Stranger Things (Netflix) TV Show • Page 94

I agree that her speech pattern is starting to become grating and no longer adds anything to the character. Her continued lack of social understanding and curiosity when it comes to learning about new things are definitely part of her character and what truly make her stand out as an outsider, the stilted talking doesn’t seem super necessary.

 

I think she had like 6 stilted lines all season. I was relatively impressed in how far her speech has come.

 

Yeah she sounded totally normal in the first episode especially. Although seemed to weirdly progress into a more stilted speech as the season went on? Which seemed a little strange

 

Stress and power level decreasing prolly didn’t help.

 

Re: Hopper's nastiness: hasn't he always been a jerk, really? He's likable from an audience perspective because he clearly takes his role as the primary protector of Hawkins and El seriously, but his whole deal from the pilot onward was that he had isolated himself socially/emotionally ever since he first family fell apart. It's not like he himself was ever friends with all the kids or anything; they're close by virtue of having gone through these traumatic experiences together but it's not like he spends time with any of them outside of that. Plus he literally lives in a cabin in the middle of the woods lol

El was the first real relationship he had with someone since his divorce and it was far from "normal" because the whole basis of it was that she had to be isolated as well. Then she starts growing older and gets a boyfriend, two things that even in normal parent-child relationships put up a barrier to the kind of closeness that once existed. I saw his failure to properly talk to El and Mike as the show simply acknowledging that he's not good at this. It is his defining character flaw. Hence why Joyce has to spend a whole episode teaching him how to communicate with his adopted daughter, and why he was too ashamed to admit it to her when he failed.

And then with Joyce, he clearly has feelings for her but can't articulate or carry himself. It's a classic case of, despite being the action star and never flinching when it comes to physical danger, he's absolutely terrified of sticking his neck out emotionally. So the one time that he does -- when he timidly asks her to dinner and is terrified of trying to overplay his hand or make clear that he wishes it was romantic -- and she blows him off, he takes it really fucking personally and it takes him the whole season for him to let it go.

So yeah I just don't see any of it as strange or bad or whatever. He acts like a jerk because when he has to try to be a real human he easily becomes a jerk. And his arc over the course of the season is him improving on that. He's able to have to have those growing moments with Joyce in-person, while with El he may not have been able to spend time with her in the same way but that's why we get the letter at the end where he starts by parroting the generic "let's build an environment where we all feel comfortable" speech that Joyce told him to say before realizing that he needs to actually be candid with El and admit his own fears and insecurities to her.

Reading a transcript of the letter, it really is a condensed explanation of his entire character:

"Feelings. Jesus. The truth is, for so long I'd forgotten what those even were. I've been stuck in one place. In a cave, you might say. A deep, dark cave. And then I left some Eggos out in the woods and you came into my life. For the first time in a long time, I started to feel things again. I started to feel happy. But lately, I guess I've been feeling distant from you. Like you're pulling away from me or something. I miss playing board games every night, making triple decker Eggo extravaganzas at sunrise, watching Westerns together before we doze off.

But I know you're getting older, growing, changing. I guess, if I'm being really honest, that's what scares me. I don't want things to change. So I think maybe that's why I came in here, to try and make stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were. But I know that's naive. It's just not how life works. It's moving, always moving, whether you like it or not. And yeah, sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it's sad. And sometimes, it's surprising. Happy.

So you know what? Keep on growing up kid. Don't let me stop you. Make mistakes, learn from 'em. When life hurts you, because it will, remember the hurt. The hurt is good. It means you're out of that cave. But, please, if you don't mind, for the sake of your poor old dad, keep the door open three inches."

 

It’s more that it came and went in sort of strange ways. There were definitely a few characters that acted in ways that didn’t make sense regardless of their situation at the moment. Just sort of seemed like poor characterization popping out, which happens.

EDIT: About El, that is. Although some applies to Hopper as well. He was always “curmudgeon with a heart of gold”, but this season was cranked up way too far and in specific scenarios that didn’t make ends based on his established progression.

 

One of the best scenes in this show was just Murray flipping out on the two in the car and then him and Alexei just laughing at them in the back seat lmao.

 

Murray and Alexei were an amazing pair. And, “Children, children, children,” is a classic refrain in my house any time an adult on TV is disappointing me, so that cracked me up big time. I hope that answering machine isn’t just an easter egg and we get a lot of him and Joyce together next season.

 

Murray was so much better this season than last, I think the fact that he was cracking sex jokes about two adults instead of two teenagers helped a lot. also incorporating him into the main action was a good move

 

Plus he was wearing jorts while saving the world, which was very inspirational.

 

What a fucking great season - I ADORE ROBIN

so fucking good I’m buzzing - can’t wait for season 4

 

They do such a good job building up characters we love only to kill them!

Justice for Barb! Justice for Bob! Justice for Alexei!

 

I think all the character interactions were super realistic and true to the characters

Also put me in the camp that doesn’t think Hop is dead

 

for real, although I thought Alexei's death was at least very well done and gorgeously shot, which made it feel like it had impact. compare to Bob's death which just came off as perfunctory

also if they'd killed Robin I would have started a riot. best character

 

David Harbour basically gave an interview confirming that he’s not, which is somehow both shocking and completely on brand for him.

 

I’m living for Robin and Steve getting into more shenanigans at Family Video - their friendship is my favorite thing


I also really felt for Will at the end - that was the same age I moved away from my friends in Milwaukee to live in Indy - that resonated with me cuz I’ve felt that pain and grief

 

I loved all the characters this season - I think each one was expertly written and true to their traits and characteristics

 

if Hop actually permanently stayed dead I would lose a solid 3 bets with my friends and family lol

even bar the post credits hint there's a very suggestive shot where he glances at the Gate to the Upside Down literally right before he nods at Joyce to turn the keys. no way they put that in there for no reason, he went through that Gate

 

I have wondered if there’s any chance it was meant to be more explicitly like the end of S1 with El and the Eggos, where we know he’s alive but the characters are still in complete grief, but they had to leave some wiggle room for an exit if his film career blew up overnight. They are certainly not being shy about the confirmations/hints, and I feel like if it was truly meant to be a twist they would all be more tight lipped right now.

 

And I definitely vote for teleporting to another gate over actually being stuck in the Upside Down, but if he was trapped and sang Jim Croce to stay sane instead of The Clash I would probably never stop crying.

 

Alexei died alone :'(

 

Or they're just blatantly lying because there's nothing stopping them from doing so lol

 

Ha, except the toxic fans eating them later.

I can’t imagine how they would keep it a secret once filming starts, so maybe they just know people will still be coming up with theory after theory even if it’s a foregone conclusion and don’t care about hiding it.

 

I remember a fair few people thinking El was really gone at the end of s1. (I think when the show was planned to be just one season, the Duffers wrote her death as the end which probably bolstered that impression). Of course nowadays we're a lot more familiar with how the brothers write and we all think they're not really the kind of writers to kill off main characters, so we're generally anticipating that Hop will be back moreso than we did with El