Oh jeez, the series was great but they really should have toned it down a bit with the cringy fairytale ending.
By the end eeeverybody has to take their turn and declare their unconditional adoration for the Mary-Sue of the series:
- Townes (despite years of no contact and overall lack of relevancy at this point in the story?)
- the grizzled russian chess veteran (despite playing her only once?)
- Billy (despite him rightfully telling her to fuck off previously)
- Beltik (despite her previously refusing his help and him being some random Kentucky store manager and a washed up ex-regional champion way over his head at this point)
- the twins, for some reason - what are they even doing in Billy's basement offering advice in a game way above their level? (do they even know any of the other people in that room? Who invited them? Why does the US chess champion have to rely on phoned in advice from some random friends while playing for the world title in the first place?)
- Borgov (who is inexplicably happy for her despite the fact that his loss is a huge upset not just for him, but the entire cold-war era soviet bloc)
- throw in some random old men on the street in Moscow beacuse why not
By the end I was surprised her adoptive father didn't chip in and call her in Russia to admit teary eyed that he was wrong and Beth is "the greatest person that ever lived" or something.
Just when I thought we could quickly get away from the dumb Russian subplot, they pull us back in for some reason.
Look I get it's a lighthearted show, but there are far too many stupid things that you need to overlook to keep the suspension of disbelief going.
- army dudes (?) seizing a house with automatic rifles shoot worse than stormtroopers and are kept at bay by a fat guy with a pistol
- your average American-house-wooden-wall offers bullet cover
- one of the bad guys casually walks out and never attempts to shoot our heroes (as they are trying to escape in a van coming up the road) for like a good minute
- Kate Bush and Ella Fitzgerald can bring you back from the upside down, but having people shout in your face doesn't. Why hasn't anyone tried punching her in the face?
- Max falls 5m off the ground but is absolutely fine
- Kamchatka has worse security than a summer work camp
- Hopper can "bend" his ankle to his will now, but he can still run barefoot on it in the snow just fine no problem
- did I mention Hopper got even more swole and is still super strong on a diet of bread and water?
As far as acting goes:
It was kind of sad seeing old frames of previous seasons with those happy little kids.
All in all kind of lame.
Uh, for fucks sake.
First of all, the show suffers greatly from having its characters age too much in between seasons. They certainly aren't cute innocent little kids anymore, and this kind of changes the appeal (and premise) of the show, while making some of the lack in acting talent all the while more evident. It makes the show less enjoyable.
(Meanwhile Winona Ryder hasn't skipped a beat in the last 2 years on still being fucking weird on/off screen and hard to take seriously as an actress).
None of this is something the showrunners could have controlled for the most part. But even so, everything else about the show is still kind of shit though.
Hopper's plot is stupid and cringey, Eleven's plot is stupid and cringey. I get what they're trying to do with the horror aspect, but it's just sudden, out of left field for this show and kind of dumb in execution.
Season 3 sort of wrapped up everything nicely but Hawkins still continues being the poltergeist indian burial ground combined with twilight zone 24/7 for some reason. Will is ...well, comically gay all of a sudden. I could go on.
The premise outstayed it's welcome and the story barely makes sense anymore. The aesthetics and soundtrack still hold up, but that's about it for season 4 of Stranger Things, it seems.
Game of Thrones has jumped the shark. :|
While the 8th episode felt pretty great, I didn't really like the direction in which the show was going. I thought I could bare with it, but this... this was just stupid.
Nevermind the changes from the books and the shock value scenes gratuitously injected into the plot. This entire episode felt rushed, stale and contrived, and badly directed even. The entire Dorne sub-plot is cartoonish; The Stannis scene itself was a nonsensical abomination; Tyrion has been reduced to a trinket, while the whole Daenerys part felt staged, forced and lacked any weight or tension whatsoever. Editing, cinematography and special effects all seemed more amateurish than ever before.
I felt like I was watching a mid-week late night filler, like Game of Thrones started referencing itself and making the rounds.
I used to watch the show because it wasn't like all other television productions. It wasn't perfect, but you got the feeling that the writers didn't make up things as they went along. Characters were fleshed out and made surprising (but understandable) decisions. The story was well-paced and relatable.
All of that is not true anymore.
Looks like I'll finally get around to reading the books.
