Stranger Things Season 3

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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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Flack wrote: Mon Jul 15, 2019 5:55 am Wait, are you saying things can be spoiled?
I said art can't be spoiled, and Stranger Things is a pretty far piece from art.
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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all the kids die of tonsillitis from kissing monsters!

THE
SPOILER
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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I still don't know what to make of Season 3. I watched the first episode of season 1 when it first came out however many years ago, decided it wasn't for me, and didn't watch another episode until about two weeks ago, and since then, I watched all of them. They are entertaining. They are very watchable (obviously, since I watched all of them pretty quickly). I like it. I don't think it's fantastic or amazing, but it's good, it's fun. Three stars!

But Season 3 represents such a wild shift in tone from the previous two that it feels like a completely different show. This is reflected, too, in the environments in which the story takes place. Where the first two seasons were set in dark, dank scenes of O'Keeffe-inspired nightmarish openings to a horrific alternate dimension, and oozing, alien underground caves, Season 3 gives us carnivals and bright, colorful, neon-lit shopping malls. It shows in the characters as well, and while it's nice to see Millie Bobby Brown finally given something to do other than frown and/or scream, it's bizarre that Hopper and Joyce have all of a sudden turned from brooding, emotionally scarred, mature adults into wacky, wise-crackin' sitcom parents.

Where Dustin was originally the comic relief of the show, suddenly every character has become the comic relief. It's fun to be able to have fun with these characters after two seasons of watching them suffer, but it's just weird. It's goofy. It's bizarre.

The bad guy of Season 1 slips Nancy a note in the first episode, and it reads "Meet me - bathroom - Steve". Since that moment, we've called that character Bathroom Steve. Bathroom Steve stopped being the bad guy by Season 2, but now he's the laugh riot of the show. Who doesn't love Bathroom Steve? I'd say it was an odd choice to have him become such a comedic character, but so did everyone else.

I dunno. Oh well, it was fun. I'll watch Season 4. I don't know how you go back to doing a serious show after they turned Season 3 into a teen rom-com, but stranger things have haaaoOOOHHhh, that's why they call it that!

(Flack, did you wait until after the end credits of the last episode? It should come as no surprise that they're making season 4, it might has well have said "Next Time, on... Stranger Things!")
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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I did.

More importantly, did you call Murray's phone number? (618) 625-8313...
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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BTW, I think you nailed most of what I was thinking. It's been a minute since I saw the first season, but IIRC the kids were fairly interchangeable back then. It wasn't like the Goonies or Breakfast Club where each kid had a defined role/skill. By season three, one kid's into communications, one kid's into fireworks, and so on. And then you have the whole "growing up" story. One kid's gay, one might be gay, some move away, one has a long distance relationship (three long distance relationships by the end)... so it's a little less saving the world and a little more soap opera than previous seasons.

I think season 3 is the most accessible which is a bad design because people have to get through seasons 1 and 2 to get to it. I know a lot of people who quit watching season one around episode three. I sound like a broken record but every season has had pacing problems, and season one was the worst.

There's a kooky fan theory floating around that if you figure out the gaps between each season (I think it's nine months between each one) and do the math, the fourth season would take place right around the time of the Chernobyl accident. Opponents of the theory say it might be seen in bad taste to use a real-life incident like that as a plot point. It's an interesting theory.
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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Flack wrote: Sat Jul 20, 2019 8:43 pm More importantly, did you call Murray's phone number? (618) 625-8313...
613 is the area code for Ottawa, Ontario. Yeah, weird things happening in Canada, that makes the series more believable.

Also, he has a funny message on his voicemail, and at the end the system informs you the mailbox is full. Ahh, Magicjack with free calls to (most of) the US and Canada...
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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Flack wrote: Sat Jul 20, 2019 8:43 pm I did.

More importantly, did you call Murray's phone number? (618) 625-8313...
I am not a parasite, MURRAY.
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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We finished it tonight. I guess it came out in July, so obviously we weren't killing ourselves to do so.

It's okay, like Pinner said they are watchable. Sometimes you just need watchable. The DUFFER BROTHERS are the smuggest people in the world at never having an original idea. Oh, this is where Billy gains redemption in a single act, like Darth Vader. Oh, this is the scene with the FUN HOUSE so of course there will be a scene where there is a gunfight in the hall of mirrors. (This was especially egregious since Watchmen did a hall of mirrors scene so well, and I watched it before the Stranger Things episode in the hall of mirrors.)

Wynona Rider continues to wear a single expression for all of it. At least she's not shrieking any longer.

I dunno what to say. I guess I'll keep watching them as a way to hang out with my wife and crack wise. Steve Harrington is the best part, maybe next season they don't have 80 characters and focus it down to a brief 10?
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Re: Stranger Things Season 3

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I will say that there was one part that was especially anxiety-inducing.

We finished the second to last episode and I was like - do they not know? Are they unaware?

Onward we progressed through the finale. It was killing me. I was literally shaking.

Only...

Thank God. Thank GOD they revealed that the Duffer Brothers had indeed seen the Neverending Story and let us know that they had done so.
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