Stranger Things Finale: El's Fate

So I just saw the Stranger Things series finale -- on Netflix.  Here's a critique -- with spoilers.

The whole ending hinges on El no longer being available to her friends, who in effect are her family. She's either no longer alive -- though we didn't see her die -- or she has deliberately made herself unavailable. Everyone, except Mike, seems to accept that.

But why did El do that?  Vecna's dead.  Henry is therefore no longer significant.  So what's the threat?  What is El trying to protect her friends and family from?   The U.S. military?

That vicious force, led by Dr. Kay, was already no match for the Hawkins contingent.   So El left the people she had come to cherish because of that?   I find that hard to believe.   I think that El would have found another way.

Perhaps the Duffer brothers intend to make some sort of sequel in which Mike searches for El.  He certainly makes clear to his friends that he doesn't think she's gone for good.   The Duffer brothers have made clear that they're finished with the 1980s ambience, but they could show Mike and El in the 90s and beyond, or change their mind and revisit the 1980s after all.

The five seasons were a fun ride.  As I've said, I thought this fifth and final season really shone.  And the finale had its moments.   But I can't say that I'm a fan of the way it ended.  But also on the strengths of Stranger Things, I'll definitely take a look at anything else the Duffer brothers do.

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 ... Stranger Things 5.1-5.4: Best So Far ... Stranger Things 5.5-5.7: Not Science Fiction, But Supernatural

more about The Silk Code here

Stranger Things 5.5-5.7: Not Science Fiction But Supernatural

Well, I said in my review of Stranger Things 5.1-5.4 last month that I thought those first four episodes of the final season were the best in the series so far.  I continue to think that, and include the next three episodes in that assessment, having just seen episodes 5.5-5.7.on Netflix.

Here is what I especially like about these penultimate episodes (the final, ultimate episode coming next week) (no spoilers ahead): 

Someone says that Vecna and everything our brave crew is fighting is not science fiction but supernatural.  Now, on the one hand, labels don't really matter.  I said years ago, when my first novel, The Silk Code, was published, that it was science fiction/detective.  After all, it features an NYPD forensic detective who discovers Neanderthals may still be among us.  But some devotees of mysteries said it could not be a detective or mystery story, because it contained science fictional elements.   I eventually got tired of trying to convince those readers the novel was a hybrid or co-genre, and said, it doesn't matter what genre it is, just read it.

But, actually labels are necessary.  If I walk into a restaurant that says it offers Japanese cuisine, but it serves only lasagna, I might well be disappointed, even though I love Italian cuisine as much as Japanese. In other words, labels in cuisine and culture have value, because they help us make selections that reflect our tastes and moods.  So I think it's helpful that Stranger Things -- or at least, this rendition of Stranger Things in what might well be a larger universe -- identifies itself as a story of the supernatural, even though it has some significant science fictional trimmings.

And, in fact, we get a glimpse of more of those trimmings in these concluding episodes.  Talk of outer space, alternate universes and realities -- hey, that's right up my alley, I'm down with that.

And I'll be back here next week after this series, and its part in a larger universe, concludes.

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 ... Stranger Things 5.1-5.4: Best So Far

more about The Silk Code here

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

Harlan Coben's Shelter: Stranger Things Meets Hunters

Stranger Things meets Hunters: that's what came to mind after seeing the first three episodes of Harlan Coben's Shelter (that's its name) on Amazon Prime Video back on August 18th, and I felt the same after seeing the finale eighth episode of what I hope will be just first season last night.  By which I mean: the center of the story are a bunch of idiosyncratic highly intelligent high school kids (Stranger Things) but the larger picture is not some Duffer Bros horror story, but a group of all-too human slave traders descended in some way from the Nazis (Hunters).

Stranger Things starred mostly unknown or little known performers with the exception of Winona Ryder, Hunters was pretty much the same except it had the mega-star Al Pacino, and Harlan Corbin's Shelter was more like Stranger Things, with Tovah Feldshuh the biggest star.  My wife and I first saw her on Broadway in Yentl years ago, and it's always good to see her again.  The rest of the acting in Shelter was pretty good, too, with standout acting by Jaden Michael as Mickey, the hero of this otherwise ensemble story.

I'm not going to say anything specific about the plot, because there are narrative-upending developments in just about every episode.  But I will say that you won't be sure or likely right about any of the villains until close to the end, and not every character you've come to know survives, and the ending will make you unsure about even that.  I'll also say that just as Stranger Things exults in the 1980s, Shelter is very much in the present, with even a political awareness displayed by some of the characters, and that's very much Harlan Coben and very much welcome.

I'll also say that I wish all eight episodes had been put up all at once, as Amazon and Netflix used to do it. That's what created binging, which turned the TV series into a novel, where you could enjoy as many chapters as you wanted in one continuing experience, but that's become an increasingly endangered species, as the streamers want to maximize their continuing subscribers.

But now that all eight episodes of Harlan Coben's Shelter are up there, you can binge them in this our degraded media environment, which I highly recommend.

And I hope to see you back here when I review the second season, which I intend to do it there is one.

Stranger Things 4: A Big Step Forward

As I've indicated in these reviews over the years, horror isn't my favorite form of fiction and science fiction.   But Stranger Things on Netflix had something special from the beginning, and it's gotten better each season. In fact, I thought season 4 was by far the best, and was in many ways outstanding.  

Except the beginning, which was slow moving and even ponderous in parts.  But as the season picked up momentum, we got at least three parallel but ultimately intersecting, converging stories, and they were a sight and a story to see.

[Definitely spoilers ahead ... ]

The Soviet story, for example, was somehow exciting, very moving. and even funny at times, all propelled by Hopper surviving what happened to him at the of the third season, and Joyce going to Russia to find and ultimately rescue him.  The Duffer Brothers, who made this series, know not when we to do away with an unlikely charismatic character.

The El story was also powerful, to say the least, and its connection to the arch-evil Vecna/Henry who at this point is behind all the terrible things that have befallen the good and not so good people of Hawkins was well conceived and developed.  Brenner aka Poppa and Dr. Owens were also well positioned and played, and it was good for a variety of reasons to see Brenner die a noble death.

Speaking of noble deaths, though, the first place for that goes to hard-metal Eddie, a complex new character whom I would liked to see in another season.  And the best almost death was Max's, who probably had her best season so far.

I guess what I liked least were the dumb, violent, high-school jocks -- we've that so many times before -- and what I would have to have seen were Steve and Nancy get together.  But, hey, that's what next seasons are for, and I'm looking forward to binging the final season of Stranger Things (there maybe a spin-off series, though) which I hope takes less than three years to get back on the screen.

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


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

Emergence 1.2: Cleaning Up

A good second episode of Emergence this week, in which the main action are the bad guys or superior people or people from the future or whoever they are trying to clean up all traces of what happened last week.

They do pretty well.  They hire a guy to bury the debris of the crashed plane out in the sea.  The erase all data for Piper in the hospital that first took her in.  They even liquidate the deceased couple - who died in the car last week after Piper (presumably) caused it to crash - before autopsies could be performed.

But Jo gets them - or, at least, their current agent - by taking advantage of the swirling magnetism in the crashed car, and positioning a mallet in the air so it hits the bad guy in the face.  This enables Jo and Chris to escape.  But Jo realizes they're not home safe just yet, not by a long shot.

So the mystery is becoming a little more clear.  The antagonists are not super powerful or super intelligent.   They have superior knowledge and technology.   And Piper doesn't seem to be bad.  She's a victim of all of this, in her own way, too.  Though, at this point in the narrative, anything is possible.  Piper could be an anti-hero, but we and she just don't know it, as yet.

After two episodes, Emergence seems most indebted to Stranger Things for its ambience and story.  But there are differences.  Emergence takes place in the present.  And, so far, there don't seem to be any monsters created or unleashed, other than the human kind.

See you here next week.

See also: Emergence: May Just Make It

 

Stranger Things 3: Growing Up

An excellent third season of Stranger Things - in fact, my favorite of the three so far - which couldn't be more timely in this age of Trump and Putin.   In the 1980s, the Russians were the Soviets, but they occupy the same place in Western popular culture - adversaries - and so they make great villains along with the monsters that the breakthroughs to the other dimension engender.

And all of our team were in top form.  Dustin's as sharp as ever, this time with a girlfriend, though his friends doubt her existence.   El's superpowers are formidable, though not unlimited, and she's falling in love - with Mike. His sister Nancy makes a cool and on-target reporter, and a good couple with Jonathan.  As always, there are at least three plot lines developing at the same time, peopled with interrelated characters, and converging well, if bruised, at the end.

The most compelling relationship is between Joyce and Jim, though it's hardly as yet a relationship.

Joyce lost Bob to the evil in Season 2, and she's wary of a new relationship.  Jim's not exactly her type.  But there's a chemistry there, which makes it all the more heart-wrenching when he's apparently killed in the Season 3 finale - a grievous blow not only to El, his beloved daughter, but Joyce.

Except - well, I and millions of fans don't think he's dead.  I never think a character is dead unless I see his or her head blown apart.  Jim just disappears when Joyce destroys the portal.  And in the coda, we learn that those nasty Russians have an American prisoner (unseen).   Since no one else from Hawkins has gone missing, I'd say Jim's survival would not only be most welcome, but is wide open.

The series is growing up well.  It's good to see the gang getting beyond their board games.   Cars have replaced bicycles as the most onstage mode of transport.  The sexuality is handled in an intelligent way, including an important character who turns out to be gay.   All of this adds up to a great foundation for a Season 4, which I look forward to seeing as soon as possible.

See also Stranger Things 1.1-1.5: Parallel Horror ... Stranger Things 1.6-18: Lando to Fringe ... Stranger Things 2: Bigger, Better


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

Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams 1.7 The Father Thing: Dick from Space

The 1950s were invaded with science fiction in which entities from outer space arrived here and took over the bodies of human beings.   Invasion of the Body Snatchers - made into a movie at least three times (1956 and 1978 by that name, and again in 1996 as just Body Snatchers) and many more times as riffs on the same story with different names - is the best-known iconic template for that tale.  It was good to see it back again in The Father Thing,  episode 1.7 of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, standalone stories all streaming on Amazon Prime, which I've been reviewing here one at a time.

The Father Thing tells us this story from the perspective of a boy whose father has been taken over by an alien from space.  Written and directed by Michael Dinner (Justified) from Philip K. Dick's 1954 story "The Father-Thing," The Father Thing without the hyphen nonetheless has an appealing 1950s flavor, with a Twilight Zone ambience and a Stranger Things wrap-up - as the boy and then his friends in effect become freedom fighters - which brings the story into the present in terms of what we're seeing these days on television.  Indeed, that and the hashtag #RESIST and video-chatting, plus the use of the word "dick" in several pivotal places (such as when the son refers to the invaders as "dicks from space"), are about the only concessions The Father Thing makes to 2018. 

It's not surprising that Dick the writer partook of this theme, since the question of whether the man is my father or an alien who has commandeered his body is another version of is it real or my imagination, this or that dimension, which all but consumed Philip K. Dick.  But Dick and now Dinner do an especially good job at telling this story, melding the angst of the son with the beginning of a coming of age story for him.  Good work by Greg Kinnear as the father thing, Mireille Enos as the mother, and Jack Gore (Billions) as the son.  Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams episodes continue to have excellent performances by big name and lesser known actors.

See also Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams 1.1 Real Life: Mutually Alternate Realities ...  1.2 Autofac: Human v Machine ... 1.3 Human Is: Compassion or Alien? ... 1.4 Crazy Diamond: DNA Batteries ... 1.5 The Hood Maker: Telepathy and Police ... 1.6 Safe and Sound: This Isn't A Drill ... 1.8 Impossible Planet: Eye of the Beholder ... 1.9 The Commuter: Submitted for Your Approval ... 1.10: Kill All Others: Too Close for Comfort

  
more alternate identities ...

Stranger Things 2: Bigger, Better

I found Stranger Things 2 bigger and better than 1 -

1. More science, less metaphysics in 2 than 1.  For me, this makes the horror impact of the story even stronger.  Will is infected by a kind of virus from the other dimension.  That means there's a logical way to fight it - in this case, heat.  And this in turn means our heroes have a logical chance of winning, in addition to the supernatural, supra-physical, which also plays a major role, in the person of Eleven, aka Jane.

2. Speaking of science, the demogorgons aka demodogs are a good addition, too.   Dart, in particular, makes a nice viper (as per Aesop) or snake (as per Al Wilson's "The Snake" - see my review of The Lady in the Woods for more) which Dustin takes in, nurtures, and is almost killed by, more than once.  And many people are indeed killed as the demogorgon molts into numerous demogorgons.  But Dart remembers Dustin at a crucial time, and eats his nougats rather than Dustin, so in Stranger Things 2 the ancient fable has a better ending than it does in Al Wilson's hit record.

3. Sean Astin and Paul Reiser make great new characters.  So, for that matter, does the much lesser known Sadie Sink as Max.  (Tiny spoiler: one of the three won't be coming back, but I won't tell you which one.)  In Stranger Things 2, all three bring spunk and heart in different ways to the story.

4. Back to Eleven: she has a much richer role in Stranger Things 2 than 1, though in 1 she was certainly a crucial if not the crucial character.  But in 2, we're treated to a high-octane episode in Chicago, with Eleven moving all kinds of things around.

In general, the canvas in 2 is larger than in 1.  The narrative in 2 is much more than a boy lost, and though most of the action still takes place in the small town in Indiana, you get a feeling that much more of the world is at stake.   Good job on all accounts.

See also Stranger Things 1.1-1.5: Parallel Horror ... Stranger Things 1.6-18: Lando to Fringe


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

Stranger Things 1.6-1.8: Lando to Fringe

And herewith a review of the last three episodes of Stranger Things, Season 1 -

• I say Season 1, because the ending certainly cries out for another season.  That, and the justified popularity of Season 1, makes a second season a dead certainty - or maybe live certainty would be a better word, given the context.
• El aka Eleven is certainly alive in some form - why else would Hopper be leaving her favorite food for her out in the woods?  And this of course opens a whole bunch of questions starting from what happened to her when she destroyed the monster, to why is she hiding in or near the woods?
• Will's being infected by the tentacled monster is the trite part of the ending, but it provides a good, dangerous foundation for things to come.
• Is Barb dead? Probably/maybe - I thought I saw her with a tentacle in her mouth, and no one as far as we know rescued her, but you never know.
• Dr. Brenner looks like he was killed, too - but without seeing a dismembered or eaten-before-our-eyes body, you never know about that, either.

In general, I'd say this fine series is most reminiscent of Fringe, especially with the tank of water being a conduit to another plane.  Fringe, of course, was 21st century not 1980s, but it was very 1950s retro - see Fringe Science for more on this - so Stranger Things is retro even if it comes by that via an intentional or unintentional indebtedness to Fringe.

Stranger Things also has a great sense of humor, with the riffs on Lando Calrission being my favorite in the concluding episodes.  Bring on the next season already!

See also Stranger Things 1.1-1.5: Parallel Horror


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

Stranger Things 1.1-1.5: Parallel Horror

So I saw the first five episodes of Netflix's Stranger Things on a colleague's recommendation, and really enjoyed.   I'll see the rest tonight, and put in a review after that, but I thought I'd say a few things about the series now.

First, it's correctly billed as "science fiction horror".  Horror can come in two flavors, science fiction and fantasy, and like the dichotomy in general, it hinges on whether the story has scientific plausibility.   For example, if a vampire story hinges on a virus, an alien invasion, or a mutation in our species, it would be science fiction horror.  If, on the other hand, vampires arise due to some inchoate curse, we're dealing with fantasy horror.

Stranger Things is definitely science fiction.  In addition to the campy scientists, we have a teacher giving a great little talk about Hugh Everett's "many worlds" interpretation of quantum physics - that is, an infinitely of possible worlds, much like but subtly different from ours, set off by whatever events. That may not be scientific fact, but it's certainly plausible science theory, and is the bulwark of Stranger Things, and makes it very different from A Nightmare on Elm Street, however much the two may share the same teen horror angst.

Indeed, though much has been made about the homages Stranger Things provides to Wes Craven and the 1980s, it cuts a swath all its own.   It needed to be situated in the 1980s, in an age before cell phones with cameras, because the lack of ready contact and photographic evidence is essential to the isolation of our characters and their inability to prove what they know to be true.  Thus the 80s accoutrements are not so much homages as they essential conveyors of the story.

I'll be back with more when I've finished the series, but it looks like, once again, Netflix has stepped up with a narrative that soars above what is usually found on the networks and cable, including, in this case, series on the Syfy Channel.

See also Fringe 1.6-1.8: Lando to Fringe


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