Strangers Things Retrospective: Slop Hidden In Plain Sight

Stranger Things is often held up as one of the great modern series, but upon watching it back a second time you see the power of Netflix and the hype people, to really overblow something to the nth degree.

The conspiracy ideas of the show are interesting, however, it is far too derivative, concepts like how Vecna kills people in season four, or the entire mystery of the first season feel like carbon copies of other things from the period such as the works of Stephen King and The Nightmare on Elm Street films.

The series as a whole doesn’t seem to want to know who it is for either, it has mature elements for adults, yet packs the story so full of melodrama that it could be called a YA show just as easy. The issue with the series as it aged is the fact that it really started to drink its own cool aid, and started to have these big pompous episodes on for far longer than a lot of prestige tv shows, and the reason they were so long, not because they were trying to unpack weighty issues and themes but because of all the filler.

The characterisation and the character writing in terms of motivation feel so inconsistent, characters change massively over the course of the show and not in consistent ways that makes sense for them, almost as though the writers forgot who they were between seasons and just decided to start over. They also flanderise characters, look at Will, people said from the very first episode he was gay, yet as the series progressed that is all he became. The whole of the fourth season was him whining as his straight friend wasn’t into him, it gets to a point where the characters becomes a cliché.

I think with Stranger Things to which I watched all four seasons in the lead up to this final season over the last month, it becomes very clear that if you stripped out the nostalgia, the premise and the soundtrack and just viewed it as a show based on its characters, writing, and themes that it was always slop. The nostalgia and the premise made you think it wasn’t so bad, but it was always slop we just didn’t see it.

Overall, the show is pretty mediocre.

2/5

Pros.

The soundtrack

The mystery as a concept, the more and more they explain of it the worse it gets.

Cons.

The character writing

The pace

The shallowness of it

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Only Murders In The Building Season 5: A Quest For Meaning

Summary

The murders trio are back.

I have to say whilst very watchable I think this season was weaker than some of the others and had a number of needless asides and B stories. Straight off the bat the focus on Lester the doorman was a bit bland, the murder itself wasn’t all that interesting. The mobster stuff was always reliable throughout the season and could perk up any episode. I thought that this was mainly due to Bobby Cannavale and Tea Leoine really brought it in terms of Murder’s guest stars.

The billionaires who like to play board games were a lot of fun and once again brought the season up. Widely I would say that it is the central trio who brought the season down and that everyone else was doing a hell of a lot of the heavy lifting. Charles is having a loneliness arc and questioning where he will end up, I feel like the show has been through this with him before, and it was a huge missed opportunity to not have him get with Leoine and have her remain at the Arconia with him. Then Oliver is debating leaving the building which again feels like its been done before yet you know he won’t actually leave. Disney needs to decide if they want to give Meryl Streep more money and make her a regular. Then you have Mabel who has a jealousy arc which just feels like giving her something to do.

Overall, this season feels like a series going through the motions trying to find a reason to carry on, but the Tina Fey stuff next season seems interesting.

3/5

Pros.

The guest characters

Some good jokes

The billionaires

Cons.

The main cast feel like they are going through the motions

It feels a bit aimless

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Peacemaker Season Two: The Orgy Scene Shows Why Gunn Should Have Stayed Cancelled

Summary

Peacemaker, John Cena, is back and if the prolonged orgy sequence in the first episode is anything to go off James Gunn is indulging all of his questionable tastes.

So I really enjoyed the first season of Peacemaker and thought that it was funny and irreverent, however, that was several years ago and tastes change. What I thought whilst watching this season was that it felt like it was written by a group of teenagers on Reddit. It had a deep sense of immaturity and as though it was just doing things for the shock value of it rather than because they made sense narratively.

Moreover, the whole idea of multiverses has proven universally unpopular across the board, so why Gunn thought to wove that thread into the second season is a little beyond me. The multiverse angle I suppose allows them to fix things from the previous DCEU and reset things going forward, but it still feels like a cheap trick.

The message, the broader progressive sort of call and response, also feels a lot stronger this time around. It is more overt here and it was pretty overt in the first season. In many ways this project feels like Gunn unchained and if it proves anything it is that he needs caging. There is a reason that the Guardians’ films are his best and that is due to the fact that he had oversight and was not allowed to have all the Guardians have an orgy together at the start of the second film.

Overall, James Gunn needs to step away creatively from these films and tv shows, as he is going to run the new DCU into the ground before it has even begun.

1.5/5

Pros.

A few funny lines

Hardcourt, Jennifer Holland, is still excellent

Cons.

The message

The need to be shocking and vulgar

The writing is far more lazy and simplistic

It has pacing issues

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Eyes Of Wakanda: Ryan Coogler Seems To Hate Black People

Summary

We get to find out more about the wonderful citizenry of Wakanda.

I am starting to wonder if Ryan Coogler is secretly a white supremacist, both this and Iron Heart are so chocked-full of harmful Black stereotypes that it certainly points that way.

In this mini series we learnt that Wakanda interferes constantly in the outside world, despite hiding its existence from its African neighbours and allows them to starve. Moreover, despite Shuri’s line in Black Panther about the white man being a coloniser, here we see that exiles from Wakanda, then go on to do just that. So everyone is the coloniser?

Why do they do this? They do it to protect their artefacts which they hide away and lock in a vault as they are much too powerful for anyone to use, even though they were invented for a reason. This all ends when a girlboss YASS Quueen of future Wakanda shows up in the last episode to tell the silly men that the artifacts don’t matter and that they need to stop hording them and stop hiding from the outside world. Meaning all the murder, all the working with bad people so you can steal your artefacts back from them whilst ignoring what they are doing to those around them, was for nothing.

It also made Michael B Jordan’s line in the first film about the African artifacts in the British Museum sound hollow and be out of touch with the new Wakandan philosophy on artefact hording.

There is also a female Asian Iron Fist for some reason and she mops the floor with multiple highly trained Wakandan soldiers with ease.

Overall, I want Marvel to go away.

0.5/5

Pros.

It is unintentionally funny sometimes

Cons.

The stereotypes

The moral messaging behind it

It makes the films actively worse

It doesn’t need to exist

There are no memorable new characters

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With Love Meghan Season Two: Prince Harry Is Too Afraid To Appear On Screen

Summary

Meghan Merkle is back in her fake house to show you her authentic life.

So this time around there is still some good cringe, but it is toned back, there isn’t the clear frictions of the first season. Meghan has an awkward moment with Chrissy Teigen wherein the latter looks unsettled at the thought of having to spend the night at Meghan’s house as a craft project finishes, only for Meghan to whip out one she made earlier, with Teigen looking relieved. There are still some good cringe moments but they are fewer and far between.

For the most part this season is easier on Meghan herself and only feeds her acolytes, including one couple who thank her well over ten times. Moreover, this is more of a royalist season, I know Meghan warriors, the horror, but Meghan has the chef from her royal wedding over, she talks more about her time with the Royals and mentions Harry a lot. Though he is conspicuously absent throughout the whole season.

If you liked the content of the first season, the elaborate crafts and the meals no one really eats then you will like this as for the most part it is exactly the same. I would say if we have a third adventure into the world of crafts and cooking with Meghan I would prefer some better guests.

Overall, still some good cringe to be had.

3/5

Pros.

Some good cringe

A few unintentionally funny moments

It is nice escapism

Cons.

The guests take it easy on her

Prince Harry sits in the other room with John Legend

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Squid Game The Final Season Overview: The Netflix Effect

Summary

Can this make-up for a disappointing second season?

The answer is no.

This never should have been broken up into two seasons, it should have been one long second season. The break creates a need for the first episode of this new season to explain what happened last time, which it doesn’t do very well.

Moreover, as you approach the ending of the series the writing seems to get a lot dumber and make a lot less sense, why wouldn’t they just take the baby, why would they make it a contestant, why would Lee Jung-Jae’s character leave the baby behind and sacrifice himself not knowing what would happen to it, why would you spend the whole series building up to the mercenaries finding the island and the battle therein only to have them mostly slaughtered by two fishing boat captains? All of these are good questions the writing doesn’t account for.

That is also without mentioning the Netflix of it all, with them needing to set up a spin-off show in the final episodes final minutes, with a gender flipped recruiter because why not inject in a girl boss. This leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth as the credits role and asks another very good question, why are they playing Korean games in America, why aren’t the American Squid Games playing American games?

Overall, just a massive disappointment.

1.5/5

Pros.

Some of the games are cool

There are interesting ideas

Cons.

The spin-off set up

The terrible writing particularly towards the end

The questionable character decisions

The pacing

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The Last Of Us Season Two Overview: The Flaws Of Bella Ramsey

Summary

We return to the fungal zombie apocalypse.

So as someone who has played the games I knew what was coming and I will give the show props from not shying away from it. The death of Joel, Pedro Pascal, was controversial when the games came out and I knew it would be just the same here. Looking at the shows plunging ratings it is pretty clear that a number of people have checked out but I think if the show had saved it for the end of the season it would only have been worse.

I think the thing that has become glaringly clear in this second season is that Bella Ramsey is not a very strong actress and is struggling to carry the show on her own. They are becoming more and more reliant on Joel flashbacks and will no doubt have him appear as sort of grief induced visions over the third season to keep Pedro around. I think last season Ramsey’s inabilities were not so on view as they are here, but it is becoming ever more clear she was the wrong choice to play the character.

Moreover, I feel the pacing this time around feels slow, in many senses it feels like they are trying to stretch out the second game into three seasons to try and take it for all it is worth. I understand the idea to have one season from each of the girl’s points of view, but it does reek of filler. I wonder what the ratings will be like when it does come back.

Overall, very much like the game it started off well and then fell off a cliff.

2/5

Pros.

A few good scenes

It is interesting to learn more about the world

Cons.

Ramsey

It is using Joel too much as a crutch

The pacing

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Iron Heart Season Overview: Bargain Basement Iron Man

Summary

The MCU no longer wishes to make money, it has decided to go down with the ship of social justice and keep preaching at people until they cut Marvel out from their life. In many senses with all of its comments about quality over quantity and leaving the message behind Marvel has become like a drug addict telling you that this time they are off it for good, but by the way they need some money to eat can you help them out.

Now that Marvel is figuratively passed out in a gutter somewhere after injecting themselves with the last bits of social justice, critical race theory, pronoun nonsense and drag queens they can, we can assess the damage of the latest rampage, and talk about getting them committed.

Who was this show for? A comics character with several failed runs, who is notoriously unpopular and who has the charm of the previously mentioned drug addict if you refuse to give them some money. Of course Marvel thinks simply by making a show about a black character, and they use rap music to let you know it’s a black character, that the black audience will show up. However, I think most people know that even though Ryan Coogler is producing this show, Black Panther it is not. Throughout the whole show the black experience is stereotyped and put into boxes, the victim mentality of black excellence being kept down by whitey society is on full display and honestly it is just cringe. Riri is entitled and thinks she should get everything now and that is not how life works no matter your skin colour.

Moreover, by adding a drag queen to a show clearly aimed at young audiences, nothing particularly mature happens here, it highlights how once again Disney is trying to force sexuality onto young kids. Drag is inherently sexual and has no place on a show that kids could be watching. The fact there is a drag queen playing a villain in this show is yet another reason that the MCU deserves all the failure that is coming its way these days.

Dominque Thorne once again takes acting lessons from the Aliqua Cox school of acting which is to say she has no facial expression beyond looking like she is holding in a steamer for the whole time and has a personality so badly developed it is hard to call it anything other than one dimensional.

Overall, this is just garbage.

0/5

Pros.

None

Cons.

Thorne

The drag queen

The preaching

It didn’t need to be made

The pacing

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Andor Second Season Overview: Rape In Space, ICE, and Unfortunate Comments from Diego Luna

Summary

Andor returns for an incredibly slow second season.

In many ways this entire second season was a step back from the first, there was less action, less character development and even more things left open-ended.

The final arc of the second season wherein we were seeing more of the Partisans on the earlier rebellion should have been the main focus of this season, but instead we got wild weddings, an ICE allegory and far too many scenes of Syril’s mother. The first two arcs were boring filler that really added very little to the overall season. How was seeing Mon Mothma dancing for well over 5 minutes in any way necessary to understand the early rebellion. Gilroy has gone on to say that Kathleen Kennedy fought for him to have his vision but maybe just maybe this is one of those times she should have intervened.

Showing the Ghorman Massacre was interesting and probably the high point of the season but again this was far too drawn out with about 5 episodes leading up to the actual massacre. The pacing of this show is really what kills it for me in many ways. Likewise I thought the finale arc mainly revolving around Luthen’s assistant was a weird move as it prevented us getting closure with seemingly much more important characters in the narrative.

Overall, it is watchable but the pace is so bad it will send you to sleep.

2/5

Pro.

The Ghorman Massacre

Some of the earlier Rebellion stuff

Cons.

The pacing

The unanswered questions

Too many side characters

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Star Wars Tales Of The Underworld: Filler As We Wait For Maul

Summary

We get to see the early life of Cad Bane and the resurrection of Ventress.

So I have to say this series hit a sore spot for me, I have been eagerly awaiting a new animated Star Wars offering since Bad Batch went away and when I heard about this and the character focuses I was excited. However, upon watching, it feels like filler, nothing very epic or of consequence happens, and whilst yes it fills in some blanks it is pretty dull. They managed to have Ventress fighting an inquisitor be over in a few seconds, this should have been a big epic duel like when Maul and Ezra fight inquisitors in Rebels but no.

Moreover, in the Ventress centric episodes we see yet another jedi survivor and it is now getting to a point wherein it is taking away from Order 66, if everyone ended up actually surviving then it wasn’t this big event that it is portrayed as in the Star Wars lore. Seeing the kid talking about Quinlan Vos and the Path made me just want to get a Path show, which could give us either an animated or live action Cal Kestis and Merrin. There are projects that would be a slam dunk for Star Wars they just need to commit to them.

Overall, a sad missed opportunity.

2/5

Pros.

It has some interesting ideas and concepts

The inquisitor design is pretty cool

Cons.

It is dull

It feels like filler

It cheapens Order 66

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