Don't know if it will be long. but here are my other thoughts on the final two episodes/four hours/
I hate to lead with a criticism, as though my net opinion is negative. It's not. But's closer to neutral than I would like -- I'm a fan of this show -- because this was just too long. This isn't a complaint about the runtime per se, but what the show did with it. The last episode should have felt propulsive, and parts of it were, but the momentum kept being interrupted by long stretches of other things. As Alan Sepinwall wrote, for example, did we really need a redemption arc for the peanut butter smuggler? The pacing issues and overstuffing of the finale are emblematic of the season as a whole. As much as I appreciate Netflix for spending the money, and the Duffers and cast and crew putting in the work, this season and finale would have been more if it had been less. I found myself tapping the scrubber several times during episode nine and thinking, "I can't believe there are still ninety minutes left!" I should not be thinking about how long a finale is during the finale.
I am also somewhat disappointed that the show hasn't evolved much in the story it is telling. Every season: life is normal, something weird happens, it's the Upside Down!, the kids and Eleven band together to save the world. There was a lot that seemed new here that really wasn't; it was just dressed up in new locations and side quests and other distractions that contributed to the season being high calorie and lower in nutrition. I think the fundamental repetition isn't really an issue, because it's such a pleasure to watch this cast work together, but tighter storytelling would have made the potential problem fade int the background if all the extra stuff hadn't made me really think about the central story being told.
And: was it actually scary? Think back to season one. That season featured a single demogorgon and that one single thing filled the entire season with danger and suspense. Now demogorgons seem kind of like angry dogs. Sure, we and the characters are all now demogorgon veterans and so won't think of them the same way, but how often did this season really seem to feature danger?
OK, enough criticisms. For all that, I did like the season. But now I have to make that the subject of a different post, probably tomorrow.
On your first point, that's typical "critic" talk, where they are paid to find fault, especially of a hugely popular series, because, well critics want to look smart and contrarian, not "jump on the bandwagon". Sepinwall is one of the few critics I generally like to read, but this just sounds like critic speak to me. I completely disagree with your description of the final episode. I started watching the show at 6pm and the FIRST time I looked at the clock was 8pm, only because I had to pause it for a moment, and I said to my son, wow, that first 2 hours FLEW by.
I agree with your second point, the stories seem to be similar every season, but I guess that's what Hawkins is about too. I'm fine with it for the most part, though for a lot of it, you have to suspend belief (the whole Hopper in a Russian prison stuff was just too unbelievable for me), but I still liked the story, and I generally don't delve too deep into how real something is when we are dealing with monsters and such.
Lastly, it's hard for me to talk about how scary it was because I'm NEVER scared by any type of horror movie. I usually laugh at them mostly because they are mostly ridiculous. The only movie I've ever been truly scared enough to jump out of my seat was Jaws, and that's not a true horror movie.
As far as my opinion, I enjoyed the season mostly, and sure, as I said there was some really silly stuff, but it's that type of thing. I too thought they could have approached the bullying different, with the jocks and the mean girls, but I could live with it. When I heard through the grapevine that a MAJOR character was going to die, I thought about it and around E5 or so, I realized that it was going to be Eddie, because A) He's not part of the core cast, he's added in this season and B) his story felt like he could be a martyr, he's the kinda creepy (but underneath good hearted) guy that always winds up becoming the martyr to prove to people who he really was. But, the ONE thing that irked me (and I didn't realize that there was a plan for another season in the works already) is that they spent the WHOLE time trying to kill the big bad monster, ALL those hours, and, in the end, he's still alive and the town is destroyed. It kind of felt that in the end the bad guy won, and EVERYTHING they did all season led to nothing in the end, Eddie, dying, Max dying (and resurrected), lots of death and destruction and we are back where we started. I was hoping, if there was another season, it could be a different storyline, but as you said, that's not what they do with this series.
