Summary: In 1984, Russia started performing experiments, attempting to access the Upside Down. They failed and were given one year to succeed. In the present, lives have changed a lot. Mike and El are in an active relationship much to Hopper's chagrin. Billy works as a lifeguard, and Steve works at the new mall. Dustin returns from science camp and the gang meets up with him. Dustin takes them on a trip so that they can talk to his girlfriend. The trip takes too long and nobody answers so everyone leaves. Dustin picks up a Russian transmission. Rats have mysteriously started gathering and combusting at a steel works location. Billy is driving by for a date with Mrs. Wheeler when he is suddenly attacked by a mysterious force.
The Good: The opening and ending of the episode were classic "Stranger Things". I'll dig into the opening scene first. Of course we have an evil scientist corporation to open up the season, though the twist this time is that they are in Russia. I didn't expect that twist, but I think it makes perfect sense and it is a logical way for the Upside Down to be opened up again, since the US is likely not stupid enough to make the same mistake once again. The idea that Russia's experiments took place at the same time as the events of season 2 is a logical choice, and it makes it clear that the effects of their experimentation will be explored this season. The ending of the episode was a classic horror sequence that I enjoyed. Billy was ever the asshole as he returned in this episode (I absolutely loved his introduction scene as a lifeguard, brilliant comedy packed with 80s references). I was nervous that we would have to put up with his absurd, over-the-top character for a while, but it looks like he was immediately sacrificed to whatever the main monster of this season is going to be called, though I doubt he is dead. Still, the final scene was a strong way to give this season some momentum. The rest of the episode had some odd good moments. I liked Joyce missing Bob, it makes his death have more importance to the story, and it makes sense that she hasn't forgotten him over the last year. Hopper had some funny moments throughout the episode as expected, though he was pretty hit-or-miss (see: The Bad). Steve hitting on girls and failing in epic fashion was pretty funny and suitably awkward. Lastly, Dustin's return and his welcoming was a pretty fun moment. The Bad: But as a whole, this was a very poor premier. The episode did a pretty awful job of reintroducing everybody and showing how many things had changed. I do like these characters, but it was hard for me to believe that I liked everyone here because of how unlikable and unrecognizable most of the characters were. The kids hardly spent any time together and they seemed to antagonize each other more than they had fun which is a bad way to get me to care about their friendships. El and Mike's constant kissing got old fast and I don't really care about their relationship since it mostly developed offscreen, and from what I can see it's mostly just a physical relationship. Hopper as an overprotective parent is such a dull storyline that was filled with every trope possible, and it did absolutely nothing for me. Nancy and Jonathan weren't given enough time for me to care about anything they did. Honestly, nobody was put in a good position after this episode and I'm feeling surprisingly indifferent towards the show. A season premier should not make me feel that way. The fact that the repetitive plot was the best part of this episode is really telling of how much of a failure this episode was as a season premier. The pacing of the episode was also really bad. There were so many different stories and the episode was jumping all over the place at far too quick of a pace. It meant that nothing really got the chance to sink in. The scenes that were given time really didn't need so much focus given to them. Do I need so many scenes developing the Billy/Mrs. Wheeler romance? No, I don't. Did we really need to spend so damn long on the bad Hopper subplot, including an awkward scene between Hopper/El/Mike that overstayed its welcome? No, that time could have been used much more efficiently elsewhere. In fact, the wrong scenes were so frequently given too much screentime and that meant that this episode fell into that really awkward place where the pacing was both too quick and too slow at the same time. That made things flow very unevenly. The comedy was a pretty big flop too. Most of the "funny" moments in this episode completely missed the mark. The writers tried to make comedy by just lingering on a scene for longer than they should in an attempt to make the audience have some awkward chuckles. Unfortunately, scenes like these are never funny at all and they fell woefully short of genuine comedy. And I really need to address Hopper's story directly. Hopper is a fun character, so making him do something as bland as be worried about El and Mike's relationship is a really bad use of him. I'm certain there's going to be some big pay-off in an emotional scene later this season between Hopper and El/Mike, but I wish that it could have been built up to in a more interesting way than this. Hopper's "training" from Joyce was nonsensical (why does Joyce think that making Hopper behave so falsely is a good idea), and worse yet was Hopper's inability to memorize the lines or even say anything from his heart. Then the resulting scenes with Hopper and Mike were pretty bad too so it all felt like a pretty big waste of time. The Unknown: Who are the Russians at the beginning? What are their goals? Have they already been successful at accessing the Upside Down? Is the opening scene connected to the mysterious detonating rats? Why are they all gathering at the steel works place? What is in there? What was the monster that attacked Billy? Does it have something to do with the rats? Is it eating the rats? Getting power from the rats? Why did it take Billy? Is Billy dead? What about that mysterious power outage? What was that mysterious thing that was forming? Was that the monster, or something else? What is with the magnets that keep falling in Joyce's house? What is causing that? Is that happening everywhere in Hawkins or just her house? What was the significance of that Russian transmission? Will Dustin understand its importance? Did he record it somehow? Does Dustin actually have a girlfriend? Best Moment: Probably the opening scene. The Russia twist was pretty good. Character of the Episode: A really hard choice since nobody was very likable, even Dustin. I'l go with Joyce. Conclusion: This episode had a really solid opening and ending scene, but everything in between was bad. This is not s good way to start the season and it completely failed to get me excited. Score: 48
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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