Either way, I wonder about Henry's interest in Holly and if he targeted her specifically because of her relation to Mike and Nancy. I figured right away Mr. Whatsit would be him but it was still wonderfully creepy to watch him lure her into his trap and eventually relocated to a reimagined Creel House. I can't help but wonder if this illusionary house serves a larger purpose, even if I can't think what role it serves. He seemed especially concerned in maintaining the illusion for her sake. Which leads us to...
Jamie Campbell Bower mentioned in "The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler" behind-the-scenes episode that he approached these scenes as if Henry knew that Holly was smart enough to see through his lies so he had to create this elaborate lie for her. Once he was able to convince her, he knew the rest of the kids would follow in line.
This also neatly resolves an issue I had: Why would the other kids know Henry as Mr. Whatsit. I wouldn't expect all of them to read
A Wrinkle in Time.
There's way too much exposition for my liking. Lots of scenes where characters seem to get a "hunch" about something, and/or explain things back and forth to one another. All of this feels like it's for the convenience of viewers who are slow on the uptake, as if they started with the expectation that everyone would be watching on a second screen while doing their laundry and not pay attention to nuance. Even some of the emotional scenes suffer from this. Like when Hopper and El have a heart-to-heart at the end of Episode 2. While what's being said may seem new to El, it's not new to us, which makes it a dramatically boring scene.
I can see some of that being any issue but I didn't have any problems with them. None of them felt boring and I was caught up in the moments just as they were.
The interpersonal conflicts set up at the beginning of the season seem boring and artificial compared to the earlier seasons. Steve and Jonathan are still fighting over Nancy because...something. Dustin is pushing everyone away and acting like an ass. Hopper and El aren't getting along well, along with (to a lesser extent) Joyce and Will. While having some level of conflict is understandable, none of this seems based in the understandable foibles of coming-of-age stories like in the earlier seasons, and (so far) feels like cheap interpersonal drama to pad out the runtime.
I completely disagree with all of this.
Steve and Jonathan haven't been around each other in a long time. Jonathan and Nancy were already having issues in the last season, while the chemistry between Nancy and Steve were rekindled while Jonathan was away. The fact that Jonathan and Steve are fighting each other over Nancy felt perfectly natural to me.
Dustin pushed everyone away because of Eddie's traumatic death, coupled by the fact that the public still thinks he murdered Chrissy. On top of all of that, Dustin was being bullied by the surviving members of the basketball team who hold a grudge against Dustin
because of what they believe about Eddie. Dustin's behavior is entirely believable because he's both a victim of trauma and bullying. I would be surprised if he
didn't push people away and was being an ass.
El and Will both suffered from the same issue: Overprotective parents who are understandably terrified for their children. El is being hunted by the fucking U.S. military and Will is still suffering from his traumatic experiences brought on by Henry.
Of course Hopper and Joyce were trying to keep them cooped up as much as possible until El and Will finally pushed back.
But in a show which was formerly so focused on character, it just feels disappointing seeing the characters careen from one plot contrivance to the next.
The show is still very much about the characters first. I'm sorry that you don't see that.
Yeah, Max showing up in the memory world was a big surprise, I knew she would do more than just be in a coma, but that was not how I expected her to show up. If we don't get more details on what she went through later in the season, I would not be at all surprised if we get a book or comic filling in more of it.
We got one for Will years ago (although I wonder how much of it lines up with what we now know about Henry) so I wouldn't be surprised if we got something similar here.
That's an interesting thing to pick up on, I didn't really notice that, but now that you mention it, I can see it now.
I'm glad I was able to point that out to you. Hopefully others picked up on it, too, or see my comment on it because that was one of my favorite aspects of the whole four episodes.
Just finished and holy crap. What a start to this season. I'm still processing what I've just seen, but I think it's safe to say that "The Lost Sister" has gone from the "so-called worst episode to probably the most important episode of the series in so many ways. It made El stronger, and now we have Kali back. I'm really interested to see how that plot develops next month.
I've always argued in strong defense of "The Lost Sister" (including as recently a dozen or so pages ago) and I'm glad my faith in it has finally paid off.
