The Billy character is so underbaked that I'm lead to believe that they had to revise his story mid-way through production. He's set up as a major character and then has no arc at all. He barely has a purpose.
I doubt that was the original vision for the character.
I thought season 2 was excellent aside from the mini-xmen crap in episode 7. That was so out of place and ground what was an awesome story pace to a halt. I'm very glad I was able to just power through it on to the next one, if I had to wait a week like a traditional series I would have been pissed
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I thought season 2 was excellent aside from the mini-xmen crap in episode 7. That was so out of place and ground what was an awesome story pace to a halt. I'm very glad I was able to just power through it on to the next one, if I had to wait a week like a traditional series I would have been pissed
Agreed, that was such a bad episode. I know why they had to put something in there for elevens story arc, but that was so cheesy and bad.
I actually had no idea what those human caricatures' names were except for 8.
Overall I think I liked season 1 better, but that could be due to it being so new and different. Hopper taking out the demodogs with a bullet or two after they were so impervious earlier was pretty lame too. At least show them vulnerable to bullets earlier, even if they overrun the lab.
S2 was 9 episodes compared to 8 in S1. So the Elven road trip episode was a bonus episode. I liked that it expanded the in show universe beyond Hawkins. I liked that it made explicit that there are other experiment survivors out there beyond Eleven. I liked that it gave Eleven more perspectives to consider than what the doctor from the lab, Mike, or Hopper have given her so far.
I'm here for Eleven's Bitchin' Road Trip Adventures if the spinoff series should ever come about.
-I think Billy is setup well for Season 3 to become the host for the Mind Flayer. He is already a bad guy, and there is much more story to tell about his background (and Max too)
-The guys stuffing the demon dog into the fridge could end up playing into an "opening" back into the world. Think that was the last dog that was not called back to the lab.
-Read some speculation that maybe they take the fight in Season 3 to the Mind Flayer. Same way he used a host to spy, maybe the guys, max or eleven do the same to the mind flayer
Binge complete - I had enough self control to keep it to one episode per day.
You have to wonder if Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy will be sitting around the dinner table one day reminiscing about the time they tied Will down and Nancy prodded him with a glowing hot iron. Good times, good times.
-I think Billy is setup well for Season 3 to become the host for the Mind Flayer. He is already a bad guy, and there is much more story to tell about his background (and Max too)
-The guys stuffing the demon dog into the fridge could end up playing into an "opening" back into the world. Think that was the last dog that was not called back to the lab.
-Read some speculation that maybe they take the fight in Season 3 to the Mind Flayer. Same way he used a host to spy, maybe the guys, max or eleven do the same to the mind flayer
Great season. Loved it
Spoiler!
The "Dart" demon dog dies in the tunnel, not back in the lab.
@StrangerWriters - "Yurtle the Turtle is safe. He's here with me. We're scrolling through Twitter together. He's trolling cyber-bullies. It's a great time."
@StrangerWriters - "Yurtle the Turtle is safe. He's here with me. We're scrolling through Twitter together. He's trolling cyber-bullies. It's a great time."
I preferred season 1 to season 2, but season 2 was still good. I liked Billy strictly for the true to life homage to an 80's d-bag. I grew weary of the emo kid (Michael) - he served no purpose and could have been killed off.
Steve and Dustin were the highlights of the season, and Dustin at the dance was perfect. I mean, that dance scene... man. Brilliant way to wrap up the season.
Overall, I think the way that this season struggled was in character groupings. Good ensemble cast writing takes existing characters, pairs them in interesting and unexpected ways to create new insights into the existing characters and relationships. Dustin and Steve, and Eleven and Hopper were the only instances of this. Elle had literally two scenes over the entire season in which she interacted with original cast characters beyond Hopper, and that felt like a waste to me. The new characters felt more like the writers didn't know how to move the existing relationships forward without external forces. Nancy and Jonathan's arc relied on the P.I., Eleven's relied on Kali, Joyce and Hopper relied on Bob, the boys' relied on Max.
That criticism aside, there was a lot I liked here. Even though I didn't like it as a stand alone episode, I did like the presence of Kali and I hope she's a bit of an antagonist for Eleven. The 'dark side of the force' scene was great, one of my favorite 80s pop culture allusions, in part because it was a bit more subtle than most. I also like Max... again, just not the way the whole arc of the boys' plot was hanging on her.
There's of course a bunch of minor plot hole things that don't make sense, but I really feel like those things should be given a pass in this genre.
I wish Mike would stop being such a dick to Max, or at least have a scene at the end where he apologises to her or something. He spent a decent chunk of season 1 trying to get the guys to accept Eleven and then has no empathy at all for Max when the shoe is on the other foot. I didn't like his character much this season.
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Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
Exp:
Just finished last night, didn't like it as much as Season 1, but it was still pretty good. The one thing I really hated was the terrible acting in the episode where 11 goes to Pittsburgh and meets the "gang", the mohawk guy in particular was absolutely terrible, and I could only force myself to watch the whole thing because I thought there might be something important in there that I'd miss - but there wasn't.
Oh yah, and Bob "knowing BASIC" and hacking the mainframe was cringey too. I thought Bob was great otherwise, though. And Max was really good, although we never get to see her mastery of Dig Dug, which is clearly an oversight that needs correction.
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Better educated sadness than oblivious joy.
I grew weary of the emo kid (Michael) - he served no purpose and could have been killed off.
