I've had the second season of Stranger Things for a while, but I finally sat down and watched it yesty, with me cousins, after we ran out of things to talk about.
Dear, oh dear, what a mess.
I've had the second season of Stranger Things for a while, but I finally sat down and watched it yesty, with me cousins, after we ran out of things to talk about.
Dear, oh dear, what a mess.
5 comments :
I watched 2nd series with LittleSquib. She really enjoyed but I found the middle episodes a bit tedious (Will's fits and so on). It definitely felt more like a young teen audience show this time around. I don't think they had enough material for that many episodes
My biggest issue with it was that it just seemed TACKED ON. Like they clearly did not have enough content for a second season, but went ahead and made one anyway.
There were some really wonderful moments though. Like when Bob died.
The first series was a slow-burn mystery/drama. For about 90% of it, the monster was some blinking lights and ripples in a wall—and we didn't know how El was connected to it, or what was going on with the people she was running away from. It took nearly the whole series for the characters to figure out, and then come to terms with the fact, that something otherworldly was going on; and all this played off against the grief they felt at having lost Will & Barb. It was a highly atmospheric show that knew how to sustain and ratchet up tension, to the point where several times I found myself covered in goosebumps, with tears in my eyes.
Series two had none of this.
The first thing that struck me was the total lack of atmosphere. A lot of the dialogue was so awkward it was comical. The scenes with El and Sheriff Whats-his-name should've been touching, but they weren't. The pacing was terrible—to the point where they were interspersing basic character-establishment stuff with the climactic scenes of the later episodes (eg: Max's brother (dubbed "Brad Jovi" by my cousin)).
—Oh, and there's another thing: While the first series had a charming authenticity about it, series two felt like somebody was constantly hitting me over the head with a sack and shouting, "It's the Eighties, ya dumb bitch. Get it? The fuckin' Eighties! Eeeeeiiiiiigggghhhhhtiiiiiieeeeees!". But back to what I was saying—
This series had fuck all drama and no mystery. Instead there was a lot of yelling and crying and shooting things, while our heroes ran around fighting a less subtle and more retarded take on the same monster they fought in season one.
Here are some low points off the top of my head:
When Bob gave his clunky speech about bullies, my cousin said, "Oh, what a shame; I quite like this fat cunt and it looks like they're gonna kill him off". Everybody groaned when it turned out he was the only bloke who could reboot the computers. Also, why did he only turn that one sprinkler on and not all the sprinklers in the building?
The entire sub-plot with Nancy and Bat-Face (seriously, what happened to his face?) was a mountain of awful—the apex being the cringe-inducing scene where they got together at the home of that conspiracy-obsessed dickhead whose name I don't remember.
Episode seven stood out like dog's balls as being a pitch for a spin-off. Everything about it felt like a completely different show. And I'd complain about it throwing off the pacing, but as we've already established, that was already pretty well rooted to begin with.
*Sigh* Anybody looking forward to season 3?
Poor Bob - he was the best bit
Nope!
I wonder if there'll be a "Bob deserved better" compain like the one Barb got from the fans.
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