Stranger Things: Season 4 (Volume 2)
Jul. 4th, 2022 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakDespite occasional eyerolling on a note of "boys, you do need an editor", and one particular plot point, I liked overall the season's conclusion.
The point being Eddie's demise. We're three for three now (Bob in s2, Alexei in s3) for "new endearing character dies at the end of season", and it's no longer shocking, it's predictable. Otoh, Enzo/Dimitri Antonov the shady guard turned reluctant heroic ally survived, and with all respect to Eddie, he was my secret favourite of the new characters, so I'm not exactly wailing to the skies.
When the late unlamented Dr. Brenner told Eleven "I only ever wanted what was best for you" and urged her to tell him she understood that, I kept muttering "don't do it, El!" and much relieved I was when she didn't. In general, I thought Stranger Things did an excellent job with Eleven's relationship with Brenner. (Also with that of Max and Billy, but then Max in general had arguably the best arc of the season, more about it later.) Yes, he was for years the key adult in her life and provider of approval and pain, she's never going to have no emotions about that. But she sees him clearly now - not to mention that she has had contrasting parent experiences - , and retrospectively okaying her own abuse is not something she does.
Sidenote: earlier, I found their short discussion re: Henry intriguing, i.e. El responding to Brenner's "I love you!" with the question whether he loved Henry, too, and then whether he still loved Henry even after Henry had turned out to be a murdering psychopath. Both the fact that Brenner said yes, and that El later tried to explain Henry's pathology through his treatment by Brenner. (This actually confused me briefly until I realized El didn't get the "I killed my family before I ever got to Brenner" speech, Nancy did, Eleven just knows what he did there.) Presumably Brenner's teaching methods didn't help, but Henry already came to him with a body count. Anyway, the series shied away from making Henry/One/Vecna an "Eleven gone wrong" by giving him the monstrous kid backstory - if he's an 80s character, he's grown up Damien from the Omen sequels or Michael Myers - instead of doing what Eleven assumes was the case, putting his monstrosity squarely at Brenner's feet. Then again, Henry/Vecna was somewhat affected when Eleven told him Brenner was dead.
Will's heartrendering "whyI Eleven love(s) you" speech to Mike led to an overhearing Jonathan finally justifying his existence in this season, via the show recalling he has relationships with people other than Nancy, as this led to a lovely brotherly comfort scene. Unfortunately, the speech also highlighted inadvertendly Mike doesn't have much more to do these seasons than to provide angst and comfort to Eleven and Will. "You're the heart" kind of works for Xander Harris (not least because Buffy the Vampire Slayer does give him some relevant scenes, like his early s4 pep talk to Buffy, the s6 finale "Crayon" speech to Willow" or his s7 encouragement of Dawn), but for Mike, not really.
Otoh, this was the best season yet for Lucas in terms of storytelling, as far as the four original kids are concerned. His exes relationship with Max was lovely and supportive, his big confrontation with Jason satisfyingly wasn't just about Jason's current homicadal attempts but about Lucas rejecting what Jason represented on his "normal" days, too, and we got to see something about his sibling relationship with Erica. Go Lucas!
And Max. Good lord, Max. Not only did the show a great job sussing out exactly the kid of torn, mixed feelings about Billy which did not ignore that he spent most of their time together being the bane of her existence, it did a terrific job with her survior's guilt and with her incredible bravery. Max literally faced her demons and did it with such grace and courage. I was right with Eleven when El said "no" to the prospect of a dead Max. Mind you, I fully expect there to be more to the fact that Eleven managed to revive her (albeit only to a comatose state), because that's not a power we've seen her display yet, and "bringing someone back from the dead" is not something you can let your already superheroic character do without immediately limiting said power, or else every later death will feel like it's on her. (Even if we speculate Eleven jumpstarted Max' heart via telekinesis.) Possibly El had to do provide something of her own life force, or do something Faustian to bring Max back?
As for the adults, while the last episode tried to connect their plotlilne to the overall season plot, thaqt didn't really work. Otoh, I am happy to report Hopper and Joyce are back to their s1 - s2 selves in term of their interaction, and thus their relationship is fine with me again. And like I said, I'm glad Dimitri survived. Still, if someone had managed to get the Duffer Brothers to edit, you could have cut down the entire Hopper rescue plot to one episode or two at most and would not have lost anything significant to the story.
In conclusion, could have used some trimming, and a surviving Eddie, but I still like this season much more than s3 and on a par with s2.
The point being Eddie's demise. We're three for three now (Bob in s2, Alexei in s3) for "new endearing character dies at the end of season", and it's no longer shocking, it's predictable. Otoh, Enzo/Dimitri Antonov the shady guard turned reluctant heroic ally survived, and with all respect to Eddie, he was my secret favourite of the new characters, so I'm not exactly wailing to the skies.
When the late unlamented Dr. Brenner told Eleven "I only ever wanted what was best for you" and urged her to tell him she understood that, I kept muttering "don't do it, El!" and much relieved I was when she didn't. In general, I thought Stranger Things did an excellent job with Eleven's relationship with Brenner. (Also with that of Max and Billy, but then Max in general had arguably the best arc of the season, more about it later.) Yes, he was for years the key adult in her life and provider of approval and pain, she's never going to have no emotions about that. But she sees him clearly now - not to mention that she has had contrasting parent experiences - , and retrospectively okaying her own abuse is not something she does.
Sidenote: earlier, I found their short discussion re: Henry intriguing, i.e. El responding to Brenner's "I love you!" with the question whether he loved Henry, too, and then whether he still loved Henry even after Henry had turned out to be a murdering psychopath. Both the fact that Brenner said yes, and that El later tried to explain Henry's pathology through his treatment by Brenner. (This actually confused me briefly until I realized El didn't get the "I killed my family before I ever got to Brenner" speech, Nancy did, Eleven just knows what he did there.) Presumably Brenner's teaching methods didn't help, but Henry already came to him with a body count. Anyway, the series shied away from making Henry/One/Vecna an "Eleven gone wrong" by giving him the monstrous kid backstory - if he's an 80s character, he's grown up Damien from the Omen sequels or Michael Myers - instead of doing what Eleven assumes was the case, putting his monstrosity squarely at Brenner's feet. Then again, Henry/Vecna was somewhat affected when Eleven told him Brenner was dead.
Will's heartrendering "why
Otoh, this was the best season yet for Lucas in terms of storytelling, as far as the four original kids are concerned. His exes relationship with Max was lovely and supportive, his big confrontation with Jason satisfyingly wasn't just about Jason's current homicadal attempts but about Lucas rejecting what Jason represented on his "normal" days, too, and we got to see something about his sibling relationship with Erica. Go Lucas!
And Max. Good lord, Max. Not only did the show a great job sussing out exactly the kid of torn, mixed feelings about Billy which did not ignore that he spent most of their time together being the bane of her existence, it did a terrific job with her survior's guilt and with her incredible bravery. Max literally faced her demons and did it with such grace and courage. I was right with Eleven when El said "no" to the prospect of a dead Max. Mind you, I fully expect there to be more to the fact that Eleven managed to revive her (albeit only to a comatose state), because that's not a power we've seen her display yet, and "bringing someone back from the dead" is not something you can let your already superheroic character do without immediately limiting said power, or else every later death will feel like it's on her. (Even if we speculate Eleven jumpstarted Max' heart via telekinesis.) Possibly El had to do provide something of her own life force, or do something Faustian to bring Max back?
As for the adults, while the last episode tried to connect their plotlilne to the overall season plot, thaqt didn't really work. Otoh, I am happy to report Hopper and Joyce are back to their s1 - s2 selves in term of their interaction, and thus their relationship is fine with me again. And like I said, I'm glad Dimitri survived. Still, if someone had managed to get the Duffer Brothers to edit, you could have cut down the entire Hopper rescue plot to one episode or two at most and would not have lost anything significant to the story.
In conclusion, could have used some trimming, and a surviving Eddie, but I still like this season much more than s3 and on a par with s2.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-04 12:24 pm (UTC)The one good choice Brenner made was in finding a method to keep Henry from accessing his powers and then ruthlessly using it.
Of course, he threw that away first by encouraging his misanthropy and belief that might makes right, and then by allowing him access to the children. And, you know, by being an asshole generally.
Still, if someone had managed to get the Duffer Brothers to edit, you could have cut down the entire Hopper rescue plot to one episode or two at most and would not have lost anything significant to the story.
It's only too obvious to me that they wanted to keep the adults separated from the kids and couldn't find any better way to do it.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-05 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-07-04 01:44 pm (UTC)Yes, this. I wish Joyce had more interactions with the kids.
I liked Eddie a lot, partly because I was friends with guys like him in high school, so I was really sad when he died. I did like Dustin telling his uncle he was a hero. (I liked Dmitri too, and wish they'd wrapped up that loose end, though I guess it's possible he'll show up in season 5 unexpectedly.)
Otherwise, I agree with your thoughts.
♥MAX♥
no subject
Date: 2022-07-05 09:21 am (UTC)As coincidence will have it, I'm just started to watch the 2018 tv version of Howards End, which doesn't just have Haylee Atwell as Margaret Schlegel but Joseph Quinn as Leonard Bast. Watching him in this very different role after Eddie is a trip.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-04 04:57 pm (UTC)Not only Bob and Alexei, but the OG beloved dead character, Barb in season 1. The Internet was full of "Justice for Barb!" back in the day. A vintage shop in my neighborhood did an entire window display based on her glasses. I adored Eddie, but I had a feeling he was the one we would lose.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-05 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-07-14 03:40 pm (UTC)I thought they led up nicely to the revelation that Eleven created the first doorway, and thus was appropriately the one who could close it, forever. That the dangers emerging from the Upside Down were essentially twisted outgrowths of Eleven's psyche, a warped reflection. Instead we got Henry / One / Vecna as the driving force, but that worked for me, too. He was frightening more in concept and general physical grossness rather than portrayal, which I thought might have been more shocking if he were still the handsome face over an implacable, pitiless heart.
Dustin's hypothesis that the demogorgons and mindflayers were soldiers, and Vecna the general to some other force was reasonable, except we now know Vecna is himself the enemy, so that was a nice little red herring.
If Eleven had seen his backstory as Nancy did, she'd have seen his 'practicing' his tortures on cute little bunnies, she'd have been able to fight H1V sooner, I think. She believed him to have been twisted solely by Brenner, and empathized with him more than he deserved.
One thing I appreciated was the costuming for MBB and WR. Millie Bobby Brown's patient gowns and tank suits de-emphasized her maturing figure, conflating her with the child she had been, and Winona Ryder was bundled up almost the entire season, with only a brief glimpse of her in underclothes, and presumably several days' worth of grubbiness.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-14 07:11 pm (UTC)