That’s why I find it important to look at both critic and user reviews. If they agree, they’re probably right. If they disagree things get interesting.

If critics liked it, but audiences disliked it, it’s probably technically good but boring. If critics disliked it, but audiences liked it, it’s probably kinda bad but exciting.

Both are also affected by social media, especially user scores, so if “the Internet” hates/loves something if can be unfairly inflated/deflated.

New, but not brand new, films also usually have a more accurate score. I enjoyed The Godfather, so I would rate it positively, but if I didn’t like it I’m probably not rating it at all. I saw it X years ago and unless it was absolutely terrible or I have a vivid memory of disliking it, I’m just going to ignore it.

The one in the bathroom or any sink?

I really loved the scene where Joyce was hacking off Vecna’s head

There was a moment a few scenes before where I noticed just how big Joyce’s axe was. It was a Chekhov’s Axe moment for me where I was left wondering just how she was going to use it. I completely agree that Joyce walking up to Vecna and hacking away at his head was just perfect. He’d caused Joyce so much pain I’m glad she got a moment to shine.

Another is, why isn’t everyone under surveillance after they lost El?

I mean they might be. But it’s also 18 months later and they maybe have just have one dude on it. Or standard NSA listening to all their conversations or something.

But honestly the original Hawkins experiment ultimately lead to a huge scandal (end of season 2 I think). Papa dies twice and is replaced at some point, but returns and dies. And of course this season is a whole quarantine and ultimately fails again. So this project has been funded at least three times and ultimately has nothing to show for it? At a certain point you just give up.

I mean it was a bold choice to feature a character from a disliked backdoor pilot episode. The best thing to do would have been to just let everyone forget about it and move on. The decision to bring her back is odd, but if you’ve got a good reason then let’s do it.

But… It doesn’t seem like they did.

Like it’s not your fault at all. You saw the previous episode she was in, the one with the psychic kids. I could blame you if that character was mentioned at all in season 3 or 4, but they weren’t.

This would be like referencing something Superhero Bob did. Remember that speech he gave Will?

I don’t ultimately hate the decision, it was just kinda meh.

I mean that ending with Mike telling the I Believe story and the group putting their binders away was a huge emotional hit. Both because I didn’t want it to end and because I think they gave El a great ending.

We have to sit and wonder if El is really dead for a while, and then Mike has his moment at graduation where he figures out something, but we’re not quite sure what.

It hit hard. It hit good.

I mean she was in season 2. It’s just that she was in the weird one off worst rated episode.

Bringing her back was a bold choice… I’m just don’t think it worked.

Re Russian Demogorgons.

Really this is a season 4 question, but I assumed season 5 would explain it. How did the Demogorgons get to Russia? How did Hopper get to Russia? Did the Russian portal open into Hawkins?

I need Dustin to explain.

I rewatched the first four seasons as a lead up to season five and season five overall really did an excellent job wrapping everything up. I would happily (years from now) rewatch the entire series again.

I think it helps that season 4 is both an excellent season with an excellent finale, but also sets up season 5.

Especially Linda Hamilton.

I think if the military was just that random dude who yelled at people, that might have worked. Even having a Linda Hamilton type that wasn’t Linda Hamilton might have worked. But when you HAVE Linda Hamilton… Do something with her. Give her a storyline.

Re Nancy Wheeler.

During the epilogue I believe all of these young adults have moved on. I believe Johnathan is an awkward filmmaker. I believe Steve coaches children. I believe Robin is just vibin in life. But I don’t believe Nancy.

Nancy started this series as the “preppy” girl and ended it as Ripley/Rambo. Leaving college made sense. She obviously wanted to be a reporter, so jumping right into reporting makes sense. But even as she says she’s happy about it… She isn’t. And maybe that’s part of her story. Maybe her story isn’t over.

I think we needed something more of Nancy. Maybe we see her trying school and trying reporting, but she doesn’t really feel at ease until discussing monsters with her friends, who seemingly have moved on.

Re Kali/Eight/Eleven’s magic power sister.

I thought it was a bold choice to bring back Kali as part of this season. It was one of the big cliffhanger moments of season 5 volume 1. But… I don’t think it worked.

If you work backwards from the ending, it makes sense why you have Kali. She has illusion powers so Eleven’s fake out “I believe” ending can work. I like that ending. But what did Kali do during the series?

Well she convinces El the only way to end the cycle of monsters and torture is for them to die. And if you work backwards from that, that’s why Hopper has his “the only solution is to die” moment earlier in the series. It’s a parallel.

So Kali has a key purpose… But what does SHE actually do? They have another super powered person and she just wanders around until she dies.

I know she was a bit of a nihilist at that point on her life, but even as they’re putting together the final plan, she doesn’t have a part in that plan. Her death just doesn’t matter.

Re Will.

So the obvious point of discussion, Will coming out. I’ve seen a lot of hate online about this. I’m assuming the issue is that we didn’t need a coming out scene in the middle of the world coming to an end story. Which I understand.

That being said I think it was a great scene, well told and well acted. We’ve had hints about it for at least a season or two, so it showing up in the finale made sense. Plus for Will’s character it was a great way to show his continued growth.

I do think it would have been great to have Will be a super sorcerer as part of the finale. I really think Vecna should have had Demogorgons and Demodogs attacking the party, only for Will to take them over. It would have made the fight cooler. It would have made the fight more believable. And it would have really shown how much stronger Will had become.

Second, I think they should have done something more with Will and Mike’s relationship. Previously Mike said, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls”, which I really thought meant that he already knew and took their argument too far. Add to that Will basically confessing how much he loves Mike, but understanding that Mike will never love him the same way, but also Mike was completely oblivious. I’m glad they got a little extra heart to heart moment, but it probably could have been told a bit better to have it feel more realistic. I’m glad that Will came out and everyone’s reaction was supportive, that’s how it should be, but it just could have used a little more to feel more realistic.

I don’t think it’s so much Nintendo in this case as Retro Studios.

Nintendo EPD co-developed “Metroid Dread” with MercurySteam and they fucking nailed it. Retro Studios developed the original Prime trilogy, so in theory they should have been able to figure out Prime 4. Maybe there is backroom drama, but Nintendo gave the original developer of the three original games the go ahead for a forth in the series and they ultimately delivered what they did.

Sometimes studios just change too much.

So I agree with the overall sentiment, but I feel like the reason I dislike “microblogging”, which is to say Mastodon, Threads, Twitter, etc is highlighted as a positive in the first post.

something that signals “I am more than just a content creation machine for a corporation!”

It could be a status symbol for all the right reasons.

I care about talking to people, not a person. The Lemmy/Piefed/Mbin/Reddit style of conversation (forum?) is just a better way to get people together to talk about things. You don’t have to be someone special with a “status symbol”, you don’t have to be “content creation machine” for anyone.

I say this because while conceptually I’m glad that the whole Fediverse and ActivityPub can talk to each other, we’re just not having the same conversation.

Wouldn’t the Enterprise just beam them directly to the brig?

Other than knowing Gary Oldman was in it I went in knowing nothing. I really enjoyed it. It’s a quick watch of a show, so I’d say watch the first episode or two and you’ll know quickly if it’s the show for you.

It’s possibly from people trying to help, but don’t understand AI hallucinations.

For example a Wikipedia article might say, “John Smith spent a year Oxford University before moving to London.[Citation Needed]” So the article already contains information, but lacks proper citation.

Someone comes along and says, "Ah ha! AI can solve this and asks AI, ‘Did John Smith spend a year at Oxford before moving to London, please provide citations.’ and the AI returns, “Yes of course he did according to the book ‘John Smith: Biography of a Man’ ISBN 123456789”

So someone adds that as a citation and now Wikipedia has been improved.

Or… has it? The ISBN 123456789 is invalid. No book could possibly have that number. If the ISBN is invalid, then the book is also likely invalid, and the citation is also invalid.

So the satisfaction was someone who couldn’t previously help Wikipedia, now thinking they can help Wikipedia. At face value that’s a good thing, someone who wants to help Wikipedia. The problem is that they think they’re helping, but they’re actually harming.

The cable is fiber optic, which is to say light. Light don’t care about gold and silver. The highly polished lens bit is probably also bullshit, but at least light cares about lenses.

I have to disagree that the stakes are never raised. Season 1 the big bad is a Demogorgon who is just a scary monster. Then we add multiple Demodogs to the Demogorgon. Then we add an intelligent creature with the Mind Flayer who controls the above creatures, but he still mostly a monster. Then we add an intelligent human who does all of the above, but hunts children. And now finally in the finale it’s all of the above trying to bring the upside down into the real world (technically the plan for season 4, but he won and then “died”, so he’s doing it again but properly.)

So Demogorgons go from the big bad to just bring minions in the current season. Our main characters are fighting off a dozen whereas one used to be impossible.