I was expecting it to deviate from the Cold War satire of season 3 because they continued having the Soviets as a baddie, but they turned out to be the least sinister problem.
I enjoyed the contrast between Will and Mike’s distant and faltering relationship with Dustin and Steve’s healthy and loving friendship, but I did wish they did a little more with the latter two.
Joyce and Robin are cuties, as usual.
For the most part, I liked how almost everyone had important tasks that contributed to the overall goal. Even when Mike’s crew or Joyce’s crew didn’t get screen time for a long time, I’m still reminded that their jobs are crucial. I wish they had done a little more with Yuri and the prison guard.
Overall, it was alright. If they ever make a season 6, which they probably will because it’s a lucrative franchise, I hope they return to season 1’s conspiracy thriller vibe. Particularly, going back to the 60s and exploring the start of MKULTRA and Paperclip scientists, California cults that dabbled in LSD, and the CIA and FBI meddling of the Black Panthers. It would be funny to see Panthers using Maoist tactics to defeat the monsters.
bruh nuh uh they went full cold war mode in this season and absolutely ruined it
they filmed in an actual fucking nazi concentration camp and called it a 'gulag' liberals know no fucking end to their depravity
also it was a fuckin missed opportunity to not have Dr Brenner be a nazi scientist brought over from paperclip, although conversly would have been a neat bow to tie in the whole 'bad apples not bad tree' excuse shit they started after season 2 to backtrack on all the anti government plot they'd built.
the cast got way too big, they ditched the cool supernatural conspiracy vibe of season 1 and 2, and they spend half the time basically going full reaganite
i used to love this show but all me brings me now is distaste and a broken heart from someone who obsessed over the goddamn thing for wayyy too long
I think I bailed not long after S3. the Soviet portrayal was just too much. I grew up in the 80s, watching dipshit anti-soviet/anti-communist action propaganda flicks (Invasion USA, Missing in Action, Red Dawn) and I can enjoy a rewatch of that media because it is so deeply deranged and ludicrous given the declassification of the Soviet archives, revelations about Operation Cyclone, Operation Bloodstone, the Korean Occupation, and the general material conditions of the US in the 2020s.
when more recently made media (ER, Spy Game, this shit) tries to do the same thing, it feels disgusting to watch, like a literal rewriting of history using the latest production techniques and artistic nostalgia to maintain belief in a horrible lie about our own histories. like it makes me feel sick in a way I can't elide. it probably doesn't hurt that those older movies look so cheesy while dropping boatloads of cash on stunts and practical effects like explosions and stunts.
it probably doesn't hurt that those older movies look so cheesy while dropping boatloads of cash on stunts and practical effects like explosions and stunts.
I think this is a big part of it, Invasion USA has communist terrorists who look like GI Joe side characters trying to ruin Christmas by driving through suburban cul-de-sacs firing missiles at random houses whereas generally modern anti communist/pro west media takes itself a lot more seriously and is more wired in to the awful brainworms of our time. Totally agree that it's nauseating. There was some dogshit British spy series a year or so ago that straight up claimed that Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion are Russian spy plots and I couldn't even bare to watch it for riffing purposes.
lol, yeah Invasion USA has got to be the craziest example. it makes Red Dawn look like The Bicycle Thief. it's outrageously nonsensical. the suburban Christmas RPG strike is so insane and Chuck Norris gave interviews where he was like "yeah, the threat is real, people need to wake up." I love rewatching it because literally every scene is the most idiotic moment in the movie, but it is played like this somber thriller.
I liked the scene where the Russian terrorists were trying to blow up school buses full of kids and the one where they attempt dynamite a church full of old people and kids. but Norris, in his Canadian tuxedo, uses his American resourcefulness to defeat the baddies.
goddammit, I love that piece of shit movie, especially in the context that Chuck Norris made it as a wakeup call for Americans. guy shoulda been locked up lmao.
Yeah it's quality. I just love the idea that Chuck Norris genuinely believed that a foundational aspect of Communism is pushing old women over at Church potlucks or some shit
It's kind of like Bernie, whose brief hints that a better world was possible helped me to look past his sheepdog ass to find theory. Similarly, Bad Stranger Things made me aware of Kate Bush
Imagine if the plot had instead used a historically accurate 1980s Soviet Union (but with tropes from popular Soviet media from the time, combined with the same nostalgia glasses applied to Hawkins) and the Hawkins kids needed to coordinate over ham radio with their counterparts, some young people dealing with Upside Down related stuff in some small town outside Irkutsk or whatever, and both sides couldn't count on the dopey adults at hand without causing international drama.
Similarly, Bad Stranger Things made me aware of Kate Bush
Not me being frustrated at the internet for recently discovering that Kate Bush became a popular artist because she has had exceptional talent this whole time.
There's a thread here in how Kate Bush, Marxism, chemtrails, and Albert Einstein all tie in together and it's even more crackpot than that sounds.
Marx and Lenin also had exceptional talent this whole time. I just don't have cool friends IRL to show me these things, so grasping at the most faintly anomalous parasocial media straws it is
I'm not mad at anyone over it, just exasperated because people discovered her recently and I'm just here like "What do you mean Kate Bush is good!? She's been good for the last four decades, dammit!!" but honestly I'm just glad that she has had a much-deserved renaissance in recent times.
I feel like this sort of pop singer who is really artsy and out of left field doesn't happen in the mainstream anymore, without being carefully manufactured by big record companies anyway, so it's a throwback to a more interesting time in music imo.
Did you know that Running Up That Hill was quite controversial in its time because the lyrics, where Kate Bush turned the phrase "doing a deal with the devil" on its head into being a deal with God, were deemed to be offensive and blasphemous? That's kinda wild to think.
Imagine if the plot had instead used a historically accurate 1980s Soviet Union (but with tropes from popular Soviet media from the time, combined with the same nostalgia glasses applied to Hawkins) and the Hawkins kids needed to coordinate over ham radio with their counterparts, some young people dealing with Upside Down related stuff in some small town outside Irkutsk or whatever, and both sides couldn't count on the dopey adults at hand without causing international drama.
This would have been so much better, holy shit.
I hate to be negative but I don't think I can forgive them for how bad season 3 was.
Also apparently there was a kiss between two of the underage characters that the underage (at the time) actress wasn't told about until it happened which the directors did as a "funny prank" on her.
Didn't they film inside an actual concentration camp, pretending it was a gulag or whatever?
Also apparently there was a kiss between two of the underage characters that the underage (at the time) actress wasn't told about until it happened which the directors did as a "funny prank" on her.
Hollywood Execs and Directors not being creepy towards minors: [CHALLENGE - Fucking Impossible]
Others have talked about the unhinged anti-communism, so I'll skip that.
But season 4 took this big, lovecraftian, difficult to comprehend horror, and just distilled it down to 'beef between some dudes'. And that's fucking boring!
I liked the characters hated the plot. I just wanna vicariously chill in a mall w my goofy friends amd wear a sailor costume for gods sake
