Stranger Things

[Sinner's Sandwich]

the Duffers kind of just stumbled into a good series and neither had the talent, nor willpower, nor interest in keeping it up.

Because they plagiarized the idea for Stranger Things. There were 2 or 3 lawsuits against them but they allegedly gave a huge paycheck to the people who sued them.

 

[I.D.W. Shockwave]

Because they plagiarized the idea for Stranger Things. There were 2 or 3 lawsuits against them but they allegedly gave a huge paycheck to the people who sued them.

I keep hearing that the show was plagiarized, but from whom, and from what source?

 

[Mad as a Swan]

I gave up watching after season 3. Judging by the responses of the poor souls who subjected themselves to seasons 4 and 5, I am glad to have done so.

Season 4 cheapens the entire show.

They managed to top that in s5.

Dw S5E8 was fake and E9 will reveal the true ending and it's gonna be epic.

 

[The Nothingness]

Multiple people have recommended Welcome To Derry to me. Might have to check it out.

To forewarn you (based on the horror thread), the show has a lot of "white people bad, non-white people good" and a stupid plot of the military wanting to weaponize the ancient, cosmic entity because it's the Cold War.

 

[I.D.W. Shockwave]

To forewarn you (based on the horror thread), the show has a lot of "white people bad, non-white people good" and a stupid plot of the military wanting to weaponize the ancient, cosmic entity because it's the Cold War.

I'd say just read the damn book and ignore any of the live action crap, just like with all of the other """adaptations""" of King's works.

 

[Day of the Cope]

Stranger Thing's finale was so fucking bad that Netflix started having issues from all the people expecting a secret episode dropping.

 

[CervixHammer]

5 seasons and a stage play in GIMP:

 

[Day of the Cope]

>uploaded 3 years ago

 

[Hijo de D. Woodchucks Jr.]

Stephen King was probably watching at home, calling the Duffer Brothers pussies for using the visual metaphor of huge phallic tubes to shove in pre-pubescent kids’ faces in Vecna’s Lair.

He didn’t mess around in his day in the sewers and went straight to ‘defeat Pennywise with child orgy’.

That was the real 1980s, baby! COCAINE!!

has there ever been a "secret ending" like ever? You'd think every fandom claiming it means there has to be at least one IP that's tried that trick

The closest thing to it (in my estimation) was Prison Break having a random season drop nearly a decade after the show originally ended. I don't think any other TV show has done that, or at least none I watched.

 

[Kether]

I thought about this, because I thought that this would actually be such a cool stunt to pull for really any show with magic or syfy elements.

I don’t know if any distributor would ever okay something like that though, since finales are such huge events that get really played up for publicity in advance.

the closest i can think of a stunt like that being pulled off is agents of shield, where the first half of the first season is incredibly paint by numbers dogshit on purpose, even though it meant every review trashed it. then there's a massive twist around episode 13 where the hydra situation from winter soldier basically fucks up the entire team and people are revealed to be double agents and it somewhat works.

but of course that was 1. the first season and 2. they were guaranteed a lot of seasons because of the marvel tie-in. So they were allowed to risk the twist not turning out well because they knew they could always retcon or walkback anything audiences didn't like in the next seasons. You're obviously unable to do that with a finale.

and she wishes they'd given her a scene or two so she could get her SAG health insurance for her cancer treatments.

this is probably another big reason we ended up with this huge cast in this last season, you can't act like Joss Whedon anymore and kill off major characters on a whim because everyone understands how much everyone needs SAG. so everyone has to get a bit of screentime every episode, and if you leave off anyone you get pity party articles like this

Prison Break having a random season drop nearly a decade after the show originally ended. I don't think any other TV show has done that, or at least none I watched.

nah fox was doing that a lot. 24 had a new season 4 years after the show ended, it kicked off the "revival" crazy of the 2010s. X-files also did it and prison break was another attempt at it. besides the x-files none of the shows they did a "revival" of worked out. the other channels had a better go of it but thats because they rebooted cheap ass sitcoms instead of huge dramas.

the roseanne reboot technically ended last year, thats how fucking successful the "revival" was, most of the rest of them was a "one and done" and didn't work because the audience that gave a fuck moved on/wasn't enough to keep these shows renewed.

the showrunner for the roseanne reboot even said the main reason theirs worked vs others was because it was more focused on the kids, a sort of next generation type show like you used to see. but obviously they still live at home because they're poor. it was actually a really smart move because gen X really are the only ones still paying for cable, so a show focusing on following those people is more likely to work vs one pandering to boomers (dead) or millenials (cord cutters) and the 24/prison break/x-files really was pandering to millenials whereas the sitcoms were pandering to boomers (do you know anyone under 60 that even remembers murphy brown?)

I'm actually semi-surprised House never got a shot, i guess the main reason that didn't happen is Bryan Singer owns part of the show. but it really feels ripe for a revival.

 

[LonelyEggRoll]

I think Netflix fucked it up for the Duffers a bit too because the app was showing ‘new episode’ type glitches and bugs when people were searching for Stranger Things content.

This was probably because of the WWE Stranger Things themed night that was this week, and also the Stranger Things season 5 documentary that is still to come next week. So this fuelled people’s ‘one more episode’ delusions even further.

They are also still pushing the cast out on the talk show circuit this week, which if you would wanted to add foil to your tin hat, would give you a nice reason to, but those special effects aren’t going to pay for themselves.

 

[StarkRavingMad]

That's probably why Netflix has cancelled their new movie. The Duffers got too big for their britches and delivered a shitty finale because they're incompetent morons who wasted money on vanity things.

Yeah, they wasted Netflix's money.

They themselves made fucking bank though. 10 years and only 5 seasons?

They may be bad storytellers, but they were fantastic snake oil salesmen. lol.

 

[StarkRavingMad]

5 seasons and a stage play in GIMP:
Ver archivo adjunto 8394310

Dexter needs to be added here.

I was so invested in Dexter; loved that show. The ending broke me, as it did for a lot of people. lol

I gave up watching after season 3. Judging by the responses of the poor souls who subjected themselves to seasons 4 and 5, I am glad to have done so.

My takes on each season:

Season 1: Solid storytelling, very fun, and it's the only season I've watched more than once.

Season 2: Meh? It was okay I guess.

Season 3: Jumped the shark.

Season 4: Reeled me back in, really loved the horror elements introduced, and loved how scary Vecna was

Season 5: One of the worst final seasons and finales in TV history, completely dismantles the good will the show earned back from me with Season 4, so now Season 4 sucks too.

 

[Mary the Goldsmith]

LMAO Will's coming out of the Closet scene is longer than the final fight against the series antagonist. The cope about the "secret final episode" is honestly much more entertaining than the actual show.

 

[I.D.W. Shockwave]

LMAO Will's coming out of the Closet scene is longer than the final fight against the series antagonist. The cope about the "secret final episode" is honestly much more entertaining than the actual show.

The mission to retrieve Maduro took less time than watching Will's fag-out, illogical.

 

[StarkRavingMad]

The mission to retrieve Maduro took less time than watching Will's fag-out, illogical.

It literally did.

People have tput the videos side by side for comparison and timed it.

 

[I.D.W. Shockwave]

It literally did.

People have tput the videos side by side for comparison and timed it.

I think it takes less time to speed read the Bayverse Rising Storm comics in which my avatar comes from than to watch the fag-out.

 

[ArthuriusMartyrius]

Season 1 was pretty decent. Nothing outstanding but watchable.

Season 2 was mostly garbage and could have been resolved in ten seconds if they didn't do the whole "Eleven runs way" shtick.

Season 3 was actually pretty fun and one of the few examples where I thought there was some character development.

Season 4 royally shat the bed, fucked up the lore, regressed the characters' personalities, wasted a bunch of potentially interesting plot threads and to top things off almost every other episode was approximately TWO HOURS LONG. I was expecting season 5 to be mostly crap just based off how bad season 4 was.

Season 5 is...well, it's shit. Nothing more to say really. Broke the lore even further and the characters got even more annoying. At least the episodes weren't TWO HOURS LONG.

Well, it's over. Wonder how badly season 5 of The Boys will shit the bed now.

 

[Rusty Hinges]

One blessing of disappointing stories is thinking of ways in which they could have been written better. Stranger Things 5 suffers heavily from not understanding what to do with its cast. Ideally, I would have set the plot in 1989 and pursued different directions for many of the characters.

Will could have been the first to be aware of Vecna’s return and take initiative. Much of the first half of the season could have hinged on the suspense of the Mind Flayer preparing for a final attack, and Will needing to convince his friends, worn out as quarantined young adults finally given the chance to leave town, to believe him and help.

Rather than repeat the conflict of Hopper not trusting Eleven, it would have been more interesting to see her tired of waiting, secretly and shamefully wishing to run away from Hawkins with Mike.

Jonathon and Nancy could have started the season as an item or possibly even married, though lacking the spark that brought them together. Maybe they’d start to ask if Steve was the better candidate. When they are thrust into danger again, they could then realize that it was the thrill of exciting challenges that drew them together.

Instead of Steve being uncharacteristically rude to Dustin over Eddie’s death, Dustin’s arc could have focused on him being persuaded into rejoining the party and rekindling security in his friends after retreating from everyone out of fear of losing them.

Lucas could have considered leaving for college, fatigued from the constant hope that Max would wake up. He would feel immense guilt but also worry about his future and the toll of remaining in Hawkins.

The military could have been blindsided by a complete lack of Dimension X activity for their entire stay, only to be annihilated midway through the season when the last battle begins. For US soldiers to be killable without jail time, the writers should have made them into the Flayed from season 3.

These are just a few ideas of mine that would have been more entertaining to watch. It’s never a good sign when professional writers given tens of millions of dollars miss out on seemingly obvious payoffs.

 

[Mourning_Cloak]

Based on all the posts my FYP has been slammed with (because I've liked one or two memes dunking on ST) it seems that 50% of the fandom sees S5 and especially the finale for what it is (slop), 45% people coping about how it's the best thing ever and anyone who disagrees is just being a hater that needs to "get over it" (actual comment I saw), and 5% people lukewarm on it. I would never make fun of people who were satisfied with the finale but I swear there's got to be something fundamentally wrong with the fans that think S5 was peak.

You know what "Conformity Gate" told me? That the finale/last season was overall so utterly dogshit at worst and "mid" at best, that half the fandom could not comprehend it and so experienced a collective psychosis trying to create a better replacement. That's a fucking achievement right there.