Finished Stranger Things 2. Spoilers ahoy
Oct. 31st, 2017 05:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyJust finished Stranger Things 2 and I have many thoughts running around in circles. I will try and keep this just a ST2 post so if you're interested but don't wanna be spoiled, you won't be tempted by me talking about something else only to accidentally read a spoiler.
You have been warned.
Things I loved about ST2:
Steve the babysitter. I need fic, I need art, I need other people to love it as much as I did.
Steve teaching Dustin the art of winning over the ladies and also sharing the secrets of his ~amazing~ hair.
Badass Nancy Wheeler being pretty much the only other person aside from Hopper who could use a gun.
Mama bear Joyce Byers. Don't fuck with her son.
Bob the superhero.
Mews.
Justice for Barb.
Will was technically more present.
Nancy dancing with Dustin at the Snow Ball.
Dart still having a soft spot for Dustin and that actually not being just in Dustin's head.
Things I didn't love so much:
Knowing that as soon as we met Mews and Bob that they would both not make it through the season and being right about that fact.
Billy broke the rule of B. I guess the rule of B only applies to the nerdy characters. I kept hoping they'd kill him (that's the rule of B, guys, keep up with me here)
Like the first season, we spent a lot of time with the various groups not interacting. Hell, Eleven goes off on her own for an entire episode. On the flipside, it wasn't until the end of said episode that I remembered that we'd left the previous episode on a literal cliffhanger note.
The plan to burn the shit out of the vines/graveyard hub... before Will was free of the shadow. The entire reason they wouldn't let Hawkins Lab set fireto the rain to the same area was because to do so would hurt and possibly kill Will... and yet suddenly it's totally safe to do it?
We're going to try this without me going on and on about every little thing because I'll never make it if I try that. I'm also going to try not to just cut things up too much because I'll never come back and finish if I do. See last year's attempted ode to Stranger Things.
Let's go by age group.
Steve - is my favorite. Which is so weird because on paper I should be a total Jonathan fangirl since Steve isn't the brightest star in the sky but he is kind. I guess part of this is because he spends most of the season getting kicked around in various ways. Nancy breaks his heart, Billy the jerk makes his life miserable, and the only way he gets roped into the storyline is as babysitter to the kids.
And yet his role as asskicking babysitter is pretty much the highlight of the season for me. It's funny and sweet and I love that the kids are big fans of Steve annnnnnd we also learn the secrets of his infamous hair. Steve, my love, you may have lost Nancy but I assure you the rest of the world adores you. Also? Kristy Thomas is on the line and would love for you to be the Hawkins chapter of the BSC.
Jonathan - Wow. They did... not a lot with him. Was he filming something else at the time or did they just not know what to do with him? Or was it just that his plot with Nancy and trying to act as whistleblowers for the Hawkins Lab just felt very, very far removed and very short? I don't know, but eh. I like Jonathan best when he's interacting with Will, honestly. The scenes with Jonathan/Nancy/Joyce trying to heat the shadow thing out of Will and Jonathan being the one to break first were probably my favorite for him. I know they kept pushing the N/J/S love triangle thing and then the Nancy/Jonathan pairing but... enh. It worked better for me last season.
Nancy - I was kind of meh on her until she proved to be the only other person besides Hopper who could defend the group with a gun. Just the way she took over and was badass again... yup. I did like that she played the Lab and her scene at the end with Dustin was sweet. Kind of setting the poor kid up for unrealistic expectations but still... sweet.
Billy - Had exactly one good moment: the scene with his father that explains just why he's a godawful POS. I'd say the scene with Mrs. Wheeler would be another but I basically just kept going "ick, no, do not want, please no" so this might work better on a rewatch. Still ticked that Bob died but Billy lived.
Adults:
Dustin's Mom - Cute, adorable, glad she appeared.
Mrs. Wheeler - I'd think she'd be a little more on top of where the kids are after last year, but y'know, maybe she was just enjoying a little me time. I suspect that if I rewatch the scene with her and Billy I will be less 'ew no, stay away from her' and laugh a little more but really, Mrs. W, you should find better eyecandy.
Bob - Kay. So he was set up to be the dorky boyfriend that the kids kinda tolerate but don't hate and he was. I also knew as soon as he appeared that he was toast because clearly the show is heading straight for Joyce/Hopper as as close to endgame as these things can be. That said, Bob grew on me. Like he tried so hard and he was such a good guy and you knew the moment he volunteered to save everyone at the lab, he was pretty sure he was going to die doing so. Definitely knew it when he told Hopper not to wait for him. Annnnnnnd then he came so close to making it out and then the Rule of B came into effect and killed him. Gruesomely, in fact. Sigh. Bob, you dork. You made mistakes (inadvertently getting Will infected with your advice that would normally have been good) but your ability to roll with the craziness endeared you to me. Mike's revelations about how Bob set up the AV club kind of killed me. ;_; Also, the only person in this town with the brains to try and get the fuck out of Hawkins and that was before he knew what kind of crazy lived underground.
Joyce - People like to give WR shit for her acting on this and eh, I could sometimes see it in S1 but I adored her in S2. The way she hovered over Will was probably the most realistic parental reaction. Her fierce devotion to Will and keeping him safe and the way something snapped inside of her when she realized that to save Will she'd have to risk him. Losing Bob (sweet, uncomplicated Bob) pushed her to the edge and I spent most of the season just adoring fierce Mama Bear Joyce. ♥
The New Doc - I was ready to write him off as yet another baddie but then he turned out to not be completely evil and I was oddly relieved.
Hopper - It's complicated. The set up of Hopper keeping El safe but basically a prisoner worked stupidly well. On the one hand, you want to shake the man because keeping her locked up in a tiny cabin in the woods is going to drive the poor girl bonkers, but on the other hand, he also knows what will happen if the lab gets word that El is back. His devotion to her is sweet and also you know it's going to burn them both because he's bringing into a lot of baggage considering his daughter died... so he's going to overcompensate, especially with El having super powers.
I was all for Joyce/Hopper last season but this season I was a little less sold on it. Maybe seeing him with El changed something (like Hopper is broody as hell and Joyce needs a little sunshine) or maybe it was just me liking Bob and wanting him kept around but eh. I'm not against the pairing it's just not something I wanted as much this go round.
If Mama Bear Joyce is the most realistic parental reaction, Overprotective Warden Hopper is probably the second most realistic.
Also, I worried far too long that they were going to kill him when he stupidly went down into the vines on his own without telling anyone where he was going. Dammit, Hop, use yer brains.
The kids -
Mike- Felt super sidelined to me. Suuuuuuuuuper sidelined. Was he filming IT at the same time? He was fab when he was given something to do, like freaking out about Will or when he and El finally reunite, or his assault on Hopper, but mostly he seemed to either bitch about Max or be shoved into the background of Will's group scenes.
With that said, I like what they did with him. I like that Mike was having a super hard time with getting back to normal and that he kept trying to reach Eleven every day after she disappeared. I liked him fighting so hard for her and also for Will and being in so over his head, especially once we realize that his family is under super surveillance. His anger towards Max is understandable even as you want to tell him that she's not a replacement for El.
Lucas - I enjoyed the fact that while Lucas was pretty much the lone holdout on El, he's learned enough to not make the same mistakes with Max. His sister's adorable and his scene at the junkyard with Max worked really, really well.
I don't spend a lot of time talking about kid 'ships because I am not a kid, but I will say that as cute as Max and Lucas were, I got more of a vibe from Max and Mike, which I will now blame on Eleven's jealousy and actor chemistry.
Dustin - Oh, my sweet child. You alternated between me screaming "you fool, you've killed them all!" to wanting to cry. I get that Dustin would be the kid to find Dart and not immediately think "this is obviously from the Upside Down and so I shall have discovered a new species and also have a new pet!" and still cling to having something new when Dart started to evolve a little too quickly to be normal. I liked that he didn't try and cling to his illusions about Dart too much after Mew's unfortunate demise (though the subtlety of Mews being Dart food is on par with being hit in the head with a sledgehammer. Seriously, every time Dustin would kind of whimper at the trashcan noises and call the cat I kept expecting the cat to be eaten in the trash. I was just off on the timeline.) and made sure to get his mom out of the house before also getting Dart out of the house. I'd like to think that getting Mom out wasn't just to keep her from seeing the cat murdering monster but also because he wanted to make sure she was safe.
I really liked that he felt bad about what Dart had done and what he had to do to Dart because of that, and that when Dart reappears at the end he really did have a connection with Dustin. They didn't have to do that but I'm glad they did, y'know?
Dustin and Steve's Dart adventures and secret hair talks were golden. The Snow Ball scenes where Dustin gets turned down left and right were heartbreaking. I kind of wish they'd had him realize that maybe asking one of the girls on the bleachers would be a good idea, but I also get that having Nancy dance with him would possibly make Stacy (Stacey?) and company think that there must be more to him than they thought originally if a high school girl is willing to dance multiple songs with him.
Max - I'm still not completely convinced they didn't just bring her in to force the comparisons to El and so they could have their Mad Max driving bit at the end. With that being said, she's one of the newbies I liked. I still think she had more chemistry with Mike but in general it makes sense that the group would be in awe of her and kind of fixate. I cackled at her reaction to Lucas telling her all the shit that went down last season and flinched every time she and Billy interacted. I won't say she worked 100% but I'm not complaining about her screen time. Her respect of El and El's place in the group was also pretty awesome and I hope that El's snub doesn't rankle her too much.
Will - Holy. Shit. The single most disturbing scene in both seasons of the show has to be Will freaking out when the vines are being burned. I had to look away because some things will be burned into your memory if you look too long or too hard. I forget where, but somewhere in the first couple of episodes it also hits you that the casting director for Will is a genius because daaaaaaang does the kid look like you'd totally buy him as Winona's son.
I'm glad Will's actor got so much more to do this season, although technically Will wasn't there for a good chunk. The scenes with Mike were some of my favorites, especially when they're both worried that they're going crazy and vow to be there for one another.
Eleven - Since El is such a bad ass for almost the entirety of the first season and that's also kind of the take away in fandom, it was nice to see the show remember that she's a kid. A kid who has gone through hell and has no real support system after she finds out that going back to Mike's is just not an option.
I touched on the El/ Hopper dynamic earlier, but they work as a little broken family unit... and it also makes sense that Hopper would disappoint El a time or two too many and she'd go off and try to find Mike. I'm not entirely sure I buy her skipping off new cities but in pursuit of her mother, I suppose I get it. And it's not like El can't take care of herself so her hunting down Kali kind of worked for me. I took a moment and went "yeah, this is weird" and then rolled with it. I'm one of the three people who didn't mind her solo episode (though I hate backdoor pilots and that's what this thing was) as it's obviously meant to pay off more later (Papa possibly being alive) and showing the difference between Kali and Jane.
Eleven and Mike are sweet and their reunion was almost worth the wait. I do think they kept her apart from the group for far too long though. I get why, especially with the spinoff attempt going on, but I kept waiting for her to appear and rejoin the group. A little waiting is good but a lot of waiting is not a great idea.
(Also Joyce's reaction to El coming back was pure love and I adored it on both sides.)
Kali and company - It was a weirdly long wait from their first scene to their actual episode. I like Kali and I hope the backlash (I looked it up) doesn't prevent them from bringing her back. I'm not sure they could really fully incorporate her with the regular group given that she's into revenge to a scary degree, but I'd like to see more of her.
Wow. That got long. In non spoilery chatter, one of my favorite things about the series as a whole is how well it manages to nail the nostalgia factor. I know when people say 80's, most default to so much neon that eyes bleed (and I have a soft spot for that as well), but as someone who dealt more in the more subdued tones of the earlier part of the decade (hey, I was a kid and that's what we had) this is pretty much as close as one can come to just getting thrown back in time without having to relive any personal trauma.
You have been warned.
Things I loved about ST2:
Steve the babysitter. I need fic, I need art, I need other people to love it as much as I did.
Steve teaching Dustin the art of winning over the ladies and also sharing the secrets of his ~amazing~ hair.
Badass Nancy Wheeler being pretty much the only other person aside from Hopper who could use a gun.
Mama bear Joyce Byers. Don't fuck with her son.
Bob the superhero.
Mews.
Justice for Barb.
Will was technically more present.
Nancy dancing with Dustin at the Snow Ball.
Dart still having a soft spot for Dustin and that actually not being just in Dustin's head.
Things I didn't love so much:
Knowing that as soon as we met Mews and Bob that they would both not make it through the season and being right about that fact.
Billy broke the rule of B. I guess the rule of B only applies to the nerdy characters. I kept hoping they'd kill him (that's the rule of B, guys, keep up with me here)
Like the first season, we spent a lot of time with the various groups not interacting. Hell, Eleven goes off on her own for an entire episode. On the flipside, it wasn't until the end of said episode that I remembered that we'd left the previous episode on a literal cliffhanger note.
The plan to burn the shit out of the vines/graveyard hub... before Will was free of the shadow. The entire reason they wouldn't let Hawkins Lab set fire
We're going to try this without me going on and on about every little thing because I'll never make it if I try that. I'm also going to try not to just cut things up too much because I'll never come back and finish if I do. See last year's attempted ode to Stranger Things.
Let's go by age group.
Steve - is my favorite. Which is so weird because on paper I should be a total Jonathan fangirl since Steve isn't the brightest star in the sky but he is kind. I guess part of this is because he spends most of the season getting kicked around in various ways. Nancy breaks his heart, Billy the jerk makes his life miserable, and the only way he gets roped into the storyline is as babysitter to the kids.
And yet his role as asskicking babysitter is pretty much the highlight of the season for me. It's funny and sweet and I love that the kids are big fans of Steve annnnnnd we also learn the secrets of his infamous hair. Steve, my love, you may have lost Nancy but I assure you the rest of the world adores you. Also? Kristy Thomas is on the line and would love for you to be the Hawkins chapter of the BSC.
Jonathan - Wow. They did... not a lot with him. Was he filming something else at the time or did they just not know what to do with him? Or was it just that his plot with Nancy and trying to act as whistleblowers for the Hawkins Lab just felt very, very far removed and very short? I don't know, but eh. I like Jonathan best when he's interacting with Will, honestly. The scenes with Jonathan/Nancy/Joyce trying to heat the shadow thing out of Will and Jonathan being the one to break first were probably my favorite for him. I know they kept pushing the N/J/S love triangle thing and then the Nancy/Jonathan pairing but... enh. It worked better for me last season.
Nancy - I was kind of meh on her until she proved to be the only other person besides Hopper who could defend the group with a gun. Just the way she took over and was badass again... yup. I did like that she played the Lab and her scene at the end with Dustin was sweet. Kind of setting the poor kid up for unrealistic expectations but still... sweet.
Billy - Had exactly one good moment: the scene with his father that explains just why he's a godawful POS. I'd say the scene with Mrs. Wheeler would be another but I basically just kept going "ick, no, do not want, please no" so this might work better on a rewatch. Still ticked that Bob died but Billy lived.
Adults:
Dustin's Mom - Cute, adorable, glad she appeared.
Mrs. Wheeler - I'd think she'd be a little more on top of where the kids are after last year, but y'know, maybe she was just enjoying a little me time. I suspect that if I rewatch the scene with her and Billy I will be less 'ew no, stay away from her' and laugh a little more but really, Mrs. W, you should find better eyecandy.
Bob - Kay. So he was set up to be the dorky boyfriend that the kids kinda tolerate but don't hate and he was. I also knew as soon as he appeared that he was toast because clearly the show is heading straight for Joyce/Hopper as as close to endgame as these things can be. That said, Bob grew on me. Like he tried so hard and he was such a good guy and you knew the moment he volunteered to save everyone at the lab, he was pretty sure he was going to die doing so. Definitely knew it when he told Hopper not to wait for him. Annnnnnnd then he came so close to making it out and then the Rule of B came into effect and killed him. Gruesomely, in fact. Sigh. Bob, you dork. You made mistakes (inadvertently getting Will infected with your advice that would normally have been good) but your ability to roll with the craziness endeared you to me. Mike's revelations about how Bob set up the AV club kind of killed me. ;_; Also, the only person in this town with the brains to try and get the fuck out of Hawkins and that was before he knew what kind of crazy lived underground.
Joyce - People like to give WR shit for her acting on this and eh, I could sometimes see it in S1 but I adored her in S2. The way she hovered over Will was probably the most realistic parental reaction. Her fierce devotion to Will and keeping him safe and the way something snapped inside of her when she realized that to save Will she'd have to risk him. Losing Bob (sweet, uncomplicated Bob) pushed her to the edge and I spent most of the season just adoring fierce Mama Bear Joyce. ♥
The New Doc - I was ready to write him off as yet another baddie but then he turned out to not be completely evil and I was oddly relieved.
Hopper - It's complicated. The set up of Hopper keeping El safe but basically a prisoner worked stupidly well. On the one hand, you want to shake the man because keeping her locked up in a tiny cabin in the woods is going to drive the poor girl bonkers, but on the other hand, he also knows what will happen if the lab gets word that El is back. His devotion to her is sweet and also you know it's going to burn them both because he's bringing into a lot of baggage considering his daughter died... so he's going to overcompensate, especially with El having super powers.
I was all for Joyce/Hopper last season but this season I was a little less sold on it. Maybe seeing him with El changed something (like Hopper is broody as hell and Joyce needs a little sunshine) or maybe it was just me liking Bob and wanting him kept around but eh. I'm not against the pairing it's just not something I wanted as much this go round.
If Mama Bear Joyce is the most realistic parental reaction, Overprotective Warden Hopper is probably the second most realistic.
Also, I worried far too long that they were going to kill him when he stupidly went down into the vines on his own without telling anyone where he was going. Dammit, Hop, use yer brains.
The kids -
Mike- Felt super sidelined to me. Suuuuuuuuuper sidelined. Was he filming IT at the same time? He was fab when he was given something to do, like freaking out about Will or when he and El finally reunite, or his assault on Hopper, but mostly he seemed to either bitch about Max or be shoved into the background of Will's group scenes.
With that said, I like what they did with him. I like that Mike was having a super hard time with getting back to normal and that he kept trying to reach Eleven every day after she disappeared. I liked him fighting so hard for her and also for Will and being in so over his head, especially once we realize that his family is under super surveillance. His anger towards Max is understandable even as you want to tell him that she's not a replacement for El.
Lucas - I enjoyed the fact that while Lucas was pretty much the lone holdout on El, he's learned enough to not make the same mistakes with Max. His sister's adorable and his scene at the junkyard with Max worked really, really well.
I don't spend a lot of time talking about kid 'ships because I am not a kid, but I will say that as cute as Max and Lucas were, I got more of a vibe from Max and Mike, which I will now blame on Eleven's jealousy and actor chemistry.
Dustin - Oh, my sweet child. You alternated between me screaming "you fool, you've killed them all!" to wanting to cry. I get that Dustin would be the kid to find Dart and not immediately think "this is obviously from the Upside Down and so I shall have discovered a new species and also have a new pet!" and still cling to having something new when Dart started to evolve a little too quickly to be normal. I liked that he didn't try and cling to his illusions about Dart too much after Mew's unfortunate demise (though the subtlety of Mews being Dart food is on par with being hit in the head with a sledgehammer. Seriously, every time Dustin would kind of whimper at the trashcan noises and call the cat I kept expecting the cat to be eaten in the trash. I was just off on the timeline.) and made sure to get his mom out of the house before also getting Dart out of the house. I'd like to think that getting Mom out wasn't just to keep her from seeing the cat murdering monster but also because he wanted to make sure she was safe.
I really liked that he felt bad about what Dart had done and what he had to do to Dart because of that, and that when Dart reappears at the end he really did have a connection with Dustin. They didn't have to do that but I'm glad they did, y'know?
Dustin and Steve's Dart adventures and secret hair talks were golden. The Snow Ball scenes where Dustin gets turned down left and right were heartbreaking. I kind of wish they'd had him realize that maybe asking one of the girls on the bleachers would be a good idea, but I also get that having Nancy dance with him would possibly make Stacy (Stacey?) and company think that there must be more to him than they thought originally if a high school girl is willing to dance multiple songs with him.
Max - I'm still not completely convinced they didn't just bring her in to force the comparisons to El and so they could have their Mad Max driving bit at the end. With that being said, she's one of the newbies I liked. I still think she had more chemistry with Mike but in general it makes sense that the group would be in awe of her and kind of fixate. I cackled at her reaction to Lucas telling her all the shit that went down last season and flinched every time she and Billy interacted. I won't say she worked 100% but I'm not complaining about her screen time. Her respect of El and El's place in the group was also pretty awesome and I hope that El's snub doesn't rankle her too much.
Will - Holy. Shit. The single most disturbing scene in both seasons of the show has to be Will freaking out when the vines are being burned. I had to look away because some things will be burned into your memory if you look too long or too hard. I forget where, but somewhere in the first couple of episodes it also hits you that the casting director for Will is a genius because daaaaaaang does the kid look like you'd totally buy him as Winona's son.
I'm glad Will's actor got so much more to do this season, although technically Will wasn't there for a good chunk. The scenes with Mike were some of my favorites, especially when they're both worried that they're going crazy and vow to be there for one another.
Eleven - Since El is such a bad ass for almost the entirety of the first season and that's also kind of the take away in fandom, it was nice to see the show remember that she's a kid. A kid who has gone through hell and has no real support system after she finds out that going back to Mike's is just not an option.
I touched on the El/ Hopper dynamic earlier, but they work as a little broken family unit... and it also makes sense that Hopper would disappoint El a time or two too many and she'd go off and try to find Mike. I'm not entirely sure I buy her skipping off new cities but in pursuit of her mother, I suppose I get it. And it's not like El can't take care of herself so her hunting down Kali kind of worked for me. I took a moment and went "yeah, this is weird" and then rolled with it. I'm one of the three people who didn't mind her solo episode (though I hate backdoor pilots and that's what this thing was) as it's obviously meant to pay off more later (Papa possibly being alive) and showing the difference between Kali and Jane.
Eleven and Mike are sweet and their reunion was almost worth the wait. I do think they kept her apart from the group for far too long though. I get why, especially with the spinoff attempt going on, but I kept waiting for her to appear and rejoin the group. A little waiting is good but a lot of waiting is not a great idea.
(Also Joyce's reaction to El coming back was pure love and I adored it on both sides.)
Kali and company - It was a weirdly long wait from their first scene to their actual episode. I like Kali and I hope the backlash (I looked it up) doesn't prevent them from bringing her back. I'm not sure they could really fully incorporate her with the regular group given that she's into revenge to a scary degree, but I'd like to see more of her.
Wow. That got long. In non spoilery chatter, one of my favorite things about the series as a whole is how well it manages to nail the nostalgia factor. I know when people say 80's, most default to so much neon that eyes bleed (and I have a soft spot for that as well), but as someone who dealt more in the more subdued tones of the earlier part of the decade (hey, I was a kid and that's what we had) this is pretty much as close as one can come to just getting thrown back in time without having to relive any personal trauma.