A little bit of everything

I just got done binge watching Stranger Things - Season 3. Here’s a bit of recap before I get to any ** spoilers **. You probably don’t want to read the rest of this post if you haven’t seen Season 3 yet.

Season 1 was amazing

I was completely blown away by season 1 with the minor exception of the sound quality of the first episode. There was something strange about it that made it hard to make out what was being said regardless of the volume level. It reminded me of some of the techniques used by David Lynch in some of his movies where there is a lot of white noise to build a foreboding atmospheric effect.

Season 2 was even better

I really liked Season 2 as well. We dug into the story a lot more, the characters got fleshed out a bit, and most of the techical issues were dealt with although it’s so dark on screen that you really have to watch it with the lights out.

Season 3 where the bottom drops out ** spoiler alert **

To me, season three was a real bomb, which is a shame because of how built up it had become from the first two seasons. I pretty much hated it in spite of it building quickly to more action this time.

Some things I really disliked:

• Billy’s character is tossed away early on to become a zombie for the rest of the season. His demise is way too predictable
• Joyce’s (Winona Ryder) voice still grates on my nerves. Too much angst for an adult.
• The chemistry between Hopper and Joyce has some potential, but just winds up being annoying. Hopper is too stubborn given what he’s been through and Joyce just won’t shut up.
• The monster is evil without reason. There needs to be a little more back story about the upside-down (which doesn’t event come into play this season) and some motivation other than it’s bad and hates.
• Right when we are about to have a touching moment between Steve and Robin after escaping from the Russians, she hits us with, “No I wasn’t looking at you in class, Steve. I was hot for the girl that kept staring at you.” Woke and broke. SJWs tanking everything. I don’t mind the occasional gay romance, but seriously, enough is enough. In this case, you totally put the breaks on a storyline that might pull some people into season 4. Now it looks like Robin is going to be Steve’s wingman. Gah.
• The Russians - bumbling red-shirts.
• The Terminator
• Mike’s parents appear brain-damaged. They seem completely oblivious to what is going on with their children.
• One month at camp and it’s dusty-bun and suzie-poo? You’ve got to be kidding.
• The guy with all the conspiracy information winds up just being a Russian translator.
• What’s with the singing? Stop it.
• Paul Riser only does a cameo. I’m not sure he even had any lines.
• The monster was just gross cgi.

Some things I really liked:

• The chemistry between Mike and El is great. El has some really nice moments when she’s just being a teenager. Of course she is a total bad-ass at times.
• Hilarious how tall everyone got so quickly between seasons.
• The emerging relationship between Steve (who is pretty well redeemed at this point) and Robin seems to be developing nicely (but see above).
• Love the nerd references scattered throughout. Cool that they found a DM’s guide and a Player’s Handbook from the 80’s. Should have tried to get a copy of the Monster Manual to complete the set.

Overall, I’m not sure I’ll even bother with Season 4 if it’s going to be more of the same. I found myslelf just wishing that it would end so I could do something else.