Last Series Watched

We got three deep on the new season of Stranger Things and some of it can feel a little stilted here and there for me, but really loving the dynamics and the third episode is among my favorite for the series.
 
Last edited:
I think the dialogue glitches when they write for Will. Him and anyone in a scene with him seem to be handed the JV stuff.
 
I truly, truly want to be wrong and I feel like a conspiracy theorist saying it but after a couple of years of my being hired to catch and flag AI content, I would be shocked if we find out they didn't use ChatGPT for the dialogue. The plot moves along okay, I think that's human made, but there's such a bizarre disconnect between the characters when they're talking to each other - you can actually hear the prompts. Hopper's dialogue is particularly egregious because his dialogue has actually been the most distinctive and bespoke in past seasons (Dustin too!), but I could not unhear all the flags I was hearing. Perhaps the worst one was

When the boys are digging the hole in the ceiling, and Mike says something about the floor being hard, and Lucas just goes, "Well if it's too hard, I'll make it soft" and in no universe does even a moderately competent writer say that.

Like I said, I feel absolutely paranoid saying this. But it's interesting to see it side by side with the Witcher, which is an OBJECTIVELY bad script, but you can feel how it's not good in a human way. There's a flow between the bad dialogue that feels natural, if badly written, whereas there's... man, the best way to describe it is dead air between the dialogue in ST this season, like each line is waiting for the next one to answer it.

I'd be perfectly willing to say "oh the Duffers phoned it in" or that they gave it to the JV squad except I've had to read so many bad AI scripts and this feels EXACTLY like it. I felt dirty after watching these episodes. Man, I feel like shit saying it but professionally I'm batting a thousand for catching ChatGPT in reports, emails, marketing scripts... Some of the work I do is making sure people aren't submitting AI work because it can't be copyrighted.
 
They do all feel kinda burned out, too. Winona's doing her best, Maya is chewing on what she's got to work with the best she can, and, to be fair, Joe Keery is really trying to sell it, but everyone else looks dead inside. It's sad, cos I feel like if Netflix and the pandemic hadn't dragged the show out five years longer than it had to take to shoot it we would've had them all at their most inspired.

(Man, I hate being so negative about it, but truly did love the other seasons. I think that's why I'm so sad about it.)
 
I think some of the beats and character interactions and overall plot have been hitting for me, but some of the dialogue isn't the best. I have no way of knowing if they used AI, and cannot say you're wrong, and definitely don't have your experience with it, not even close, so I have to assume you know what you're talking about with that. And if you're right, that's a massive shame.
 
I SUPER hope I'm wrong, Ru, but there hasn't been a single hour of TV I've watched so far that has hit so many red flags to me the way these four episodes did. I'm gutted.
 
Plur1bus is pretty damned neat so far; although I really want to know what people do when they're done working for the day. Like, are family units still a thing?
 
Finally got around to watching the new episodes of Stranger Things and I mostly liked them. I think my biggest nit is that it's just moving at a breakneck speed. Which is nice, of course- things are actually happening, but it does feel like the little character moments are being kinda shoehorned in between set pieces rather than playing out naturally. Like everyone else, I feel like the cast is generally doing their best, but when 90% of your character's dialogue is either exposition, super specific nerdy lore-based things, or recalling what they just saw to another character, it can feel a bit stilted. Joyce and Eleven feel like they're getting the short end of the stick a bit, and while effective, it felt like there was basically the same beat with Joyce and Karen an episode or two apart. The core 4 boys also feel a bit disjointed- moreso than usual. Dustin has been less and less a part of that group and moreso the older kids for a couple seasons now, and Lucas has kinda felt like he doesn't really get much to do for the past couple seasons. I like the new characters well enough, but characterization already feels a bit thin as-is, let alone when adding a handful of new characters into the mix.

That said, I'm still invested. The action is still pretty great, I still care enough about these characters, and I'm interested to see where it's going. Some cool reveals sprinkled throughout. I hate to be that guy, but I do think that there could/should have been at least one or two deaths so far, though. I know they said it's not Game of Thrones, so it wouldn't feel natural, but there's still gotta be stakes. When you have normal people unfamiliar with this world and its creatures surviving attacks, even barely, it kinda lessens the tension a bit.
 
I still want to know how the UpsideDown even works. Is it a proper pre-existing alternate universe or something Vecna created with his mind? If it's pre-existing 'real' who built the town infrastructure? What made this ecosystem of mutant animals that apparently don't need eyes?
 
adrienveidt said:
I still want to know how the UpsideDown even works. Is it a proper pre-existing alternate universe or something Vecna created with his mind? If it's pre-existing 'real' who built the town infrastructure? What made this ecosystem of mutant animals that apparently don't need eyes?
Click to expand...
I feel the general existence of the UpsideDown was always there, with the inhabiting creatures. When Henry was sent there, I believe he formed it to look like the Hawkins her remembers. At the end of season two (I think) when we are at the Snow Ball and everything seems great and the camera pans out, lighting flashes and we're in the USD, the cars are older.
 
I reckon the demogorgons fall under the same category of "can a lightsaber cauterize a wound on a xenomorph and stop the acid blood." They're as tough or as vulnerable as the writer needs in the moment.

On thing people are complaining about that I'm just laughing off is that the D&D references are wrong for the era. Even I, knowing that stuff backward and forward, am like "the bulk of this audience was either not alive or has never seen a first or second edition D&D book, it ain't that kind of movie, kid."
 
DarthDre758 said:
I feel the general existence of the UpsideDown was always there, with the inhabiting creatures. When Henry was sent there, I believe he formed it to look like the Hawkins her remembers. At the end of season two (I think) when we are at the Snow Ball and everything seems great and the camera pans out, lighting flashes and we're in the USD, the cars are older.
Click to expand...
When Nancy etc are in the USD in season 4, they go to her house for guns but everything is the USD version of her house from when WIll was taken.

So maybe Will has always had more influence than he thought and he actually sorta rewrote the parts of the USD he was familiar with by being there without even realizing it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top