Stranger Things 5.1-5.4: Best So Far

I binged the first four episodes of the fifth season of Stranger Things up this week on Netflix -- we'll have to wait until Christmas Eve and New Years Eve to see the rest -- and these four were by far my favorite so far.

Here are the reasons (with no spoilers):

• The action is nearly non-stop.  Although I've enjoyed the previous seasons, I thought all of them, in comparison to these final episodes,  developed the story two slowly, and had too much talking.  I suppose this might have been a necessary build-up to this final season, but the action and pace of development in 5.1-5.4 was often breathtaking.
• And these four episodes -- also billed as Season Five, Volume One -- also managed to fit in some standalone stories, which were captivating.  My favorite was Max's, which brings in a touch of time travel,  including a mention of Madeleine L'Engle's now classic A Wrinkle In Time.
• It makes sense that A Wrinkle in Time, published in 1962, would be known by Max and anyone with a vibrant mind in the 1980s, when Stranger Things takes place.  Having characters spouting popular culture from the 1980s has always been one of the charms of the series, and it was also good to hear Bond and Magnum mentioned again in this finale season.  I miss them both (well, maybe James Bond a little more).
• Speaking of Max again, she also delivers my favorite line in this set of four episodes: "music has a way of finding you, even in the darkest places".  True then, and so true in this world we're in today. (I say this as I'm beginning to binge the Beatles nine-episode Anthology.  Review coming soon.)
• It was good to see Linda Hamilton is this first volume of the final season.  There always has been a Terminator flavor to Stranger Things, and it becomes especially prevalent in this rousing conclusion.

As a closing point -- and the closest I'll come to giving you spoiler -- the best action dramas, in science fiction and non-science fiction -- always feature ultimate heroes and villains of equal power.  The first four episodes aka volume one of the fifth season of Stranger Things also does a great job of setting this up.

See also Stranger Things 1.1-1.5: Parallel Horror ... Stranger Things 1.6-18: Lando to Fringe ... Stranger Things 2: Bigger, Better ... Stranger Things 3: Growing Up...  Stranger Things 4: A Big Step Forward 

more parallel worlds ... "flat-out fantastic" - says Scifi and Scary

Fleabag: Beyond the Fourth Wall

My wife and I just binged Fleabag on Amazon Prime Video.  Easy to do, since the two seasons add up to a total of 12 episodes (or about half of what a single season of network television used to be).  Easy to watch, since the dialogue was brilliant, frank, witty, and hilarious - not to mention that it all takes place in London (our second favorite city, after New York, where we live).

But the most provocative part of the series - the whole serious is delightfully and sometimes seriously provocative - comes in the second season, where the conceit of the hero (Fleabag) talking to the camera, or in theatrical parlance, breaking the fourth wall (the first three being the back and the two sides of the stage), takes a momentous turn: a crucial character, the Priest (who loves Fleabag, and with whom Fleabag falls in love), is aware of Fleabag talking to the audience.

In our current age of streaming television, the fourth wall was broken early on, in House of Cards, in which first Frank and eventually Claire talk to us, the audience.  (It was broken dozens of times in earlier television, movies, and plays - the Wikipedia article provides a good summary.  My favorite was Magnum PI.)  But even before including the Priest in the fourth wall breaching, Fleabag did far more than talking to us across the screen.  Her eyes, lips, the way she held her head, provided a compelling and enchanting part of the dialogue, which soon became essential to almost every scene, and in total provided a veritable encyclopedia of non-verbal expressions and how they shed meaning on verbal communication as silent counterpoint.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who created, wrote, and plays the lead role (Fleabag) in the series, won a British Comedy Award for her performance in the first season (2016).  The second season (2019) has thus far been nominated for a boatload of awards (eleven).  If there was an award for breaking the fourth wall, I'd give it to Walter-Bridge for the first season, and then give her a special additional award for extending the wall-breaking in the second.

There's no word yet on a third season, and the current indication is that the second season is the final.  But with the fourth wall ripped so wide open, there's another boatload, of questions, to explore.  Why does the Priest see Fleabag's mind looking away, being absent, when she looks and talks to us in the audience?  He is not partaking in the breaching himself - he's not communicating with the audience - and he doesn't quite know that Fleabag is, either.  But how does he come to see she's absent for that split second from him?  Because he loves her so much?

What will happen when Fleabag admits to him what's happening - so far, she's not allowing herself to tell him - will he believe her?  I don't for a minute think his telling her he prefers God to loving her is the end of their romantic and erotic relationship.   But even if it is, there's no reason that he won't continue seeing in her eyes that she's looking at someone else - i.e, a lot of someones else, us.

It took three years after the first to get a second series.  I'm eager to see the third, however long that takes.

Book 'Em Danno!

With the first cool breezes weaving their way into my backyard here in the northeast, I'm thinking I wouldn't mind being in Hawaii.

Truth is, I've never been there, but always wanted to go. I love pineapple and ocean and fresh air.

And two television shows situated in Hawaii are among my all-time favorites. Magnum, P. I., with Tom Selleck was one the best shows on the air in the 1980s. And Hawaii Five-O with Jack Lord as McGarrett and James MacArthur as Danno, 1968-1980, was priceless. Jack Lord's Brylcreemed hair was one one a kind...

Hey, if you want to do more than watch Hawaii on television, and book a real vacation, check out Hawaiian Beach Rentals and their Hawaii travel blog. They're an intermediary for thousands of vacation rentals, hotels, cottages, and bed and breakfast places on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. (I feel like McGarrett just mentioning those places.) Quiet beach front, bustling ocean, great food, captivating lagoon ... Book 'em Danno!



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