I liked season 4, but season 1 just can’t be topped for me because of how grounded it was. Just normal characters from a small town experiencing supernatural things in a way that’s believable. The rest of the show is good as long as you let go of any wishes that it stayed grounded like season 1.
Season 1 is also great because it did a great job having the kids be basically doing ET, the teens doing a camp horror and the parents doing a cold war conspiracy thriller.
Every season since of course needs to alter the group compositions, so we rarely get this again, although the elements are still there, they’re now shaken up enough that the show is often more focused on riffing on its own formula then emulating the media that inspired it. And that’s fine, it should probably be a good thing that it’s not in the shadow of it’s inspirations, but man do I miss that specific vibe.
For me it was season 3 that I found the worst, too much slapstick and I disliked how they turned Hopper into a walking bastion of juvenile insecure comic relief. Season 4 on the other hand rocked again, much darker and a better balance between seriousness and humour.
The show was started with a pair of guys - I forget if they were brothers but they were at least reputedly friends - who had a vision of what they wanted to do. They broke apart as the show was renewed after the first seasons though, hence that immediate drop in quality from this magical wonderland to “grrr, watch beast go smash into goo”.
From what I read, they told themselves they would have (at least) two rules: (1) never use CGI - only puppets - for the purity of what seeing them, and more importantly not seeing them, conveys; and (2) do not “sell out” the show merely for reasons of profit. Money is fine but don’t continue it unless there is a real story that wants to be told.
After the financial success of the first season, one of the co-creators left, and the second season was literally a different show, yet Netflix lied to us all and heavily pushed it as if it were the same as the first, for profits. It backfired, and revealed all the more how Shitflix just pushes forward purely for profits at the expense of offering much that is actually worth watching.
But if it got better after that, I might push through, one day. :-|
Where are you getting this information? I see that the Duffer Brothers were still on as producers and writers for season 2.
What I am reading is that they originally intended for the show to be a one-off or an anthology, but once they realized that they had a massive success, one that relied heavily on the likability of the kids, they changed their mind and started working on a sequel. Season 2 sucks because they were never intending on making it, and had a time crunch. With the later seasons though, they’ve known they were going to make them for years, and they had time to write better interconnected stories, so they’ve been improving with season 4 and hopefully 5.
Really? I recalled reading an article about season 2, when I tried to look up wtf happened bc season 2 was just so shockingly bad, and incongruously so seeing at how great season 1 was. Their relationship must have just been strained but not broken, or the article could have been making shit up, or perhaps over time I’ve misremembered things. But I definitely recalled how one or more likely both of them wanted to use puppets (in season 1) but then had to make that mess of a CGI crap monster in season 2 - as you say for the sake of the deadline (aka profits over the integrity of the storytelling process, if they could have taken the time to have done it right).
Season 2 was the worst in my opinion, with the most recent season being about on par with the first.
I liked season 4, but season 1 just can’t be topped for me because of how grounded it was. Just normal characters from a small town experiencing supernatural things in a way that’s believable. The rest of the show is good as long as you let go of any wishes that it stayed grounded like season 1.
Season 1 is also great because it did a great job having the kids be basically doing ET, the teens doing a camp horror and the parents doing a cold war conspiracy thriller.
Every season since of course needs to alter the group compositions, so we rarely get this again, although the elements are still there, they’re now shaken up enough that the show is often more focused on riffing on its own formula then emulating the media that inspired it. And that’s fine, it should probably be a good thing that it’s not in the shadow of it’s inspirations, but man do I miss that specific vibe.
Fun fact: season 4 was filmed in Lithuania, some Lithuanian actors played minor roles.
For me it was season 3 that I found the worst, too much slapstick and I disliked how they turned Hopper into a walking bastion of juvenile insecure comic relief. Season 4 on the other hand rocked again, much darker and a better balance between seriousness and humour.
Both season 2 and 3 sucked because they just kept going back to the portal, but without any substance. Felt like running in circles.
I think season 4 should have been the second season with elements from season 2 and 3 added in.
No way, how can you rate 2 higher than 3? I skip the entire third season on rewatch
The show was started with a pair of guys - I forget if they were brothers but they were at least reputedly friends - who had a vision of what they wanted to do. They broke apart as the show was renewed after the first seasons though, hence that immediate drop in quality from this magical wonderland to “grrr, watch beast go smash into goo”.
From what I read, they told themselves they would have (at least) two rules: (1) never use CGI - only puppets - for the purity of what seeing them, and more importantly not seeing them, conveys; and (2) do not “sell out” the show merely for reasons of profit. Money is fine but don’t continue it unless there is a real story that wants to be told.
After the financial success of the first season, one of the co-creators left, and the second season was literally a different show, yet Netflix lied to us all and heavily pushed it as if it were the same as the first, for profits. It backfired, and revealed all the more how Shitflix just pushes forward purely for profits at the expense of offering much that is actually worth watching.
But if it got better after that, I might push through, one day. :-|
Edit: oops, I meant this in reply to [email protected]’s comment.
Where are you getting this information? I see that the Duffer Brothers were still on as producers and writers for season 2.
What I am reading is that they originally intended for the show to be a one-off or an anthology, but once they realized that they had a massive success, one that relied heavily on the likability of the kids, they changed their mind and started working on a sequel. Season 2 sucks because they were never intending on making it, and had a time crunch. With the later seasons though, they’ve known they were going to make them for years, and they had time to write better interconnected stories, so they’ve been improving with season 4 and hopefully 5.
Really? I recalled reading an article about season 2, when I tried to look up wtf happened bc season 2 was just so shockingly bad, and incongruously so seeing at how great season 1 was. Their relationship must have just been strained but not broken, or the article could have been making shit up, or perhaps over time I’ve misremembered things. But I definitely recalled how one or more likely both of them wanted to use puppets (in season 1) but then had to make that mess of a CGI crap monster in season 2 - as you say for the sake of the deadline (aka profits over the integrity of the storytelling process, if they could have taken the time to have done it right).