various assorted stranger things thoughts

[deepestbluesky]

so as i've been telling basically anyone who's asked what i've been up to lately, i finally watched season 4 of stranger things (i finished it a week ish ago). it's funny, because i was feeling so obligated to watch it when it came out and when everyone started talking about it that i put it off for ages, and was surprised to remember that oh yeah i actually like this show. (i was also surprised to find it had been over a year and a half that i'd put it off, rather than the nine-ish months i was SURE it had been since s4 came out, but here we are lol.) so this is half my reactions to s4 and to the fandom (not entirely positive), and half like... just generally poking at what i do like about the show and why i enjoy it, because i was doing a lot of mulling that over as i got back into it.

we will NOT be talking about how many words of stranger things fic i've read in the last two-three weeks because i'm not tracking my fic reading this year so i can pretend to remain in blissful ignorance. thank you ever so much in advance.

i think part of the reason i was so focused on poking at what i like about the show is that when i was searching around in my fandom spaces for Stranger Things Content and also talking to people about it, i ran across multiple people talking about not liking it for specific reasons that i totally get but also just like... super aren't why i watch the show? i have no 80s nostalgia, i was born in 1993 lmao. i've seen like... a third of the movies they reference, at most. like i do get the nerd references bc i am nothing if not a sponge for pop culture i've never seen, but it's not really... an appeal to me, usually. (maybe the dnd is a bit, although i also keep wanting to start nerd fights with them about it lol) i'm also not a horror fan or like a... suspense fan generally? idk the genre of stranger things is more on the sci fi side with a large streak of horror but that is another Not An Appeal for me.

so what DO i like! first of all, i love that there's a real ensemble cast—even when the show is forgetting some of its characters bc there's too goddamn many, it's still big enough to be an ensemble. i love that there are kids and teens and adults who all get real storylines and feel equally relevant to the story? that just feels so different to so many other media i'm used to reading/watching/etc and i genuinely love that about it. i like that, to me, the characters all feel real—there are definitely moments that feel extremely eye-rollingly scripted and cliche but there's also so many silly little moments with real emotion or lines that feel like actual humans in a way that a lot of similar high stakes dramatic shows/movies don't reach. (im sure many people feel the opposite and i get that! it works for me.) i think also there's something genuinely so lovely about how much of the emotional drive of the show is family and friendship. yeah there's plenty of romance, but i think due to the ensembleness, even the characters mostly in romantic relationship storylines still get really present and important family and friendship stuff and i LOVE THAT SO MUCH!!! i love how much these people care about each other!

i also just really like so many of the characters! even the annoying ones. god bless the wheelers and their complete inability to be handle anyone else's emotions, i genuinely love that about them. i also love that since the end of s1, there's been this whole core group (that just keeps growing! delightfully!) of people that are In On It and they can all go to each other and help. i am notoriously a person who HATESSSS We Must Keep Secrets plotlines, which is like. all of stranger things, i recognize this, but it's also NOT because there's this whole party of people who know! and i also love that they do keep bringing new people in, it gives each season a fun new dynamic and it's also like, nice and refreshing when they finally do tell them. we LOVE a good 'you won't believe me if i tell you' 'oh trust us, we will' moment.

so season four... okay first of all, i know i said i'm not a horror fan BUT i did recently read quite a bit about the evolution of the horror genre in the us from the 60s to now, and also listen to many You Are Good eps about classic horror movies from that era, so it was actually really cool to see more of the influences and references and be like, wait i get this now!! other reactions to s4: why the FUCK were those episodes so long. i am never forgiving them for the full movie length last ep (do not ask me how late it was when i started that one). i don't understand how the same writers who created steve and billy wrote the most cartoon villain monologuey bullies this season. eddie is amazing and i'm so glad i was spoiled that he died bc then i was braced for it. the master of puppets guitar solo to distract the demobats feels like exactly the kind of thing that only stranger things can pull off bc it's the perfect mix of NONSENSE but with real heart and stakes. (this did inspire me to listen to metallica yesterday.) there was far to much re-treading earlier seasons plots. i love robin and nancy working together, and the teen squad going into the upside down together. i love lucas's wanting to just like, stop being bullied and have a chill time at school plotline and also him and max. i am obsessed with sadie sink's performance in s4, she KILLED IT. if max does not survive i will be soooo upset. i am also extremely stressed about jonathan and will's future survival given that i worry that the resurgence of the nancy/steve/jonathan love triangle and the much more overt but still not Said will-being-gay-and-having-feelings-for-mike means that at least one of them mighty end up dying to resolve their respective mess of feelings. (side note even my dad has realized that will is gay and likes mike now? which was kind of gratifying.) i'm not... UNstressed about steve's survival for the same reason as jonathan. suzie had a charley harper poster in her room which i DID pause the episode to screenshot. the whole california group got kind of shafted, plot and character wise, but the pizza sensory deprivation tank was incredible and i loved it. i like that erica got a bit more of a real character this season instead of exclusively 'isn't it funny when a kid says outrageous things haha laugh at our jokes'. i do not like that joyce didn't do basically anything, even though her absolutely fed-up-ness with murray was very good. i simply don't give a shit about the russian prison storyline, but the rush of relief i felt when hopper started acting like himself again was shockingly nice.

i did very intentionally watch this illegally bc i don't want to give netflix money and also... does stranger things really need my support??? i think they do not. i also feel. uh. not great about the imo pro america vibes it's had for two seasons now, that's basically one of my two major and real complaints—the other is that i think they're shitty at handling their characters of color especially, and to a lesser degree their female characters. why did fucking murrary pull some weird white man kung fu shit. what was that, jesus christ. also, why was murray there. also, on the topic of handling characters of color and female characters... i did unsurprisingly fall down the steve/eddie rabbit hole reading fic this last week, and i'm so into it. but also. god it's fucking infuriating how much fic is steve or eddie or steve/eddie and so little is LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE BUT ESPECIALLY THE FEMALE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERS OF COLOR. i know this is The Fandom Move tm and like, i'm obviously part of it, but also jesus fucking christ.

that being said, holy shit this fandom is so good to my bruce springsteen obsession oh my god (i'm considering making a very specific rec list heheheh). i've also been really enjoying fics that let the party/adjacent all be a big messy family, because that's just such my shit in fics and i love the ways this fandom can let you do that. there is some gooooodddd podfic in this fandom, which has kickstarted my podfic listening AND recording again, after not really doing much in that realm since like, voiceteam last year. this is a fandom i have actually read for before, but pretty much only in short bursts (i was very much a steve/nancy/jonathan enjoyer before and i can't say i'm NOT now but it's uh in much shorter supply and there's other stuff that also caught my interest this go-around) and it's cool diving back in. it's also been really fun being in a fandom again that does LONG, PLOTTY fics! like 80k+ and full season rewrites or AUs. it's not always what i'm in the mood for but it has been lately, and this fandom definitely has those, which is so fun.

anyway, i have no conclusions to draw here but please come talk to me about this if you have thoughts or feelings about ST s4 or if you just want to react to anything i said! i keep tripping over the fact that this is a brand new season of canon for me and like fucking two years old for everyone else lmao.