Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Hello boys and girls and welcome to movie goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the KB radio network. I am your host Kevin Reed and today we travel to the upside down. Today we go over the first. four seasons of the show that built netflix if it if it wasn't for this show we wouldn't have the netflix that we have today and it is stranger things we are going over the first four seasons the uh a show that i was close or not was but i am close to deeming my all-time favorite show and i say close because it has to stick the landing it has to stick the landing and we're gonna find out beginning on thanksgiving day and we're gonna find out how we wrap up this epic conclusion to this just gigantic show i i can't think of an adjective to give this show justice and how much i adore this show this show speaks to me it speaks to Of course, millions of others around the world, just like you and me. But for me personally, it just hit every single button. It really, really tugged on my heartstrings. Because I am an 80s baby. And 80s are my favorite decade. That's my favorite decade of my short time on this planet. And this show is a showcase of that. decade this is everything that i loved about the 80s wrapped up in one gigantic ball of adventure and i have enjoyed every single season now there's one out of the four there's one that i didn't love as much as the others but i can still pick moments in that season where i enjoyed it so much you know I still enjoyed it but that was just one and it just the reason it's a little weak is because it wasn't as strong as the other episodes i mean well episodes but other seasons but it was still a good season nonetheless but it just everything that i love as far as pop culture is concerned everything that i loved about the 80s is in this show whether it's films you know they touch in on Goonies. they touch in on um stand by me they touch in on terminator they touch in on the freddy cougar films they touch in on everything about that you know and every season has a theme and every season is like that portion of my life you know there was a section in my life where i just focused on this one thing and that's how the show is kind of condensed to uh season by season So it's just been fun to watch. And it's been fun to watch these kids grow up. You know, when we first started watching this show, when you had Will and Lucas and Mike and Dustin, and later we had Eleven, they were little babies. You know, they were just out of toddler age, if you look at them. But now they're adults. I mean, Millie Bobby. Bobby Brown is married with a kid now and we're going into season five you know uh Finn Wolfhard who plays Mike on the show the dude is about seven feet tall now all of these all of these kids aren't kids anymore and it's it's it's just been fun you know it feels like you're part of the family in a sense because you literally watch them grow up in front of your eyes and it's just been a joy to watch man and it's going to be painful painful come new year's day when it all comes to an end yes this final season season five of stranger things will wrap up in three volumes for the remainder of this year starting on thanksgiving it is all stranger things there's nothing else to think about. There's nothing else to look forward to. At least... in my eyes but stranger things we get volume one on thanksgiving we get volume two christmas we get the final volume volume volume three on new year's eve and that's how we wrap up the year as we close out this chapter of history this chapter of our lives and man it's going to be heartbreaking i cried like a baby when the trailer for season 5 dropped i watched it at least 30 times since it dropped i just can't get enough of it because i know this is it this is it when you watch a movie trailer or you go watch a film per se and it's a part of a franchise there's always a little hope that maybe you know you get a sequel to that movie you know it still has an impact but you might get a sequel here we know this is it now they may do spinoffs i think they announced that they're doing uh some spinoffs maybe i think there's an animated uh series or movie that's coming out and stuff like that but as far as this core as far as this story is gonna wrap up then it's gonna be heartbreaking because i've enjoyed this this is a family thing in my house we get together whenever the season uh drops on Netflix. That's it for us. That weekend. that is it we are we are bunkered down and we're watching it throughout with no no breaks all gas we are watching the show uh no matter how late it is no matter what we had planned those those plans are canceled we are all in on uh a stranger thing so i can only imagine for the next two months how it's going to be in the reed household we are uh netflix up for the next two months but uh it actually started early because re-watched the first four seasons re-watched the first four seasons in preparation for season five and uh i did it and then my wife turned around and did it too i didn't tell her she's gonna find out when she listened to this if she do but she'll find out did that i re-watched it first and she came back and rewatched it is, you're like, oh, you want this? you want to watch i'm like oh no i got some things tied up i'm good you know i didn't i didn't tell her that i already did it but uh she did she got all caught up and refreshed and this is a way that i'm doing this show this is a way that uh for those of you who don't have the time you may don't have the time to sit down and watch all four seasons before thanksgiving day and so i'm gonna attempt to wrap it up in one episode of movie goodness as we recap seasons one two three and four as we prepare for the epic conclusion to stranger things season five which drops november the 26th and so we have a lot to get through so there's no point prolonging it let's jump right in season one of stranger things premiered on netflix on july the 15th 2016 can you believe that 2016 is when this show premiered and it's hard for me to believe that it's been close to 10 years nine and a half years since this show has been uh a part of our lives and a part of the world the pop pop culture uh uh zeitgeist for that amount of time. It premiered in July of 2016. In case you don't know, and you've been living under a rock for 10 years, Stranger Things is set in the 80s. The series centers on residents in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, after a young girl with, what's it called, psychokinetic powers opens a gateway between Earth and the horizontal alternative dimension known. as the upside down. The show stars Renona Ryder, David Harver, Trent Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gatton Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dreyer, Charlie Heaton, Matthew Mordeen, Noah Shep, Sadie Sink, Joe Curie, and a countless other supporting cast. And And. pop-ups that we that are iconic 80 uh 80s figures who pop up as guest stars throughout the series the show is created by the duffer brothers who developed the show uh stranger things actually as a mix of uh investigative drama and supernatural elements portrayed uh with horror and childhood situation or childlike sensibilities i should say and it is infusing influences from pop culture of the 80s like i mentioned before there's several dramatic uh Tones or elements were inspired by Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Stephen King, Wes Craven, H.P. Lovecraft, things of that nature. And they also took inspiration from the experiments conducted during the Cold War and conspiracy theories involving secret government programs. And so they took all of that, mashed it all together, and gave us... pure 80s nostalgia this this show has just been um praised by critics throughout its four seasons thus far for his acting for uh the atmosphere the direction the writing uh so many elements uh throughout this show so season one season one begins well at least it's set in november of 1983 And this is where we find Will Byers, where he is abducted by a creature from the Upside Down. His mother, Joyce, who is played by Winona Ryder, and the police chief, Jim Hopper, who is played by David Harbour, and a group of volunteers search for him. A young, psychokinetic girl named Eleven escapes from this laboratory and finds the friends of Will, who are Also searching for their friend Will. But in the course of that, they began to form a friendship with Eleven, who assists them in their efforts to find their best friend. Season one was a great introduction to this show. And you knew off the bat that this was something different. This wasn't going to be your run-of-the-mill TV show, where it checked all the boxes of your... standard shows where the the jock is the the the villain you know especially in the 80s your typical 80s tropes weren't the actual tropes you know joe uh uh kiri who uh started off as the prototypical 80s jock meathead got the girl but loses the girl and all this here You thought that he would die in season one. You thought that that was going to be it for him, you know, because he he he was that character only for later on. You know, as we travel through these four seasons, he's one of the most beloved characters, you know, especially with regards to the relationship or the friendship, I should say, between him and Dustin. The dad grows throughout the season or through. seasons um we get the dungeons and dragons reference and for those of you who didn't grow up in the 80s and didn't know how controversial dungeons and dragons was that was it was it was it was banned in homes it wasn't banned in my home i really had no interest in dungeons and dragons One, you had to have a group, and I wasn't in a group. I had friends, but they all had different sensibilities. So, nobody could come together to play Dungeons & Dragons. So, I never really gave it much thought to play. But, in a lot of households, parents did not want their children playing Dungeons & Dragons because it was a big brouhaha about the... magical elements or the spiritual elements in which leads to satan it's in that's what was that was the narrative about uh dungeons and dragons playing that is uh a path to satan so it didn't play i mean good god i would hate to see if uh gta was around in the 80s Oh my goodness They were banned They were banned Burn! those games and in in piles in demonstrations in the street and so uh yeah that was a big thing and to have that showcase to be the center point of the show you know off the bat that we're in for something different it was it wasn't just following the kids around either it was more to it than that because when when you think about 80s movies and dealing with a group of kids whether it's goonies whether it's stand by me uh movies of that such the adults if they even show up in the movie played zero factor there was no adult influence in the films you know it was all about the kids you know and their adventures what they're going through or whatever the case may be and so when we get in this show we don't just follow kids and we have a adults that you actually like just to go back to the movies go back to those films that i mentioned when we do see adults in those films they were the villains the the adults were always the villains you know you rarely saw good adults in those movies and so when we get to this film yeah they're a villainous adults in the show but uh uh renona writer's character as will's mom you like her jim hopper you like him you know these are heroes they are helping the kids you know they're not shoo-shooing the kids away like oh you're just kids oh y'all playing too much dungeon and dragon get out my face stop playing that game it wasn't none of that they really went on board with the kids and that was a cool element of this show uh in this introduction in season one uh that that made it different that made it fresh that made it uh of super super interesting um the elements of the investigation with the kids uh going going through these little trials and tribulations to find out exactly where is will what what what is going on with will We get the iconic scene with the alphabet written on the wall. And Joyce's mom is communicating with Will, who's in the Upside Down, through these Christmas lights that are set up around the alphabet. And I'm like, man, this is nice. This is unique. This is a cool way to show that Will is still alive. A cool way to keep the adults engaged and keep them. grounded in the story not not believing that the uh kids are just making this up or using their imagination no this is really is really something wrong it's really something wrong with uh with hawkins and so one of i gotta touch on this because it's been blaring in my mind since i started recording so i might as well get it out now one of the biggest not flaws but biggest gripes about stranger things is the one element that took place in season one that has yet to be resolved actually it was resolved but i think a lot of people including me are just not satisfied with the resolution and that is hashtag justice for barb out of all of the characters In every season who has come and has left the show, died off the show, Barb's exit is probably the most debated. And everybody, and we're going to touch in on the other deaths in the other seasons, but those deaths I think had more weight than Barb's. But everybody is upset about the Barb. Barb being 86th in the first season was so heartbreaking for everybody that nobody has gotten over it. I think the most disturbing thing for me is the fact that Barb's parents, mom, dad, whoever, have yet to pop up on this show. Question, where is their daughter? You know, we've been through four seasons, going into a fifth. And nobody has asked, where is Barb? You know, we've addressed other deaths. it's been lasting effects throughout these seasons but except for barb it's amazing to me it is super super amazing the fact that there's been no justice for poor barb and it was a cool little she was a cool little character man you know uh and she was nancy's best friend who was mike's sister and uh it just went nowhere went nowhere she went missing we all know what happened to her she died uh i think in season two or something we we saw a body a dead body in the upside down but it doesn't need to hear that it could have been uh season one i'm getting mixed up with it now but either way she's gone she's gone but a lot of people frustrated with it understandably so i i uh wish we would have got justice for her yeah i really do But that wasn't the main one that really cut deep for me. And I'm going to let y'all know when I get to it. But season two, I mean, season one was so good. And my most memorable moment from season one has to be when Eleven laid up there and saved Mike and the boys from being jumped by those kids. And she just came and wrecked shop. She tore them up. uh telepathically it was it was the most satisfying scene i've ever seen on this show i just love it it is it just sticks in my head and it had some really good moments in season one i think that got me hooked in and into the point that where i am now with the show but that sticks out to me that has always stuck out to me i went back and watched that episode i remember when it back in uh 2016 I went back just to watch that episode several times because I just loved that scene. That scene just worked for me. It clicked for me to see Eleven go beast mode in that moment because I didn't know at the time what we would get going forward. But, yeah, that was really cool. Super, super enjoyed it. Season one was a joy. And it was... i mean look at the impact it made eggos their stock went up eggos i didn't eat eggos i've never was a waffle person but i started eating them after that my girls ate eggos but i never ate them i started eating them i started eating eggos because of stranger things yes i'm gonna give them their credit because i can't pinpoint why i started eating them other than the fact i saw 11 chomping them down in season one of stranger things but it it made an impact on uh the culture on society society and of course on netflix uh this this was a monster hit uh that quickly led to a season two of the show season two the themes of this show now season one It was more of a mosh pit, a gumbo pot of 80s nostalgia. You know, we got the E.T. reference, you know, with the with the chase at the end, when the kids were on the bicycles running from the government, just like an E.T. And we get the shot with the with the van flipping over the kids on the bike and stuff like that, as opposed to E.T. when E.T. made the bites. float levitate over those government cars and vehicles and stuff like that so it was a good oh good good little twist there with that but we we got a lot of spielberg references in season one that was kind of the theme of season one you know close encounters we we got a lot of that element in season one season two theme was ghostbusters season two theme really leaned into the Ghostbuster element of it and it also touched in on a lot of other 80s references but Ghostbusters was the thing and once again another favorite from that decade of mine uh Ghostbusters changed horror comedy special effects and didn't know you can mix all that up in one movie and Ghostbusters broke the mold with that so we get this in season two Will is safe from the upside down. After being saved at the end of season one, the boys reunited. This is based around Halloween. with uh now i'm talking about the holiday where you know the kids all four of them dress up as ghostbusters being as though they all fit the bill you get the token black kid you got the other you got the other elements of ghostbusters yeah they were the perfect uh ghostbuster team and so uh hopper has uh adopted 11 i guess you could say uh she's staying with hopper Season 2 is when we get the introduction to a new character by the name of Max who is played by Sadie Sink and this was a great addiction to the show. This was the love interest of Lucas. And that was also odd because he's the one black kid in the group. It was odd because... I didn't expect Lucas to get a story arc. I'm going to be 100% transparent with you. Because the black kid, or the token black kid, never gets a story in these movies. And it's sad, but it's true. Go back and watch it. You know, they don't have a backstory. Just go back to Ghostbusters. Since we are in the Ghostbuster era of this show. Eddie Hudson. or ernie hudson his character was the least developed character of the ghostbusters still is even in the sequels the he was never truly developed this character nobody knows his backstory nobody knows uh what he's all about you know he just came there looking for a job and he got the job everybody else were scientists he was just there and it's the same thing with lucas you know lucas is just part of the clique You know, he's he's the guy that is not about being a token. He's just the guy that was just there, you know. And this season we started to get an actual story with him. He gets his own arc along with Max, who has her own baggage, you know, coming from this troubled home that she's in with a stepbrother. And, you know, all those elements. as being the new kid in town and all this here so there's a lot going on there and so i thought that was a nice little uh monkey wrench to throw into this storybook you know this fairy tale that we're telling now that's the element of this season i like remember when i mentioned that not all of them hit home with me it was one season that i didn't care for too much and that was this season season two season two even though it had some awesome elements to it like i said it's enjoyed you can find enjoyable parts throughout this season but the one part of this season that just irritated me to no end were the others the the the other superpowered individuals uh well not superpowered geez it's not a marvel show but the other individuals who were at that government facility being experimented on along with 11 they who escaped and they link up you know the leader of the little clique here uh i think her name was carly or collie and her her little crew i didn't like that i didn't i didn't because it went nowhere and it still has it we we've yet to see him again now they can pop up in season five coming up. That'll be cool, but as far as, even in season two, they played no role in the main story. You know, they would just dare to, I guess, shepherd Eleven along or something. I just don't get it, and I watched it, like I said, recently, and it still didn't click. Nothing about it clicked. I like the... demo dogs in here you know i like that element of the show uh she does return back to hopper you know she only left because her and hopper uh had a little disagreement or whatever the case may be and yeah that that whole storyline just didn't work it didn't mesh with me the storyline it did work of course max her stepbrother billy who plays a big role In the show. the developing friendship between steve and dustin that was an element i didn't see coming it was it was a nice touch it was a nice touch to this season but it season two it was set 11 wink wink 11 months after season one in october of 1984 uh will has been rescued he begins to have about the fall of hawkins caused by a creature in the upside down uh when it's discovered that will is still being possessed by an entity from the upside down his friends and family learn that there is a larger threat to their world and that's the best way to sum up season two uh it it it was good it was fine it was fine uh it was just a couple of episodes in that season that i felt were throwaways And that's a rarity for Stranger Things because there are no throwaway episodes in this show. The heartbreaking, the heartbreaker of this season has to be hands down Bob. Bob played by Sean Ashton, who coincidentally plays Mike in The Goonies. And he's a grown adult. in this field and i'll be in this show once again perfect homage um to the 80s and his death still still hurts i'm not even gonna lie man re-watching it it still bothered me i'm i was still upset by the death of bob man because he made the ultimate sacrifice to save the kids and joyce and You know, their relationship, because Bob was just a sweetheart, man. Bob was just an all-around good guy who didn't deserve to go out like that, being ripped apart by demidogs. But this season concludes with the dance at the, what is it, the snowball? At the school where Mike danced with Eleven, you get Lucas dancing with Max, and we get kiss the epic kiss of from mike and 11 that sets up their uh friendship graduating to a relationship uh the lucas max kiss felt the most felt like the most forced kiss on god's green earth it felt like kiss would they just kiss to i don't know man i guess the fit something of I don't get it. the set in the future that they're in a relationship or whatever the case but they didn't need to kiss it just felt forced and um if you watched interviews with them uh after that they were like oh yeah that was our first kiss you know it wasn't even written it was just something that happened on the set they said okay now y'all kiss you know these kids so it didn't it didn't it didn't play well on screen but I give them an A for effort, but it just did not work. But that's how the season wraps up. So we move on to season three, and it's set nine months after the end of season two. And in days leading up to the Fourth of July celebration in 1985, they have a new element of this show. And that is. the mall the mall was the centerpiece of season three and what a perfect perfect nucleus to this season um this was the center of attention for hawkins the mall was just built the star court uh just built in hawkins and um is putting the majority of other local businesses out of business due to the mall's popularity which a lot of malls did around that time uh i know that not so much because we malls used to be the thing uh kids of kids kids now don't know the impact of a mall a mall was like i don't know how to describe it it's something that you oh man how can i put it words. I got like... 50 words jumbled up trying to come out at the same time. It was describing a mall, people. A mall. But that's just how... much of an impact a mall was they we had malls at least in the new orleans area we had malls for different occasions we'll go to the mall in kenner and that was for certain things we'll go to the mall in new orleans east for a certain thing they all had similar stores but it was different elements like we'll go to the mall in the east for the girls we'll go to the mall in and for the good stuff we'll go to the mall and you know it was just we went to malls for different things and the mall had everything every store you can think of every food restaurant you could think of every the arcades were there i mean it was a it was a a utopia for kids in that era now kids don't have nowhere to go kids hang around walmart all day they don't have nowhere to go and it's sad man it is so sad it hurts me to my heart my kids my girls didn't experience malls like we did now they went to the malls still malls around they go to the malls but it's not like a hangout spot saturdays we spend our entire saturday in the mall summer during the summertime every day everything and that's when we don't have money it don't matter we just hang out at the mall It was something about the mall and this season, season three really captured that element. It felt like that for me and they did an excellent job of capturing the importance of the mall for young adults, for preteens or teenagers. And for that reason alone, season three was excellent, but there was so much more. You know, Hopper, he becomes increasingly concerned about Eleven and Mike's relationship. You know, the season opens up with Eleven and Mike in her room and the doors close and Hopper's freaking out. He's like, don't close any doors. Don't close doors in here. He's become super protective because she's his daughter now. you know is official to them um unbeknownst to the town we have a secret element that is also popped up in hawk it's not just the mall but a secret soviet laboratory underneath the mall which seeks to open the gateway to the upside down and so now we're introducing elements of this Soviet conflict, this Cold War. conflict that was brewing in the 80s and so we got that and this season really leaned into terminator we had a terminator type character this rushing uh agent or assassin or whatever he was and he was just an unstoppable force man and when him and hopper linked up that was that was cool at the end of this season. Another character that was introduced that met his untimely demise this season was the character of Yuri, who was just a believable character. And he ended up dying in this season. But it was also interesting that we got a new element to this upside down when we got the mind flayer who uses mind control. And he mainly used it on. Billy who is the older stepbrother of Max to do his bidding and Billy was a character that you hated but you love to hate him you liked Billy at least I did I liked Billy but Billy was a was a douche he was I couldn't stand him because I know Billy's I've grown up around Billy's and so I know that guy but dyker montgomery who plays billy does such a good job of making him a sympathetic figure uh a relay of a relatable figure in the show uh character in the show that man it really hurt when he died at the end it really hurt when he died this episode man because he was so so much of a of a a horrible step brother to Max and for him to make that sacrifice for Max you know It was so crushing, man. You know, because he was under mind control most of the season, and things that he was doing wasn't him. It wasn't him. Even though he was an idiot before, but he was a redeemable idiot. Now he just turned pure evil because of the mind flare, but he broke free enough to make that sacrifice and save the day for the kids. at that mall, another, uh, uh, guest star who was in season two. I think he, yeah, it was season two, uh, where he was introduced. And that was Paul Reiser, Paul Reiser, um, who cut his teeth in the eighties. You know, we first saw him in aliens, the, uh, James Cameron aliens. Uh, that's where we first saw him. So it was good homage to him, to that. movie i should say uh to have him on the show and he also rolled over into season uh four i don't think he was in the third season but i i wanted to uh mention that i skipped over that for some strange reason we were introduced to another character as well a new character and that was robin who is portrayed on the show by maya hawk and if you don't know who maya hawk is she's a Apple baby banana a real nepo baby she she really can act uh she is so good on this show such a perfect addition to the show uh maya hawke who famous parents are ethan hawke her father and uma thurman her mother yes kill bill uma thurman that's her mom and you shouldn't have to ask that because she looks just like her mom actually she looked sometimes she looked like a dad sometimes she looked like a mom it's weird like certain facial expressions she'll switch between the two and i'm like oh my god but people say that about my daughter too they're like oh she look like your your wife or there's like oh no she look like you it's just certain things your kids do uh but uh yeah she she is awesome on this show and we find out on the show we thought that this was a potential love interest early on for steve but it comes out that she's actually a lesbian uh the character that is she's a lesbian and uh her and steve are just real close friends and i thought that was great that's great writing that's great writing because the cliche is thing to do is to just give him a love interest because steve is such a beloved character you know especially coming from where his character started in season one but to become one of the most beloved characters on the show it had been nice to give him a love interest but they really focused it's mainly about his friendship with dustin and once again great writing because i i super appreciate that but this was a awesome season a real good bounce back season from season two which was a little week This was a jolt of adrenaline into this show. Got it back on track. Thankfully, yeah, season three was a banger. Absolute banger. Loved everything about it. Nothing missed for me. Nothing missed in season three for me. That leads us to season four. Season four takes place eight months later in March of 1986. Now we see that Joyce, Will, Eleven, and Jonathan, they have decided to leave Hawkins. They move to California for a fresh start. In California, Eleven struggles with the loss of her powers due to the end of Season 3 when she battled the Mind Flayer. Oh, but speaking of that, I didn't tell you my favorite, my favorite, my favorite part. of season three i don't know why but this this sticks with me i i don't i don't understand it because there are so so many other great elements of season three but this always sticks out it was dustin and his girlfriend who is uh uh a girl she's in canada you you know you hear that trope all the have. Oh, I have a girlfriend. She lives in Canada. And that was the running gag throughout the entire season. Nobody believed that he had a girlfriend. And it comes to find out, it comes to find out that it's true, that he has a girlfriend. And so at the end of the season, when they're trying to, because they met at this camp and they sing. So the girl, the girl tells Dustin, like, I'll help you. I'll help you if you see, if we sing whatever together. This is over the walkie talkie. And he finally agrees, you know, after trying not to do it because it's embarrassing because everybody's listening. And he finally does. He starts singing. And that's not the part that got me. The part that got me was David Harbour. David Harbour's just like, are you kidding me? Look, when they're waiting to get. inside of the facility where uh where the russians are underneath the ball or whatever and and that look i don't know what it was it's it's so subtle but it's the most hilarious thing it sticks with me it sticks with me one of my favorite moments throughout the series because we were in the most dire of situations and they just dropped that comedy gold dead smack in the middle of it you can't you can't write that better but anyway going back to season four in season four uh yes 11 had lost the powers she begins to get bullied at school uh meanwhile hawkins on the other hand back at home there there's a new being from the upside down and it's called vex Vecna begins killing residents in Hawkins and in while doing so opening new gates between the new world or the two worlds in the process. And Vecna is the main baddie. He is the main villain in this show. And this season leaned into the nightmare on Elm Street trope. This was. homage to 80s horror season four it checked every box for me this was such an homage to freddy krueger because vechner was basically freddy krueger that robert england himself who plays freddy krueger in the nightmare on elm street films has a has a part in this show has has has a guest star in this season this was excellent season four it was like nothing was off limits nothing was off limits uh people were dying left and right and it didn't matter it just didn't matter uh the stakes were higher it felt like the stakes were definitely higher this season uh vechna looked like an unstoppable force we got introduced to eddie this season eddie played by joseph quinn who has gone on to be a big star in hollywood you know he was just in fantastic four as johnny storm uh amongst other films he was in uh a quiet place he was in uh gladiator 2 and countless other films but he his star just took off after this and once again another character that was set up to be kind of an antagonist not so much the villain but the antagonist antagonist and turned out to be a hero once again sacrificing himself it's it's funny how somebody sacrifices themselves every season that's why this upcoming season i think there's going to be a huge sacrifice it is going not going to come from a guest star is going to come from one of our mains but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it but this is one of the best seasons of the show All right. I want to say the best season of the show but it's I don't know I don't think that's fair because none of them really better than the other other than the fact that one three and four are better than two but one three and four are pretty equal and how great they are you know they're just great um but I enjoyed season four so much I guess because I'm a horror nut especially 80s horror And this was the season that they paid homage to that. And, uh, it, They checked all the boxes there. Vecna really was a force of nature. He was frightening. He was everything that you can recall from Freddy Krueger. I'm talking early Freddy Krueger. The first three films in the franchise, as opposed to fourth on where he became a joke. You know, he was more of a comedian cracking jokes and all this other stuff. But. The first three films in the Friday, not Friday the 13th, but the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Freddy Krueger was frightening. He was really frightening. So they captured that element and put it in Vecna. The scene of this season for me, hands down, Sadie Sink at the cemetery being taken over by Vecna, and we get the iconic cake. bush uh running running up the hill that was that was the scene that was that was that was to talk about uh cinema man absolute cinema it was every emotion just running up the hill it was every emotion at play at during that scene the frantic nature of lucas and uh dustin and who else was at that site. I forgot who else was there, but Dare Dare trying to get, I was about to say Sadie Sink, but Max to snap out of this trance and couldn't. And the only way was to play that song. And while she's in the Upside Down, you hear the song playing and her trying to get out and running as everything around her is crumbling and everything. And she's literally running up a hill while the song is playing. I mean, come on. It was absolute cinema. That was the scene that defined the season for me. But this was also an awesome season in regards to Hopper, who we thought died at the end of season three, but it was spoiled in the trailers, which that's the only thing they did wrong leading up into season four. They spoiled that Hopper was alive. Because that was the big cliffhanger. That was the big bugaboo. Because Hopper looked like he made the ultimate sacrifice at the end, being sucked into the upside down. But in actuality, he ended up being pulled through that rushing base into Russia, the other end of that portal, if you will. And he was under, well, captured. in this little work camp prison type deal in russia so uh we got his escape and all that uh playing out that season everything was just fire man all of the all of the plots everybody was separated everybody was in different parts of the world literally hopper in russia you had a will in 11 in california everybody else was in hawkins It was just, I mean, it was pure madness. Even though Mike was in Hawkins, they were trying to do a long-distance relationship thing. Everybody was spread from hell and gone, but they managed to make it all mesh together. And when they got together at the end to kind of vanquish Vecna in the fight to get back to Hawkins after escaping, quote-unquote hawkings was also a cool element of this season season four was probably just by a smidge my favorite season thus far i really enjoyed season four of stranger things but that's my little quick little recap of the four seasons uh super excited for the fifth and final season and this go around just to give you a little preview of what's to come the fifth and final season is set in the fall of 1987 and the group seek to find and kill vechna after the rifts that opened up at the end of season four uh open up in hawkins which causes the government to uh quarantine the town and so the mission becomes complicated when the military set up shop in Hawkins and began hunting 11 So nearing the anniversary of Will's disappearance, the group must stay together one last time for the final battle and face something more powerful and deadlier. than ever before if you watch the trailer leading up to this season for the final season of the show you know that it's going to be literally all hell is going to break loose in hawkins and for them to split this up into three volumes and from what i'm understanding from what i read that like every episode is two hours Is it? And I think we're only getting like in the volumes is like three episodes of volume. I could be off on that. Actually, yeah, I am because there's eight episodes remaining. I think the first volume is four episodes. Yeah, the first volume is for the second volume is three. And then we get the big finale on New Year's Eve. And I believe they're releasing that in theaters. And guess what? i'm going to see it in the theater yeah i can watch it at home for well not for free because i'm paying for netflix but you you get what i'm saying but i'm going to the theater i'm going to the theater there's nothing there's nothing to talk about there's no debate in it yeah they got my money oh but uh this is going to be an exciting conclusion to this story i i just hope they stick the landing that's all they don't have to do anything special they don't have to go over the Top in. do too much just stick with what brought you here dance with the one that brought you you don't have to you don't have to go all all out with it but uh i'm excited i'm excited i think that um if i had any predictions on who's gonna survive who's not i think oh the easy prediction would be 11 i think 11 makes the... ultimate sacrifice at the end that's the easy prediction but this show has never been easy this show has always made the difficult difficult choice and so i don't think it's 11 it may be will and because going by the trailers and once again this can be classified as easy too we know that will is where it all began and it could be will where it all ends will could make the ultimate sacrifice at the end but i really do think one of our core kids and i put that in heavy quotations because they're not kids anymore but kids on the show are going to make a sacrifice and uh it's gonna tear us apart but hey i'm here for it i can't wait Volume 1 drops November the 26th, Volume 2 drops December 25th, Christmas Day, and the ultimate finale of Stranger Things drops December 31st. Oh boy, I am psyched, man. I am so psyched for the remainder of this year. Like I said to start off this episode, this is it. This is it. Yes, there will be other shows here on the KB Radio Network, but my main focus from here on out is Stranger Things for the rest of 2025. they have my undivided attention but i would like to know are you excited for season five are you planning on watching all four seasons before the 26th whenever this episode comes out here uh i don't know i don't know if you're gonna have time but hey you may carve out enough time you can watch netflix on your phone and stuff so you probably can sit in your office and sneak and watch it you do Why are you at work and stuff? Hey, I ain't advocating it. I don't want you to get fired. Like, oh, you got me fired. No, wait till you get home, people. But anyways, are you planning on watching these and get caught up? Or are you already caught up and super excited like me for season five? Let me know. Email the show, kbradiopodcast at gmail.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio. network also don't forget about youtube subscribe to the kb radio network channel and like this video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iheart radio wherever you are currently listening to movie goodness here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me on this recap of stranger things season one through for anticipating the epic conclusion on netflix throughout this holiday season for the remainder of 2025 i want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you all be blessed