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Original poster

The main problem I had with Stranger Things S3

64 replies

ImFineThankYouSusan · 17/09/2019 04:54

Is succinctly put in Pop Culture Detective's latest video

Hopper was one of my favourite characters in the first 2 seasons but in season 3 the red flags were flying all over the place. Thankfully my nearly 14yo saw them too while watching it. My random rants have obviously been noticed 😉

If you haven't watched any Pop Culture Detective vids before I thoroughly recommend them.

OP posts:
Hopesorfears · 17/09/2019 10:01

I managed ten minutes. Some very selective choices of scenes - some were Hopper is violent when it was really quite important that he was, as a lot of bad guys in the series! And the idea that a grieving father flung into the role of adoptive parent would not have any issues with seeing the girl (who had no kind of childhood so less opportunity to develop any street wise social skills) having her first boyfriend seems unrealistic to me - especially given the decade it was set.
There were no gratuitous sex scenes with Hopper and Joyce for which I was grateful, women had good roles to play, and Hopper could have been developed differently but really, such a lot of angst over it. There are a million worse examples of toxic masculinity to choose from.

Kit19 · 17/09/2019 09:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BeMoreMagdalen · 17/09/2019 09:52

I do think it's something I'm going to ponder today. I guess it's related to the 'if a boy pulls your pigtails it means he likes you' trope, too. I have hokey soft spot for movies where the two leads have a massive verbal sparring match and it escalates to a kiss. It works dramatically and is fun to watch, but it does raise questions that I really should have noticed before, so thank you for posting.

Original poster
ImFineThankYouSusan · 17/09/2019 09:47

Thank you BeMoreMagdelen

It's the regression of his character that pissed me off also.

Plenty of fans dismissed the misogyny of his character.

It's something that jarred with me with S3 and this vid popped up in my feed today which explained it really well. Which is why I shared it.

OP posts:
BeMoreMagdalen · 17/09/2019 09:44

I believe you. I've never seen Stranger Things, I'm just condensing the video argument. I do think it's a reasonable point, tbh, and I'm a little challenged by it as I grew up with the confrontational banter romance idea and I still often enjoy it and have even used it in my writing, uncritically.

CaptainKirksSpikeyGhost · 17/09/2019 09:44

it's raised some serious questions about why the confrontational banter romance, so popular in entertainment culture, isn't seen as the enormous red flag for abuse that it would be in real life.
Stranger Things isn't real life, it's a bunch of 80's character cliches woven into a new plot.

Sarahjconnor · 17/09/2019 09:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CaptainKirksSpikeyGhost · 17/09/2019 09:41

He's supposed to be an unstable arsehole.

BeMoreMagdalen · 17/09/2019 09:39

Essentially, the argument is that series 3 Hopper jettisoned all the character development of the first two series so that the writers can shoehorn in an 80's movie/TV reference to bullish banter romances and yippeekiyay cowboy cop heroes. Which means that the character has regressed, and it's raised some serious questions about why the confrontational banter romance, so popular in entertainment culture, isn't seen as the enormous red flag for abuse that it would be in real life.

OrchidInTheSun · 17/09/2019 09:37

Was he e er a hero? He's always been a total mess

Original poster
ImFineThankYouSusan · 17/09/2019 09:30

Sigh...

What is mentioned in the video I posted.

Hopper being a overly aggressive, jealous, entitled, abusive asshole. Treated Joyce like shit. Yet is seen as a hero.

But as stated, PCD presents it better than I can.

OP posts:
TheAlternativeTentacle · 17/09/2019 09:24

What is your main issue with STS3?

Original poster
ImFineThankYouSusan · 17/09/2019 09:23

25mins isn't that long...

OP posts:
ShootsFruitAndLeaves · 17/09/2019 08:49

Succinct? that's a 25 minute video! perhaps you could summarise?

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