I'm not a writer or director but like I'm pretty sure I could have figured out a way for Mike and El to have actual romantic build up in season 5????
"Millie can you actually smile at him when he compliments the wetsuit, this is meant to be a cute flirty moment."
"Finn can you please stop pulling that face and looking guilty at her? You're in a van on the way to what could be both of your characters death. You can look worried or something just stop doing whatever it is you're doing."
"Can we get some of that artificial lighting for this first reunion scene? Our couple is reuniting but all I can focus on is them squinting against the sun it's fucking weird."
"Guys we've talked about this. When Lucas calls you love birds you should look happy."
"Finn can you please stop looking at Noah like he hung the moon. Mike is straight, remember?"
"Hey, uh, Noah, can you stop looking so hopeful in this scene? Stop looking like you're remembering something. Mike and El are so happy and in love, remember? Will helped fix them up. Maybe look a little more doom and gloom. What's that? Yes I know we should have found you another love interest to focus on but this is what we've been given. Yes, I know this whole scene makes no sense with Mike and El being in love. It doesn't matter. Let's go. Rejection arc number 6 for Will Byers. You're the queer, tortured one, remember?"
"Okay remember we don't want to be accused of queerbaiting. So remember, Finn, every time you reach Will first you have to just sort of hover your hand near him. Yes, it'll look natural don't worry. What do you mean it contradicts how you've always played Mike? Shut up."
"Finn please stop holding her like you've got fresh acrylics, I'm begging you."
"No, remember how you looked at Noah in that scene when you were rejecting him? Yes, that was a rejection scene. Obviously. Can we bring some of that energy here please?"
Every day I think of the apocalyptic Hawkins we couldâve had. Like mmm yes give me the party exploring their abandoned past, the decrepit halls of their old middle school, the overtaken railroad tracks and car junkyard, the haunted creel house, the quarry and loverâs lakeâŠthe abandoned city as a metaphor for abandoned childhood instead of ElâŠimpeccable horror vibes from the run-down buildings and fend-for-yourself from Vecna and the militaryâŠVecna memories being for the party and forcing them to reckon with their pasts individually and with their counterpartsâŠdo you guys pick up what Iâm putting down like ugh the vibes of what I hoped it was were so peak
Stranger Things has a serious problem whit Spectacularized Violence.
Iâll start by saying that Iâm a huge horror fan, so Iâm not someone who gets easily disturbed by a bit of blood.
Nowadays there is a tendency to relegate the more splatter-heavy scenes off-screen, in order to censor violence and lower the age rating so as to reach the widest possible audience. Stranger Things is still suitable for a teenage audience, but I think that, at least at the beginning, the show did an excellent job of not being afraid to show even its most violent aspects (Barbâs body in season 1, for example).
One of the main themes of the first season was the rot, the horror hidden beneath the surface of small-town America, and choosing to make that rot emerge visually (on screen) is narratively functional, because it aligns with what you want to tell and how you want to tell it.
Things have changed, however, and the fifth season is very problematic from this point of view.
Iâll start with what I consider one of the most serious thematic mistakes: the way the Mind Flayer is defeated. Stranger Things is a coming-of-age story, and in these kinds of narratives evil should be defeated by good, by love. At first, I thought the Duffer brothersâ decision to reference A Wrinkle in Time worked well, because it seemed to foreshadow the ending of the series: love bringing the characters back to reality and allowing them to defeat evil.
And yet, that is not what happens.
The Mind Flayer is defeated with guns, grenades, and âRambo Nancy.â
None of this works, not only in terms of the message being conveyed, but also on a level of narrative coherence. We know perfectly well that bullets do nothing to the Mind Flayer, so it makes no sense to use them.
This is the most important moment of the entire season. Itâs the climax. Itâs the moment when the core message of the series should emerge: love and friendship prevailing over the forces of evil. Instead, what we get is a battle with teenagers dressed up like soldiers.
Am I supposed to understand that love triumphs over everything?
Because what Iâm actually seeing is that, in order to defeat the enemy, you have to arm yourself to the teeth and blow it up with bazookas. A terrible message for the times we live in.
This is therefore a clear example of spectacularized violenceâviolence that is an end in itself, aimed solely at creating adrenaline in the viewer (what Bergman would call âdirty violenceâ). A type of violence that stems from the desire to strike and to sell (and Iâm using the word sell very deliberately, since in the documentary the choice regarding Eleven is described precisely as something to be sold to the audience to keep them glued to the screen).
Another example is the violence embodied by Eleven. Iâve already mentioned this aspect in another post, but here I want to address it more properly.
There is a great deal of violence in Elevenâs character, but the Duffer brothers fail to deal with it in the right way, because it is constantly justified. Always. I was hoping this issue would be addressed, but it never is. Take, for instance, the moment when she kills a soldier by taking control of his hand and forcing him to pull the trigger. That is a sadistic act. In war, one does whatever is necessary to survive, including killingâbut here there is a level of sadism that I found deeply disturbing. It is violence without moral consequences.
It feels as though the authors are spectacularizing certain actions in order to make the character who performs them seem âcool.â This is extremely problematic, because being cool certainly doesnât come from holding a gun or using your powers to kill in such a sadistic way. Violence doesnât make you coolerâif anything, it makes the show feel like it was created by two children who never grew out of the most violent phase of childhood, the phase in which you burn anthills purely for destructive pleasure.
Then thereâs one of the most disturbing moments in the series: the scene in which Hollyâs classmates try to prevent her from escaping; her âbest friend,â in an attempt to stop her, almost strangles her. This situation is never addressed again; we see them playing together at the end of the season as if nothing had happened.
This effectively justifies that violent act. One might argue that âshe thought she was doing it for her own good,â but honestlyâŠwould you ever have the courage to do something like that to your best friend? Because I certainly wouldnât. Not in a million years.
That scene exists purely to shock the viewer, to make the situation even more unsettlingâand while it partially works (it does show how Vecna has created a real cult), the love between Holly and her best friend should have overcome that brainwashing. Another missed opportunity by the Duffers.
Choosing not to revisit the issue once the danger has passed is deeply problematic, because it means showing a violent situation solely to provoke astonishment, without reflecting on it afterward.
I could go on and talk about the pregnant women, about how body horror is once again used only to create shock, since this situation is never mentioned again except to show Eleven one of the possible futures that awaits her. Those women were nothing more than objects functional to the plot (and to justify Elevenâs suicide, which makes the whole thing even more disturbing).
I could give many more examples, but Iâd rather stop here.
We all know how referential the Duffer brothers are, especially when it comes to horror. The problem is that everything is reduced to mere citation, to simple homage, without any real understanding of the subtext of Cronenbergâs body horror, or of the great flesh conglomerate of season three, which among other things references Yuzna (Society was one of the films written on the board listing their inspirations, but it was obvious they hadnât understood the allegory of society, particularly the bourgeois class, as a disgusting agglomeration of bodies, and had used it simply because it looked âcoolâ). Iâve already talked about their use of Lovecraft (here and here).
There is only empty homage, never the desire to create something new.
It is form without substance.
P.S. Iâm genuinely curious to know whether they understand that Alien (which they reference) is not only a masterpiece because it is visually perfect and created an iconic monster, but also because it is a deeply feminist film, one that uses body horror to reflect on the horror of sexual violence.
Unfortunately, this attitude reveals a lack of professionalism, because it means not doing research, not informing oneself, andâworse stillânot having the slightest curiosity to do so.
Cinema has an incredibly powerful suggestive force, and deploying violence without morality, without encouraging reflection, is extremely dangerous. Especially in a coming-of-age story.
âwhy were there no demos in the battle? oh the villain that can literally enter peopleâs minds didnât expect that heâd be attacked on his home turf! so what if he can control the hive mind and summon them at any time? he was unprepared!â
âactually ykw there were no demos because we didnât want to give the audience demogorgan fatigueâ
âwhy didnât joyce and hopper recognise henry? oh they did! but it happened offscreen!â
âvecna was the one who opened willâs door in ep1 of our show and I know we said he didnât in a previous interview but idk what we were on back then. btw this reveal also happened offscreen.â
âis vecna controlled by the MF! itâs up to your interpretation even if our stageplay pretty much confirms it!â
ârovickie? did they break up or not? itâs up to your interpretationâ
âoh nvm we implied that they broke up for good.â
âjancy broke up but they still love each other, but itâs a different kind of love you know like mike and will.â
âactually in the rooftop scene we wanted to imply that jancy could get back together. itâs up to your interpretation.â
âwhere was erica in the finale? who cares about erica?â
âel was always meant to die because she represents the magic of childhood and her death was meant to be symbolic of the end of childhood and how mike and the others needed to move on even though we linked el and mikeâs relationship to growing up in previous seasons but you know that was a different seasonâŠnow weâre saying she represents childhood.â
âelâs death was something that was beautiful and cathartic because sheâs finally free of her pain and suffering. whatâs that? itâs a messed up thing to say? no itâs not! her death was a relieving experience for her!â
âwe gave mike a gun to show that heâs not innocent anymore. he isnât that innocent dnd playing kid anymore hence he gets a gun. whatâs that? mikeâs a character whoâs been trying to grow up in previous seasons and we depicted that as a bad thing? oh those were previous seasons! forget about them!â
âwillâs experience is meant to represent the experience of having an unreciprocated crush and how itâll be okay that it doesnât work out. whatâs that? we depicted his feelings to be a deep sense of love last season? that he understood his crush better than his crushâs gf? that his love confession in a form of a painting was used to prop up that straight relationship and that was problematic? again why are we talking about previous seasons?â
âbyler was never in the cards and we were blocking out noise from fans are trying to focus on our story. whatâs that? you were paying attention to our story and thought byler was going to happen? you saw interruption tropes, romantic music, closeup handhold shots, intimate framing, heartfelt monologue, a love triangle where the other ship had no happy moments without will, the other failing to have heartfelt convos and understand each other, mike being softer with will and apologising to him better than el, both mike and will shown to understand and empower each other in a way no one else does and you thought theyâd be endgame? thatâs just silly.â
titsay
stormborns
gummygunk
