The Reel Rejects - STRANGER THINGS Season 5 Episode 8 FINALE REVIEW!!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Thank you guys for joining us on New Year's Day. Happy to be here with all of you. You ready to absorb this? I'm not ready, but I'm ready as I'll ever be. Let's do it. It doesn't quite feel like it's ending. No, but hopefully in two and a half hours from now, it will. Let's do this.

Starting point is 00:00:24 All right, ladies and gentlemen, well, thank you again for being here. say a real special thank you to Prepper as well for editing this down. They were not supposed to come in today because it's New Year's, but they made an exception to help us out. So thank you guys for delivering the goods, allowing the reject audience to see this. Thank you. Additionally, a great way you can help support. That way we can keep paying Prepper is you can get the full international watch

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Starting point is 00:01:18 Claim the YouTubers. Yeah, that's where we'll make it back. They're cropped in little five to eight seconds in footage that they use one third of this episode. Talk it over it and all. anyway whatever the other way to get some our apparel

Starting point is 00:01:33 scan the bar code you see right here on screen great way to support the Chanel all right John I'll go to you first Amigo we both got to get back to our respective families but before that

Starting point is 00:01:44 we're going to talk some strange for things how are you feeling were you satisfied with the ending uh yeah it's one of those things where it's like

Starting point is 00:01:55 how do you how do you how do you do this how do you end everything how do you tie it all up in a bow and i think this finale at the moment certainly was filled with a lot of you know really striking gripping moments i think it does reflect the shape of the season thus far and it does feel like two episodes they chose not to break in half um but i liked a lot of what we got here and uh even certain things that i didn't so much like in the moment I could sort of get on board with a little

Starting point is 00:02:27 bit more by the end and I don't know there's been a whole bunch of weird discourse about how the dramatic scenes are written and how many of them there are and if they're too much or not but I liked a lot of the you know wrap up Coda stuff that we got with the

Starting point is 00:02:43 characters yeah a lot of the send off stuff was certainly the most touching and the most striking and it felt like it had the best breathing room the first half of the episode was very thrilling I still kind of have that feeling that I've had

Starting point is 00:02:59 you know is a feeling that I feel like we've discussed in the context of multiple franchise things this sort of feeling where like when the final battle kicks off I almost feel like there was a little bit of

Starting point is 00:03:11 some extra shit we could have done before hopping into the final battle like when we were in the final battle of it all and we're in the first few minutes it's like we gotta get to Henry like now 30 seconds and I'm like we've been here for like five minutes you know so like there's I don't know I'm still chewing on it obviously the first half of it was very

Starting point is 00:03:29 cool and satisfying but in parts feels maybe a bit abrupt but the stuff you know paying off the characters I thought was really lovely how are you feeling at the moment in totality I love the last like 40 minutes a lot it felt the most like stranger things

Starting point is 00:03:48 weirdly the part would no sci-fi felt the most like stranger things whereas yeah that first hour I think it's like a solid like hour until like it's probably like the midpoint of the

Starting point is 00:04:04 episode when they do kill off Henry and then they start journeying back before 11 does or doesn't die and it was fun like it was a lot of fun the gripes were kind of coming out of us here and there while also having

Starting point is 00:04:20 moments that were really cool and really enjoyable. Like, it was, that first hour was kind of like the entire season. Yeah. Like, well, what a great moment. Oh, what a weird moment. Oh, what a great moment. Like, why they cut the black to try to try to trigger since Steve was going to die here. Yeah. It sounds like a gripe. It's just like a moment like that

Starting point is 00:04:36 if you want to sell. Like, well, you don't have commercial breaks. And I know like, now that it's cut the black, I don't buy for one second that he's going to die. And then there's also like the the grounded reality of being in the upside down. as compared to where we once were with the show.

Starting point is 00:04:52 And then when you're there on their tower and it's breaking, I'm like, I feel like this tower would have completely fallen over by now. Or, you know, having the mind player show up in physical form. But when you really think about it, it's as long as like Will's coming out. You know, like, it's really not that long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like so cool and big and epic. Yet there seems to be kind of a lack of fear to it,

Starting point is 00:05:16 even though it's so scopic and huge. and you got this giant cast of characters for running away, but instead of it feeling like scary, it feels more like a Roland Emmerich movie. Yeah. Like, Nancy is surviving like she's in Jurassic World all of a sudden. You know,

Starting point is 00:05:31 like, I don't understand how any of these guys made it out of here live with this giant thing. Yeah. But at the same, and like I said, at the same time, a lot of it is like really cool, though, to behold, and it is one of the coolest visuals they've ever brought to life. However, with the

Starting point is 00:05:44 buildup of this and finding out that Vecna is actually, Henry's, you know, working with something that he's actually answering to as well. It's not the inverse, you know, I think that should have breathed longer. That should have been bigger and it should have been more suspenseful and there should have been actual

Starting point is 00:06:01 like bigger stakes to it as opposed to we know they're going to win. Like the whole time the tone and vibe was like, we know they're going to win while being cool, you know? So it was like visually awesome to see at the same time, a big part of the appeal is having the true menace and danger be felt. So having

Starting point is 00:06:18 that be a little bit undercut while making some choices along the way was like hit or miss. I would have I like the scene when Hopper and Vecna first meet. I thought that was a really good Vecna scene. I like a lot of the stuff with the kid, weirdly, the group

Starting point is 00:06:34 of kids. I think a lot of the stuff with the group of kids is really intense. Like, unpacking Henry's past and understanding that he a lot of the themes of this have been about acceptance, about cycles, about breaking cycles and about choice and watching how most of our characters do that for benevolence and then

Starting point is 00:06:56 henry chooses affirm malevolence so i like seeing that and and i think jimmy campbell bowers incredible so i'm it was it was like interesting trying to piece the history parts together because that whole history and episode whatever of i mean in season four with henry as a child he came across as like evil michael meyer's just like born evil and he had these powers powers and stuff. Yeah, so to seem like totally innocent at first. Yeah, to explain it further. Yeah. Part of me was wondering, we're like, did we really need this? Was this part of the original thing with Henry? And I guess it's just making sure people see that play. Apparently the play deals with that. Is that what it is? Okay. So we actually

Starting point is 00:07:38 Yeah, I don't know how I feel about like trying to answer how we got powers. Like I don't feel like we need really an answer on that. I kind of like the missing. to it. Yeah. But getting it was a good scene and Henry and Jamie Campbell Bauer is so good at it

Starting point is 00:07:56 and you know like some stuff was feeling like it was moving awfully quick because it had to you know like the whole thing

Starting point is 00:08:05 with him not like going into the cave it just kind of seemed like he suddenly faced it and went pretty fast when it happened and then he gets

Starting point is 00:08:12 like crippled by the time he like gets downstairs you know yeah it's weird this is ostensibly a nine episode season and I feel like it should have been 10

Starting point is 00:08:20 or something, because, yeah, I remember feeling like a lot of the physical elements of, you know, fighting Vecna were a little bit, I don't know, I kept catching myself going, I thought he was more powerful than this. Or like, you know, and I know that there are a number of things you could say

Starting point is 00:08:36 of like, oh, 11 caught him off guard or this or that, but I don't know, I thought he was more powerful than this. Or like, you know, yeah, him, it's right on the line when he's got all the kids in the trance and he's in the trance and then 11 and colleague, get the drop on him. Part of my brain goes, okay, I can kind of see that.

Starting point is 00:08:52 And the other part of my brain goes, I don't know, I think they could have sold this better. Like, it's, I don't know, there's something about the way the previous seasons all tend to move that seem to balance nicely, the weird intrigue around the sci-fi stuff

Starting point is 00:09:04 with the twisted nature of what these characters are going through. I so meet you there, though, I felt like as great as Jamie Campbell-Bauer is. That's seriously amazing. he's not that scary in this season and he's less scary than he was last season he looks kind of by a lot

Starting point is 00:09:24 like when he came in in episode four it was like holy shit damn he's going to be wrong look at him man he's just like killing people left and right and then after that it just kind of starts going a little bit like less and less scary and then right down to the final episode where it doesn't feel he really

Starting point is 00:09:41 doesn't feel threatening yeah and it's weird I like the psychological aspects and stuff and I like Will and his conversation in his mind. I like that a lot. Um, and his choice to move toward this corrupting force. But yeah, like, you know, the whole physical manifestation of the Maya Flair, like there's so much awe-inspiring visual, you know, uh, flavor going on, you know, a lot of energy and a lot of, you know, creativity going into this. But it does feel like one of those boss battles that you play and you're like, oh my God, this is going to be impossible. And

Starting point is 00:10:13 then it's over pretty fast. Yeah. Like, oh, this, I thought I was, I didn't realize I was playing on easy mode as it starts progressing and Nancy's just like like again because it looks cool and it's fun

Starting point is 00:10:24 that's where the forgiveness part like I'm like 75% I would say like I'm like 85% super enjoying it and 50% being like I don't understand

Starting point is 00:10:37 whether there's like no physicality of difficulty to what's happening here half my brain is like it's probably good we don't spend too much time with the giant mind flare because like

Starting point is 00:10:46 that seems impossible uh so like it's if it's short lived i kind of get it but at the same time i don't know yeah it's very like it's fun to watch them all team up and hit the it's like a video game hitting the vulnerable spots and stuff and i you know like that there's the outside group fight versus the nucleus fight at the core of it all like it's very repetitive from season three which and that fight felt way more intense when they're fighting the mind flare totally yeah yeah yeah and this should be the most intense the most like that battle should have been

Starting point is 00:11:16 given some kind of center spotlight, whereas it feels like one of many interludes that are all crashing together. And then the second half of the episode actually breathes when we're paying off the characters. Yeah. So it's weird, because I'd be curious now, it's not been that long. Like part of me goes, well, if I watch them all in like a really tight binge, maybe this will feel a bit different. But, you know, the way the last chapter trailed off and then the way this chapter kind of moves at a breakneck speed yeah it's weird it's like there's a lot of really good stuff in there there's a lot of stuff i had fun with but it's also it feels like it whooshed by a little too quickly for like how earth rending all these sci-fi stakes are yeah the last episode introduces

Starting point is 00:12:00 like in the last 20 minutes that the world's about to be destroyed because they're going to collide worlds and and then the resolve that just didn't feel as impending or as difficult I thought we would get, like, the actual approach of the planet and the collision thing happening, like, after a while. Not, like, that's where we're starting. Yeah. You know, and, yeah, this is interesting. It was odd. It was, like, and there were a lot of great, it's caught up in this web of devices where I'm like, every nitpick I have has, like, an interesting little thing they did to, like, account for it or try and smooth it out.

Starting point is 00:12:37 It's like, I appreciate how hard they have worked on this, but it is, it is a funky shape. tape season. Well, like I've said it many times of how Eleven and Hopper are my, outside of this season are my favorite characters. Yeah. And they were trying to make up

Starting point is 00:12:54 for the lack of them being rich characters in this one episode. And when they were like trying to, when they were splicing it in to the first hour, I was, I was like, man, really acting.

Starting point is 00:13:10 I've had a hard time being, like, moved to where they probably want me to be moved because I feel like they're just kind of cramming in here because it's the final episode. So we've got to like get the dialogue in now. All of a sudden here and now at the very end we have the Hopper 11 stuff which yeah

Starting point is 00:13:24 which yeah in the moment I was like okay well you know maybe they're going to give us some incredible drama now. And like there's a lot of good scenes but it's well acted scenes I think and you know some repetitive I guess the whole thing with him learning to trust her was like a thing

Starting point is 00:13:40 we've been just fucking flushing out since like season two apparently and and to let truly let go and just let her be her own person yeah yeah and by the time eleven sacrifices herself i was more like in shock of like what was happening i'm like oh damn this doesn't feel real i don't i don't really know if i believe what's happening right now and i was uh yeah i was just like hollow in that moment of like is this real and then it cuts like a year and a half later and I actually like segue into the parts that I really liked I actually like the idea and I don't

Starting point is 00:14:17 know how people will feel about this of choosing your ending do you choose which one some people I know saying that out loud might actually sound like a cough out to some people like they just don't can't commit if she's actually dead or or this I

Starting point is 00:14:32 and if she does choose to be alive her not actually saying goodbye or catching up back up with them I'm like I can understand that though because the whole point is to keep them safe. And like she gives this up so they can be safe. I would choose that ending as a fan.

Starting point is 00:14:49 And I thought it was very moving. And I like the hopping around time that they did with the flash forwards. Everyone did such an amazing, like it felt the most like stranger things to me in that final like 40 minute stretch with Hopper and watching Hopper and Mike and their resolve and seeing how far they've come

Starting point is 00:15:07 and they're like the fact that he's going to him to help him through a grieving process. and a path to choose. Because they're uniquely bonded now. Like, they have a unique perspective that only the two of them could really share. I really wish we did get more Joyce and Hopper throughout the season.

Starting point is 00:15:25 Yeah. As to make them feel like a couple, but I was very moved by the time he proposed. You know, that's, like, huge payoff. Yeah. For, after everything they've been through from season three, like, through all the seasons, but in terms of when the romance became a little bit more defined,

Starting point is 00:15:37 season three and four, and to watch the payoff at the Enzo's thing, that they keep talking about and him proposing and him finding peace, finally finding true acceptance. I was very, very, very touched by that. I thought that was rather beautiful. Everything with Jonathan and Steve and Nancy on the rooftop of, you know, they have an adult life ahead of them.

Starting point is 00:16:03 Yeah. And I was, I thought, again, like really great acting and it felt like life. You know, part of my, part of my awareness with this is, like, I've seen some of the discourse on like spending time with like predominantly like Will Mike Jonathan Nancy

Starting point is 00:16:20 the thing people forget is that in season one they were like outside of Will who was like the focus about the star they were like the stars they were lead characters they were the main characters and it shifted though over time and I feel like perhaps they should have been more aware of that

Starting point is 00:16:36 because if they really wanted to go in that direction then Joy should have been way more of a character you know and she's not really much of a character here either and i i still think though that there's probably that the nostalgia of the duffer brothers for a show about nostalgia or like that riffs a lot on nostalgia they they seem like to put their attention on where they wanted to close out on the characters they cared the most to close out on uh from what they experienced and i think they did a good job in that final 40 minutes of giving buttons to everyone you know max and And Lucas get together.

Starting point is 00:17:13 Dustin gets to become valedictorian, even the Stacey Carol Cook, like bringing that back from season two. Oh, and his speech was great. His speech was great. Honoring Hellfire Club was great. No one was booing. Everyone was celebrating.

Starting point is 00:17:26 So kind of makes you go, like, do people now not hate Eddie? There's got it. I mean, the people of Hawkins at least have to preclude in by now to the fact that there was some crazy shit happening. So I hope that with, I'm just choosing to believe

Starting point is 00:17:39 that there has to have been some kind of redemption for any months and amongst the people of Hawkins. They didn't resolve the bullying? No, no. I love the final scene in the Dungeons and Dragons and having Max there and all the little flash fours that they were doing and we choose the story

Starting point is 00:17:56 we want to tell about ourselves and to tell about others. Like that was all, I thought that was like so moving. I thought that was incredibly beautiful. I mean, one of the better things I can say about the season is for however disjointed some of it has been I think you're right. It feels like the duffers perhaps in this stretch

Starting point is 00:18:11 kind of went you know it's hard to end anything you're not going to please everybody regardless so yeah let's hone in on the stuff that we care the most about and that you know is the most emotionally resonant or whatever and yeah I would agree like I do like Jonathan and Nancy's

Starting point is 00:18:27 romance is huge in the first couple seasons yeah it's huge yeah and then you stop giving a shit about it for like two more seasons so it's kind of weird to get all the focus back on it well and it was a show yeah where it's like early on a lot of character, like a lot of choices

Starting point is 00:18:43 surrounding characters and the archetypes they occupy, you know, were part of what pulled people in so much. It's like, oh, you've got Steve. He's a total asshole. And, you know, Jonathan is crushing on Nancy and there's this, he's like a little bit of a creep, a little bit, but you know, charming. And then Steve has his whole turn

Starting point is 00:18:59 and there's like, everybody, I don't know, part of it is taking those familiar, nostalgic archetypes and then applying a more modern lens to them and letting them grow beyond. those archetypes which they do selectively because some characters are very much just types um but yeah i i i that's what part of what made the show alongside the you know nostalgic stuff and the sci-fi stuff so like i i do appreciate at least those elements yeah flashing forward and

Starting point is 00:19:28 and you know giving it's nice to give these for as much as i'm sure everybody will still be moaned that there was no death toll really uh you know it's lovely to see yeah that everyone's kind of kind of go out and Some people are going to stay in Hawkins. Some people are going to go out and live their lives. But it feels like there's that catharsis of letting everyone go. Us as characters, we're letting all these characters that we love go so that they can hopefully live a lovely life, you know, happily ever after the end. I liked Holly a lot.

Starting point is 00:19:54 And I've seen the complaints about it is kind of odd how Holly does feel like she has more screen time than a lot of our other main people. Yes. Yes. She is a main character of season five. I don't feel like any discredit should go. to her as a character or as an actor either. I think she's a really

Starting point is 00:20:12 good character and I think she's a really good actor as well. Yeah. And I thought she did an amazing job and I cared a lot about her more than I did about a lot of other main characters here. Well, it's a conscientious solution to the fact that a lot of your core kids are now adults. So you have some kids that's still involved.

Starting point is 00:20:28 Yeah. You know, and Derek comes along with that and then the other kids eventually come around. A lot about the legacy moving on. I do wish Hawkins did feel... I wish there was bit of a melancholic touch to it like all these kids there's so many of them they experienced true nightmares like they were kidnapped and the death tolls that have happened here and this town just feels like dairy without the curse of forgetting stuff yes you know what i mean like you's like

Starting point is 00:20:55 you guys like know everything that happened and it feels like there's no residual paul of that's been cast over this town yeah everyone just feels like fine and normal and i get if we want to be like happy but so much of this is about grief as well and i wish there was a bit of a middle there like the way how our main cast felt at the end i feel like you could have done some kind of some of these kids would be messed up by yeah and in the rebuilding you might have you know some kind of mural or memorial or some kind of element of like hey yes we're rebuilding and we're stronger and you know then the nightmares are over but we did yeah lose a lot of people and a lot of life and you know again it's partly encapsulated in dust and speech but yeah it's like hawkins

Starting point is 00:21:42 for the character that it's been up till now you know i i could yeah like it's weird it's nice after everything to have it be so bright and optimistic but yeah given the totality of everything a little extra bittersweetness could have been nice a little bit yeah uh killing off callie or did not kill off callie uh i i would choose that because if she is dead i thought that was like to like I was not even sad when it happened. I was just mad at the writing of that. I was actually upset when it happened. Like, what a bunch of bullshit.

Starting point is 00:22:15 Like, it doesn't get an arc, doesn't get to really be a character here. But it seems like the latter would be true because all those other seeds of earlier moments, they were, like, her pointing down the gun and everything. And the fact that I moved quick on her death, it does seem, and, and, yeah, it wasn't working the, the kryptonite. does feel like

Starting point is 00:22:37 that would probably be true and I like the idea of 11 getting to have her actual freedom now even though if she has to be a fugitive still I don't know how she would like possibly live an identity if she doesn't have her powers anymore would she have her power still I guess she would have to

Starting point is 00:22:51 I mean yeah they would have to have the power still working in order for the plan to have work to escape yeah but yeah she just maybe just chooses to not show anybody but yeah I like I like the choose your own adventure nature of that and i yeah it's it's it's like where do you choose for cali to have died before the part of that conversation that we didn't get to see or afterwards um but yeah i like it a

Starting point is 00:23:15 little bit better in the mic version of things certainly that she is able to yeah give give this one last crucial you know leg up to the gang you know it's it's i don't know i have to imagine that probably without 11 it if 11 had remained and got in capture. I feel like that means bad news for everybody in Hawkins even still. So it's like yeah, I think that sets 11 free and everybody free and it's a way for Callie's death to at least like carry a little more

Starting point is 00:23:45 weight than like the random banality of death that it comes across as at first of just like oh shit this bomb exploded and the guy squeezed and there we go you know. But it's right on the line.

Starting point is 00:24:00 Also speaking of though Mike With my relationship with Mike One and two is Mike Season 1 and 2 Season 3 through most of 5 is Finn Wolfhard Like I don't see the character Mike anymore

Starting point is 00:24:23 I just see Finn Wolfhard acting And I thought Finn Wolfhard was so much better This season than he has been since like season too and this final episode it was mike that was the first time in a very very long time where i felt like i was with mike and not the actor fin wolfhard yeah even though i thought the actor fin wolfart was doing a really good job this season i still mainly saw fin wolfhart and this time i was back with mike and i was really moved by everything he was doing and i thought he absolutely slayed in this final episode yeah the stuff that like really requires him to have had had growth

Starting point is 00:25:01 and loss and stuff like that like really brings the micness into sharper focus. Because yeah, he's been empowering other characters and he's always a source of color and can sometimes, you know, he's got quips and stuff like that. But you know, those are things, those are isms

Starting point is 00:25:17 that I'm used to seeing Finn Wolfhardt bring other places. And yeah, like the emotional depths, the somberness of his performance, especially in the second half, I thought was really, really nicely done on his part. Yeah. His post-conversation, too, with Will, that was very brief,

Starting point is 00:25:34 kind of absolves a lot of, like, annoyances that he had in, like, season four. Yeah. You know, he's like, I've been so self-absorbed. I'm sorry, I didn't know. So I'm like, damn, you sound so mature. I'm like an adult right now. Yeah. Because you are an adult.

Starting point is 00:25:47 Yeah. But, yeah. And weirdly, like, compliments the entire thing we watched now for all of Mike throughout the last few seasons. Yeah, it makes total sense because he's going through hormones. He's growing up. He's also dealing with this nightmare. and, you know, his fixation on 11 and all sorts of other things. But yeah, I do think the season did lack focus.

Starting point is 00:26:08 So it would hinder the emotional impact of certain scenes. You know, even write down, honestly, for me, even Mike and 11, because I would forget about Mike and 11 as a thing in this, you know, and a lot of that comes down to the lack of writing they did for 11. And 11 and Hopper, a lot of that lack, which is weird because a lot, Maybe because so much of the final 40 minutes, like the vibe, the look, hopper back in his mustache and so weird,

Starting point is 00:26:37 like, it's just easier to get lost back into your love for this world and stranger things and feel like you're there, that it was easier to feel all these emotions. And so I do think they lost focus there. And led to Hamilton was the fucking waste. Oh, my. So weird. I don't know why they even cast her or made her a character.

Starting point is 00:26:59 like holy crap what a waste yeah that could have been anybody i mean like again good presence i'll happily watch her but like weird that she never amounted to much other than just another one of these guys bad guy another bad guy another military you know wants to harness this for their own personal gain character for the gain of the military blah blah and uh i i'm yeah just across the show that's made such great use and of guest stars and and and older stars from you know who had their heyday in the 80s and 90s like I don't know it just feels like a spiritual fumble because like these are the kinds of roles they're good at making flavorful you know especially for as much tribute as the show has done at the Terminator movies yeah you would think they would want to really make a rich character for Linda Hamilton instead of the most bland generic character one of the most bland characters this entire series has ever done. Yeah, they did her presence a disservice because, yeah, like, her

Starting point is 00:28:03 stature just makes you think that there's more going on. Yeah. And it's not really. And that's just a bummer. Yeah, and for a show that so much of the greatness has hinged on mystery, I do think this final season totally lacked mystery, you know?

Starting point is 00:28:19 The mystery is a big part of what makes stranger things, stranger things. Every season has had that. What's going to happen next? What exactly is going on, huh? You know? And while you might have moments where you're like what's happening what's going on it's never like we're going to find out the answers you know the most mysterious this season got was when they were figuring out like okay whatever this thing is above the lab and the upside down it's this whole new kind of matter

Starting point is 00:28:42 and it's all it's gonna kill us if you touch it and like that was the most interesting height of mystery until moments later when it's like well nothing happened actually she shot it and it's fine yeah but we know a little bit more than we did before now and we blew it up with see four yeah yeah so yeah it's i do think it missed the mark on a lot of this whole this season as a whole in the finale it does not make up for a lot of it in the finale itself definitely has flaws but out of all of season five it also has some of the absolute strongest shit season five had to offer yeah yeah 100% it's it's it's weird it's like they missed the contrast every season has a good contrast between like the sci-fi shit and

Starting point is 00:29:24 the town which this doesn't really have and like 11 is detached from like most of the story and I think that like the final scene with the Dungeons and Dragons crew does a nice thing to pay that off for their relationship but in terms of like where this all began with the four of them and her as like a little group feels like it was not really that well touched on this so yeah ultimately yeah we're in agreement it's like there's there's so much good stuff in here and there's been a lot of loveliness across the season but it is the the least focused the most sort of like yeah we're going to

Starting point is 00:29:59 it does feel like people trying to solve an impossible problem and getting there, you know, a certain percentage of the time. Well, to bring it back to 11, yeah, she felt like not part of the ensemble. And that's a, in any capacity. That's probably one of the, that's one of the, I think one of the absolute biggest fumbles

Starting point is 00:30:14 this season had is 11. Like she, it's weird. I don't know much about the behind the scenes, but it does, it does feel like. I think she should have been there with them in the end. Yeah, or something. I don't know. It just feels like somebody checked out

Starting point is 00:30:27 or overlooked. Like, it's she's such a she's the most important character so i'm just like how is this possible how did this happen like how do we not unless there were intervening factors behind and it's the only season they did pad right like it's weird she's the every season it's that's great stuff for her and they've not had it's not like they haven't had time she was more interesting as like jane with no powers in the beginning of season four than anything

Starting point is 00:30:59 here. Yeah, because yeah, she and Hopper for so much of it are just off here being Soldier Girl and Mentor, which is fine, but it's all retreads of, like, conversations we've already had. Yeah. And, uh, and I don't know, the emotional payoff with 11, like it's, the only emotional

Starting point is 00:31:15 payoff there is like the sacrifice for everybody and her getting to potentially live happily ever after, but there's so much left on the table there. Yeah. A lot of it was just shuffling back and forth between surface to nuance and it's like okay surface beats here surface beats here a nuance now now nuance but because we didn't get much nuance earlier here now this nuance moment isn't hitting as strong it's yeah yeah at the end of the day it leaves you on a lasting note right and so the lasting notes

Starting point is 00:31:43 i did feel were strong with uh ste and i and i could feel a part of me that wants to just hold on to that you know i do i there's this part of me that like the more we talk about it the more problems i have yeah and i understand that's part of our job yeah what we do here uh as just a fan of this show i don't want to i want to remember that i was really moved by the last 40 minutes yeah in spite of knowing like i have a lot of problems without this season was done even how this final episode was done i got a lot of issues but the final 40 minutes was very moving and they did the best they could and that wrap up and at the end of the day was the emotional. Everything I wanted the last

Starting point is 00:32:25 40 minutes. I just was more of the show was the last 40 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or just a better balance of that and all the crazy developments of the upside down. Because it was also like intimate, it was just in Hawkins, it was in the town. You know, there's a lot of the shit that makes stranger things, stranger things. And this I just kind of feel like was a big green screen episode. Like, a lot of it

Starting point is 00:32:41 I just associate as like a big treadmills in the volume, maybe. The top of you, a lot of it is like it's a bunch of green screen. Yeah, they I would say, yeah. It's like they it wasn't the prettiest game, but they won the game. They got the

Starting point is 00:32:57 win, and yeah, there were some, you'll have to go check the tape for your next project, you know, improve on some things, but, you know, for the insurmountable feat of having to end the biggest streaming show of all time, this could have gone way worse. Well, it's beyond that, it's one of the most

Starting point is 00:33:13 influential shows of all time. This influenced not just other, it influenced movies. Yeah, you know? Yeah, totally. And things that, you know, direct inspired this have since gone on to in their later iterations take inspiration for this

Starting point is 00:33:29 directly in a very clear way so like yeah for the cultural phenomenon that it is you know we eeked it out like it's not Game of Thrones level bad no no like Game of Thrones was like that was a disaster yeah the

Starting point is 00:33:44 the like whole sensibility of the show didn't change you know take a nose dive but yeah it is it's easy to see i guess that this is sort of the most uh lump in season i guess it's it's the most yeah yeah it's the least pretty in terms of like how they symmetrically got everything done on a scale of fun that i had i would say 85% i would say 85% if you're looking at like metrics here fun 85% yeah in terms of like satisfied stranger things fans with writing and stuff

Starting point is 00:34:20 I'd honestly give it like a 60 to 65%. Yeah, like really. It's like in time of the whole season that lumps in the finale, like a 60 to 65%. Yeah, it's that low end fresh. Yeah. It's that low end fresh. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:33 Like I'm literally the critic at audience score. Yeah. I mean, the audience scoring, this is fucking terrible right now. Well, you know, because yeah, we'll defeat it everyone with the power of gayness, of course.

Starting point is 00:34:42 Which I just don't feel like I don't, I'm like, I've seen that, I've watched the last half of that episode again. And I decided to, count it because everyone's like, let's spend 20 minutes on Will. I'm like, no, it's about three and a half minutes. I was going to say it's not that

Starting point is 00:34:56 long of a scene. It's about three minutes and 30 seconds of Will opening up out of an hour and six minute episode. And yes, the way... This is not the longest hard to heart scene between characters this season. Yeah, the way they do

Starting point is 00:35:12 set it aside is a little is definitely cheesy in the way they do it. But that seemed to just overtake the internet you know and there are some like funny ass memes and funny ass a i videos they did on it for sure sure yeah um water cooler moment accomplished regardless but yes but yeah like the way how that one scene that's mainly that one scene that like really seem to skyrocket the audience crossroads with a million different roads for people yeah and a fork and if a for such a short

Starting point is 00:35:44 scene to make people literally convince people that it's like 10 to 20 minutes long it's a bad sign because I'm like, all right, yeah. I mean, if you feel like it is when it's not, then I guess that's a bad sign. I guess that's not good. But, yeah, as a whole, definitely my least favorite season. I would definitely make this,

Starting point is 00:36:05 this is my least favorite season, by a lot. Some iconic moments, some stuff that stands with the best the show has had to offer. But, yeah, in terms of a top to bottom season, very oddly shaped. Yeah, very oddly shaped. and yeah it's like it took on some of its own identity the further we got especially in you know the second act and the finale you know the the wrinkle in time stuff coming into greater

Starting point is 00:36:30 focus the melty yogurt lab and all that stuff like there are things that finally make this season feel like five but uh but yeah it's just like the the for better for worse and the ups and downs that the seasons have had up till now i still feel like they always had a better balance of the thing that the upside down is the actual inverse of and the upside down itself.

Starting point is 00:36:54 Yeah. Like the upside down and Hawkins are almost to me supposed to provide some conversational symmetry with each other and this was mostly

Starting point is 00:37:02 Hawkins didn't really feel like Hawkins till the very end and I get that they're under quarantine and everything's different but I feel like there's a different way to do that where it didn't feel just like drab military zone only and then you know

Starting point is 00:37:15 upside down. Yeah. but when are you going to do last 40 minutes very enjoyable um and that's where we're at the show was over now and it's time to say goodbye a lot of plans we demonstrated with a lot of visual aids i like where they left off steve for his future of just being a guy who wants to settle down here and other people going for bigger dreams so yeah good stuff good stuff all around and uh loved i love the final scene the final scene was beautiful i that's where if anything counts is like did they nail their final scene and i thought they nailed their final scene

Starting point is 00:37:50 and the final image you close the door to the basement yeah yeah yeah they absolutely the new generation's beginning just below us and you know the kids we've grown up with over this time or going out to live life just above us beyond that door it's a great motif for the whole thing yeah it's great they they nailed the final episode and yeah i'm going to miss these characters i'm still going to miss the show yeah and a lot of great at the end of the day somehow for a clunky season they managed to have a good resolve and wrap up for a lot of their characters you know so like if you choose to view this is two episodes the last episode

Starting point is 00:38:22 was great I mean if I mean but if the last episode would have like no sci-fi or anything no that's true yeah I get why they did this but you know in the structure of a lot of shows I feel like your big action finale is the penultimate episode and then your character finale is the last one

Starting point is 00:38:36 it's a giant epilogue but because of what this show is yeah you can't really do it only character's episode anymore but that's where what do you guys rate this season Thanks, John, for being here. Thank you. I got work on, I got to do some editing myself on this and work on a thumbnail.

Starting point is 00:38:53 So thank you guys for being here. We'll see you soon. Pieces.

The Reel Rejects - STRANGER THINGS Season 5 Episode 8 FINALE REVIEW!!

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