Stranger Things 4 - Any good?

[Stalker0]

I'm on episode 5. My only real complaint so far...

Spoiler

.I get that Joyce drank Yuri's coffee....but Murray? Super paranoid Murray? I was so ready for Murray to pretend to be knocked out and get the jump on him, but no....super ultra paranoid Murray apparantely can't resist the total stranger's coffee....the guy he literally says "I don't like this guy".

 

[Ryujin]

I'm on episode 5. My only real complaint so far...

Spoiler

.I get that Joyce drank Yuri's coffee....but Murray? Super paranoid Murray? I was so ready for Murray to pretend to be knocked out and get the jump on him, but no....super ultra paranoid Murray apparantely can't resist the total stranger's coffee....the guy he literally says "I don't like this guy".

Yeah, that was pretty weak, but I'll go with it to get them to Kamchatka (a place that I only remember about because of Risk).

 

[Stalker0]

So pretty darn cool, good first half to the season. Overall it had all the good stuff I've come to love ST for.

Spoiler

I can say that I was not the biggest fan of the One storyline, mainly because I think anytime horror movies go out of their way to explain the monster....it loses some of its power. The mind flayer and demogorgon, they are horrific evils....and that's all we need to know. I liked that Vecna was more "human" (it gave him a creepy characterization) but didn't like that they ultimately explained where he came from. The mystery is part of the horror, you can't understand it....its just evil.

That said, in terms of explaining the ST metaplot, this is a pretty darn solid explanation. I didn't need it, I didn't want it....but it does work.

 

[RangerWickett]

I really appreciated how I expected reveal A and sorta guessed reveal B, but was still caught by reveal C tying them all together.

Spoiler

A is that the orderly was psychic. B is that the orderly might also be Vecna, but I didn't think that made sense because then what explained the first attack in the 50s. Revelation C is that the orderly was the kid from that family in the 50s grown up, and I did not guess that link.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I really appreciated how I expected reveal A and sorta guessed reveal B, but was still caught by reveal C tying them all together.

Spoiler

A is that the orderly was psychic. B is that the orderly might also be Vecna, but I didn't think that made sense because then what explained the first attack in the 50s. Revelation C is that the orderly was the kid from that family in the 50s grown up, and I did not guess that link.

I had the same A and B but not C result for myself. I think the reason it's not obvious is that the person doesn't seem to be anywhere near old enough in their adult form.

By my math they should have been pushing 40 when we last saw them and the person playing them did not look anywhere near that.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

By my math they should have been pushing 40 when we last saw them and the person playing them did not look anywhere near that.

I had similar problems, but the actor is actually in his early thirties, and remember it is a flashback to sometime before the late 1983 start of the first season.

Spoiler

Given the ambiguity of the date and the ambiguity of his age in 1959 I think it probably checks out on paper. If the kid is 12 in '59 he's still only 36 in 83, and the flashbacks might be a year or two before that. The problem is the actor read as at least 5 years younger than his actual age which was on the young side for the timeline anyway.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So pretty darn cool, good first half to the season. Overall it had all the good stuff I've come to love ST for.

I can say that I was not the biggest fan of the One storyline, mainly because I think anytime horror movies go out of their way to explain the monster....it loses some of its power. The mind flayer and demogorgon, they are horrific evils....and that's all we need to know. I liked that Vecna was more "human" (it gave him a creepy characterization) but didn't like that they ultimately explained where he came from. The mystery is part of the horror, you can't understand it....its just evil.

That said, in terms of explaining the ST metaplot, this is a pretty darn solid explanation. I didn't need it, I didn't want it....but it does work.

I personally had the exact opposite opinion. The villains in Seasons 1 and 2 were pretty weak because they were just faceless monsters. The ones in 3 and 4, in my opinion, were a bit stronger because they were more personal (if you can call Billy a villain). Vecna is a good villain because his personality is plausible and has a greater effect on the main characters than just a standard horror movie monster.

 

[werecorpse]

It’s good.
They have so many characters now that they literally have 4 storylines going at the same time and some are much weaker than others. Some characters get to be clever or cool others get very weak arcs.
But I enjoyed it overall.

 

[Vael]

Didn't hate it. Liked Eddie, which I didn't expect. Unfortunately, the non-Hawkins plots were a little underwhelming to me. Glad to see Kate Bush get her deserved recognition.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm on episode 5. My only real complaint so far....I get that--

While I completely agree with the remainder of your post (that bugged the hell out of me, too), would you mind wrapping that bit in spoiler tags?