Two episodes through at the moment. It's been surprisingly not that bad considering the burning wreck of a season that was the prior entry. Episode 1 is slow in terms of plot progression (not that much happens really) but bakes in a lot of strong character related stuff (which has always been a weak point of ST going back as far as S1. The consistent theme of this show has been underdeveloping strong concepts with regard to character, or just outright being shit at it). Likewise, it returns the show to its roots with a tone and atmosphere befitting of it (unlike S3, which was actually just embarrassing to watch). Episode 2 then builds on the aforementioned by generating compelling mystery and intruige in a way that hasn't been done since S1, and by extension playing to the show's strengths. Right now it's acing in that department, and so might actually achieve the great feat season 1 managed; being a little better than mediocre (which S2 failed at (being entirely mediocre overall, with some positives), and S3 came nowhere close to (being outright trash)). All in all I'm actually excited to watch, and it's not being done as a chore because the show is popular and people who I like watch it.
This said, what the actual hell are they doing with Eleven this season? The character regression is disgusting, and annoys me because the rest of the cast actually seems to be getting positive stuff in this area (Lucas's loyalty shift, Max's trauma, Jonathan and Nancy's relationship issues etc etc). The whole point of S2 is that she overcomes her trauma/heals her wounds (symbolically represented by the closing of the gate) and learns not to draw solely from anger. Her season 3 arc of being too dependent on Mike and vice versa was underfocused on and was thus not good, but at least it was original. Once again returning to "El gets angry and lashes out without control because she's traumatised from when she was a child" is just lazy. As is the implication that she killed a bunch of helpless children who were being used the same as her in a fit of rage, and the way that's being used to weirdly attempt to score sympathy points for the character who literally represented abuse and pain/was an obstacle for Eleven to overcome both physically and psychologically.
Similarly, Mike and Will's drama echoes the previous season, and shows that these two characters have been mined for content completely and utterly, at least as regards their relationship with each other. Just keep them apart and have the primary focus be their relationships with other characters. I can't deal with any more of this repetitive nonsense. It's not character butchering, but it shows a clear lack of creativity, which is sad since the rest of this season thus far has been a breath of fresh air from a show that last season was bankrupt of good ideas (the content was original, but it was shit).
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