In S3's first half, teen angst must quickly take a backseat to far-reaching trouble.
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Stranger Things 3, eps. 1-4: Hawkins, Indiana, will never be the same
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I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Max and Eleven getting some bonding time in. That whole subplot was both sweet and hilarious.
Also, Eleven has seriously mastered the art of dramatically opening a door while looming behind it like a badass.
Also, Eleven has seriously mastered the art of dramatically opening a door while looming behind it like a badass.
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It was good, but I suspect that if this season were the first season of Stranger Things, it wouldn't have become a phenomenon. It's good, but it doesn't deviate a ton from the major conflict of the second season; it's a marginally different rehash.
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Everything was about the USSR back then. It was on everyone's minds. It's very appropriate to the era.
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The actors and the filming is still great, but the whole thing lacks the mystery the first season had.
That was a big draw for me, I can't remember a moment during this season where I was trying to figure out what was going on.
That was a big draw for me, I can't remember a moment during this season where I was trying to figure out what was going on.
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As a lifelong sci-fi fan I can enjoy inter-dimensional monsters, Eleven's super-powers, russian military building a complex under an american mall, but I just can't wrap my head around such an unbelievable concept like Joyce as a store clerk being able to support a family of three and mortgage payments.
It's just such a wild premise and it makes no sense..
It's just such a wild premise and it makes no sense..
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Pull up Zillow, go to small town Indiana, somewhere within distance of the Illinois border, and look at real estate prices. A 2 bedroom can be bought from between $15,000 and $50,000. The monthly payment on a $15,000 mortgage over 30 years is $71. $45,000 would be $213. And, minimum wage went further back then.
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That and Hawkins had a bad rep after season 1 so real estate prices are probably crazy low in that town.
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This was basically my experience as well. It was enjoyable, but no sense of mystery.
I also didn't really get much out of 11's character development, or rather lack thereof. The other characters are growing, but other than smooching with Mike, she doesn't seem to have changed at all.
I absolutely loved Robin as a new main character, she and Steve had an excellent dynamic.
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I thought the third season really added to the previous two, as explained in the article. However, I really did not like that the first two episodes leaned heavily on a nostalgic 80s soundtrack, where every other scene was an 80s montage. I was ready to give up after those two episodes, but I'm glad I stuck around, because from episode three onwards it's great and never lets up.
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I really enjoyed the third season. Steve and Robin are amazing, Dustin, too. Those that said the show is lacking in mystery are somewhat right, it's a different show from season one, the only real mystery of the season was short lived with Brian's situation. The ending of the season sets up good possibility moving forward.
With the news in season 2 that Brennan is still alive needs a payoff, though, and I'm hoping it's coming. Someone had to tell the Russians about the upside down and Hawkins, right?
With the news in season 2 that Brennan is still alive needs a payoff, though, and I'm hoping it's coming. Someone had to tell the Russians about the upside down and Hawkins, right?
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Aside from the poop monster and going a little crazy with the movie references, 80s nostalgia it was a decent season. But I didn’t feel it had the same forward momentum as the previous seasons.
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a soundtrack that did NOT use the original version of the songs... kinda of took me out of the time period... all i could hear was “these are mot the originals:”...
they were all redone.
i understand why Netflix had the songs redone, because while they licensed the words, netflix can not trust that some “stupid” “slick” Media lawyer/executive will not sue Netflix for the “arrangement/original” song... and then netflix is up a creek with out a paddle...
see the dvd release of “Daria” it was a MTV cartoon, originally on MTV, and because MTV had a blanket license for Music, Daria used all of the popular music at the time... BUT, when it was released on DVD, the music was not license “ properly “ and they had to replace it....
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Liked the season, with reservations. It veered toward a broadly comic tone, which wasn't there in the previous seasons, and doesn't really work. Hooper is a cartoon most of the time. Ends up better than S2, and the final episode was fantastic.
One odd thing is it seems the 80s setting is no longer meant to resonate with an audience that lived through it. The makers are are leaning on set of generic tropes suggesting 80s-ness. Not sure that this is a weakness - I doubt evoking real nostalgia in contemporary 40-45 year olds was an aim when they were making Back to the Future and it doesn't suffer for it.
One odd thing is it seems the 80s setting is no longer meant to resonate with an audience that lived through it. The makers are are leaning on set of generic tropes suggesting 80s-ness. Not sure that this is a weakness - I doubt evoking real nostalgia in contemporary 40-45 year olds was an aim when they were making Back to the Future and it doesn't suffer for it.
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She really looks like her parents. Didn't notice when watching, but it's really apparent in photos.I absolutely loved Robin as a new main character, she and Steve had an excellent dynamic.
Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke
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and the way they introduced that characters preference was IMO great writing and endearing ... and they did not project it or did not use “ stereotypes “ ...
for the story ... i kept thinking “Jurrasic Park”. ... “shoot it, shooooot it'.... and maybe “aliens”, “the thing”
The dialogue involving the thing both versions was funny
summer blockbuster...
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Part of the evolution. Mysteries by definition have a resolution and trying to keep making up new mysteries to keep the audience guessing is how you end up with disappointments like Westworld S2.
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Haven't started watching this season yet, but that's a problem with many series. Part of the intrigue is figuring out what the hell is going on, and how the characters involved are put together. Once that foundation is laid, it's hard to indulge the viewer in that pleasure of discovery.
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Snarky Robot
Ars Legatus Legionis
“Because we are running a show set in the 1980’s, where everything from war movies to movies about boxing had to have a Russian villain, and because there actually was a little thing called the Cold War happening, IRL, making it a part of the culture we are trying to tap into with nostalgia, like everything else in the show.”
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This was basically my experience as well. It was enjoyable, but no sense of mystery.
I also didn't really get much out of 11's character development, or rather lack thereof. The other characters are growing, but other than smooching with Mike, she doesn't seem to have changed at all.
I absolutely loved Robin as a new main character, she and Steve had an excellent dynamic.
Robin was awesome, but (without giving any spoilers) my heart sank for Steve in the bathroom scene. Hoping she’ll return for ST4.
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chaos215bar2
Ars Praefectus
I just want to say, to the Ars staff, breaking up this coverage into chunks of 3~4 episodes is perfect. Please keep doing this!
Also, this. So much this.
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Yeah I agree that it's appropriate to the era. Though personally knowing that
the demogorgon is now basically USSR's puppet
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Well it is nice to fantasize about a time when Russia didn't partially run the US government
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Well, except for the ending at least. That's filled with mystery.
This season felt more like a kind of character development arc/ fun filler than something that really focused with the upside down.
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With the series set squarely set in the Cold War era and numerous references throughout the first two seasons to Russian spies, or Russian military loving to get their hands on the gateway to the Upside-Down, or just "fighting the Russkies" in general, I'm not sure "somehow managed to spin" is the right phrase. I'd say "followed the consistent story already laid out so far" covers it much better.
Just because it happens to be applicable to the current political climate (compromised political leader undermining his own town's interests by doing favors for the Russians) doesn't mean it was contorted specifically to do so. History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.
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I've always thought that every season of Stranger Things feels like a combination of other 80s movies.
Season 1: E.T., Any teen 80's slasher flick, and Aliens
Season 2: The Fog, The Exorcist (70s, I know), and Adventures in Babysitting
And...
Any other (non spoiler) references people see?
Season 1: E.T., Any teen 80's slasher flick, and Aliens
Season 2: The Fog, The Exorcist (70s, I know), and Adventures in Babysitting
And...
Season 3: Day of the Dead, The Terminator, Russkies, and a dash of The Breakfast Club.
Any other (non spoiler) references people see?
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For season one you missed The Goonies.
He’ll they even had Sean Astin who played Mikey in the goonies play Bob in season 2.
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"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Blob"
50s content was big in the 80s.
Also maybe a little bit of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
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Make sure you took a shower afterwards to scrub off all the second hand cooties, too
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I found myself complaining about the Russians from a realism perspective and had nothing to say on the more Scifi plot line of the series. Shows how absorbed in the world one can be. That all said I preferred the original music of the first season vs the pop music playlist we got here. It really built the atmosphere of the show and I think that's what sucked a lot of people in.
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Lots of explanations:
1) She was embezzling.
2) She's a squatter.
3) She inherited the house.
4) She's been using a previously-undisclosed interdimensional portal in her house to rob banks for years, and this whole series is just karmic payback.
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Mr Sunshine
Ars Praetorian
During the Reagan years the "Evil Empire" speech and the military build up seemed to shake Rooskies out of almost every tree in Hollywood .
Movies I can remember include Fire Fox, Red Dawn, The Hunt for Red October , Countdown to Looking Glass, The Morning After, Testament, Rooskies, Rocky IV, War Games,The Fourth Protocol and many more. I see a lot of these films in Stranger Things that takes MAD ( mutually assured destruction) Soviet anxiety combined with 80's "wise kids vrs silly, evil adults" films like E.T., Goonies etc and John Hughes teenager flicks,
Its a trip down memory lane. Like many 80's action flicks, the plot devices are implausible, almost ridiculous ( armed Soviet Spetsnaz guarding a loading dock at a suburban mall even if there was a rush for Teddy Ruxpins ) but the show moves so fast and the characters are so identifiable that you forget all of that.
Movies I can remember include Fire Fox, Red Dawn, The Hunt for Red October , Countdown to Looking Glass, The Morning After, Testament, Rooskies, Rocky IV, War Games,The Fourth Protocol and many more. I see a lot of these films in Stranger Things that takes MAD ( mutually assured destruction) Soviet anxiety combined with 80's "wise kids vrs silly, evil adults" films like E.T., Goonies etc and John Hughes teenager flicks,
Its a trip down memory lane. Like many 80's action flicks, the plot devices are implausible, almost ridiculous ( armed Soviet Spetsnaz guarding a loading dock at a suburban mall even if there was a rush for Teddy Ruxpins ) but the show moves so fast and the characters are so identifiable that you forget all of that.
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Yes. Wages have most certainly not kept pace with inflation. Well, not unless you're in the upper few percent, anyway.
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I'd say Season 1 had more in common with Alien than Aliens. I'd actually cite Aliens as a reference point for season 2, especially with Paul Reiser on hand. For both seasons, Firestarter is a reference point for Eleven.
For season 3:
I'd say Dawn of the Dead over Day, Red Dawn, and the Thing.
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There was a lot of pop music in the first season. There were 7 pop songs in the very first episode.
https://www.what-song.com/Tvshow/173/St ... ings/s/666
And don't forget the classic scene from season 1 featuring "Ice God of Hungary" by Glitter Job.
See the 5:17 mark here:
https://youtu.be/S-4rhjO6xYg?t=317
Full song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mokhz53Dbo
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