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Stranger Things
Okay, this is kinda belated because I actually finished it a few days ago, but haven't written anything up yet. On the whole I really liked the new season! I didn't like everything, but what I liked, I really, really liked.
I looooved the Hawkins plot. It was fantastic. Wonderfully creepy in the best way, great new characters, and all of the plot with the older teens and the Upside Down was everything I wanted. (STEEEEEEVE! I applaud this season giving him much more hero stuff to do, and also having him shirtless and beat up.) Max's plot was also excellent. I cannot wait to find out how all of this works out in the back half of the season.
Considerably more lukewarm on the other plots, honestly, but all of them had at least a few things I liked ... though in the case of the Russia storyline this was mainly a reluctant sympathy for Antonov. (I am just going to headcanon that most of that storyline is not what actually happened, it's the version of events that Murray told everyone when they got back to the US, because otherwise the entire thing is suspension-of-disbelief-breaking levels of dumb.)
I found Eleven's torture/gaslighting really hard to watch, but then there was the reveal on 001 and AAAAHHHHH. I did figure out some of it in the lead-up to the big reveal, but not all of it.
I also ship Steve/Nancy again, and honestly would be really happy with them as each other's endgame pairing. It occurred to me this season that the reasons why they broke up before are no longer really in play - Steve's not a douche anymore, and by now he's just as invested in monster-hunting as Nancy is. Third time's the charm? I would genuinely love it if they ended up together; it's not even slightly where I thought they were going, but I'm a sentimental sucker for second-chance romance, and also enjoy having my early expectations for the endgame pairings confounded in a nice way.
At this point I have no solid guesses on what happens in the unaired episodes, because this season has been throwing my expectations so consistently. I do think that having a character who is canonically in a band when the villain is vulnerable to music has GOT to come into play in the last two episodes, and also, there's no way that Steve getting savaged by monster bats and then almost passing out isn't important, though I'm not sure if it's going to come into play in the climax or as the stinger cliffhanger. But that's all I've really got. How does it all go together? Do we even get a proper ending this season, knowing that there's one more? (If they were going to end a season on an apocalypse ending, this would be the one to do it.) I'm also deeply worried that either Eddie or Steve is being set up to die. Nooooooo all the teens have to live, I will accept nothing less!
IS IT JULY YET???
I looooved the Hawkins plot. It was fantastic. Wonderfully creepy in the best way, great new characters, and all of the plot with the older teens and the Upside Down was everything I wanted. (STEEEEEEVE! I applaud this season giving him much more hero stuff to do, and also having him shirtless and beat up.) Max's plot was also excellent. I cannot wait to find out how all of this works out in the back half of the season.
Considerably more lukewarm on the other plots, honestly, but all of them had at least a few things I liked ... though in the case of the Russia storyline this was mainly a reluctant sympathy for Antonov. (I am just going to headcanon that most of that storyline is not what actually happened, it's the version of events that Murray told everyone when they got back to the US, because otherwise the entire thing is suspension-of-disbelief-breaking levels of dumb.)
I found Eleven's torture/gaslighting really hard to watch, but then there was the reveal on 001 and AAAAHHHHH. I did figure out some of it in the lead-up to the big reveal, but not all of it.
I also ship Steve/Nancy again, and honestly would be really happy with them as each other's endgame pairing. It occurred to me this season that the reasons why they broke up before are no longer really in play - Steve's not a douche anymore, and by now he's just as invested in monster-hunting as Nancy is. Third time's the charm? I would genuinely love it if they ended up together; it's not even slightly where I thought they were going, but I'm a sentimental sucker for second-chance romance, and also enjoy having my early expectations for the endgame pairings confounded in a nice way.
At this point I have no solid guesses on what happens in the unaired episodes, because this season has been throwing my expectations so consistently. I do think that having a character who is canonically in a band when the villain is vulnerable to music has GOT to come into play in the last two episodes, and also, there's no way that Steve getting savaged by monster bats and then almost passing out isn't important, though I'm not sure if it's going to come into play in the climax or as the stinger cliffhanger. But that's all I've really got. How does it all go together? Do we even get a proper ending this season, knowing that there's one more? (If they were going to end a season on an apocalypse ending, this would be the one to do it.) I'm also deeply worried that either Eddie or Steve is being set up to die. Nooooooo all the teens have to live, I will accept nothing less!
IS IT JULY YET???