Obi Wan Kenobi, first two episodes and all I can come up with is this:
I remember when McGregor left Star Wars behind 17 years ago to do "serious" acting. That didn't work out too well for him, so he came back. When this was announced I wasn't excited at all and didn't expect anything. That changed the more I heard about it. I was actually really looking forward to it and then this... it's bad, really bad. It should be called "The Leia show for 10 year olds". So Obi Wan forgets how to use the force, because he's so traumatized by what happened to Anakin and conveniently remembers when Leia falls down a building. That is the same 10 year old that previously outran a bunch of bounty hunters by running around trees and jumping over/under some, while all the professional bad guys stumble and fall doing it. Oh and she does the same on a busy market with a jedi... oh right, he can't really remember how to use the force so I guess it's ok. But seriously, who came up with this crap? It feels like placing known Star Wars characters in a show is enough these days. I wonder if the "Star Wars Jar Jar Binks" series could have been any worse. At least there is Vader (well, his face) at the very end of episode 2, so I sure hope they do a 180 on it and get it on track. 4 episodes to go.
Stranger Things season 4 (well, the first 7 episodes, we'll get two more in July). And all I can say is wow, absolutely fantastic. It's not perfect, but still. I had to go through several stages with this. 1. It's crap. 2. It's actually good but it's not Stranger Things anymore. 3. Oh there's the connection, but it doesn't have to be there. 4. This IS Stranger Things and it's damn good.
That being said, it's too long. They upped the running time for every episode and the last one by a lot. I don't know why they did that, the whole California and Russia story arc feels pointless except for maybe getting the characters out of Hawkins. I have the feeling they had something different planned when they did season 3, because we don't get a single answer how the Russians got to know about the Upside Down, why they were in Hawkins and opened a gate. None of this is of any interest in season 4 so far, so why bother with two story arcs that really don't do anything?
I have the feeling they wanted Anthony Hopkins for the part of Victor Creel and couldn't get him. The whole Silence of the Lambs setup would have worked so much better. And so we have to settle for Robert Englund and Dustin making references to Nightmare on Elm street (it worked!).
I'm not sure I like the Harry Potter reference for Eleven's powers. The sad and angry memory wasn't enough for her. It worked for One for obvious reasons, but Eleven needed a happy memory to make her powers work to the max... this felt too much like a copy of Expecto Patronum in Harry Potter for me.
So here's the problem though, besides the pointless California and Russia plot, the whole thing is obvious. Anyone who pays attention will have figured the whole thing out before they reveal it all in episode 7. It's still very well done and doesn't disappoint, it's just not having this OMG moment at the end they probably wanted.
But with the answers we got about Hawkins and the Upside Down, there are also new questions. Here we go... (either watch it first or go straight in, don't blame me for a potential spoiler
):
- When Eleven fought with One and the portal is opened, did Eleven open it to banish/kill One or did One open it to escape her?
- Was a portal to the Upside Down really opened or did either Eleven or One create the Upside Down in the first place? One offered Eleven to join him to create a better reality for them in the first place.
- Did One turn into Vecna on his own or was it the Mind Flayer who turned him?
- We have not seen the Mind Flayer and even though Dustin has the theory Vecna is one of his generals... is Vecna actually the Mind Flayer just in another form?
- Is the Upside Down just the past? Nancy confirmed the Upside Down is actually three years in the past compared to the normal world. So the question is, is the Upside Down another dimension in time and space or in time only? This had a bit of a Stephen King Langoliers moment for me. Does the past exist for a while and the monsters are destroying it? There are massive earthquakes as well and parts of the world are actually destroyed.
- If the Upside Down is the past, did Eleven put One there intentionally, by making him a thing of the past she doesn't have to worry and can forget about?
- Is Nancy special in some way? Why is Nancy attacked by him in the end? She's still in the Upside Down, so Vecna can't open a new gate to the real world by killing here, which would only work if she's in the normal world.
- I'm going to make a prediction here based on the Harry Potter moment I described above. At some point Eleven will fight either Vecna or the Mind Flayer and her powers are not enough to win, that's when Hopper will show up for her "happy moment" and give her the additional boost she needs to win.
Five weeks to go till we get more answers (hopefully).
