Every scene with Will and Mike (and the painting) made me think we're going to learn that Will is in love with Mike. Anyone else?
100%. I've seen people question this and it boggles my mind because it couldn't be more obvious what's going on. At least from the outside; I get why Mike is clueless.
Respect to the Duffers for playing the long game with this, as it's something that was hinted at way back in season one.
I'm assuming that Will will end up talking about his orientation and feelings with Robin. Maybe the conversation and mentoring on her part will give her the confidence to come out and hook up with her band mate.
I had a similar thought, though it would require some shuffling of characters since I don't recall those two ever interacting last season and they're both quite a ways away from either of their plotlines converging.
I got the feeling that Will's painting is meant for Mike.
I'll do you one better than that; I'm reasonably sure it's not just for Mike, it's
of Mike, or at least Mike as his Paladin D&D character.
I just thought Stranger Things was finally going to explain how that painting got there at the end of Ghostbusters 2
Spontaneous psychomagnotheric imprint manifestation from a focused non-localised phenomenon.
That or the prop master put it there. One or the other.
Sadie Sink and director Shawn Levy breakdown the creation of That Scene. Pretty incredible how much of it is practical effects!
Maybe I've been watching too much Corridor Crew, but that set-up is about what I expected in terms of what is practical. As a rule, it's best to do as much practical as possible, especially if an actor has to exist and interact in that space. The job of VFX there should be to enhance more than to create. Even with all the best acting in the world, you'll always get a better, more visceral performance from an actor if they have something real to play off of. (indeed, corridor crew
recently covered this in an Adam Savage colab of all things.) Also; fluid displacement and surface tension adhesion is a nightmare to simulate and render, so I knew the gunk and splashes had to have been done in-camera.
Very very minor note; but the only thing I'd wished they'd done a little different is for the scene where she's running and dodging, to actually be firing tennis or nerf balls or something into her path to give her something to actually avoid, and and another physical element for the splashes for the VFX to come in later and enhance.
Took a few decades, but I'm glad effects are finally swinging back to the idea that not every element needs to be (or even should be) CGI. For a while there it felt like only George Lucas and Guillermo del Toro had a handle on the concept.