LogGrad98
Well-Known Member
Contributor
20-21 Award Winner
2022 Award Winner
2023 Award Winner
2024 Award Winner
It's really gone downhill each season. The big problem with this kind of premise is there always has to be a new big bad for them to fight. It is a lot like "The Flash" in that regard, in that, in the flash, the solution to every problem is that Barry just...must...run...FASTER!! And in this one...Eleven...must...have...bigger....NOSEBLEEDS!!
I didn't mind the general premise of this season, I thought revisiting Eleven's backstory was a good thought to get at least a little bit fresher. Of course they throw lots of **** just right out the window, like the fact that when they first found her she struggled to speak but in the flashbacks she speaks just fine. I suppose you could argue the trauma of escaping in the first season was enough to get her to clam up or something, but still, they didn't respect their own backstory very much.
I did like Hopper more in this one, I thought his story was more gritty and I liked that. But then they used the afforementioned plot armor to ensure they could escape literally anything thrown at them and it moves from gritty to cartoonish.
I also didn't like that they didn't really build on anything that happened before, What happened to the mind-flayer? It was made pretty clear at the end of season 3 that it was just banished from our world, but not destroyed, and was presumably still in the upside-down plotting revenge, or whatever. But in this one there is like a 10-second clip that might be the mind-flayer, and what happened in that clip was unclear. I think they paid their bad guys short shrift. They needed to establish a clear hand-off to Voldemort and define the supernatural pecking order, otherwise it just becomes another "freak of the week" bad guy like so many other shows before them that jumped the shark.
I hope they wrap things up in season 5, and I hope they have some real stakes and have one or more of the main characters get killed. I know they are aiming this for a late-teen audience so they have shied away from a lot of that kind of emotional kick, but it needs it badly to get the mojo back. Season 1 was solid, season 2 was season 1 watered down with essentially the same story as season 1. Season 3 at least escalated the bad guy and made it fit the foreshadowing from the first 2 seasons. Season 4 felt more like a "hey guys you know what would be cool!" kind of a thing, without a clear direction and tie-in to the first 3 seasons, other than the upside-down is a thing still. Season 5 needs to be written better and pull the story together to end it. But I think they aren't thinking about the over-arching story anymore, they are firmly in the grip of "this season needs to be BIGGER and BADDER than any of the other seasons!!" So we will get a dick-measuring season instead of a clean and clear ending to the story. Too bad really, this series had so much potential. Managed to bring some freshness to a tired genre.
But of course I will binge all of season 5 as soon as they release it, however they release it. We all need to see Eleven and hawk-nose get married, right?
I didn't mind the general premise of this season, I thought revisiting Eleven's backstory was a good thought to get at least a little bit fresher. Of course they throw lots of **** just right out the window, like the fact that when they first found her she struggled to speak but in the flashbacks she speaks just fine. I suppose you could argue the trauma of escaping in the first season was enough to get her to clam up or something, but still, they didn't respect their own backstory very much.
I did like Hopper more in this one, I thought his story was more gritty and I liked that. But then they used the afforementioned plot armor to ensure they could escape literally anything thrown at them and it moves from gritty to cartoonish.
I also didn't like that they didn't really build on anything that happened before, What happened to the mind-flayer? It was made pretty clear at the end of season 3 that it was just banished from our world, but not destroyed, and was presumably still in the upside-down plotting revenge, or whatever. But in this one there is like a 10-second clip that might be the mind-flayer, and what happened in that clip was unclear. I think they paid their bad guys short shrift. They needed to establish a clear hand-off to Voldemort and define the supernatural pecking order, otherwise it just becomes another "freak of the week" bad guy like so many other shows before them that jumped the shark.
I hope they wrap things up in season 5, and I hope they have some real stakes and have one or more of the main characters get killed. I know they are aiming this for a late-teen audience so they have shied away from a lot of that kind of emotional kick, but it needs it badly to get the mojo back. Season 1 was solid, season 2 was season 1 watered down with essentially the same story as season 1. Season 3 at least escalated the bad guy and made it fit the foreshadowing from the first 2 seasons. Season 4 felt more like a "hey guys you know what would be cool!" kind of a thing, without a clear direction and tie-in to the first 3 seasons, other than the upside-down is a thing still. Season 5 needs to be written better and pull the story together to end it. But I think they aren't thinking about the over-arching story anymore, they are firmly in the grip of "this season needs to be BIGGER and BADDER than any of the other seasons!!" So we will get a dick-measuring season instead of a clean and clear ending to the story. Too bad really, this series had so much potential. Managed to bring some freshness to a tired genre.
But of course I will binge all of season 5 as soon as they release it, however they release it. We all need to see Eleven and hawk-nose get married, right?
