Anyone watching today?
I just finished the Season and I absolutely loved it. I'm going to get into full spoilers, so tread lightly if you want to go in fresh.
Some of the things that I really liked off the top of my head:
- This season looks amazing. I'm trying to find some budget information, because it looked like there was significantly greater use of CGI and more artfully rendered sequences. There is a sequence in Episode 6 where Eleven goes into Billy's memories and it may have been the best thing I've seen in a TV show, maybe ever. The perfect blend of being important to the overall plot, emotion and production value.
- The season made very good use out of aging characters. They didn't beat a dead horse with it, but I loved how they dealt with the growing pains that all the characters were going through. It was most apparent with the youngest group with relationships, characters feeling left behind and not growing up at the same place. I wish it had let some of it marinate a little bit more, especially with Will, but I'm sure there will be more on that later.
- I felt like with this season, the show finally asserted its own personality. Of course there were references and easter eggs, but Season 1 was entirely E.T. with a girl and Season 2 got more original and with this, it felt like the characters and the storyline were truly allowed to stand on their own two feet as their own thing. That was super vague, but I think it more or less conveys how I felt.
- The new characters fit seamlessly into the cast. Robin was pretty great as a foil to Steve who felt vital to the series. She's one of those characters who is necessary to the plot that would feel unbelievable if they gave her skills to another character (which would have been super easy). Erica also stole most of the scenes she was in and I look forward to her joining the party for real.
The only thing I was that I didn't like was how short it was. I definitely get that they wanted to do the 8 hour movie, but 1 or 2 more episodes really could have allowed some of the plot points some room to breathe. I mentioned the growing pains and they were done well, but I think it would have served the plot better if the team spent a bit more time being upset with each other. Will was disappointed that his friends didn't want to play D&D, but there was no time to deal with it because the Mind Flayer came back by the end of the episode. Kind of along with that, I would have liked a bit more of the kids being kids. Maybe a little more time spent in the mall before it turned into Red Dawn.
I also felt the Mayor storyline was a little under baked. They needed to give a reason for the Russian infiltration of Hawkins to make sense, but by making him played by a semi-famous 80s actor, it felt like he was supposed to be more important than he actually was. I think he was supposed to be the Owens or the Brenner of this season, but he was seriously underutilized and he won't be back next season from the looks of it.
So yeah, what did you all think?