Stranger Things: Steve
Jul. 27th, 2016 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyI'm going to work on the Stranger Things big post. I am. I just keep having all the feels and being thoroughly unable to articulate them properly and then I just sit there and do nothing because it deserves BETTER.
If I were smarter, I'd just rewatch already and then maybe the words would come. But I'm not and also I'm working a million days in a row so my brain is already scrambled and I'm only one day in. Sigh.
So let's start weirdly and shake things up with STEVE.
If you've finished the show, odds are good you have some feelings about Steve. If you're here and just wanting spoilers because I dunno, that's how you roll, well... uh, okay.
Steve is the popular guy Nancy (one of our heroines) is seeing when the series begins. He's clearly miles above her socially, though it's not a stretch to see Nancy with his friends and fitting in. Until you get to know his friends, anyway. Ugh.
The thing with Steve is that he's not his friends. They're clearly awful, awful people and if anyone should have been ripped to the Upside Down and devoured and forgotten immediately, it's them. AWFUL. Complete with punchable faces which I assume was intentional.
But even when we're being warned that Steve gets around, I never get the idea that he's a bad guy exactly. He's just got seriously questionable taste in friends. I would assume that while we're not exactly shown it, that there must be some redeeming quality to the friends that is just not relevant to the show at hand.
Steve is actually pretty similar to Nancy in that they both stand by and watch as someone they care about rips into someone else they like (or perhaps more). Nancy stands by as Steve and company destroy Jonathan's camera (something he clearly could not afford to replace and was obviously important to him) and Steve stands by as Douchebro labels Nancy a slut for the whole town to see.
And then they both attempt to make up for that because they know, as it's happening, that standing by is wrong, even if the person being hurt also hurt them. I'm torn on whether it's supposed to be obvious that Steve had a hand in the Christmas present or not. Like... clearly he was in on it, but I swear, for quite awhile while going through various ST things, people were acting like that was all Nancy?
So no, I didn't hate Steve. Maybe because I have seen worse and we had worse going on (Douchebro, why don't I care enough to remember your name or look it up?!) right there, or maybe it's because I never expected Steve to be a saint. Maybe I like grey characters. Maybe I was distracted by his exceptionally fluffy hair. Seriously, what was up with the hair?
See? Sidetracked even knowing I was going to get sidetracked!
I guess part of is that I wasn't gunning for Jonathan/Nancy to be a thing. I mean, I won't scream if S2 (there is going to be one, yes?) happens to go there at some point, but after the pictures incident I didn't see that being a thing that would happen by the end of eight episodes that take place over such a short period of time. Without a pony in that race, I was free to not hate Steve for being there.
I like that the the initial story for the character changed due to the actor because I think it made the story better. Yes, some guys are complete jerks and you should not have wasted your time on them... and some are more complicated than that. I prefer my characters more complicated. So the creators having to alter course and make something more makes me happy. Plus, we have the part of straight up asshole filled with Douchebro and Will's dad.
I will say that I was fully expecting Sharkbear to eat Steve. Seriously, the fact that he managed to not die is probably my biggest surprise of the whole series. I fully expected Sharkbear to snatch him when he went to Jonathan's to apologize and they threw him outside... to the shark. But I guess that whole old blood thing kept him safe. Good job, Steve?
Plus, Steve has the distinction of being in one of my absolute favorite scenes: when the teenage trio is running from SB and J&N hop over the bear trap and shout "jump!" and Steve just flies right over it like "wtf?!" and it's just one of those things that amuses me. I mean just look at that majestic leap.
I feel like this is one of the few things where I diverge from the general fandom consensus.
Unrelated, I cannot believe I read a 'review' of ST that did not at least like Eleven. I suffered through their very long takedown and yeah, no. You enjoy your wrongness there dude. Enjoy it so much that no one's going to even try and convince you otherwise because you're just that wrong.
If I were smarter, I'd just rewatch already and then maybe the words would come. But I'm not and also I'm working a million days in a row so my brain is already scrambled and I'm only one day in. Sigh.
So let's start weirdly and shake things up with STEVE.
If you've finished the show, odds are good you have some feelings about Steve. If you're here and just wanting spoilers because I dunno, that's how you roll, well... uh, okay.
Steve is the popular guy Nancy (one of our heroines) is seeing when the series begins. He's clearly miles above her socially, though it's not a stretch to see Nancy with his friends and fitting in. Until you get to know his friends, anyway. Ugh.
The thing with Steve is that he's not his friends. They're clearly awful, awful people and if anyone should have been ripped to the Upside Down and devoured and forgotten immediately, it's them. AWFUL. Complete with punchable faces which I assume was intentional.
But even when we're being warned that Steve gets around, I never get the idea that he's a bad guy exactly. He's just got seriously questionable taste in friends. I would assume that while we're not exactly shown it, that there must be some redeeming quality to the friends that is just not relevant to the show at hand.
Steve is actually pretty similar to Nancy in that they both stand by and watch as someone they care about rips into someone else they like (or perhaps more). Nancy stands by as Steve and company destroy Jonathan's camera (something he clearly could not afford to replace and was obviously important to him) and Steve stands by as Douchebro labels Nancy a slut for the whole town to see.
And then they both attempt to make up for that because they know, as it's happening, that standing by is wrong, even if the person being hurt also hurt them. I'm torn on whether it's supposed to be obvious that Steve had a hand in the Christmas present or not. Like... clearly he was in on it, but I swear, for quite awhile while going through various ST things, people were acting like that was all Nancy?
So no, I didn't hate Steve. Maybe because I have seen worse and we had worse going on (Douchebro, why don't I care enough to remember your name or look it up?!) right there, or maybe it's because I never expected Steve to be a saint. Maybe I like grey characters. Maybe I was distracted by his exceptionally fluffy hair. Seriously, what was up with the hair?
See? Sidetracked even knowing I was going to get sidetracked!
I guess part of is that I wasn't gunning for Jonathan/Nancy to be a thing. I mean, I won't scream if S2 (there is going to be one, yes?) happens to go there at some point, but after the pictures incident I didn't see that being a thing that would happen by the end of eight episodes that take place over such a short period of time. Without a pony in that race, I was free to not hate Steve for being there.
I like that the the initial story for the character changed due to the actor because I think it made the story better. Yes, some guys are complete jerks and you should not have wasted your time on them... and some are more complicated than that. I prefer my characters more complicated. So the creators having to alter course and make something more makes me happy. Plus, we have the part of straight up asshole filled with Douchebro and Will's dad.
I will say that I was fully expecting Sharkbear to eat Steve. Seriously, the fact that he managed to not die is probably my biggest surprise of the whole series. I fully expected Sharkbear to snatch him when he went to Jonathan's to apologize and they threw him outside... to the shark. But I guess that whole old blood thing kept him safe. Good job, Steve?
Plus, Steve has the distinction of being in one of my absolute favorite scenes: when the teenage trio is running from SB and J&N hop over the bear trap and shout "jump!" and Steve just flies right over it like "wtf?!" and it's just one of those things that amuses me. I mean just look at that majestic leap.
I feel like this is one of the few things where I diverge from the general fandom consensus.
Unrelated, I cannot believe I read a 'review' of ST that did not at least like Eleven. I suffered through their very long takedown and yeah, no. You enjoy your wrongness there dude. Enjoy it so much that no one's going to even try and convince you otherwise because you're just that wrong.
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(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-28 05:40 pm (UTC)Second, Steve. Steve is a HUGE part of what makes the show SO BRILLIANT, in that each character in this show has a specific arc that could be it's own stand-alone 80's genre movie. This is gonna sound weird and conspiracy-ish, but... I think Steve is a tribute to the films of Savage Steve Holland ("Better Off Dead", "One Crazy Summer"), a great story about a teen trying to be something he's not and coming to realize that he's better off just being himself.
His arc is a stark contrast to the John Hughes arc of Nancy, or the Christian Slater arc of Johnathan, or the Stephen King and John Carpenter and Dean Koontz arcs of the other characters.
The camera, I believe, was a mutual gift. Steve let Nancy know how terrible he felt about having destroyed the camera, how Nancy suggested they give him a new one for Christmas, Steve is too embarrassed to give it to Johnathan so Nancy says she'll do it :)
btw, Season 2 has been confirmed and announced as of last weekend at ComiCon. Season two will be a sequel featuring the same characters, which is a HUGE relief - I didn't want them to try and "American Horror Story" or "True Detective" us with this and change everything for the second season!
(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-28 11:26 pm (UTC)I like the conspiracy theory, I do. I shall subscribe to it. *nodnod* I also love the fact that everyone has their own special arc and I hadn't seen it quite the way you put it, which makes me like it even more.
Seriously, the moment I realized that Steve was actually going to avoid being the obnoxious 80's boyfriend is the moment I started making a list of people to pester about the show because clearly, clearly something good was going on. Luckily the rest of the series definitely lived up to that promise.
I definitely got the impression Steve was too embarrassed to be there for the giving of the gift (or even having J know he was part of it) but I wasn't sure if he'd bought the camera himself or if they went in halfsies. It doesn't matter, really, because the happy making is still there.
Woo! I thought I'd read that it was confirmed but sometimes I want something to happen so much that I kind of forget that it hasn't happened yet. And double yay for not going anthology on us.