Finished it. Liked the second half of the season, but I felt like it lost a little steam. Ending was not bad, but like mono said, staid.
Nostalgia can be pretty bad, but in this series it worked well. Another huge plus was that it is 8 episodes, and not drawn out to 13 episodes.
Finished up last night. My thoughts mirror what appears to be the thread’s consensus - enjoyed it overall, perhaps a little too pat with homages so endemic they become predictable, weak ending.
I kept checking the timestamp in the second half of the last episode, wondering when the hell it was going to be over so I could go to bed, I was that bored.
Tiny not-really-spoilers:
I didn’t hate Ryder’s performance as much as some apparently did, but my god the portrayal is amazingly single-note with a few exceptions. I did like the couple times you could watch her conquer the fear and buck up to confront something horrible because goddammit, her son needs her. And she had I think one scene with Jonathan that was kinda touching. But man, for every one of those you got twenty shrieking edge-of-breakdown scenery-chewing blasts.
I might be a couple years too young or just not well versed enough in movies because there wasn’t a ton of nostalgia here for me – the ET homage was the big one. The ending mostly played it safe genre-wise but I was a little surprised they subverted the trope and kept Nancy and Steve together, and that Hopper and Joyce didn’t get paired up.One question from episode 8: did I miss why Hopper would get into the car with the government guys, or was it just to be assumed he didn’t tell Joyce the full deal?
The setting felt well-crafted (nothing obviously jumped out as being too new for the time they were portraying) and I loved the score. I’d watch a second season but wonder if it might work better like American Horror Story where each season is its own thing.
[quote=“LockerK, post:43, topic:78687, full:true”]they subverted the trope and kept Nancy and Steve together, and that Hopper and Joyce didn’t get paired up.One question from episode 8: did I miss why Hopper would get into the car with the government guys, or was it just to be assumed he didn’t tell Joyce the full deal?
[/quote]
I figured they were going to debrief him. Until we saw him again I wasn’t sure if he was getting out of it alive. I think he went in too because heck, if he didn’t go in they could grab him whenever they wanted anyway.
The kids did a pretty good job I feel. Most of the time, kid acting annoys me. Minor nitpick: The kid rolls a 14, fireball lands. But they don’t roll for damage.
You also don’t roll to attack with a fireball. And Demogorgon certainly wouldn’t die to a piddly 10d6 of damage. But honestly…meh.
e: my bad, AD&D Fireball isn’t capped to 10d6. Still, even 20d6 is hardly going to one-shot Demogorgon.
Anyone else feel like they could have cut Nancy’s storyline and its characters entirely and lost basically nothing of value to the season? Other than ticking off a box on some Netflix brand manager’s demographic appeal SWOT?
Didn’t care for the villain at all, either. Could have done something interesting with that and just…didn’t.
It’s actually D&D they are playing, we saw the Blue box (expert level? probably level ~10) while they look up vale of shadows.
Anyway yeah you’re totally right about not needing to roll. The only roll would be a saving throw for half damage for the monster, which the DM would roll.
How is this for kids? Like, let’s say 10-14 years old? Too scary? Too boring? Just right?
My 14-year-old and I watched it, and he liked it a lot. 12-14 is probably the perfect age to see something like this.
I think 10 might be a little bit young. There’s some fairly gruesome stuff…but it totally depends on the 10-year-old.
I’d say that it depends on the kid. If they’re ok with pg-13 horror movies they should be fine.
So explain why you say “horror” movies. Does it have that much scare factor/tension?
If they can handle the original Poltergeist, they should be fine. It’s not that bad but because it’s kids and parents there are a few scenes that could be troublesome.
it’s certainly pretty scary for a tv show… sits pretty cleanly in the horror genre
I liked the show overall, but wasn’t the knocking-it-out-of-the-park experience some critics described it as.
I really dug the look of the show, the directing, the locations and the atmosphere. Same for the music and the general sound design. That said, homage has its ups and downs. The nods to classic narratives, movies and stories are nice, but sometimes it makes everything feel a bit too familiar and predictable. (‘Appreciated’ that Nancy and Steve got back together though and that Joyce and Hopper did not fall in love though.)
I’m also not sure how I feel about the mixed tone of the show which in part in an adventure romp of a bunch of ragtag nerds where you’re never really worried about any of the kids because you just know they’re not going to get killed; in part it’s a horror throw-back that also has shady agents kill some innocent guy early on.
The performances were also a mixed bag. I like Winona Ryder in general, but here her delivery felt annoying 80% of the time. I know her character is supposed to be in distress and grief, but it didn’t quite come together for me. Matthew Modine was a welcome appearance - I hadn’t seen him in ages. (I checked IMDB, and I really haven’t watched anything he was in in the past 15 years. Except Dark Knight Rises - which I honestly don’t remember a lot of though.)
Thought the actress playing Eleven did a great job. It’s an overall quiet and brooding character, but she did a lot through facial expressions, e.g. while seeing herself in the mirror. Her delivery was pretty good in every scene. Unlike the boy, who had child-actor-doing-child-acting moments here and there.
Like Jorn, I was glad it had only 8 episodes. I think anything beyond that would have been quite the drag; it’s not like the characters or the story would have provided enough material for more. Even though they tease a bit at the end, the show feels like a second season would have a new story and set of characters (like True Detective) rather than continueing the first season.
Okay, thanks guys. The Poltergeist comparison is really helpful. I think we’ll preview it first and decide.
I liked it. There’s been a lot of television I can’t watch due to lack of imagination, and poor writing, but I didn’t get that here. The show can’t be all things to all people, and I think it did a good job of being good enough for me.
I liked the monster. Here’s this animalistic thing that can cross between worlds after the girl has opened the crack, and it’s own world is dead. It’s not necessarily mindless, but more an incomprehensible horror that is barely explained. What are those other crawling things that Barb sees before she gets dragged back into the pool? Why does whats-his-face flash back to the other dimension at the end? What’s with the worm?
It might not be perfect, but it was good enough. Would buy again.
I really enjoyed this. The girl playing eleven was really good. I wasn’t expecting the ending, mainly because in a show from the 80’s that ending would have never happened. It made me a little sad.
I thought it was okay, but overlong at eight episodes. This story could easily have been told within the confines of a standard movie as the characters were almost all stereotypes.
Liked the vibe, so I am willing to give this a second chance if they bring it back. Pretty sure that most will like it.
I suspect if they made more episodes the story would have had more detail, not been stretched out with the same content to fill the same length. If they had less episodes, less detail.
Why this complaint doesn’t work for me, whether about a game or a television series, is that you could take it all the way down to it being a short story online, perhaps even a paragraph. Why a movie?
I really think the Vox review captures my feelings quite well:
(spoilers within the article)
I watched all eight hours of Stranger Things
within a 24-hour period, and when I was done, I found myself hankering
to go back and start over from the very beginning, something that rarely
happens to me.
In short, Stranger Things has flaws — big,
noticeable flaws. But those flaws somehow make the show stronger, not
weaker. Even if the Duffers have nothing more interesting to say than,
“We love '80s movies!” they convey their affection for said movies so
enthusiastically that you can’t help but be swept up by the whole thing
in the end.
In other words, there are plenty of flaws, but the show is a bunch of fun regardless, sometimes in spite of those flaws, and sometimes because of them. There will likely be many who just narrowly can’t get by the flaws, but I loved it and can’t wait for more, despite recognizing many of its flaws.