Stranger Things (S4E02) - "Chapter Two: Vecna's Curse"

Runtime: 1hr 15min


Episode 1 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...fire-club.html
Episode 2 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...nas-curse.html
Episode 3 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...superhero.html
Episode 4 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...ear-billy.html
Episode 5 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...a-project.html
Episode 6 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...-six-dive.html
Episode 7 Thread: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/65...wkins-lab.html

Showing more and more signs of the horrid season 3 slapstick with some horror elements. It’s so far a shell of what it used to be in S1 & 2.

Stop while you're ahead. Save yourself some hours.

Season 3 was so unmemorable I have to watch a recap before I start this new season. The quality of this show decreased after season 1, which was excellent, and should've ended there.

I’m enjoying the hell out of the first two episodes, and I didn’t think Season 3 was that good.

There are way too many characters now, but I’m liking that it’s a full-on horror show now.

Based on what I see on social media, people are really digging this new season.

Im surprised how gruesome this is. And I can’t believe nobody is taking about the revelations about Eleven we’ve gotten from the first two episodes.

She’s a fucking monster. 😅

Curious to see if they have her turn on any of her friends in the next season.

I'm glad Eleven fucked up that bully. Bring on more carnage.

For real. And then we have Mike all "horrified" because of what she did. That bitch deserved more than that, honestly.

Episode 2 Random Thoughts:

--Awkwardness between Mike and Will...
--Murray reminds me both physically and personality-wise of my dad's best friend when I was a kid right down to the scruffy beard.
--Despite them portraying Jason as an antagonist, I think most of his character motivations and reactions seem rational and justified, except maybe the Hellfire "cult" stuff. He doesn't strike me as that bad of a guy.
--Why couldn't Vecna have killed Angela and let Chrissy live? Her and her little band of bullies need a reckoning.
--And a reckoning she got, but I think this was a mild payback.
--Robin's got some detective skills. Such a good character.

Another good episode. The stuff with Eleven getting bullied more is hard to watch, but at least she taught Angela a lesson in the end. A harsh lesson, but at least she didn't go all 'Carrie' on everyone at the roller rink. They are very, very lucky she doesn't have her powers back.

Will is so awkward, I feel bad for him.

Glad to see Max teaming up with Dustin (and Steve and Robin) to find Eddie.

Was the Russian dude 'Enzo' played by the guy who was Jaqen in Game of Thrones?

So, we've seen that when Vecna is about to kill someone, he levitates them up off the ground before snapping their bones. And in the trailer for this season, we see

I think I liked the second episode better than the first. I loved the bully bitch getting her comeuppance. Will is obviously gay and has feelings for Mike. I thought they dropped hints about that in previous seasons.

Yeah, I mean he’s acted very effeminate from the beginning of the series. Then when the girl in class touched his leg and he jerked it away, that pretty much confirmed it in this episode.

Didn't catch the Will is gay angle but it does make sense.

Hate the Mean Girls trope in general
Hated it last year in CODA and hate it more here. Kids can be mean, but not, you know, like THAT. And not every kid in a roller rink. It strains credulity and just doesn't make any sense. Elle isn't Carrie okay? She's a little odd but she's nothing so weird that every kid in school wants to be cruel to her.

Nancy is so cute. Love her new hair do. Always enjoy her on the show and hope they pair her back with her real-live beau Jonathan pretty soon.

As someone who was bullied and terrorized in school, yes kids can be that mean.

Yeah, that bullying in the roller rink was so over the top - no way do the rink employees let that go on. The rink carries liability. If El had fallen and gotten hurt? They would have been sued. There's a lot of other liability they would have carried, no way does the manager let that shit go on. Even in the 80's.

At the school? Until the teacher showed up? Yeah, that could happen, but at the roller rink, with the outright assistance of the employees? No freaking way.

And I've still got a problem - too many characters. It was already a big cast, and they've added more to it? The show is scattershot all over the place. There is no flow or focus.

We'll see how the season shakes out from here, but the first two episodes are a bit of a mess.

Had no idea she was dating Drunk and Homeless Harry Styles in real life.

Yup. They're cute together.

I witnessed quite a few scenarios similar to that roller rink incident play out when I was in junior high/high school in the 1980s/1990s.

Shit like that happened all the time.

Agreed. Hell, I had a bully bodycheck me into a locker, head smacking the steal and then, for good measure, he cranked me with a hockey stick all under the watchful eyes of adults. Nothing. Of course, considering what kids in school have to worry about these days, I figure I got off pretty lightly.

Yeah, nothing happened to the bully. But if you would have fought back, YOU would have been the one in trouble.

I wasn't particularly liked in junior high and high school, but I was never bullied. I was big enough and scary enough that everyone pretty much left me alone. And if someone tried to start something with me, and I'd fight back. Got suspended a couple of times for fighting back, but it was worth it.

I was a pimply, lanky kid with glasses. I was doomed the moment I walked in for Grade 9.

Back in second grade there was a girl named Valerie Simpson. She spelled like pee and dressed in worn clothes, so she was picked on a lot. Even by the teacher on a rare occasion. I would sometimes laugh along. To this day, I still feel bad and ashamed. At the time it had never dawned on me she probably had a horrible home life.

In sixth grade, we had a girl in our class with facial and hand deformities. We all picked on her, ran away from her screaming, etc. I feel terribly ashamed and horrible that I took part in that, I can't imagine the pain she went through. Kids are terrible, even kids who were bullied participated in picking on others because they were just happy the attention was focused on someone else instead of them. Humans suck.

Sorry for the bump, I finally started watching the new season and am catching up on these threads.

I saw the bump and thought it was for this...

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