gay/bi mike wheeler discourse is so hilarious from my pov. I'm here sitting on my bench watching you all going at each other's troaths virtually, eating popcorn and knowing that Mike is straight, that the Duffer Brothers are lazy and they wrote Will to be in love with Mike because they wanted to take the safer route : sad gay kid pining over his straight best friend. They didn't add a new character for Will in season four because it wasn't suitable for Will and Mike storyline. If Argyle wouldn't have existed and in his place there would have been the new Will's love interest, what the fuck would Mike have done for eight episodes ? Will's storyline would have been different, he couldn't be Mike's counselor. Will and Mike's storylines in season four are attached not because there is this big plot twist around the corner and by*ler will be endgame, it's because of cheap, lazy writing. They didn't know what to do with both of them. So it's really funny reading this whole online discourse "Mike is clearly gay" "Mike is perfect bi representation" when i am here with a bitter taste in my mouth thinking that in good hands, in hands that really cared about queer identity and queer representation Will Byers would have been treated differently.

season 3: my thoughts

CONTAINS SPOILERS

so. we’ve got the good and we’ve got the bad. starting off with what i liked:

joyce. she was so powerful and strong this season. they didn’t diminish her trauma from bob or even s1, showing she has ptsd. they also allowed her to be the one who saved them all and i’m so proud of my tiny wife :’)

jancy. i loved jancy’s storyline. probably the only storyline i didn’t have any issues with. i loved how they discussed the different issues facing them - sexism and classism respectively - and managed to come to an understanding. it was good to have another explicit recognition of the class issue with the byers family as well, rather than just subtext. but like, them as an investigative duo, ‘you’re relentless, you know that?’ like GAHHH

robin. now this was something i really didn’t expect. i was very apprehensive about the scoops troop because of the four of them only one was an original main - but turns out i didn’t need to be. i actually really enjoyed these scenes and they didn’t pander to the meme too much. and robin’s coming out scene?? poetic cinema. i actually felt so understood and while it’s likely not very realistic (especially from steve, who has been homophobic in the past) steve’s immediate acceptance felt so warm and nice.

erica. at first i was worried because they were going with the sassy black girl stereotype, but then- THEN- they fleshed her out, they made her a ‘nerd’ too, and honestly it was really good. she could have been annoying but she managed not to be. (congrats to priah, she did a good job).

elmax. i did enjoy elmax this season, though only tentatively (see below). finally we got some good solid female bonding. the mall scene was great. i also loved the scene when el came down the street to meet her with the skateboard. iconic.

mike and will’s fight. ‘it’s not my fault you don’t like girls.’ phew i got whiplash from that line - will’s face- i really wish they’d actually had will coming out this season or having any plot at all but i actually got chills with this. and then will destroying the castle???? i was crying.

jopper, murray, and alexei. i really liked this storyline. hopper being a smug bastard, murray playing freud again, idk i loved it. im glad jopper didn’t get together directly after murray psychoanalysed them like jancy did tho, because it felt a bit more mature which was right :) and alexei was so cute lol

hopper-byers family (ish). i am so goddamn happy that el ends up with the byers. it’s the only sensible place for her to end up after hopper dies. i just wish it was foreshadowed a bit more with joyce having a more obvious role in her life as a co-parent.

now, onto the dislikes. yikes.

hopper’s character for 80% of the season. i’ve talked about this already but honestly?? they screwed him up so much. horrifically overbearing parenting, drunkenness, and snark that was less sarcastic and funny than cruel. i didn’t like him half the time which honestly sucks, especially since this season they should have been building him up to make his death more tragic. so-

hopper’s death. it was done well, with his final acceptance and everything, giving joyce permission to flip the switch, but holy shit. joyce has been through so. goddamn. much now. the duffers are actually making their own jobs harder, because you can’t keep on piling your characters with trauma upon trauma without them suffering the consequences. they will have to be very careful next season with their handling of joyce. especially since this season the grief for his death was mainly focused on el, when it was joyce who spent all season with him. they should have grieved together, as the two who loved him most, but instead even when joyce does get her moment el has to come and interrupt it and make it all about her again. which leads me onto-

female bonding. sure, we got elmax. but it was placed in direct opposition to mileven. idk i got a lot of vibes that el could either be friends with max or date mike, which was not a great message to send - the whole elmax friendship seemed to be based on ideas about the boys. (does it pass the bechdel test? barely, probably.) and then the only other female bonding we get (aside from erica and robin, which was minor) is nancy and karen. they share a lovely scene, but it’s completely out of the blue. karen has been so absent and problematic these last few seasons and now she’s suddenly mom of the year again? it was a good scene, but personally i actually think it would have worked better with nancy and joyce. they have so much in common, they’ve been through a lot of the same things, and yet all we get is a silent hug at the very end. hmm. or even better, we keep the nancy & karen scene and get lots more female bonding scenes too. but i guess that would be too difficult.

will. oh my god, will. why the hell did they do him so dirty? his entire arc was ‘can we play d&d now, oh girls are stupid and gross, oh my friends treated me like shit but it’s all cool now.’ he had so much potential, even if we didn’t go with the will has powers storyline, even if we didn’t go with the coming out storyline like- ugh. noah is such a talent and they’re squandering him. like.. what??

m*leven. ugh i’m sorry i just... don’t care about m*leven. they’re cute?? i guess?? but so much time was spent on them. and they’re literally 14, i really don’t think they’re old enough to say they’re in love.

b*lly’s death. i guess he redeemed himself?? but ugh i didn’t want him to. didn’t shed a single tear ngl. and why was max so upset? he’s treated her like shit the entire time they’ve known each other.

the epilogue. the entire thing was awful in my opinion. the hopper voiceover was done well and i had tears streaming down my face the entire time but the context of it, and the scenes surrounding it- ugh. so we start off with a steve & robin scene that feels so incongruous i got whiplash. it’s really long, as well, and i just couldn’t concentrate on it because it lacked all the emotional weight of the scenes before. it was not good. and then we go through all the other characters’ reactions to the byers moving before we finally get to el and joyce, the two most affected by hopper’s death. el gets a very, very long scene. which is fine, because she needs to grieve her father figure. but throughout the season the el & hopper bond was so lacking that it felt odd for it to be so laboured at the end. meanwhile joyce gets little more than a sad look - an excellent look, winona deserves all the awards - but just a look. it lacked the emotional payoff we needed. and them all leaving? i get that joyce desperately needs a fresh start after hopper’s death, of course, but el needs her friends. and how the hell is s4 going to work? tbh i’m wondering if they’re just going to end it there. i hope they don’t, but they’re going to have to work very hard to make s4 succeed.

byers family. where the hell were my family interactions? joyce was apart from her sons all season (which in some ways was good, because she could grow beyond just being a mother) but the byers are what make this show so special. jonathan and will barely spoke to each other despite being in loads of scenes together. will should’ve been allowed to talk to jonathan or joyce about what he was going through with his friends. there should have been some bonding, goddamnit. maybe if they’d cut that karen and b*lly bullshit at the beginning, which, by the way, served absolutely no purpose?? at all? it didn’t advance the storyline in any way, shape or form?? wtf

anyway i’m sure there’s stuff i’ve missed, but here’s my preliminary thoughts. i actually did really enjoy this season, but i obviously have a lot of issues with it lol. it also didn’t really feel?? like stranger things?? like the vibes were completely different idk. feel free to drop me an ask telling me what you thought!