#save mike

SPOILER WARNING FOR VOL 2

Okay, so I stayed up until 3 am to watch Vol 2, too scared that if I waited I would get spoiled something. Ngl, before Vol 2 dropped, I felt like Vol 1 had built up too much plot for it to be resolved in 2 episodes, no matter how long they were, there was way too much to address, too many plot lines opened or brushed upon and I was really doubtful that 2 episodes could solve them all, but I stayed trustful because generally speaking ST is a good show with good writing and going by the interviews I’ve watched, it seemed like everyone had their shit together. Well, after watching Vol 2, I can officially say I had reason to doubt this season could be wrapped up well. 

The number one problem of this season is character writing. 

The Duffers got so many characters to fit into the narrative and I know it’s not an easy thing to give space to them all in a story. I write myself and I understand that, but despite already having too much on their plate, they decided to add /more/ characters and spent way too long developing side-storylines instead of giving a semblance of relevance to the main characters. 

1. The whole Cali gang storyline is useless to further the main plot and it’s blaringly obvious that they didn’t know what to do with them. The only person needed from their group was El and she wasn’t even with them for most of the season. They clearly looked at Jonathan and Will in California, as they thought “El needs to go get her powers back”, and went “so what the fuck are we gonna do with these two?” and thought the only way to give them screentime was by finally bringing up Will’s sexuality. The only reason Mike was there was because 1. it helped that there was one less character to deal with in Hawkins (this way they gave him a semblance of storyline too) and 2. a love triangle was more interesting than Will simply addressing his sexuality for a new character (that would have been one more character to deal with anyway). They could have left Will’s sexuality alone, as they have mostly done until now, but think about it, if they didn’t bring that up for the Cali gang, what was left of the plot for them? Literally nothing. So they purposefully CHOSE to give them no plot and let them be carried by the love triangle storyline and I have issues with that, because what kind of lazy writing is that? If you are going to bring up something like this and make it the only relevant plot-line for a whole group of characters, you MUST give them a status quo, something happening that changes the status quo, a development and the final resolution which HAS to be different from the initial status quo. But what they gave us is Mike in love with El and Will in love with Mike (which we already knew since before. If you didn’t watch the show with your eyes closed, it was obvious that Will was into Mike. As a watcher, I always thought that would never be addressed properly though, because there was no way to make Byler happen, seeing how Mike was framed to have an epic love with El, and I was perfectly okay with that. I didn’t ship them, I wanted Will to grow out of his crush for Mike and get a new love interest that would love him instead), created tension out of their buttholes, because what was the reason for Mike being awkward with Will at the airport and the rest of his ooc behavior? He’s been shown to be clueless about Will’s feelings so his behavior only made sense if he was dealing with internalized homophobia. Except he’s so in love with El so what’s the issue here?? There’s no issue. They made Mike Wheeler behave with no logic, just so it could create tension in the love triangle and make the stale plot-point feel like it was getting a development. But it didn’t. The start of it and the end are exactly the same. Mike is in love with El, WIll is in love with Mike. Nothing changed for any of them. Will simply suffered more. For no reason. The only plot line for the Cali gang is “Will suffers unrequited love. He cries. Some realize it, some don’t. Everything continues as per usual (except three main character developments get assassinated. RIP Will, Jonathan and Mike. You weren’t needed this season)” 

2. Okay now that I’ve touched upon the 1st unnecessary love triangle, let me mention whatever the fuck the second unnecessary love triangle was: Steve, Nancy, Jonathan. Another love triangle leading to fucking nowhere. Why. Just why. Same as the first one. The show started with Nance and Jonathan having issues and ended EXACTLY the same. Jongathan is still lying to her, but they are still a couple. At least this one makes you feel like it’s actually leading somewhere different, and how could it not when Jonathan has no plot relevance anymore? I’m surprised they didn’t kill him off this season, but I imagine he was so useless they couldn’t find a relevant way to off him so they are keeping him for now. How can this feel satisfying? The whole tension between Nancy and Steve felt like a cheap affair. It was really disturbing and I cannot phantom why it happened at all. Nancy already knew that Steve has changed. Dude, she was there for season 2 and 3. She didn’t need the six-children-and-a-camper speech for that. They were already good partners in crime. They worked perfectly well as friends. 

3. What they did to Eddie’s character is a crime. He was the most likely character to die because there was no way to clear his name, but they didn’t go any surprising way about it. He died alone as he battled off some bats, saying he didn’t run away this time like that was some kind of big accomplishment (no, seriously, if you’re going to make him die as a hero you have to AT LEAST  make him go against the main villan, not BATS). He died unseen and UNMOURNED by the end. For no reason other than they had no way to clear his name and it would have been an hassle to keep hiding him around. Nobody cared about his death but Dustin (and the uncle, I’m surprised they remembered him), just because he happened to be the character that was with him. 

4. There’s a parallelism in the story that didn’t pay off (okay, a lot of parallelisms that didn’t pay off, but this particularly stood out to me) in El’s storyline. A part from the fact that we have never found out how Brenner survived all those times, but when they have that dialogue as he traps her in the NINA room, El asks him if he ever loved/cared for One as Brenner stays silent. The whole conversation really rang me back to her conversation with Mike, so when I watched I wondered if there was any kind of connection? It’s really the same argument. But by the end as Mike gives her his “i love you” speech (all prompted by Will, using Will’s words, murdering Will’s feelings in the process) that doesn’t seem to pay off in any way, I’m not sure what I was supposed to get out of that blaringly obvious parallelism. So did Brenner love her after all? Or is Mike’s love fake and manipulative?? What was the reason for the parallelism? What’s with the love/care justapposition? What’s the message here??? Uncomprehensible.

5. The Robin and Viki whetever-the-hell-that-was?? Why was Viki even there? For 2 minutes in total. Which made Robin another queer pining for a straight, suffering in the background. YOU ALREADY DID THAT WITH WILL. NO NEED FOR A REPETITION. Plus why, as a watcher, should I buy the Robin/Viki pining, when Robin and Nancy were RIGHT THERE with a proper relationship development. If I had to see Robin pine for a straight, I’d rather see her pine for Nancy?? At least that made some kind of sense and it actually added something to the dynamic of the main group. Of course it would have sucked balls anyway, because again, it’s just a repetition of Will’s storyline, but if they really had to, that would have made more sense. The best course of action was to not give her any love interest at all if they had to make it so half-assed. And I know the ending is meant to imply that Viki is not so straight after all, but that doesn’t make me feel any better about the fact that we got the same gay-pining for the whole season TWICE. There’s only one question and it’s WHY. Wasted screentime. 

6. Yuri’s change of heart. Because of a lukewarm motivational speech. Given to him by the other russian in the situation. Am I the only one who does not buy into it? The fact that Enzo (I like calling him this) is the one to tell the guy “you’ve seen what’s at stake”. Enzo doesn’t understand HALF of it, let alone Yuri?? Who’s convinced by the idea that his family is going to suffer as his family has been given no importance whatsoever in the earlier part of the show and he was shown as a lone wolf the whole time? That might have convinced Enzo, but Yuri?? That was weak as hell... but let’s say I buy into it, the airlift was still useless. Everyone was dead in the prison by the end, monsters included, they could have escaped the same way they came in, it’s not like Katinka brought them to America at the end. They still had to catch a plane for that. So?? Another road to nowhere. 

7. They used the we-still-have-a-date-to-go-to motivation twice, both with Jopper and Lumax. 

8. Jason searching for Eddie with a whole gang to end up with two dudes assulting the two black kinds in the show, one of which is ELEVEN YEARS OLD. All that built up for a racial stand off that, again, amounts to nothing. Since they brought up the entire basketball team, I at least imagined that they would have a frontal stand off with the whole hawkins gang at some point, that would have been interrupted by the actual evil and some people would actually die in the process. Honestly, they should have died as the upside down took Hawkins over. They played up the ending like so many would die at the end, and ONE character properly died. And when i say properly I mean that it’s the only confirmed death, not that they gave him a decent death. 

9. Speaking of which, they didn’t show how Max came back to life. One is left to imagine that El kickstarted her heart with the power of her mind, I assume... but I ASSUME. I have no idea why they didn’t show it?? 

because Mike has been "redeemed," and when Mona was redeemed, she fucking DIED. Plus Cody has apparently been cast on Teen Wolf, and I've felt there would be another character death this season...