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Stranger Things Season Three
I liked the first season of Stranger Things, and the second grew on me.
The third season was difficult to watch. There was a lot of yelling and strobe lights and violence, which gradually escalated to the point where there wasn’t much else. I love horror movies and don’t mind violence when it’s weird or unexpected or choreographed in a visually interesting way, but the third season of Stranger Things was filled with a lot of bog-standard punching and shooting.
The first three episodes in the season set up a few compelling story threads, but they’re all dropped in favor of the punching and shooting. There’s a beautiful conversation between two teenagers in a mall bathroom in the second-to-last episode that made me cry (kind of a whole lot), but a lot of the dialogue was shouted in anger or panic. I fast-forwarded through huge chunks of the last five (of eight) episodes and scrolled through animal pictures of various social media platforms during the rest of the time. In other words, the “exciting” fights and chase scenes of the third season were profoundly boring to me.
The reviews were generally positive, and I found myself wondering if this is what people really want. Did someone complain about the character development and worldbuilding in the first two seasons? I assumed the violence was filler for a decay in the writing quality, but were people genuinely pleased that there were less feelings and more punching? I’m happy to look at a piece of media and say “This isn’t for me,” but…
When I was a kid, I loved three things: dinosaurs, space, and science. My parents were religious and very conservative about gender roles, however, so they were constantly taking things I liked away from me and saying “this isn’t for you,” whether it was a radio I enjoyed taking apart and putting back together or a cheap plastic Godzilla a friend gave me for my birthday. I remember being so confused, like, Why isn’t this for me? Who was being hurt by the fact I liked it?
Between Hollow Knight not having an easy mode and Justin McElroy’s painful review of Night in the Woods and the third season of Stranger Things, I’ve recently been feeling like my sense of “this isn’t for me” is less of a personal decision and more of an externally imposed set of arbitrary social standards regarding who certain types of media should belong to, and it’s frustrating.
The third season was difficult to watch. There was a lot of yelling and strobe lights and violence, which gradually escalated to the point where there wasn’t much else. I love horror movies and don’t mind violence when it’s weird or unexpected or choreographed in a visually interesting way, but the third season of Stranger Things was filled with a lot of bog-standard punching and shooting.
The first three episodes in the season set up a few compelling story threads, but they’re all dropped in favor of the punching and shooting. There’s a beautiful conversation between two teenagers in a mall bathroom in the second-to-last episode that made me cry (kind of a whole lot), but a lot of the dialogue was shouted in anger or panic. I fast-forwarded through huge chunks of the last five (of eight) episodes and scrolled through animal pictures of various social media platforms during the rest of the time. In other words, the “exciting” fights and chase scenes of the third season were profoundly boring to me.
The reviews were generally positive, and I found myself wondering if this is what people really want. Did someone complain about the character development and worldbuilding in the first two seasons? I assumed the violence was filler for a decay in the writing quality, but were people genuinely pleased that there were less feelings and more punching? I’m happy to look at a piece of media and say “This isn’t for me,” but…
When I was a kid, I loved three things: dinosaurs, space, and science. My parents were religious and very conservative about gender roles, however, so they were constantly taking things I liked away from me and saying “this isn’t for you,” whether it was a radio I enjoyed taking apart and putting back together or a cheap plastic Godzilla a friend gave me for my birthday. I remember being so confused, like, Why isn’t this for me? Who was being hurt by the fact I liked it?
Between Hollow Knight not having an easy mode and Justin McElroy’s painful review of Night in the Woods and the third season of Stranger Things, I’ve recently been feeling like my sense of “this isn’t for me” is less of a personal decision and more of an externally imposed set of arbitrary social standards regarding who certain types of media should belong to, and it’s frustrating.
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This is a gut-wrenching feeling and I'm so sorry you have to experience it :(
I still love season 1 of Stranger Things the most. Wasn't a massive fan of the second season, but it had amazing moments. I think my biggest problem with season 3 was that it would focus on so many things that I just... didn't care about. I enjoyed 3 way more than 2, but there were a handful of sections that left a sour taste in my mouth. Not necessarily the violence for me, but some characters and relationships I did not give a shit about and yet the story kept forcing them. But there definitely was a lot more violence and fight scenes in this one than the previous ones. I grew numb to it after a while, too. I rolled my eyes whenever Russian Terminator guy kept showing up.
Also yes, the mall bathroom scene was hands down the best scene in the entire season.