Obviously one of the big TV events of the Christmas / New Year period.
So did you watch and did the ending meet / exceed expectations or completely disappoint?
As I am aware that many may not have watched yet, I won’t go into any details or even offer a review in this opening post, other than to say it was better than I expected – especially given some of the early episodes in this season were a bit weak.
Further (brief) input in the comments so we can keep this spoiler free for those who still want to watch…..
(Maybe) spoiler alert !
I liked the fact that it didn’t go out with a big bang and returned to the Goonies / ET / 80s feel that was there at the start.
I found it a little “busy”, quite a lot going on but generally a satisfactory outcome. I’ve seen quite a few comments online criticising the visual effects and how much the whole thing cost but it looked ok on our 10 year old tv and for once, the audio clarity was ok, something I notice more these days.
Big Sci-Fi fan here
Never watched it
@Pyramid You ain’t missed much. Had to endure some of it over Xmas. Hadn’t watched since first series which I thought was complete tosh. Doesn’t seem to have improved in the intervening years.
lol
Way too long and way too much angst.
I loved it. As somebody who was spellbound by the show from the first episode, I was worried that it would let me down towards the end, like some other TV (see the awful, AWFUL finale of Line of Duty, for example), but I think all concerned with Stranger Things knocked it out of the park.
The finale was exciting and dramatic in the right places, and then funny and moving. The acting and production were first-rate, and while I know it inevitably had to end, I’d happily watch a spin-off or two.
I think social media must be a nightmare nowadays for anybody who comes up with a hit show and must consider how their planned finale will be received. (I know the AW is social media of a sort, but I’m referring to the more virulent corners of X, Insta, etc., rather than this haven of polite debate.) I’m sure that for some people, any finale to Stranger Things that differed even slightly from their hoped-for ending would be worthy of very angry criticism indeed – see the online rage provoked by *SPOILER ALERT* Will’s coming-out scene, and the ridiculous campaign a few years ago for the final season of Game of Thrones to be remade in its entirety so that it was more in line with the online community’s wishes.
If I was involved in Stranger Things in any way, I would ignore any criticism from trolls and look back on a job well done and a series that made a lot of people very happy. I’m sure that in a few months, I’ll be watching the whole thing again.
I find I cannot improve on this post, which says everything that I wanted to say.
*Blushes*. Thank you very much, LC.
Just finished watching. Couldn’t agree more with Captain & Lando
Only finished it last night and I agree with all the above…Maybe it’s age catching up with me, but I was grateful for the exposition.
Mrs Path has been watching it all again, in preparation for the current (final?) series, assuring me I would love it. I tried to, but lost interest as it meandered into a morass of muddy conjecture and morose self-belief. Mind you, I have lost all faith in any box set’s ability to be grabbing me, much after the first few episodes, let alone further “seasons”. Any initial delight in long form extrapolation has been lost, as self indulgent show runners seem to seek only to shock and surprise, suspending any credibility for the publicity gained by social media spoilers.
The description “limited series” is now something I search for…….
There’s a box set? I thought it was streaming only on Netflix.
I was an avid watcher, first season was excellent. I watched 2 and 3 in full and felt it was disappearing up its own backside. I really wanted to see how Running Up That Hill featured but never made it that far, with each episode becoming increasingly bloated and confusing. I may try again at some point, but probably not
If not yet, there will be! All multi-series series get at least one, somewhere down the line. Easier to type boxes than multi-series series.
I’ve not watched the last series. It was mostly ok up to that. I find the CGI monsters a bit formulaic, though.
Still working my way through the final season.
But its a slog. Its so badly written. Every character just stops and gives exposition constantly. Killing any drama or momentum the story as.
I’ts not helped the the ‘Kids’ all looking like they are in the mid to late twenties now.
I’ll finish it eventually. But its way down the watch list.
Most of them are early 20s now I think, meaning they mainly used age appropriate actors when it started which is somewhat unusual I think
The final season suffers from the bloat that popular series get after years of adding more characters to move the plot along, and not having the courage to kill a few off. As Arch says, a hell of a lot of time goes into exploring how everyone feels about everything. We slogged through to the end but it was heavy going, especially the epilogue. Visually very impressive though.
This was the feeling chez Malc too: still enjoyable but there some irritation (especially from the youngsters) that the Duffer Brothers’ promises to tie up loose ends and fill in plot holes went unfulfilled. Final battle over rather too quickly and an overlong epilogue that somehow still didn’t feel complete.
A quick whizz through this thread has probably saved me a lot of VPN time, thanks folks!
It was very enjoyable but you had to want to see it all conclude. You need to be invested in it to some degree to watch up to the final credit roll.
I forgave the bloat. It is far too character-heavy and some of the side players weren’t needed for more than a season or two for the whole thing to wrap in the way it did, but they all entertained and they all had at least one scene worth their presence.
Always amused by the premise of unqualified youngsters who can very quickly, grasp the terrifying scientific concepts afoot and then white board a plan to save existence an hour or so later.
Watched the first series descend into incoherence, that was enough for me.
I won’t read the thread because we’re only on season 2. I just want to put on record how disappointed I was that the underground root things didn’t turn Hopper into compost when they had the chance.
Winona Ryder and David Harbour got $1.2 million an episode for season 5. Nice work if you can get it. She probably doesn’t need to do any shoplifting now.
It is hard to recall why she seemed so much in demand all those years ago; Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, Dracula, etc etc, as she can’t act for toffee, wondering if she ever could. I suspect not.
She wasn’t much of one to begin with, her looks were pretty important as to her bankability. She was pretty good in The Age of Innocence and I think Stranger Things showed she had improved as she matured
Nasty
Thought it was enjoyable to the end, but the writing really fell off this season. Far too many characters, far far too much exposition – there was a point where every other scene seemed to involve someone explaining what was happening using kooky props.
The show was at its best when it stuck to the original concept – what if Stephen King had written a bunch of sequels to The Goonies. Probably peaked somewhere around season 3, but the magic lingered right to the end, albeit buried under the increasing need to spotlight every character and explain everything all the time.
Personally, I would have preferred it if they’d taken an anthology approach; a different monster each season and no need to show us quite so much of the upside down or fill in all the blanks of what was going on. The rush to answer questions, explain all motivations and shine a spotlight in every dark corner became a real weakness as time went on. The upside down went from being a place of real terror and mystery to somewhere you could happily hang out for days on end without ever looking over your shoulder and maybe even fly a helicopter around in.
All of that said, perhaps it’s apt that a series so in hock to King would have third act problems.
*Spoilers Follow*
I agree with much of what others have said above. An odd approach to narrative this season; it felt as if the brief was to give every character a scene in which to sign, and there are now simply far too many characters for such an approach to hang together.
As a consequence, to give but one example, by the time the audience is asked to care about Mike and Eleven’s relationship it’s far too late to do so, because we’ve barely seen them speak to one another over the previous 10 hours. Everyone got a set piece, but hardly anyone got any actual depth; the constant rush to move on would not permit it.
Also far too much time wasted on Mike’s little sister – a character it was simply impossible to care about, and whose foregrounding seemed to betray the series very premise – this is meant to be one for the nerds, the slightly tedious child models have plenty of other shows to populate.
The bloat meant a real lack of focus. Too little time with the core characters together – we got one scene, right at the end, showing them hanging out and being friends, and it was about as good as this season got, rather begging the question of why we weren’t given more of that stuff. It also meant that the Linda Hamilton character seemed to serve very little purpose at all, and certain developments were simply glossed over in the rush to the next bout of exposition; my favourite being Mike’s poor father. Seemingly fatally swiped through a wall by a demigorgon early in the season and not mentioned at all until the closing scenes, where it transpired that – presumably to everyone else’s intense apathy – he was still alive.
All of that said – Maya Hawke’s Tom Waits T-shirt was fantastic (surprised not to see it mentioned above), and I very much enjoyed watching Winona Ryder hack someone’s head off with an axe, at length, in front of a roomful of presumably traumatised kids.
Across the five seasons it’s been a great run, and about as close to true event TV as this generation has got. It remains a brilliant concept, well executed, and a cultural phenomenon in an era where a decreasing number of those come from the small screen. It slightly fell in love with itself towards the end – that po faced need to build a concrete mythos to underpin all events, the refusal to sacrifice a character or two even where such a sacrifice was blatantly called for – but then it had probably earned a bit of self love. I will always love the show, for the simple reason that in its early incarnation it gave us a lovely paean to the joys of doing nerd shit as a kid, and the beautiful and enduring friendships that can endure as a result. We just maybe needed a bit more of those friendships this time out.
Re: The show was at its best when it stuck to the original concept – what if Stephen King had written a bunch of sequels to The Goonies – you could argue that Stephen King already did that when he wrote “It”…
(Goonies came out in 1985, It was published in 1986, so it even works with the timeline)
Yes – very true. I guess there’s quite a lot of shared DNA there; Stranger Things clearly had a major influence on the recent movie adaptations of IT, and the reciprocal influence of those adaptations could be clearly felt in this most recent season of Stranger Things. Not least in that the villain was essentially a reheated Pennywise.
Great theme tune, great titles. I’m a fan of US high school dramas, which we get early on. The characters are great. All the nerdy stuff I liked. Not keen on the Hopper in prison episodes. Who cares? The bloat does set in. I enjoyed the homage and references. Lots of humour balances the darker material. Too many sappy, weepy scenes, going on too long. I thought the final episode was a wow, until it continued and didn’t end. The makers really love their characters, they don’t want it to end. Just one more season? And yet, TV shows come and go. This was one of the more memorable ones. Full of familiar tropes bur somehow original.
Yep – I get it was all a bit bloated, and that on too many occasions things ground to a halt for some exposition / explanation.
But – some of those action scenes were extraordinary. The attack at the Wheeler house was tense and scary, the ‘one shot’ at the military base so well executed. The moment when Will turned from wan victim to superhero was jump up and applaud amazing…
And yes, there were probably too many characters – but what characters they were. Shouts out to Steve and Robyn – my personal faves. Although Nancy going full Ripley was quite the thing.
And let’s not forget the music. I didn’t think they could top New Order and Joy Division in season 1. Then the blessed Kate went on the save the world (or Max, at least). But chef’s kiss to the choices in the final episode.
Obviously the show riffs on a whole host of pop culture references. By the final episode I think we return to the lodestone, Stephen King – and especially IT and as the show closed, Stand By Me. “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”
Very nicely put. I’d happily watch a few episodes of Steve and Robyn Have Adventures and Banter, and I loved Nancy going full shotgun-frenzy badass.
I agree re the music, particularly the choice of Kate and RUTH. I’ve watched the crucial Max episode three times, and the moment when she starts running and RUTH rises on the soundtrack is always absolutely thrilling. Chapeau raised to the entire music/sound department.
Regarding the action scenes, can I add to the list the single shot of El leaping sky-high towards the giant mind flayer’s head? If I was responsible for pulling off even part of that scene, I’d give myself the afternoon off as a reward.
Agree whole heartedly on the Max / RUTH moment.
It comes in the episode called Dear Billy, one of the most exciting episodes of any show, let alone Stranger Things.
There’s the prison escape, and the visit to Vecna’s dad (played by Freddie Kruger himself). Then there’s the attack at the Byer’s house in California when the doofus agent lounging on a lazyboy chair turn bad ass and has a shoot out with the military types (another thrilling one shot scene). And then Kate saves Max – but not before the boys have that exquisite scramble to find the right cassette at Billy’s grave side.
Has anyone seen the stage play we’ve just been asked if we’d like tickets, as it’s on Netflix I’ve never seen it.
Is it worthwhile? My BIL said they just binge watched four series
My wife and eldest are about to go see it for the third time. They say it’s spectacular – they go to a lot of West End stuff and they reckon it’s the best they’ve seen. They’ve been booking seats progressively further forward to try to understand how it’s all done, so I assume the stagecraft is the major draw.
As far as the series, I would watch the first
episode and see how you feel. It’s pretty indicative of what’s to come, although the tone shifts over time from a tight horror mystery to a sprawling action comedy. Peaks at the end of season 3 imo, at least in terms of sheer fun.
The play’s great fun and I’d happily go again. If you’ve not watched the TV show before, I would definitely watch at least the first series as some of the characters from the show appear in the play.
There’s a behind the scenes doco on Netflix about the play – we started watching, but TBH I don’t really like it when they discuss the prosaic side of these things. They let too much light onto the magic.
The stage show is spectacular, worth seeing twice so you can actually concentrate on the story the second time, rather than the many ‘how the hell did they do that?’ moments.
The Behind the Scenes doc on Netflix is interesting even if you haven’t seen the show. They spent six months working on it before First Night, initially with a cast many of whom didn’t make it to the starting line. Then another month of technical rehearsals, and two weeks of previews.
We’ve watched the whole lot between New Year and now, and finished the last episode this evening. Two key takeaways from the last episode – are we expected to believe that the military just went away and left everyone who had seen so much to get on with their lives? And where did El get the trousers from? Halfway through the last episode she acquired a pair of trackie bottoms from nowhere.
Anyway, I broadly agree with most comments. It was great fun but strung out. It was at its weakest when it try to shoehorn whacky humour in, mainly in Season 3 and Yuri in the Russia episodes, and during the last season where there way, way too many sentimental motivational speeches with soppy music swelling beneath them.