All of the characters are constantly arguing with each other. The story line requires constant suspension of belief based on the endless succession of improbable events and improbable character behaviors. Contradictions with earlier episodes and even details within the same episode. It's really bad. I hope the final episode redeems it but I have my doubts. I want to have an LLM rewrite season 5 and see how much it improves.
I just said to a friend that the season 5 writing is so bad that I think AI would have done a better job. I hope someone tries that out once we get the final episode: Give an LLM the scripts for the first 4 seasons, the outcome frome the finale, and let it have a go and drafting a better season 5.
And no, I'm not talking about the gay thing. The writing is simply atrocious. Numerous plot holes, leaps of reasoning, and terrible character interactions.
I wish there was more Holly and her character was developed more. She’s interesting in a world of nerds as a girl who likes girl things. Like it’s an interesting character moment when she sees the bandana and goes to find it because her fashion is important to her. And then they crammed in all this character development when she dumps on Max that she feels guilty for everything.
Basically I think the main problem with the show is the character of eleven. She’s boring. She isn’t even really a character as she has no thoughts or desires or personality. She is a set piece for the other characters to manipulate. That works in the first season. But by season 3 it’s very tiring. She just points her hands at things and psychic powers go. This is why it might feel weird when Will tells everyone he is gay and all the original boys are like dude we are totally cool with you being gay and give him a group hug then eleven joins too it feels weird. To use the show’s language, she isn’t really part of the party.
Season 3 is a great example of how the show pays too much attention to eleven without developing her character while giving her lots of screen time. billy is a very interesting character you could spend a lot of time understanding why billy is the way he is but instead you get one dream sequence because eleven sees his dreams and oh his dad sucks. Except you knew that already from season 2. And most of elevens screen time when not shopping at the mall is spent pointing her hands at things to make psychic powers go boom.
But this is basically the problem with the show. The writers like eleven too much. And she is incredibly boring as a character after season 1.
I think the show succeeded greatly in the first season at creating actions for the characters to do that developed both their characters and the narrative. And those happen in this 1980s nostalgic world. But I think the shows attachment to eleven has ultimately harmed the narrative.
That being said, I do think that the general narrative of the show going from the demogorgon to the mindflayer to vecna and the abyss is very dungeons and dragons. Haha. That would be a fun campaign to play.
All of what you said is accurate, but the problems are unfixable at this point, for two reasons:
1. Millie Bobbie Brown, the actor of Eleven, is unfathomably stupid (watch any out-of-character interview with her) and the role has simply outgrown her acting abilities. They can't make Eleven do anything interesting because Millie can't act it.
2. Writers have introduced so many supporting characters and separate story lines that it is impossible to give any of them enough screen time for proper character development.
There are other major writing problems with the show, like the overreliance on cheap 80s culture references, but I think the main problem is with the characters. The writers simply don't understand what made the first season so good.
Then just kill her and bring another, more interesting character, that is played by better actor. I do not know... Make Vecna a human again and introduce even more dangerous evil. He could join the party in the fight. Could be fun if executed correctly.
I did. Presumably you are asking because it has even more characters. I found it hard to follow (despite speaking German) but I don't think it suffers from the same problem as Stranger Things because many of the characters are just the same person at different times and thus the character can get enough screen time for development.
Many of us have to do this job(personality quirks, ASD, etc). I remember talking to a nerd friend(Verilog/VHDL guy) 25 years ago, in the time before Google salaries when engineering wasn't a job most people desired. He shared that thought and it rang true with me. I've met many folks who I don't think would have done well outside engineering. Myself, I have a good brain for engineering but have a marked lack of common sense. I'm a jack of all trades but as that implies I'm not particularly good at anything besides systems programming or electrical engineering.
Back in college('97) a guy offered me a job as an elevator repair tech. I almost dropped out since the money was better than what I'd make as an engineer($50/hr plus OT). My first engineering job, doing embedded SW and some EE work for a large consumer electronics company was $37.5k/yr.
> Myself, I have a good brain for engineering but have a marked lack of common sense.
I mean this sincerely, this is a geniuinely impressive level of self-awareness. If everybody was better at recognizing things like this, I think the world would be a much better place. Cheers
I'm 50 so I have enough experience to have overcome any resistance to the idea that I am mostly a dumbass.
The majority of my larger life decisions have turned out poorly. Fortunately the ones that worked out paid off well enough to make up for the ones that didn't.
(Unfortunate for many like me who considered them relatively safe for years and did a lot of chemistry with them.)
Farmers use many chemicals for a variety of tasks and it wouldn't surprise me if there were multiple chemicals involved, perhaps even synergistically. Maybe a farmer exposed to paraquat is fine, but one who is exposed to both paraquat and a copper-based antifungal or fumes from a welding repair become more damaged. Hard to say.
Surely someone has proposed the existence of a civilization forming from <=iron and making the heavier elements themselves? Seems far fetched but you have quite a bit of time to play with there.
So here's a fun experiment for you. Look at a periodic table and start with Cobalt (the first element after Iron) and look at what its uses are. Wikipedia is fine. And then ask if there are alternatives for that metal. In some cases we won't know but in other cases, the situation would be dire.
The first few include Nickel, Copper and Zinc. Think of all those alloys and direct uses, particularly copper as an electrical conductor. Or all the rare earths for magnets and semiconductors. Or gold or lead even.
Then there's Iodine, which is actually essential for human life. Zinc, selenium and others are used too, possibly others.
The scarier question is what happens when the universe runs out of hydrogen in vast quantities? It will only be around for stars to burn for so long. Most are in the billions of years. A handful are in the trillions. But eventually they will run out too.
Obviously this doesn't answer your question, but there are scifi stories about alien civilizations that arise on planets without heavy metals. Usually the plot revolves around their not getting past the stone age.
I'm 50 and got my NES in Xmas '86. It's funny how the difficulty has changed. I remember having no problem with carrier landings as a kid, beat Metroid(with the bikini ending) without reading Nintendo Power or calling the help line, figured out turtle trapping on my own...
Going back and trying to do all this via emulation is now a lot harder. I don't know if it's the timing or the fact that I'm just old and crappy now, but if I didn't have the save states of an emulator I would have given up on gaming ages ago due to frustration.
Then again I don't have the hyperfocus and 12 hour marathon gaming sessions like I did for much of my youth.
Man you just unlocked a memory. I'm about the same age...I had forgot about when we lucked our way into "turtle trapping" (didn't know until I read your post it was even called that). When the lives counter goes crazy (we called it "infinity men") we genuinely had no idea what was going on at first and thought we broke the game.
It happened when a buddy and I were completely bored messing around with the game and I remember calling my friends and explaining it but no one "got it" until we showed them.
Also likely you don't have as much time. I'd be more keen to discover things on my own a few decades ago. Now I'm limited by work/family life to an hour of play here and there. That means if something looks annoying or long without a good reason, I'm going to look it up and not feel bad at all.
It's also anyone's guess what direction it will matter. Will apple miss the boat on AI because it's the real deal? Or is it a bubble that will pop and apple will be left standing because they didn't bet the farm on AI
This seems true at many companies. While I'm not all that impressed by many current leaders, I'm sort of terrified of my generation (younger gen x) taking over because some of them seem to not be prepared or not have been prepared for the roles.
Optimizing costs while producing a safe, reliable, durable vehicle isn't exactly simple and requires an entire supply chain to be in place, not just a single company. Look at how many auto mfgs there are in the world that turn out terrible cars. EVs dramatically lower the parts count which helps but you still a lot of expertise to make a safe, reliable car.
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