There are some major problems in the second volume of the show.
After a month of waiting, the final two episodes of the show arrived this weekend. The two-part season finale was enjoyable for most of the time, but there were a few things that bugged me.
I found the first seven episodes to be pretty good, and a few of them to be some of the best in the whole show, but I felt let down by episodes 8 and 9.
I will go over what I liked. It's obvious thatspoilers follow.
You can always count on it to hit you with the feeling at some point in the season. At the end of Season 3, Hopper died and El read his letter. It was cheap to bring him back. There is more on that in a second.
There were some great moments in the two-part finale, including Will's speech to Mike in which he talked about being gay and not Eleven. Jonathan gave a pep talk to Will. Another touching moment was whenDustin comforted Eddie's uncle. When Max died, Lucas cradled her corpse.
Molotov cocktails were used in the invasion of The Upside Down by Nancy, Steve, Robin, Eddie and datememe datememe. Eddie played a metal guitar in the movie.
The demogorgon was killed by Hopper using the Conan sword. I have the same sword and it is battle ready, so if I am attacked by a monster I will have some protection.
The fight scene between Lucas and Jason was intense, and I was happy that they let Lucas be the bad guy.
A lot of people were suckered into believing that Vecna is a lieutenant of the Mind Flayer in the first volume. I didn't think that was a good idea. I think Vecna was in charge of the Mind Flayer and the other monsters.
The Mind Flayer was shaped into a spider by Vecna, who wanted him to be like a spider. Vecna is the Big Bad who has always been trying to get through the gates into the real world. It adds to the story that I would have liked to have heard earlier.
Brenner betrayed Eleven and his colleague, Dr. Owens, in episode 8 because he thought he knew better than anyone else. He ran to safety before he was killed by a helicopter. He has her in a protective collar that is supposed to prevent her from using her powers. She is still able to down the helicopter. As he dies, he says that he has always loved her and done everything he can to protect her.
It was great that Eleven doesn't buy it. She doesn't forgive him and doesn't help ease his passing because he did the most obvious decent thing once he knew he couldn't control her. It is a fitting way to end his life.
The fourth season of the show, "strange Things."
The length of episodes 8 and 9 was more than four hours. There was a lot of entertaining content, but there was also a lot of fluff. The 8th episode was almost completely setup for the finale, with the pieces in place for Eleven and Brenner, and with the Hawkins gang who decided to attack Vecna.
It will be included here since we are on that point. Nancy was supposed to lead everyone into a dangerous mission. There was no suggestion that they had to put Max and everyone else in danger. Vecna was still going after Max and she knew how to stop him from getting hold of her.
It was a bad plan because they know that without Eleven they can't stand up to the best of the Upside Down's denizens.
A lot of time was spent planning this and then a lot of time was spent carrying it out. Eleven's crew spends a lot of time first trying to get a flight back to Hawkins, then making pizza in a pizza place before Eleven's immerse bath, and then that whole sequence with Max and Eleven and Vecna felt oddly drawn out. We are going to.
The fourth season of the show, "strange Things."
When Eleven first shows up in Max's mind, she throws him into the air and suspends him. She threw him through the wall and forgot about him. As the helicopter scene shows, she has grown in power, and here she easily bests him.
She ignores him and when he returns, he stomps her and binding her with vines so she can watch as he mangles Max and chokes Nancy, Robin and Steve to death. She is reminded of her ability to fight by the power of love.
The scene with Will telling Mike he is the heart of the group and Mike telling El he loves her and shouting at her to fight was dramatic and moving, but it felt redundant. She learned that she was more powerful than One in three episodes. She needs to be reminded to fight now that her life is at stake.
She needs Mike to remind her of this. Is it just to help Mike out? Is it just to delay saving Max so that they can fake us out with her death, and break her limbs?
If you are going to give El her powers back, you don't need another part where she has to remember to fight. Just have her show up and stomp Vecna, and then have Nancy's group torch him. The whole thing plays out awkwardly. She should show up as he cuts a lot of the extraneous stuff. Vecna can talk about how he is the Big Bad as they fight or before they really get into it, without making her seem weak.
Plot armor is one of the biggest issues I have with this season, and all the seasons at this point. At the end of the third season, they should have killed off Hopper. When he died at the end of Season 3, it was an emotionally powerful moment, as much as I love his character and as cool as his Conan sword scene was. In a minute, there will be more on the Russia plot line.
The armor that he, Joyce and Murray have in Russia is laughable. The prison base is killed off but these three escape.
The same applies to all of the core cast. There was a lot of hype about the deaths at the end of the fourth season, but it didn't pan out. The main character did not die. There was no adult, kid or teen. Max being badly injured and possibly having her soul sucked into Vecna is a big deal. Since he was gone for the last two seasons, the death of Brenner is not much of a deal.
There was only one death that really hurt.
The fourth season of the show, "strange Things."
Give me time to think about Eddie's Death. Duffer Brothers, please give me a break. Eddie was a great character, but what a waste of his life.
This is a trick that has been around for a long time. In the second and third seasons, this is Bob and Alexei. It's all over again. Guys, how shocking. I didn't think this would happen.
What was the purpose? He needed to draw the bats away. They were not near Vecna's place of business. Steve, Nancy, and Robin had already entered the building. Eddie just threw himself into danger and died. Is that what? I don't think that's a good idea. If you are going to kill off such a great character, at least have him saving the life of someone. Eddie sacrificing his life would have been fine if the bats had gotten inside. This would still be annoying.
The Duffer Brothers reliance on using the same formula over and over again is exposed by this pointless waste. I don't like it at all. Why don't you kill Argyle while you're at it?
What happened to the Upside Down rifts in the end? Entire neighborhoods are destroyed when Max dies. Everyone thought it was an earthquake the next day. After some ash falls from the sky, the rifts are open again. What's the reason? In this scene, what is happening? It was very confusing to me.
The Russia plotline ended up being drawn out too long. Hopper's rescue sequence didn't need to last the entire season because he would have made a more emotionally compelling story. It was weird to go back to the prison, as well as being allowed to do his own thing by the helicopter while they were in the church.
This was another way to split up the gang for the whole season. It's the same with having Mike and Will and Eleven and Jonathan off doing their own things. This show is very similar to what it does every time, with the gang finally getting together at the end.
It was a small quibble, but I wasn't happy with the way he was portrayed as a villain. It had to be done. At the end of the movie, if Lucas doesn't wake up Max, he will be shot with a giant revolver. He's a one-note villain who isn't very interesting.
As a grieving boyfriend looking for revenge for his girlfriend's killer, he had the potential to be an interesting antagonist who might have had a tragic redemption. Lucas knocked him out and the bastard woke up. A quick death is nice, but it's not really a good one.
The soldiers, what happened to them? They couldn't get there before Eleven. They were like, "Oh dang, she got away in a pizza van, how will we ever follow her now?"
Vecna has given us a bit of a story behind the attacks on Hawkins. The villain now has more than one reason. There is a different shape to the war. Couldn't we have just finished this season? The kids have to fight the monsters in the fourth season of the show. The big bad has been revealed. All the pieces of the story have come together. Wrap it up.
The beginning and end of the first season felt very tidy and fitting. It would have been almost perfect if they had stopped the show there. The first two seasons felt redundant. The Russian underground facility gate in Season 3 felt a bit like Starkiller Base as we went through all the motions of shutting the gate to the Upside Down again and again.
There is a Death Star issue in this show. After moving the story forward in Season 4, it seemed like a good time to call it quits and just have our heroes make their final stand, finally defeating Vecna, and ending the Upside Down once and for all.
The Upside Down is making itself very obvious in the real world with the big rifts in Hawkins. With the rifts right there and Max in a coma, I don't see how they can do this unless they have the final confrontation with Vecna off-screen.
The fourth season of the show, "strange Things."
The last two episodes were enjoyable. The characters made it all worthwhile and there were some good bits. Max and Lucas andDustin were great, but I felt like Mike and Eleven and Will weren't as good. We can thank Jonathan for bringing Argyle along. Steve is one of the best characters on the show and he needs to get back together with Nancy. Jonathan and Nancy don't have chemistry that's real.
If you ask me, Robin and the girl of her dreams are too similar to each other. Well.
What did you think of the season? You can let me know on social media.
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