[Netflix] Stranger Things - Page 6

was more omnisexual than gay

bully who bullies because he's a closeted gay man.

Holy shit guys I'm so disappointed and upset with this season. I almost wrote an essay just on how bad Bob Newby's character/plotline was, not to mention the other new shitty characters, all the loose ends (good job guaranteeing a S3 I guess?), predictable plot twists, forced jokes, spoonfed information, AGHHHH IT WAS SO BAD

To its credit, the music/environment was as good as ever and those kids are awesome together. Still an entertaining show for what it was, but it suuuuuuper underperformed IMO.

Bleh... maybe I'll break down my thoughts later. I need to rant.

billy having some depth didn’t make him any more palatable. knowing why he’s an asshole doesn’t make him not an asshole. bobs death was the only thing i predicted from the start. that seemed too obvious, but it was at least a more entertaining scene than i expected. i’m wondering if the smoke monster being at the dance is a sign of him following Will, or Eleven!? and omg when Dustin put his hair up LOL what a cute kid jfc. great scene all around, a nearly perfect wrap. i’m so used to harder cliff hangers though that it seems too final. not enough room to play with in the off season.

i don’t think i saw the 009 someone had mentioned earlier. what scene was that?

i’m seeing a lot of Bob Newby hero memes, but i mean, Steve was the real hero this season. that kid has balls of fucking STEEL. first just going out the bus to take that one on head to head? then punching Billy? THEN going into the hole? what an animal.

I'm hoping Billy gets a better story in S3. He was fun in that he's a stereotypical 80s character, but he was also *just* a stereotypical 80s character. The only reason I don't really have complaints about it is I really like how they handled his racism/treatment of Lucas.

@crappen Except he knew *nothing* about Lucas other than he was black and he only called him out without ever giving a reason for why he was a problem, when he found Max hanging out with everyone he didn't have a problem with Dustin or Mike. He *only* had a problem with Lucas. I'd also think him listening to Ted Nugent was another nod/tell to let people who what was intended.

Basically it's not like a Deus Exs Machina or some sort of magical solution that gets everyone out of a tough situation. It's not like Dart took the Nougat and led all the other demodogs away or anything, the scene was *only* dart so he was only there in the first place for this specific scene/purpose.

So for how over the top it is, the scene doesn't "infect" the plot or the rest of the story other than maybe some insight into how the hivemind works (they seem to still have some autonomy). In that way I think it works, it's a cheeky over the top nod to other 80s references (ET and Goonies) that was a cute wrap up of the Dart storyline, but it wasn't some device shoed in to solve a plot issue. You could cut that scene and the entire episode would still work the same except you'd have no real conclusion to Dart.

This is just one example of the lack of depth, unexplored possibilities in this season IMO. All we have to go on is Lucas's appearance; as far as I remember, Billy never observed Lucas doing anything wrong (which would have been SO easy to write in when they were "stalking" Max, his love of DnD and the "stay away from that satanic nerd" angle, etc).

Billy just.. looked at Lucas and said he was bad news. This sells us on Billy being a shallow piece of shit, but it feels like such a lazily written side story. Imagine if Billy overheard Lucas talking about demogorgons and mind flyers and sees Will spazzing out in the field when the shadow monster possesses him. Now we have a violent asshole who has a REASON to be a violent asshole.

I disagree, there's plenty of supernatural in the show already. What makes the show good is how seamlessly it mixes in the more mundane elements so the characters fit into the world rather than it being a stage. Billy's opposition being rooted in the mundane makes it a much better plot than if he didn't like Lucas because he was suspicious of the supernaturally focused stuff.

Billy being racist (over disliking nerds/stalker) works because it fits into the world that way. And the interaction is better for it. Rather than be a stereotypical setup or Billy being out and out racist (both common ways to do this sort of thing) we get a better more down to earth look at it and something that feels much more authentic and real. Billy gets to be a racist without saying a single overtly racist thing. Part of the ambiguity is what makes it also feel real and feels much more like how otherwise reasonable people are racist in real life. It feels like a much better and more interesting plot point that it's done the way it is (and people can feel different ways about it).

I'm hoping Billy gets a better story in S3. He was fun in that he's a stereotypical 80s character, but he was also *just* a stereotypical 80s character. The only reason I don't really have complaints about it is I really like how they handled his racism/treatment of Lucas.

I think (hope) Jonathan and Nancy are off to college in S3. So with those two out of the way I think there is plenty of story in store for Billy (and mrs. Wheeler).

I'm not asking for more supernatural. I'm fine with Billy being racist. But they never explored it at ALL. In fact, we don't even really know if he was actually racist. It's implied, mostly because he knew absolutely nothing about Lucas other than his physical appearance would suggest, but never actually explained at all.

Maybe they could have written it in so Billy and Max moved to Hawkins because Billy was expelled from school for beating up some black kids? Then, once we establish he really IS racist and violent, we have reason to fear for Lucas's safety as he chases after Max. Yay, tension!

Billy was just a shitty character, man. What purpose did he actually serve? He made me feel bad for Max, but Max wasn't exactly an important player in the story either. Her only real purpose was to create a rift between Dustin and Lucas, but that rift just didn't have nearly as much weight as it did in S1 with Eleven's introduction into the group. It really felt like Lucas was done back then. So Billy was ultimately just a shitty plot vehicle to transition into another shitty plot vehicle.

I mean, Max and Billy's family dynamic is by all means interesting and heart wrenching, but you can completely delete these characters and literally nothing changes, for better or for worse. Neither one of them successfully helps/hinders the journey at any point. They're fillers.

S1 drew a lot of inspiration from 80s pop culture, but the Duffer brothers did a great job of adapting those references into something of their own. I know the show banks on how much we love the 80s environment, but Billy was about as stereotypical/cookie-cutter as an 80s bully trope can get. Not to sound rude, but I don't get how you can find that refreshing at all?

I don't really disagree with this part.

But I like that it left some of these things only sort of explored. We think Billy is a racist (or he is one), but it didn't feel like his character revolved around it which I appreciated; he had an identity that was more than just being racist. I find that a lot of shows tend to define their character too much on that one important thing about them and I enjoy that Stranger Things sidestepped that with Billy's implied racism. As a follow on to that I appreciate it with Max too in that she's not defined as a wedge between the characters and was allowed to exist as a character. I get why it's a bit weird, and really is a very valid criticism, but I really enjoyed it as a breath of fresh air that Stranger Things is willing to allow some characters to just kind of exist in their world for reasons other than driving specific plot beats along.

Nancy and Jonathan are juniors, Steve is a senior (hence the whole car scene where Steve mentions sticking around for Nancy). Well, Nancy is definitely a junior, I can't remember if Jonathan is canonically one.

That's the thing though, the racism doesn't need to be the sole focus of Billy's existence, but it could have been used as a means to add real weight to his character (and to the story in general). This season was supposed to "up the stakes," right? What better way to do that than by adding the human element of battling a violent, volatile monster in this world while simultaneously trying to save Will from the supernatural monster in the other world?

But nah, Billy is nonexistent until the very end, when he upgrades to "minor inconvenience" because his fight with Steve didn't alter any plans, didn't end up hurting Will at all, while Max was able to conveniently step in and drive the boys to the distraction site while Steve was KO'd because every single "puzzle" in this season apparently needed to be solved in 5 minutes or less*.

*[I'm getting off-topic here, but think about the sequence when they're asking Will to explain his "now memories": Will can't find the words to explain his visions? Don't worry, Mom quickly solves that by asking him to draw what he sees. Can't figure out what the drawings actually are? Don't worry, Mom realizes the sheets overlap. Can't figure out what the whole creation actually means? Don't worry, Bob recognizes the landmarks and figures out how to pinpoint their next destination.

It's a good display of Joyce's strong bond with Will and her ability to communicate/work with him (which is endearing and fun to watch), but we, the audience, never had time to feel confused, to participate in the journey. Any time the next challenge was presented to us, it was quickly solved without any real tension being built. It's like being on those rail-guided Disneyland tours; it's cute, but it's not challenging me at all. Not like S1 did.]

I get that this season is setting up a lot of fun things for S3, but it didn't need to be this hollow IMO.