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Matt Damon Says Netflix Wants Movies to Restate the ‘Plot Three or Four Times in the Dialogue’ Because Viewers are on ‘Their Phones While They’re Watching’ (variety.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/television@piefed.social
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[–] 30 points 9 months ago (15 children)

I think re-explaining things that happened in previous seasons is a different issue. They're worried that you don't remember what happened because it has been so long.

And that's fair. I know I watched Season 2 (and it definitely had my full attention, because I'm incapable of doing two things at once), but the only thing I can actually remember about it is the episode where El went to Chicago and met some shadowrunners. And something about tunnels. Everything else is a blur.

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  • [–] 16 points 9 months ago (11 children)

    The last season being a big mess aside, it was 100% guilty of re-explaining the plot, not just the recaps. Together with those unnecessary "LET ME EXPLAIN" scenes, like Robin using vinyls to explain a very basic concept. They really treated us like idiots. 

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago* (9 children)

    The entirety of the show is like that. It's not like a deep thinky clever show, it's a series of 80's horror movie references tossed in a blender.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago* (8 children)

    Yes and no. This season has been pretty weak in the writing department, so some of these ideas that worked before were overused/used poorly this season. And for an 80s-throwback series, it ends rather depressingly, no matter how you spin it. But it's par for the course these days for the final season/finale to shit the bed, I guess.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    Depressingly? It was fully happily ever after. And it just did the same thing every other season did, largely disregard previous seasons to introduce a new big bad for the season leading up to a big monster fight. It was incredibly par for the course, 70 percent style with 30 percent substance. It's not high cinema but it's entertaining tv.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    It was fully happily ever after.

    Hard disagree. Fully happily-ever-after wouldn't have ended with

    S5 finale spoilersthe main 16-year-old character either dying or somewhere all on her own with no family/friends/support circle, useful life skills, money or even documents to travel anywhere outside the US. While her boyfriend is stuck with depression and potentially living in delusion that she is still alive. The whole idea that El represents childhood magic and that she has to die/disappear, so other characters could move on is genuinely out of touch and potentially harmful, considering she's been "used, abused and manipulated" since she was born. Sends a real fucked up message there. This could have worked, if the show had finished in one season. But it does not work after 5 seasons of growth (though in S5 she was completely sidelined). The one character that deserved happily ever after, and they didn't give it to her. Not to mention how Vickie has been completely forgotten in the epilogue, or rather discarded with an offhanded comment about being an "overbearing significant other", when Robin has been an asshole to her the entire season.

    I actually would have loved a true happily-ever-after. This tired trend of every show—even something that's supposed to be lighthearted—getting a tragic or "bittersweer" ending, because that's considered "deep", should just die already.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    I disagree with basically that whole interpretation. And the ending was explicitly hopeful. I think you just took it personal that what you thought was gonna happen didn't.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    What's hopeful about El disappearing from everyone's life? I'm hardly the only one who sees it this way.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    The fact that she's "dead" means she's finally free, and I'm pretty sure Mike's speech about what if she's still alive was a strong hint that eventually he'd find her again. Every character got the best possible outcome all considered.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (2 children)

    If we take Duffer brothers' word as gospel, they will never see each other again. Which was the intended message to go along with their "she represents childhood magic, and that has to end for kids to grow up" statement. Nothing hopeful there.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    Why are you listening to them when you could just watch the show and make your own opinions? Maybe that's how the duffer bros intended it, but that's absolutely not how it came across the screen. I think they got a little high on their own supply because absolutely nothing whatsoever in the show or anything eleven did conveyed the idea that she was supposed to represent childhood magic. I think they had just read IT maybe or were confusing ST for for a random Stephen King story because there was nothing of that at all in the show. It wasn't that kind of show, any metaphors or analogies are surface level. So you can read their botched interpretation that clearly didn't come through in the final product or you can just watch the ending with media literacy and see that literally every character remaining gets the happiest possible outcome.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    I was complaining to my family about how El getting a bloody nose was originally used to indicate how she severely over exerted herself while using her powers. In this last season they turned it into the "I used magic and am trying to look cool" sign. I found it belittling.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    I agree with what you're saying (aside from comparing that really awful episode to Shadowrun), but that's not what went on in Stranger Things. It was just....

    From the very first episode, I asked if they had changed writers because the dialogue was so different, so bad, and so predictable--all of which only grew worse with each passing episode. And when each character had their turn to explain who they are and how they feel, it fit the same exact pattern every time. It was just really bad writing.

    All that said, I don't think the last season was terrible. I expected it to be a lot worse than it was. The actual plot and ending of the story, I thought were perfectly mediocre and fine. It was ruined by the dialogue.

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