Kate Bush - "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)"
Remade it - I wasn't satisfied with the first version.
I'm still not satisfied tho, maybe a v3, one day ?
Made v3... now I can die.
I'll be going into Stranger Things season 4 spoilers territory - up until episode 4 as I haven't watched beyond yet. So don't read further if this is something you care about.
Man... I wouldn't have expected that. I went into this season 4 without any kind of enthusiasm or curiosity, wasn't looking forward to anything actually. I just felt compelled to watch it cause I watched the first 3 ones.
I've never been a huge fan of Stranger Things. I probably enjoyed the potential more than I enjoyed the execution, and the cheap-y nostalgia bait never really worked for me neither. It often fell flat, way too on-the-nose-ey.
Nonetheless, there were some genuinely good narrative moments and both the series' visual and musical identities (heavily borrowing from Tangerine Dream) kept me agreeably engaged.
Season 2 felt like a wasted opportunity. A repeat of the first, as they didn't have anything new to tell - does anyone even remember what happened ? Beside that cringeworthy chapter with the punk kids ?
Season 3 accomplished a tour de force, and brought the series back on some solid tracks. Sure, the alchemy of the show began to wear very thin, but they still managed to upscale it in a satisfying way. Character development was very well executed, and the show introduced a few new faces - which could have easily gone south and suffocated the narration with uninteresting subplots, but this didn't happen.
Tho, that radio girl, yeah, I wouldn't have missed that particular character.
Season 3 also gave us an extraordinary villain : Billy, who regularly stole the show and had a couple of truly mesmerizing scenes. His demise felt like a tragical waste.
Despite those qualities, I left season 3 with mixed feelings. Some reveals felt exploitative and cheap, the series ended on cliffhangers that had no gravitas, and worse... the show revealed to have one major conceptual flaw : the main character and her super powers, saving the day, again and again and again. El ex machina.
For all those reasons, I had no particular expectations for season 4. I didn't jump on it when it released, and only bothered to watch the first episode weeks after its release.
A couple of things intrigued me tho, the first one being the reveal of the episode's running times. The creators went a very different road here and decided to escape the conventional 45-60 minutes length of the TV show format. Some episodes being apparently much, much longer than others - movie format in many cases. People were quick to criticize this decision, but this change of production philosophy stroke me as an extremely positive one as it would allow the story to unfold more naturally and more importantly, to breathe.
I'm only 4 episodes in, and so far, not ONCE did I feel the urge to look at the timer.
There are no fillers, no scenes that feel shoehorned in because "we have 45 minutes of running time to fill, but only 25 minutes of plot material" like so, so many other series would do (looking at you, "From") or feel rushed because "we only have 2 minutes left, quick ! Throw a cliffhanger !". By avoiding the conventional series format, the creators are free to tell the story they want, without having to adjust here, add this and cut that.
At this point, I can affirm that the creators made a wise decision. That this change was required and is in full service of the story, and that they mastered the balance between running time and pacing.
I've seen some headlines criticizing the pacing, calling it boring. Eh. The damages of consumerism and instant-gratification.
Anyway.
Episode 1 did a formidable job in reintroducing the characters, the changed dynamics as the characters are now older, reminding us of the loose ends & open plots, and setting the tone.
A couple of highlights :
• the basketball/D&D double showdown - the entire sequence had me on the edge of my seat, and as in everything, the production was over the roof and in full service of the cinematography, what an entertaining spectacle !
• the introduction of a new character, Eddie - I don't know what kind of magic they used, but the dude's energy spreads like a wildfire ! I mentioned being disappointed at the waste of Billy in season 3... well, Eddie fills this void perfectly as he seems to be his polar opposite : he radiates the same intensity, but with light instead of darkness. Fantastic character and performance !
• the show's always been good in picking songs, and again, it didn't disappoint. I complained about nostalgia bait, but at this point I'm tempted to say that after all those seasons, Stranger Things made this part of its DNA, and whenever such a moment hits, it doesn't shock you in a gimmicky-way anymore, it simply lulls you deeper. But I digressed : Kate Bush ! That sequence of Maxine walking through the school corridor, listening to "Running Up That Hill" on her headphones. I couldn't NOT smile silly stupid. And on story-telling level, this subtle association of the song to the character was a great trick, well played, you manipulative little bastards !
Overall, a very strong opening episode !
Episode 2 expanded on this naturally and solidified some of this season's evil's nature. They didn't even try to hide their influence anymore : Stranger Things would now go full Nightmare on Elm Street, which is the logical evolution of this universe's lore, I'd say. They couldn't keep doing the "generic evil cloud or weird animal"-thing any longer and had to condense this malevolence into an avatar of some sorts.
Therefore, a Freddy Krueger knockoff -the most iconic of all and the one who encapsulates the 80s the best- makes perfect sense and works particularly well. Add in some Cenobite flavors -just a little sprinkle of Pinhead- and you got yourself a solid foe.
In the end, it's a gamble, as in many ways this could be a risky move which might diminish the intensity of this disincarnated evil force that haunted this world in the previous seasons. But in this case, I'm gonna say that they made the right call. They needed to go this direction, turn the unpersonal looming dread into an organic intimate one. Now will it pay off ? Guess I'll see at the end of this season ?
But yeah. "Nightmare on Elm Street".
As I said, they didn't even try to hide it and fully embraced all those associated tropes. I'm also quite certain that I heard some "Nightmare on Elm Street"-ish musical tidbits during some of the sequences. And did you spot the Freddy cardboard in episode 1 ? In the movie rental shop ?
So when they finally introduced the local boogeyman into their folklore, some violent murderer that slaughtered his family in the 50s, I couldn't NOT imagine a Robert Englund lookalike... and that's where I started to smile at the thought of little cameo. A thought... which would only grow stronger, surely turning into an incandescent obsession.
I'm actually quite certain that the showrunners purposefully laid those little breadcrumbs for this specific obsession to develop. And I'm also certain that once they planted this seed, they decided to play around with it, and to deceive my expectations.
I'm thinking of this particular scene in episode 3 : Nancy & Robin storm into the library to search for more information about those past tragedies, loudly talking about it and throwing all that exposition at us. And them then ringing for the librarian at the desk. The scene is long, and emphasizes heavily on Nancy's agacement of having to listen to Robin's rambling. And so she rings the bell. A lot. A LOT. Desperately trying to summon that librarian. That librarian who just refuses to make an entrance. And so we wait, we wait. And while we wait, the seed the writers planted keeps growing. Til it finally bursts out : "this is it !! the librarian !! time for Robert Englund's cameo !!". And so we wait for a reveal, a dumb smirk on our faces.
And no. Generic librarian woman makes her nonchalant and anti-climatic entrance.
Welp. Well done, show runners, you sneaky little bastards played me again.
Tho after some research, this character appears to be Marissa and she already had some slight presence in the previous seasons. So maybe I played myself, and none of this is the showrunners work ? Well. But what if they double-played me ?! Hmmm...
Episode 3 ended on an extremely grim note, shifting the focus on Maxine and designating her as the next victim. I particularly enjoyed the finale and the fact that the credits had no music - only the palpably dreadful ticking of the clock, cementing the unescapable nature of the doomed fate that will befall her.
Episode 4, at last.
So far, the show has been split into three different arcs, each one following a set of characters and each with their own thematic flavors.
The Californian one, following El and her friends.
The Russian one, centered around the escape of Hopper.
And the Hawkins one, the eye of the storm, with that mansion as the ultimate destination.
Compartmentalizing those three arcs narrative-wise, character-wise and geographical-wise was a clever decision. It helps keep things together and streamlines the storytelling. Some things can now be left untold, relegated to visual or environmental clues where they won't bloat the dialogues anymore.
At one point, all three arcs will obviously converge at that mansion, but for now they spiral around each other in an elegant and well crafted manner.
Now if all plots moved forwards in a satisfying way and I could focus on plenty of genuinely great moments, like the house attack sequence or Hopper discovering the stash of peanut bottle jars. But na, the meat of this episode is all about Maxine's tragedy.
Don't you hate it how in way too many stories, the characters being affected by some significant happenings or premonitions ALWAYS keep for themselves ; then withdraw and decide to handle things alone ? Usually making things worse or riding into their demise ?
Welp, Max opens up entirely and goes full out instead, creating an entire dynamic of hopelessness that splits the party into two. One group that would stay with her, and one that would seek for more informations.
And about that...
Nancy & Robin heading to the mental hospital to try to talk to the guy. And again, that seed... silent little voices at the back of your head, growing louder and louder... Wishful thinking : "... damn... how fucking awesome would it be if..." ; hope : ""... they NEED to do it ! That would be such a brilliant move !" ; bargaining : "... oh please, do it, do it, please ! Don't waste this one in a lifetime opportunity !!" ; resignation : "... eh, they won't do it, they can't do it... it would be stupid, wouldn't it ? And who would care anyway, right ?" ; etc...
And as the episode unfolds, this cacophony takes over everything, creating this muddle of uncertainty, leaving us with nothing but the long, long wait for the girl's plan to finally come to fruition. I wonder how many people anxiously sweated more about the resolution of their own crazy expectations than about the story-related events.
And then the moment finally came.
A silhouette.
A strangely characterstic nose.
Further details.
And then a face.
"OMG... they did it right ? Did they do it ? It's him ! Is it him ?!"
Disbelief and confusion - a 99% certainty but still a 1% doubt, despite things being obvious.
The urge to pause the episode and to race to imdb to get confirmation. But no, cause you've been educated with respectful movie discipline and the final answer shall be given by the credits, in due time.
And either way...
Those aren't really the major concerns anymore, cause the plot returns to Max.
And in the wake of the recent revelations... another dreadful realization : the probability that the story would keep giving so generously being very small. The usual trickish plot device at work here : first it lifts you up with hope... only to slam you down afterwards. It lifts you up only you to make you fall deeper and harder.
And that the show that gave was now about to take. Just like Hopper and his peanut butter.
wip wip
Touching
invested, begging to
billy part 2
connection established in episode 1
so many individual elements that are good, would be easy to ruin them all > modern degeneracy food
ReferenceWIP
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