The last season being a big mess aside, it was 100% guilty of re-explaining the plot, not just the recaps. Together with those unnecessary “LET ME EXPLAIN” scenes, like Robin using vinyls to explain a very basic concept. They really treated us like idiots.
I was complaining to my family about how El getting a bloody nose was originally used to indicate how she severely over exerted herself while using her powers. In this last season they turned it into the “I used magic and am trying to look cool” sign. I found it belittling.
Yes and no. This season has been pretty weak in the writing department, so some of these ideas that worked before were overused/used poorly this season. And for an 80s-throwback series, it ends rather depressingly, no matter how you spin it. But it’s par for the course these days for the final season/finale to shit the bed, I guess.
Depressingly? It was fully happily ever after. And it just did the same thing every other season did, largely disregard previous seasons to introduce a new big bad for the season leading up to a big monster fight. It was incredibly par for the course, 70 percent style with 30 percent substance. It’s not high cinema but it’s entertaining tv.
Hard disagree. Fully happily-ever-after wouldn’t have ended with
S5 finale spoilers
the main 16-year-old character either dying or somewhere all on her own with no family/friends/support circle, useful life skills, money or even documents to travel anywhere outside the US. While her boyfriend is stuck with depression and potentially living in delusion that she is still alive. The whole idea that El represents childhood magic and that she has to die/disappear, so other characters could move on is genuinely out of touch and potentially harmful, considering she’s been “used, abused and manipulated” since she was born. Sends a real fucked up message there. This could have worked, if the show had finished in one season. But it does not work after 5 seasons of growth (though in S5 she was completely sidelined). The one character that deserved happily ever after, and they didn’t give it to her. Not to mention how Vickie has been completely forgotten in the epilogue, or rather discarded with an offhanded comment about being an “overbearing significant other”, when Robin has been an asshole to her the entire season.
I actually would have loved a true happily-ever-after. This tired trend of every show—even something that’s supposed to be lighthearted—getting a tragic or “bittersweer” ending, because that’s considered “deep”, should just die already.
I disagree with basically that whole interpretation. And the ending was explicitly hopeful. I think you just took it personal that what you thought was gonna happen didn’t.
The fact that she’s “dead” means she’s finally free, and I’m pretty sure Mike’s speech about what if she’s still alive was a strong hint that eventually he’d find her again. Every character got the best possible outcome all considered.
If we take Duffer brothers’ word as gospel, they will never see each other again. Which was the intended message to go along with their “she represents childhood magic, and that has to end for kids to grow up” statement. Nothing hopeful there.
The last season being a big mess aside, it was 100% guilty of re-explaining the plot, not just the recaps. Together with those unnecessary “LET ME EXPLAIN” scenes, like Robin using vinyls to explain a very basic concept. They really treated us like idiots.
I was complaining to my family about how El getting a bloody nose was originally used to indicate how she severely over exerted herself while using her powers. In this last season they turned it into the “I used magic and am trying to look cool” sign. I found it belittling.
The entirety of the show is like that. It’s not like a deep thinky clever show, it’s a series of 80’s horror movie references tossed in a blender.
Yes and no. This season has been pretty weak in the writing department, so some of these ideas that worked before were overused/used poorly this season. And for an 80s-throwback series, it ends rather depressingly, no matter how you spin it. But it’s par for the course these days for the final season/finale to shit the bed, I guess.
Depressingly? It was fully happily ever after. And it just did the same thing every other season did, largely disregard previous seasons to introduce a new big bad for the season leading up to a big monster fight. It was incredibly par for the course, 70 percent style with 30 percent substance. It’s not high cinema but it’s entertaining tv.
Hard disagree. Fully happily-ever-after wouldn’t have ended with
S5 finale spoilers
the main 16-year-old character either dying or somewhere all on her own with no family/friends/support circle, useful life skills, money or even documents to travel anywhere outside the US. While her boyfriend is stuck with depression and potentially living in delusion that she is still alive. The whole idea that El represents childhood magic and that she has to die/disappear, so other characters could move on is genuinely out of touch and potentially harmful, considering she’s been “used, abused and manipulated” since she was born. Sends a real fucked up message there. This could have worked, if the show had finished in one season. But it does not work after 5 seasons of growth (though in S5 she was completely sidelined). The one character that deserved happily ever after, and they didn’t give it to her. Not to mention how Vickie has been completely forgotten in the epilogue, or rather discarded with an offhanded comment about being an “overbearing significant other”, when Robin has been an asshole to her the entire season.
I actually would have loved a true happily-ever-after. This tired trend of every show—even something that’s supposed to be lighthearted—getting a tragic or “bittersweer” ending, because that’s considered “deep”, should just die already.
I disagree with basically that whole interpretation. And the ending was explicitly hopeful. I think you just took it personal that what you thought was gonna happen didn’t.
What’s hopeful about El disappearing from everyone’s life? I’m hardly the only one who sees it this way.
The fact that she’s “dead” means she’s finally free, and I’m pretty sure Mike’s speech about what if she’s still alive was a strong hint that eventually he’d find her again. Every character got the best possible outcome all considered.
If we take Duffer brothers’ word as gospel, they will never see each other again. Which was the intended message to go along with their “she represents childhood magic, and that has to end for kids to grow up” statement. Nothing hopeful there.