Stranger Things 3
Jul. 16th, 2019 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherI'm kind of surprised by how much I liked Stranger Things Season 3. The show has a formula, and it's a simple formula of kids fighting monsters, but it really works. The characters are likable, there's a mix of humor and scariness, and they are introducing new characters to keep things fresh.
Cut for spoilers!
What I didn't like:
1. Hopper was awful this season, and his behavior in the first few eps felt very out of character and over the top. In previous seasons, he was sometimes annoying but mostly likable, and in this season it's the opposite. Toxic masculinity ahoy.
2. So much strobe! So annoying, unnecessary, and actively dangerous to some viewers. i hate it.
What I liked:
1. More girls and women as major characters. I especially loved the friendship between Eleven and Max. Robin was a joy.
2. They handled the large cast well, mostly by splitting them into teams. Then they connected the different scenes using these satisfying and funny cuts, for instance, showing the pool locker room and then cutting to Hopper in the shower. There is probably a term for this technique...? Anyway I loved it.
3. The music!
4. The whole thing just had a sense of fun to it. Like of course there's a bad guy chase scene at the 4th of the July fair, and of course they go into the fun house hall of mirrors.
5. Gay characters yay!! Will wanting to hang onto childhood a little longer, and being bored and kind of baffled at his friends' obsession with dating: it me.
6. 80s nostalgia. I had the same rainbow comforter on my bed that Max has. Rainbows meant something different in the 80s.
Cut for spoilers!
What I didn't like:
1. Hopper was awful this season, and his behavior in the first few eps felt very out of character and over the top. In previous seasons, he was sometimes annoying but mostly likable, and in this season it's the opposite. Toxic masculinity ahoy.
2. So much strobe! So annoying, unnecessary, and actively dangerous to some viewers. i hate it.
What I liked:
1. More girls and women as major characters. I especially loved the friendship between Eleven and Max. Robin was a joy.
2. They handled the large cast well, mostly by splitting them into teams. Then they connected the different scenes using these satisfying and funny cuts, for instance, showing the pool locker room and then cutting to Hopper in the shower. There is probably a term for this technique...? Anyway I loved it.
3. The music!
4. The whole thing just had a sense of fun to it. Like of course there's a bad guy chase scene at the 4th of the July fair, and of course they go into the fun house hall of mirrors.
5. Gay characters yay!! Will wanting to hang onto childhood a little longer, and being bored and kind of baffled at his friends' obsession with dating: it me.
6. 80s nostalgia. I had the same rainbow comforter on my bed that Max has. Rainbows meant something different in the 80s.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-16 07:05 am (UTC)I believe it to be a match cut.
Everyone I know who's seen the third season has mentioned Hopper's personality transplant. It sounds obnoxious. I'm glad the rest of it was good for you!
no subject
Date: 2019-07-16 07:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-16 07:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-16 07:30 pm (UTC)Can I ask, was there a lot of stuff about communism / Soviet threat? My wife is from a former Soviet country, and she finds some of that stuff difficult, so I'd like to know what I'd be letting her in for if we watch it together.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 03:16 am (UTC)