Stanger Things Season 4 is leaning into the graphic/evil and away from the creepy/suspenseful. Not sucking me in as well as before. Will still finish the season, but enjoyment is down a bit.
May need to re-watch the old seasons, as I'm kind of out of memory regarding the storyline. I'm also getting the storylines of Dark and Stranger things mis-matched at times.
I also prefer creepy/suspenseful/sci-fi/fantasy to graphic/evil/gore/horror. For me seasons 1 & 2 are a tier above 3 & 4. Although I still enjoyed 3 and am enjoying 4 so far. Just not on the same level.
I'll probably watch Season 4 this weekend when I have time, but I'm actually semi-nervous to watch it cause of the somewhat mixed reviews. I just hope it doesn't either get too full of itself or potentially ruin the previous seasons.
I definitely agree Season 3 was a step down from 1 and 2, which are damn near perfect. My problem honestly with 3 was the whole Russians in America angle. Like I in general get it's a fantasy/sci fi movie, but this idea of a massive amounts of Russians in an underground mall in Indiana just made it too implausible (again I get it's not reality) of a story line, especially since the whole idea of Eleven was to be able to "spy" on a different plane from the US. IDK, it make a believable 80s America with this dark twist into not that for me.
Though I did totally enjoy the transformation of Steve from kinda the antagonist in S1 to basically their dad come S3.
Agreed. Joyce Byers going from just a normal, frantic, worried mom in S1 to basically a spy dressed in a Russian military uniform deep underneath Hawkins in a Russian compound was a bit too much for me. The simplicity and realism of S1 and S2 were part of what made them so great. I realize at a certain point you have to expand the universe and go bigger to avoid just doing the same old thing over and over, but it's also the reason most movie sequels aren't nearly as good.
1000%, and honestly it's like S3 they didn't take as many lessons as they did with S2. S2 is more or less how you do a sequel, but yeah, S3 just made it more absurdist. You can expand IMO but you still gotta build it in the framework of the universe you make, not veer off.
It's kinda the same problem as Man in the High Castle with the whole multiverse thing
but they did a better job of melding that into the story since Philip K Dick never really presented that as an "option" (it was jsut a book about the allies winning WWII so open ended). But they definitely suffered from trying to make things bigger and badder in it's season 4 (and also suffered from planning on ending things in a 5th season and not getting that, so a lot of crammed).
My general worry with Season 4, and Stanger Things in general is how do you wrap it up, and bring proper resolution to it. Like I doubt the Duffer bros never thought this show would be this big so keeping it to like a season or two seems reasonable, now I legitimately thing when it does finally end, it'll be kinda disappointing, but hopefully I'm proven wrong.
