More Stranger Thoughts

[olivermoss]

Stranger Things was supposed to be out by May at the latest. The hiatus was not intentional, they were working on the effects until at least the 27th. I know a lot of the delays were pandemic related and they got hit with supply chain issues. I don't know if they had more production chaos than they could handle, if they got lost in their own plot threads while editing or if Netflix started breathing down their necks because they had to cut financial ties with one of their major markets.

Anyway, I think a lot of things in that last ep didn't hit right, but I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt unless given good reason otherwise.

* Eddie's seemed to randomly run into danger. There wasn't a pressing sense of need. He wasn't directly saving Dustin. Etc, this could have been an editing problem. They also didn't really show Dustin effected outside of the scene with Wayne. 'Be yourself' wasn't really a lesson Dustin needed to learn. Steve's protege wore a Weird Al shirt on the first day of high school. Like, he was good on that front. So I feel like I don't know what the impact on Dustin even was.

* We don't know how they got back. I honestly don't know if the gates are still open. A lot feels dropped in that last 30 minutes. Not dropped in a 'tune in next time' way, but in a confusing way.

There are a lot of things I could easily tear apart as bad writing, editing, pacing and failing to pay off, etc. But with the Duffer's track record, I am just going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they wound up with a rolling ball of chaos and people on the team hitting burnout. For some of the scenes there were one or two years between shots am I assume they had to throw out a lot of footage because you can go two years between shots with the other older characters, but with the younger ones it just looks comical.

The only thing where I will say 'they fucked up here' is that the word gay should have been used at a point. As clearly as the plotline has been set up from season 1, it's always been told in reactions not words which had lead to a lot of ugly discourse even outside of the usual fandom spaces and, let's be real, it does give Netflix wiggle room to force the Duffers to walk back their top IP having that much gay. Also, let's be real, for very gross reasons lesbians have always been less controversial than gay men. (Yes I said 'let's be real' twice but I'm leaving that in because yeah, that is the hard reality here)

In interviews the Duffers said that Will's sexuality would be cleared up this season. They think that is clearing it up. I promise you, for a lot of people it's not and, again, it opens the door to Netflix making executive decisions based on changing political climates. Having it be 'debatable' whether one of the biggest IPs out there has a gay man as one of the main characters is really unpleasant.