Stranger Things

S01E01 "THE VANISHING OF WILL BYERS"
Enjoyed it! It's a very good pastiche.

S01E02 "THE WEIRDO ON MAPLE STREET"

It's moving pretty slowly, but I don't mind too much at the moment. I think half an hour a week helps because it feels like a mood piece. That long, almost dialogue-free sequence with Will's mom in the house on her own was really good.

S01E03 "HOLLY, JOLLY"

This episode felt a little slower, a bit more of a bridge episode, but the Eleven flashback was really cool. Also, those letters Joyce painted on the wall are the most art directed letters ever, it's hilarious.

S01E04 "THE BODY"

It's a bit repetitive and the story beats are getting rote, like, you just know the broad strokes of where every storyline is going. I remember this is the stretch where I got less keen on the show for these reasons, and why I preferred the subsequent seasons. Following up on what euclid said in spoiler tags previously, though, even in this season they do play with the tropes sometimes, like the twist on Steve where he predictably turns out to be a douche but then actually turns out not to be, and the popular jock kid gets the girl instead of the kooky protagonist kid. I wish they had more of that this season. Thankfully, the actors are all really good and charming, and the moment to moment writing is strong.

Two things I did like about this episode: Eleven getting a makeover and looking hilariously creepy, like a Victorian ghost girl or something; the outrageously obvious Stephen King shout out, just cutting to a character holding a big ol' picture of him right up to camera.

You can see why so many of these actors broke out with this. I wish Winona Ryder had gotten more of a resurgence from it, though.

S01E05 "THE FLEA AND THE ACROBAT"

I just rewatched the last ten mins or so of the previous one, because they really do just run them all together. This is definitely designed to be binged rather than considered as individual episodes, sometimes to its detriment. Like, something that I didn't mention before as awesome in that episode is when two storylines dovetail as the kids listen to Will's half of his scene with Joyce on the radio. It's a really simple writing trick but it's so satisfying. It's a bit of a shame that they didn't tie the end of the photo development scene in as well, but really the main issue is that they then put a bunch of little scenes after that until the episode just runs out instead of ending with it (or, to be fair, with the Hopper cotton wool scene) - Hopper pulling up at the lab and Joy's ex showing up could easily have been left to the next episode. This might, in fact, be why I forgot to say anything about the cool dovetailing until now - its impact gets washed away. It's the kind of thing that Lost did incredibly well and more shows should take lessons from.

Anyway, enjoyed this ep. Even if it didn't move stuff on that much except for Nancy, it had lots of nice character stuff.

S01E06 "THE MONSTER"

A very tropey episode, but it does reveal some cool backstory. Shame they felt they had to cut back to Eleven doing stuff when her aunt was telling that story, though, felt like an utter lack of faith in the audience.

S01E07 "THE BATHTUB"

Really good episode! Mostly one single story thread going all the way through, with loads of cool stuff happening. Love that their walkie-talkies are actually really useful, love the weird gun that guy in the junkyard had (I don't care about what kind it is, obvs, because I'm not a weirdo wanky gun nut), love the nerd teacher!

One tiny negative imo is that It's a little bit of a shame that they didn't hold back on Eleven's nose-bleeding because it's lost all impact now, it just feels standard.

S01E08 "THE UPSIDE DOWN"

So, this is... fine. Nothing unexpected, and kind of messy - the showdown at the house is cool but it doesn't have any effect whatsoever; the moment where the demigorgon gets Brenner is so weak; Eleven's sacrifice is so ambiguous as to not really land, plus they hint heavily at undoing it within five minutes anyway. 

The Brenner scene was so half-arsed, I was waiting through seasons 2 and 3 for him to come back. I guess he maybe still could, but in the meantime that was really unsatisfying.
I'm glad I'm able to go straight to season 2 next week so this can feel more like the end of a chapter rather than a book.

Stuff I liked: I had forgotten that Hopper straight up Landos Eleven, which is pleasingly dark. I guess he is majorly projecting onto Joyce and Will, but he doesn't really meet Eleven properly, hasn't seen her with her family or anything so he can abstract her away as a weird experiment thing. Also, the fakeout with Nancy/Jonathan at the end, Steve's jumper being the cherry on top.

S02E01 "MADMAX"

This episode is pretty much solely setting new stuff up, but it's all intriguing or exciting so it gets away with it.

S02E02 "TRICK OR TREAT, FREAK"

This one is okay. Feels a bit like it's going over stuff that was already touched on last ep. Plus, maybe I'm getting muddled, but Nancy getting drunk at the party felt like a re-run of a very similar scene in the first season. Am I just re-remembering this one?

The Eleven flashbacks are quite cool, with her going feral in the woods, though they don't really illuminate much - I wouldn't have minded a whole episode dedicated to it with some more detail. Like, outside of 'she teleported to the upside-down then came back and that's how she's alive and back', it doesn't tell us anything we didn't know. Also, apparently she just left a massive portal in the wall of the school?

I like the stuff with the kids, though, vying for Spengler rights, and trying not to be weirdoes to Max. I hope Mike gets over his Max-sulk quickly though, it's irritating already. I guess he feels like she's an Eleven replacement? But that's a bit tenuous and also it's just a re-run of Lucas being jealous of Eleven in S1.

S02E03 "THE POLLYWOG"

I really enjoyed this episode. It's a real shame they just spread a couple more of the Eleven flashbacks across into this one - would have been so neater if they'd put them all into one - but the Hopper/Eleven relationship is great. Just a really well drawn and acted portrayal of two broken people trying their best. Also Hopper standing his ground with Paul Reiser was awesome. I like the Dart stuff, I'm glad that Mike seems to be over his bullshit Max hate now (although ugh love triangle with easily-avoided misunderstandings, no thanks).

When I first watched this, I suspected that Bob was an undercover baddy and gave Will shitty advice on purpose to get him possessed, but I love that it turns out to actually just be a neat bit of characterisation - he's well-meaning but a bit useless.

S02E04 "WILL THE WISE"

This episode was fine, just moving stuff along incrementally. I liked the final shot.

The whole 'Joyce manically putting together an Upside-Down-y message from Will in her living room' feels a bit like a re-run too. I do still like that they're building up their own mythos and ecosystem and everything a bit more instead of it being pure homage, but I'd forgotten how much of it is a re-run of S1.

I was thinking about the other entrances too - when he talks about keeping it contained, like weeds, does he mean they've been going around closing the other portals like the one in the tree or the one in the school that El' escaped from? Or do those seal up and disappear on their own, and he was purely referring to flame-throwing the main one?

S02E05 "DIG DUG"

Really strong episode. I like the conspiracy nut, the stuff with El and her mum, getting Bob in on the situation and kinda Max too, Hopper underground was terrifying, and I had a couple of big laughs ("Code Shut Your Mouth" and Dustin swearing at Mike's dad and telling him he's useless).

Forgot that Dustin and Steve turn into a double-act, looking forward to that. Lucas' sister is still pretty funny here but I remember that she gets really annoying, starts doing that whole 'kid talking like an adult' schtick.

S02E06 "THE SPY"

Good ep. The junkyard scene was really cool, and I like what they're doing with Steve - revealing he never really was the cool kid, he just hung around with a bunch of dicks and happened to be the prettiest one. Now freckle-face has got someone who's pretty AND a complete rage-monster to hang off. Also funny to have Dustin talk about how Steve's only along for the ride because the other characters were busy with their own storylines.

Also enjoyed the Temple Of Doom homage outside the bedrooms.

S02E07 "THE LOST SISTER"

Forgot about that Matthew Modine hint...

I know this episode isn't liked by a lot of fans, but I think it's great. I wish they'd do more stuff like this, frankly, chasing stuff up and making use of the episodic structure. People had similar problems with the 'other 48 days' episode of Lost, just because it isn't part of the 'main' story, and I just don't get it. It's a breath of fresh air and it's like getting a little movie packed into one episode.

I love the switch to a completely different set of 80s tropes with grimy New York, all punks and neon and grumpy passing businessmen, gangs and vigilantes. It's playing with X-Men and Star Wars OT stuff for a bit. They even change the score along with the needle drops to have a more punky/proto-rap feel, it's great.

S02E08 "THE MIND FLAYER"

The structure is a little odd, almost like two mini-episodes - when there was that dolly out shot of Bob's corpse, I thought that was the end and was very surprised to realise there was another 22 minutes left! It's two awesome mini-episodes, though, and watching it I was reminded why I started to like this show a lot more after the first season. Everything tightens up here, bringing all the characters together, and it continues to build on its own iconography while still doing pastiche.

Stuff I liked:

The call back to the scientist getting chased into the underground elevator from the first season, except now it's a bunch of scientists to match the Aliens-style increase in demigorgons.

Every time Paul Reiser goes through a door with other characters, you expect him to lock them in or out, which is great use of casting.

Speaking of which, Will is such good casting as 'creepy possessed kid', that really worked out well.

The little morse code montage.

Every single character answering Steve's "What's that?" with "MORSE CODE." Steve is such a doof.

All the gang lining up in defense with their own weapons, Steve doing his bat-spin flair move, Dustin with his catapult.

Even though we know it's coming, Eleven's return in her new cool outfit and everyone's reactions, is such a cool moment. I kind of wanted her to hover through the door, but it's probably good that they showed restraint.

The way they had you going 'Bob's going to get it, Bob's going to get it, Bob's going to get it', then giving you five seconds where you think he made it only to snatch that away, that was great. I remember when I first watched it, they got me for a moment, I thought he'd made it. Then I was like "uh oh, there's a fair amount of space between him and Joyce and they're not closing i-OH NO!"

S02E09 "THE GATE"

Really enjoyed it! I'm very relieved to find out that the step up from season 1 really is as significant as I remembered it. Everything's working at full-steam here - the way the teams break into groups but it's all synchronised and intertwined, like Return Of The Jedi or whatever; Steve now playing the 'semi-ineffectual slightly older kid' Josh Brolin in The Goonies type role is great, while still keeping his double-act with Dustin up (the bit with the demidog in the fridge and the continued bad romantic advice was great); it was definitely worth waiting until now to have Eleven levitate (plus double-nostril-bleeding and dilated/bloodshot eyes! They're going to have to start adding Scarlet Witch wispy stuff next!) and I enjoyed the 'escort/siege mission' vibe of the finale; there were some really nice character-driven scenes - Eleven and Hopper in the truck, plus everything at the dance - just good, simple writing bolstered by great acting and a familiarity with the characters on our and the writers' parts; and even Billy gets some semblance of effect on the story (even if it is only to get Steve into the car and give Max an incredibly minor arc)!

Probably my only minor issue is that the mind-flayer is a rather nebulous enemy. We're told it's a space Nazi, and it's in charge of the bad stuff happening, but that's about it. It's kind of inevitable with a Lovecraftian baddy like this, but hopefully there'll be a bit more development further down the line. (Also, could have done without those last few seconds at the end - we know the Mind Flayer still exists, I'd rather have stuck with the happy ending. Pretty funny that the upside-down gets Christmas lights too, though!)

S03E01 "SUZIE, DO YOU COPY?"

really enjoyed this one! Yeah, it does really well at moving fast, and keeping all the threads feel connected even if it's just by having characters pass each other on the road. I like the introduction of the mall and how it kills off the small town - very Back To The Future, with potential promise of (speculation) Dawn Of The Dead/Evil Dead references. I liked how they integrated Day Of The Dead into the episode (and the 'touching the creepy wall' parallel was neat). Mike being a bit of a prick is great, and Dustin's Breakfast Club style 'distant possibly non-existent girlfriend' is a fun nod. Also enjoyed the goopy rat-burstings.

S03E02 "THE MALL RATS"

This one was okay. Mostly building stuff up, but I like all the stuff so it's fine. And the increased goopiness is great. Not massively entertained by the kid relationship stuff this week, though. All very 'first draft'.

It is good to have the Eleven/Max thing swept away, though, and it felt organic enough. I liked Will's “NOW can we go and play D&D?” line too.

S03E03 “THE CASE OF THE MISSING LIFEGUARD"

Really enjoyed this ep. Even if it's just 'move every plotline on a bit' at least they all get some solid progress and it's all done really well.
In the cold open, I enjoyed the teenage dynamics a lot more, and it was cool how it suddenly switched from fun to serious.
It's nice to see the little directorial flair too, like the transition from the camera to the binoculars, and the shadow of Hopper's gun as he cocks it. I might be imagining it, but I feel like there's more of that this season. And it's nice that they keep taking time to do character stuff, like Hopper and Joyce in the lab or Will's stuff - I'm really happy that actor is getting to do stuff other than just be lost or possessed, because I always felt a little bad for him and it turns out he's really good!

The journos are a bit too cartoonish, though - not their dismissive patronising misogyny in itself, which I'm sure is perfectly realistic, just the way that they go from zero to ten on a dime, every time and they all bellow their laughter at her.

S03E04 “THE SAUNA TEST"

That was a great ep. At first I felt like it was mostly just following up on last week's cliffhangers and moving incrementally forward, but then it started picking up pace around the newspaper office/mayor's office scenes and just kept on picking up pace. Various thoughts:

There's a little bit of 'this character is a bit too sceptical' with Max and Jonathan, but they at least feel a little justified, the former by not wanting to deal with her brother any time, never mind when he's a literal monster, and the latter by frustration at losing his job plus perhaps some internalised misogyny.

All the mayor stuff is great.

Shitty mayor also feels a bit Jaws-y, after that "I'm the chief of police, I can do whatever I want" reference last week. Interestingly, in the original novel the mayor was also hiding his ties to a scary group of people (in that case the mob).

Love that Steve twirls his ice-cream scoop in the same way he does his baseball bat.

This episode is where Erica goes from funny to obnoxious for me. Hate that 'child talking like an adult' schtick, especially when the writers can't decide if she should talk like Samuel L Jackson or an economics professor.

The green goo in the vial struck me as a Prince Of Darkness reference, though as I write that, I realise it could also be TMHT! (Also the containers reminded me of the plutonium in BTTF, but I guess that might just be standard 'hazardous material container' stuff?)

The scene with Nancy's mum was nice (is it just me or did her hair suddenly go super-blonde? Maybe she got it done after the whole Billy thing, to feel like a fresh start).

The elevator that leads to a secret location miles underground beneath a mall is pretty goofy, but I like it! Maybe they'll have to teach a computer about emotions or something.

The sauna sequence is amazing, start to finish, especially intercut with Mrs Driscoll in the hospital. And I love that all they achieve is confirming that Billy is possessed, they don't exorcise him or get a clue or anything.

Wasn't a fan of the end song. It wasn't motivated diegetically, and they already played the 'nice old song over scary happenings' trick last episode. (Also, it seemed very much like the zombies were actually all singing it, so it came off a lot sillier than I suspect was intended!) 

S03E05 “THE FLAYED"

Another good episode! The hospital sequence pretty much matched the sauna sequence, especially with the goopy stuff at the end then that last shot where it all goes dark and you can just see some red light bouncing off... something.

I'm not sure how I feel about the underground base storyline. It's cool and fun, and yet it feels like a completely different show. The science lab in the first two seasons felt like it meshed better with the horror. I'm trying to think of some 80s parallels I can draw so it feels more of a piece... the thing this combination feels most like is Half-Life! 

Good to see Murray back, too. And Erica was less annoying this episode - still a bit of a waste, it would be cool to introduce a new kid to the gang who has a different outlook on stuff without just being a prick.

I guess my one negative is that the Russian heavy has tipped over into full Terminator cosplay now, it's just jarring. The haircut, the biking gear, the gun, the limp, the accent, the slow stalking, even the casting of the actor who looks so Arnie-like from certain angles, and the distinctive head movements. I could maybe get past all that if they hadn't started putting a Terminator theme soundalike over him too.

S03E06 “E PLURIBUS UNUM"

I enjoyed this one, even though it was mostly repeats of stuff we've already seen. I think with the Russian stuff if they just toned down the goofiness of it a bit I wouldn't find it so jarring. They've already got the comedy hero team in there, it could do with the Russians being a bit more down to earth, a bit more unknowable and scary. A bit more The Americans. Especially as the Hopper thread went a bit sillier this week as well...

A lot of this stuff would probably work better if they hadn't shown us the failed gateway attempts in Russia, and we hadn't seen the new attempts until Steve et al had (and maybe move that to this episode) - then Alexei would be telling us new information here so his bits would work better, and the Russians in general would be more mysterious. 

S03E07 “THE BITE"

This one was great. Every story running on all cylinders, and some excellent uses of BTTF (having the music play over a scene that it perfectly fits, and having characters quote it without knowing they are a couple of times).

This might be a stretch, but having a fight in a funhouse with a bunch of mirrors makes me think of Dark Knight Returns, which would be an ace 80s reference if intentional.

S03E08 “THE BATTLE OF STARCOURT"

Really enjoyed this! Proper Return Of The Jedi style multi-threaded climactic sequence, had a lot of back and forth without feeling too silly. I know some people didn't enjoy the Neverending Story moment, but I loved it. Great song choice, very funny, and to just drop it in the middle of the end battle like that was such a left-field choice but it totally works.

Very much looking forward to the next season now, and really intrigued as to what tone they'll go for this time, plus how weird it'll be that all the kids will have aged a lot.

S04E01 "THE HELLFIRE CLUB"

Episode 1: Enjoyed it! Well put together, and it's surprisingly nice just to be back with all the characters again. I was going to say that it was the usual 'first episode catches us up, sets some new stuff in motion, is fine but not too eventful' deal, but then they did that awesome Nightmare On Elm Street riff at the end!

S04E02 "VECNA'S CURSE"

Okay, but it's one of those 'mostly repeating stuff from the last episode' ones. The NOES stuff feels more like a It deal now. That along with El's Carrie story makes this a very Stephen King season! I liked how the El story just went super brutal at the end, though. She didn't get her powers back in a fun way, she just totally fucked that girl up. I like the Satanic Panic stuff and the sociopathic basketball jock who just uses the local tragedies to make speeches about how they're going to win or catch a freak or whatever rather than actually caring about them (or even really his girlfriend it seems like).

The Hopper thing - hopefully we get a 'he jumped into the beam and teleported to Russia's equivalent lab' explanation or something, because 'he jumped out of the way' is a pretty weak explanation, and then 'there were somehow a bunch of Russians right there and they smuggled him out somehow' would be really weird. They didn't do a lot with him either, I feel like they could have left him plus Joyce and Murray for a different episode, but this has always been an on-and-off issue with ST. There are even more storylines now, and they're not all very strong (like Jonathan and his stoner pal talking about Nancy). 

S04E03 "THE MONSTER AND THE SUPERHERO"

Enjoyed this more, felt like it tied together a lot better. There were fewer weak strands and Jonathan and pal were a lot more fun this episode. Plus everyone's pretty much coming back together now, which is cool. There are still issues, though: we're one step ahead of the characters (the Hopper ransom thing all turned out to be on the level, so we already knew all the reveals here; we already knew the wizard demon was preying on people with trauma and was hanging out in a spooky house); other threads are just not moving on - the jocks are still hunting Eddie, Joyce and Murray are still on their way towards the exchange; some character arcs seem to be getting recycled (El flirting with the dark side, Mike not being able to say 'I love you', Will and Dustin feeling ostracised). Like , it really didn't need to take them 3.5 hours to get here. But they do keep dripping in cool stuff and it's all well done enough that it's still enjoyable. I also like how they're making lots of little nods to their own continuity, like the burger place whose owner got killed in S1 now a derelict teen hangout, Dr Owens with his club specials, and I think the librarian might be a return appearance, like Hopper flirted with her in S1 or something? (Internet says no, but it sure looks like her so I think maybe it was uncredited and all the wikis etc haven't caught up yet.)

S04E04 "DEAR BILLY"

Wow, that ending was awesome. Even if it did make the villain feel a little too... human. Most stuff this ep was really good actually. It was just the Joyce/Murray thing that didn't really work for me - I didn't find Yuri funny, and again surely every viewer was expecting a double-cross somewhere along the line of the exchange (as were J & M to be fair) so that twist didn't really land either. Plus we know we've still got the Russian prison with the demigorgon to get to, so it's unlikely they were all going to get back to the US at this stage. Unless, say, they did a flashback and Hopper had already been there, or Hopper isn't 'the American' mentioned in that S3 post-credits scene. But yeah it all just feels a bit silly, and at this point I'd rather they had just sidelined J & M or found them something else to do. It's a trap shows with ensemble casts fall into sometimes where they feel they have to be giving every character something to do at all times, and drag them in rather than just be like 'they're living their life offscreen for these four episodes'. Shows like The Americans, Lost and even Jessica Jones S1 had the confidence to do that. Oh well, maybe J & M will get more to do now. And I liked Hopper's escape, even if it was a bit unclear just how much he'd broken his feet!

One theory I came up with and then got utterly debunked all within this episode was that the angel's voice would be a time-traveling Eleven!

Robert Englund was a cool casting choice, especially with the NOES feel this season (including two characters called Fred and Nancy hanging out together) and the Freddy Krueger standee in the video store!

S04E05 "THE NINA PROJECT"

A bit of a weak ep. Felt like we'd seen all that stuff before, except for the awful sub-Temple Of Doom/Austen Powers nonsense in the plane. wtf was that? Also, they'd better explain Papa's survival at some point, ideally with something better than 'the demigorgon only got one second to eat at his face before some other soldiers distracted it'. I'm getting a bit irritated with all the seeming randomness - Papa and Hopper surviving, and Hopper being taken to Russia and held onto for no reason except slave labour but then he gets put in the prison where they somehow somewhy have a demigorgon, and Reefer Rick is a legend that no one knows where he lives except now apparently a bunch of people do. Maybe they'll explain at least some of this down the line, but my reaction by that point will be 'well, fine, I guess' because they're putting it all off far beyond the initial reveals.

S04E06 "THE DIVE"

Mostly enjoyed this one. The stuff with the Christian household was really weird and stupid, but I liked the Hopper stuff, Joyce and Murray weren't as bad this episode, the Eleven flashbacks are going over old ground a little but they're still quite cool, and all the watergate stuff was all ace. Steve in the upside-down was an awesome ending.

Bit unclear that the upside-down end of the gate was in the dried-up lake, and also that tentacle grabbing him for no reason (didn't eat him or take him to the baddy or anything) felt lazy, but I can write that off as 'inscrutable evil magic dimension rules'. [note: they say in ep 7 that everything in the u-d is a hive mind, which I didn't think was necessarily implied by the mindflayer controlling all the demigorgons, but okay I'll take that as a rule, so the tentacle was just guarding the gate and pulled Steve in so that the bats could come get him, fair enough]

S04E07 "THE MASSACRE AT HAWKINS LAB"

I liked it, mostly. The upside-down adventures were fun, the Russia stuff was good (although vodka-chugging conspiracy nut Murray being a karate badass still feels silly, even though I suppose there's no reason he couldn't be), and the big reveal at the end was cool. I'm not sure it was worth all these Eleven flashbacks, though, as they felt really irrelevant right up until that last sequence. Good choice to leave out Jonathan et al from this episode.
So, season 4 vol 1 is fine. Didn't need to be that long, didn't have many stand-out awesome sequences, and for most of it it didn't really move stuff on very much. But, it was good comfort watching, it did have some cool stuff, and I do like the new lore stuff that is in there.

S04E08&E09
Shit.