Is that why the last season of Stranger Things spent half the season rehashing how all the characters had felt about anything ever throughout the previous four seasons?
I think re-explaining things that happened in previous seasons is a different issue. They’re worried that you don’t remember what happened because it has been so long.
And that’s fair. I know I watched Season 2 (and it definitely had my full attention, because I’m incapable of doing two things at once), but the only thing I can actually remember about it is the episode where El went to Chicago and met some shadowrunners. And something about tunnels. Everything else is a blur.
The last season being a big mess aside, it was 100% guilty of re-explaining the plot, not just the recaps. Together with those unnecessary “LET ME EXPLAIN” scenes, like Robin using vinyls to explain a very basic concept. They really treated us like idiots.
Yes and no. This season has been pretty weak in the writing department, so some of these ideas that worked before were overused/used poorly this season. And for an 80s-throwback series, it ends rather depressingly, no matter how you spin it. But it’s par for the course these days for the final season/finale to shit the bed, I guess.
Depressingly? It was fully happily ever after. And it just did the same thing every other season did, largely disregard previous seasons to introduce a new big bad for the season leading up to a big monster fight. It was incredibly par for the course, 70 percent style with 30 percent substance. It’s not high cinema but it’s entertaining tv.
Hard disagree. Fully happily-ever-after wouldn’t have ended with
S5 finale spoilers
the main 16-year-old character either dying or somewhere all on her own with no family/friends/support circle, useful life skills, money or even documents to travel anywhere outside the US. While her boyfriend is stuck with depression and potentially living in delusion that she is still alive. The whole idea that El represents childhood magic and that she has to die/disappear, so other characters could move on is genuinely out of touch and potentially harmful, considering she’s been “used, abused and manipulated” since she was born. Sends a real fucked up message there. This could have worked, if the show had finished in one season. But it does not work after 5 seasons of growth (though in S5 she was completely sidelined). The one character that deserved happily ever after, and they didn’t give it to her. Not to mention how Vickie has been completely forgotten in the epilogue, or rather discarded with an offhanded comment about being an “overbearing significant other”, when Robin has been an asshole to her the entire season.
I actually would have loved a true happily-ever-after. This tired trend of every show—even something that’s supposed to be lighthearted—getting a tragic or “bittersweer” ending, because that’s considered “deep”, should just die already.
I agree with what you’re saying (aside from comparing that really awful episode to Shadowrun), but that’s not what went on in Stranger Things. It was just…
From the very first episode, I asked if they had changed writers because the dialogue was so different, so bad, and so predictable–all of which only grew worse with each passing episode. And when each character had their turn to explain who they are and how they feel, it fit the same exact pattern every time. It was just really bad writing.
All that said, I don’t think the last season was terrible. I expected it to be a lot worse than it was. The actual plot and ending of the story, I thought were perfectly mediocre and fine. It was ruined by the dialogue.
All that said, I don’t think the last season was terrible. I expected it to be a lot worse than it was. The actual plot and ending of the story, I thought were perfectly mediocre and fine. It was ruined by the dialogue.
I agree with you, it was better than I expected (although I had extremely low expectations to be fair). The most miserable parts of the final season were the long “emotional” character moments with the most juvenile/amateur/unrealistic writing. I don’t skip as a rule, but I really felt like fast forwarding through some of that stuff, it was so cringe.
That was definitely part of it, but I think they also wrote themselves into a corner in previous seasons by not properly laying the groundwork for any of the supernatural stuff. In Season 5, they had to constantly infodump the viewers in those “plan” scenes to keep up.
Is that why the last season of Stranger Things spent half the season rehashing how all the characters had felt about anything ever throughout the previous four seasons?
I think re-explaining things that happened in previous seasons is a different issue. They’re worried that you don’t remember what happened because it has been so long.
And that’s fair. I know I watched Season 2 (and it definitely had my full attention, because I’m incapable of doing two things at once), but the only thing I can actually remember about it is the episode where El went to Chicago and met some shadowrunners. And something about tunnels. Everything else is a blur.
The last season being a big mess aside, it was 100% guilty of re-explaining the plot, not just the recaps. Together with those unnecessary “LET ME EXPLAIN” scenes, like Robin using vinyls to explain a very basic concept. They really treated us like idiots.
The entirety of the show is like that. It’s not like a deep thinky clever show, it’s a series of 80’s horror movie references tossed in a blender.
Yes and no. This season has been pretty weak in the writing department, so some of these ideas that worked before were overused/used poorly this season. And for an 80s-throwback series, it ends rather depressingly, no matter how you spin it. But it’s par for the course these days for the final season/finale to shit the bed, I guess.
Depressingly? It was fully happily ever after. And it just did the same thing every other season did, largely disregard previous seasons to introduce a new big bad for the season leading up to a big monster fight. It was incredibly par for the course, 70 percent style with 30 percent substance. It’s not high cinema but it’s entertaining tv.
Hard disagree. Fully happily-ever-after wouldn’t have ended with
S5 finale spoilers
the main 16-year-old character either dying or somewhere all on her own with no family/friends/support circle, useful life skills, money or even documents to travel anywhere outside the US. While her boyfriend is stuck with depression and potentially living in delusion that she is still alive. The whole idea that El represents childhood magic and that she has to die/disappear, so other characters could move on is genuinely out of touch and potentially harmful, considering she’s been “used, abused and manipulated” since she was born. Sends a real fucked up message there. This could have worked, if the show had finished in one season. But it does not work after 5 seasons of growth (though in S5 she was completely sidelined). The one character that deserved happily ever after, and they didn’t give it to her. Not to mention how Vickie has been completely forgotten in the epilogue, or rather discarded with an offhanded comment about being an “overbearing significant other”, when Robin has been an asshole to her the entire season.
I actually would have loved a true happily-ever-after. This tired trend of every show—even something that’s supposed to be lighthearted—getting a tragic or “bittersweer” ending, because that’s considered “deep”, should just die already.
I agree with what you’re saying (aside from comparing that really awful episode to Shadowrun), but that’s not what went on in Stranger Things. It was just…
From the very first episode, I asked if they had changed writers because the dialogue was so different, so bad, and so predictable–all of which only grew worse with each passing episode. And when each character had their turn to explain who they are and how they feel, it fit the same exact pattern every time. It was just really bad writing.
All that said, I don’t think the last season was terrible. I expected it to be a lot worse than it was. The actual plot and ending of the story, I thought were perfectly mediocre and fine. It was ruined by the dialogue.
I agree with you, it was better than I expected (although I had extremely low expectations to be fair). The most miserable parts of the final season were the long “emotional” character moments with the most juvenile/amateur/unrealistic writing. I don’t skip as a rule, but I really felt like fast forwarding through some of that stuff, it was so cringe.
That was definitely part of it, but I think they also wrote themselves into a corner in previous seasons by not properly laying the groundwork for any of the supernatural stuff. In Season 5, they had to constantly infodump the viewers in those “plan” scenes to keep up.
What, do you expect the audience to pay attention and infer how characters are feeling based on things like subtle body cues? What like acting?
Yup, and on the same boards with people whining about that are complaints from people that still missed shit.
Fucking train wreck of a season. It was garbage full of useless dialogue between every character. I couldn’t watch past the first few episodes.