly racist and they toned it down in the edit. The tone of it all is super weird. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2017 12:27:50 GMT -5
I could have accepted "hated the townies" except that he explicitly kept mentioning Lucas ... but without saying why. Blergh. Well Lucas is the only one he ever sees talking to her directly as far as I can remember. I do wonder if he was originally more explicitly racist and they toned it down in the edit. The tone of it all is super weird. I have a theory. Methinks Billy WAS more explicitly racist but for some reason they had to tone that down, so they shoehorned in that weird scene with his dad as a Freudian Excuse. |
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Post by Ben Grimm on Nov 1, 2017 12:32:35 GMT -5
I could have accepted "hated the townies" except that he explicitly kept mentioning Lucas ... but without saying why. Blergh. Well Lucas is the only one he ever sees talking to her directly as far as I can remember. I do wonder if he was originally more explicitly racist and they toned it down in the edit. The tone of it all is super weird. My guess is that - like Steve - they came to like the actor and decided to make him less of a pure villain. I also suspect he's being set up for something in Season 3. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 1, 2017 12:36:03 GMT -5
Well Lucas is the only one he ever sees talking to her directly as far as I can remember. I do wonder if he was originally more explicitly racist and they toned it down in the edit. The tone of it all is super weird. I have a theory. Methinks Billy WAS more explicitly racist but for some reason they had to tone that down, so they shoehorned in that weird scene with his dad as a Freudian Excuse. Entirely possible, but it just... was weird to me. I don't need shows to spell out every damn thing for me, but even him throwing around a racial epithet or, alternatively, wheeling around and yelling at the rest of the kids would've helped clarify. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2017 12:37:52 GMT -5
Honestly, in some parts, this season did feel better than the first (better SFX, better performance from Ryder, Steve became one of the best characters) but otherwise, I felt really, really lukewarm towards this season. You don't need me to say what everyone else is saying about the pointless sister plotline and Billy. I got other qualms:
- STOP. FLASHING. BACK. CONSTANTLY.
- Is it me or is Jonathan becoming more superfluous as time goes on? Outside of his relationship with Will, he's just there, man. Steve's way more engaging and he's supposed to be the bad boy!
- There had to be a better way to deal with the Barb thing.
- Mike felt like too much of an asshole this season at times.
- No, but seriously, what was that shit with Billy and Mrs. Wheeler? Why
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 10:46:32 GMT -5
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Post by Ben Grimm on Nov 2, 2017 11:17:22 GMT -5
I guess he's getting a redmption arc in season 3, then. |
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Post by Angry Raisins on Feb 21, 2018 18:34:36 GMT -5
Resurrecting old thread as I only just watched S2:
My one annoyance with Bob's death was how shoehorned his whole "But when you reboot the system you'll have to write all this BASIC code to get in so you need me!" thing was. Firstly, that just sounds weird (why would rebooting need you to mess around with any code, rather than just restarting the program that's already there?). But less pedantically, how on earth would he know? He's never been in the lab before today, let alone had anything to do with the security system.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 21:58:48 GMT -5
Still havent watched the finale, this was disappointing.....
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Post by Jimmy James on Jul 24, 2018 10:49:38 GMT -5
Finally got caught up on this*. I was kind of hoping for more different Strange Things instead of a larger number of the same Strange Things, like Aliens vis a vis Alien- which I couldn't help thinking of because of Paul Reiser. (I kept waiting for that rat-fuck sonuvabitch to screw them over, but evidently not.) So the central mystery wasn't so novel, but I really like the characters- I enjoy it as if it were another season of Freaks and Geeks, with occasional monsters they have to deal with. The whole group of middle school and high school kids feels accurately sketched out. They could expand the world a bit if they went into the mystery of the other special kids like Jane/Eleven next year, which could also retroactively redeem the superfluous detour with Kali et al. I hope they do that.
Sean Astin's Bob was a fun addition while he lasted. While it's a little later than they usually draw from, the sequence with flipping the breakers and then rebooting the computers reminded me of Jurassic Park. It's funny that they're giving work to the stars of 80's cult movies that fit the era of the setting, though they're a year or two away from being able to rent The Goonies or Beetlejuice and potentially tearing a new hole into the Upside-Down. My money's on Anthony Michael Hall filling this slot next year, maybe Alan Ruck. Corey Feldman will wait patiently for a phone call that's never coming.
I was trying to figure out Not Racist Billy and how he doesn't like Max hanging out with Lucas- my best guess was that his dad was actually the racist one. Billy hating on Lucas is a combination of picking up some of his dad's prejudices and also of wanting to avoid an uglier scene between Lucas / his dad. The fact that his dad was a giant asshole in his one scene made this seem plausible.
* I watched the first season with my parents, so I figured I would put off starting this one until I was home for Thanksgiving, only to find out when I got there they had already binged the whole season... on my Netflix account.
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