TV Binge: Stranger Things (Season 4, 2022)

Stranger Things (Season 4, 2022)

Creator: The Duffer Brothers

Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Priah Ferguson, Matthew Modine, Maya Hawke, Joseph Quinn

When a young boy disappears, his mother, a police chief and his friends must confront terrifying supernatural forces in order to get him back. – IMDB

Its been a while for Stranger Things and now that the two parts of Season 4 are finally released, its time to give it an overall look. Season 4 of Stranger Things definitely takes things back up to the hype of its first season. Not only do the ending 2 episodes become incredibly long running at 1.5 hours and 2.5 hours respectively but the whole show in general shows off a lot of writing especially when referencing back to almost a circle effect as events from prior seasons all come together from looking at what happened exactly with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) at the Hawkins Lab that lead her to run away to the initial group being separate for various reasons but all coming together in their different places, showing off the extent of the Upside Down and the hive mind of the demogorgons and also what connects them all together. Its an elaborate story and one that truly elevates especially in terms of the script.

Since I never managed to get the TV binges for Season 2 and 3 out, its suitable to talk a little about my feelings towards it. The last 2 seasons were decent but never quite lived up to its first season, even though season 3 did end on quite the big change with a lot at stake in its big finale. Perhaps its how it felt a little been there done that with the same similar plot of the Upside Down and Eleven’s powers and Hawkins Lab and sealing the portals and such. There were some decent new characters as well, even if some didn’t last. The threat doesn’t seem to change even if the dynamic between the friends shifted a little and still had some fun moments.

What makes Season 4 work better even if some of the threats are familiar, is that there is more depth. There’s a lot of change and it justifies that a certain amount of time has moved on since how things ended in Season 3. It brings in topics of bullying and the 80s satanic panic along with new characters coming into play. The 80s theme is still very vibrant with the soundtrack, even surpassing that of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill and Metallica’s Master of Puppets. It helps that the crew is all split up in different locations which adds some freshness as the adults are in Russia, the kids are split between Hawkins and California while Eleven needs to reconnect with her powers despite the people involved. There’s a lot to talk about just in terms of the many tangents of the plotline. The most direct would be the whole process of Russia where the adults come together with Joyce (Winona Ryder) working with Murray (Brett Gelman) to follow a message allegedly from Hopper (David Harbour) and they head off to save him. As much as the kids are a part of the story, the adults are also rather important as well. This side of the story as dangerous as it is actually packs a lot of comedic relief whether its the dialogue from Murray or Joyce and their very unplanned way of trying to save Hopper.

The whole dynamic between the friends shifts as they get older with different priorities like wanting to break away from being the Dungeons and Dragons nerds to being the popular jock. While Eleven in her new environment with Will (Noah Schnapp) experiences her powers gone after the last season’s events and has to deal with bullying. Despite all this, everyone tries to pretend everything is okay when it isn’t which is the main reason for some of the conflicts here afterwards. With new alliances, the main one being the new character Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) who is wrongly accused of a fellow classmate’s death in his trailer as well as Steve’s (Joe Keery) work buddy Robin (Maya Hawke). Its nice to see that as Lucas falls out of the group for a bit, his sister Erica (Priah Ferguson) steps up with a bigger role as she is a little body with a big attitude who is incredibly fun to watch. With a lot of the relationships and little other things put into the backdrop as they group together to fight against the new enemy Vecna, it all builds to a rather big thing with some serious aftermath affecting not only the Upside Down but also Hawkins as a whole. What deserves a big mention, other than Eleven’s side of the story as she’s always a big part, is that Max (Sadie Sink) gets a much bigger role in this season as what happened in the previous season haunts her to the point that makes her mentally weaker and giving the chance to be trapped into a deadly situation.

Stranger Things Season 4 is definitely a step up from the previous 2 seasons. While it seems to jump around a lot, the difference in locations and the different groups of characters working together in one scenario to the next gives off parallel storylines that drive the story further. The writing also adds depth as it does pull a lot of the world that they’ve been building all these seasons together giving it a circle effect (which I have to admit is something I particularly love seeing in any sort of film or TV as it makes it feel very clever). The characters, new ones especially did such a great job, no matter if it was the bully or the jock or Eddie Munson who all delivered the necessary effects. It is nice to see Steve’s character have some other purpose than being the babysitter at the end while Eddie and Dustin does build a nice friendship as well. If there was one thing to criticize (and I’m sure there’s more especially some bits of the episodes working towards those 2 final ones) more strongly is its the whole cliffhanger ending, which from memory Stranger Things always did have the tendency to do to build up the anticipation for the next season. With that said, its not so bad since their final season is going to happen so hopefully we will see that released soon and see how the Duffer Brothers wrap up this whole world.

TV Binge: Who’s The Murderer 明星大侦探4 (Season 4, 2018)

Who’s The Murderer (Season 4, 2018)
明星大侦探4

Cast: He Jiong, Benny Sa, Angel Wang, Bai Jing Ting, Emma Wu, Liu Haoran, Zhang Ruo Yun, Wei Da Xun, Justin, Seven Tan

No. of Episodes: 13

**With that said, instead of the poster, I added in the full playlist of the series. Its backwards to scroll to the second last video to see episode 1 and turn on the CC for English subtitles.**

Let’s start off right away that I have never seen Who’s The Murderer Season 1 to 3. Its only been since last year in July that I started getting into the TV series/dramas & variety shows from China. With that said, after watching The Chamber of Secrets Escape (Review), Who’s a Murderer was even more up my alley. The best part is that it had these twists and turns in their stories and the investigations was cool. Plus, the set and stories they always did added intrigue but also a lot of logic and problem solving and analytical sort of thinking. It relied especially in the final episode on (what I believe) an unscripted way to twist and turn throughout the situation for the murderer to not be discovered with whatever tactics they can use. Who’s the Murderer is a lot like an elaborate version of this party game called Wink Murder or Killer (whatever you call it, I’m not too sure…) but instead of a circle, it adds in these Clue elements and sometimes, escape room elements.

One great element of this is its setting. They build these fantastic sets as a backdrop for each of their things. Sure, its mostly just rooms mildly divided in some cases to show the different characters and their rooms. The structure of the game is also quite good. The first part is establishing and discovering the “body”, then introduction of the characters and their timeline, the first collective search, the first collective analysis, the detective’s solo (secret) vote on who’s the murderer, the second round of collective search, 1 on 1 with detective, final collective analysis and final vote for everyone and then the reveal whether they successfully voted the murderer to go to “jail”. Its usually the search and the analysis that makes for a lot of fun moments. The other part of this which is great especially being a variety show (and something China does particularly well) is the focus on society and how each of these stories focus on some element of society and people whether its relationships, idols, love, families in regards to revenge, trust, loyalty, etc and how a lot of these cases sprouted from an extreme negative thought or self-preservation or whatnot and they reflect on these cases at the end.

As for the cast here, there are a few regulars and then every episode has some guests that only pop in to participate. He Jiong is a super popular and talented host for Happy Camp and an array of variety shows in China, prominently on Hunan TV so since that is mostly where I watch variety shows, I’ve grown to really appreciate him and in this, he is really talented especially when he is the “killer” he can almost always avoid being caught. The other is Benny Sa who I’ve never seen in anything before but he is also quite comedic and very analytical but sometimes has this silliness to his theories and guesses. The younger semi-regulars is one of the reason that I started this and that is Bai JingTing who I first saw in a TV drama (which I haven’t written up yet) and through this I’ve known a few other semi-regulars that I honestly really like a lot too.

There is a lot of after editing on these shows and probably a lot is cut out of the whole episode but there is a great post-editing effect for it to make it very mysterious and suspicious. A lot of the mysteries have a lot of twists and the character have their own depth. It also brings up a lot of questions on right and wrong and morals and ethics. For a variety game show style, it definitely has more depth than most. Plus a lot of times, it also gives the audience watching an outlet to analyze the case with what they have found and always reveal at the end whether they found the evidence that solidifies who the “murderer” is. The first two episodes and the final episodes are the most awesome ones. Its nice to see how they incorporate some spinoff on popular movie backdrops as well as different genres such as time travel elements and whatnot. Its a very colorful show to say the least and while there are a few little stumbles and some episodes are slightly more predictable (which is a rare occasion), its one that, I would assume, has gone through  a lot of polish and it shows because its highly entertaining and really fun to get involved to make your own guesses while watching it. I like that element of it the most as it becomes very immersive.

TV Binge: Gilmore Girls (Season 4, 2004)

After starting this post back in March 2017 and leaving it hanging, I’m finally giving a second shot at writing it out. It has nothing to do with it being uninspiring to write but more that I tend to binge the series so then I mix up the episodes. I am currently on limbo in season 4 and watching it over and over when I want a Gilmore girls dose until I wrap up this post. I’d like to move onto Season 5 now, so here we are!

Gilmore Girls (Season 4, 2004)

Creator: Amy Sherman-Palladino

Cast: Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Scott Patterson, Keiko Agena, Melissa McCarthy, Yanic Truesdale, Kelly Bishop, Edward Herrmann, Sean Gunn, Liza Weil, Jared Padalecki

This season takes us into new journey for all of the Gilmore girls including their closest friends. In a way, they all enter a new phase. Rory goes to Yale and while she can’t get rid of one tie in particular, Paris who takes them to share a dorm with two other girls in their first year in university and working together as reporters on the Yale Daily News. Lorelai sets off throughout this entire season setting up the Dragonfly Inn while finding a way to work through her struggles and coping with missing Rory in her life to share everything conveniently. As for Emily, she is learning to cope with her husband and his business and then acquiring a new partner who likes newer ways to do things that makes her feel less important. On the other hand, Sookie is welcoming a baby to the family while Lane has to regroup her band while finally falling out with Mrs. Kim in exchange for following her dreams. While Luke gets himself married, separated and divorced while dealing with his sister starting to enter into his life again.

Now that’s we’ve had a quick recap of the season, let’s see what I liked:

Lorelai & Rory

The moment Lorelai and Rory’s relationship becomes not my favorite thing on this show is when the show will not be worth watching. This season was a different vibe and one I loved because it showed a more independent growth to the characters. Being separate from each other gave places to grow for them. While their relationship still remained the same, you could see the dependence they have on each other while still being able to develop in their own ways as they have to handle their everyday lives more by themselves.

Lane and Following your Dreams 

Lane and her fear for her mother has always been a funny highlight in the episodes. Plus, she’s a great friend with Rory and they are always fun to see together. However, this one also sees growth in character as she fights for her dream career and her band and fesses up to all the secrets she’s kept growing up to her mother. Although with a little hiccup, eventually, they try to find a way to work it out. Its a nice representation of an Asian family and the extreme generation gap and views which personally I could relate to partially.

Paris and Rory & the College Experience

Paris and Rory have always been am abnormal friendship. As much as they are competition, they are also stronger because of their intelligence and quirky moments. One of the best moments to show how wildly similar they are despite their different personality is when they go to experience the spring break in Florida and lets just say, things get weird. Except for them, things are always weird and spark the most awkward conversations and somehow they grow together.

Jess’s Sporadic Returns to Stars Hollow

I love Jess, honestly this character is incredible to watch grow and even though he only is in 4 episodes (or something), it was still a level of character development that shows how much he does love Rory even if timing is always not their strong suit and the fact that he hasn’t quite grown out of wandering phase and sometimes forgets that while he has no ties, Rory still has things she can’t just give up especially when it comes to her future.

Lorelai & Luke

No one beats bad timing like Lorelai and Luke. While we see chemistry between them all the time, this year they both show a lot of growth as Luke gets married and divorced while finally trying to find a way to get the courage to show his feelings to Lorelai. She however shows how much she cares while still having an unexpected relationship with her father’s young partner. However, they are each other’s support in the most desperate situations and we see that a lot in this season.

Overall, Gilmore Girls is a fun little trip into this wonderful TV world and Stars Hollow sounds like an amazing town to live in. I could go on about Emily relationship here as well because she was also a highlight. Season 4 holds a different vibe for everyone and it works so very well. The only thing I didn’t like was Dean but that’s because as much as he loves her to death, he’s really just not the guy for her and in many scenes here, it just felt so wrong even if they felt like it was right. Its a tangent of the series that I haven’t been totally behind and the more I watch it the least I’m behind it.

Finally, the TV binge for Season 4 is done and we’ll be moving along with Season 5 post very soon! 🙂

TV Binge: Once Upon A Time (Season 4, 2014)

It has been WAY too long since the last time I watched Once Upon A Time. I watched Season 3 at least 2 years ago. Look at them now, its Season 7 and apparently the whole cast has changed. Anyways, I finally decided it was time so here we are. Hopping into Season 4 knowing only that Frozen princesses are included in the mix.

Once Upon a Time (Season 4)

Creator: Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis

Cast: Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Lana Parilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Colin O’ Donoghue, Emilie de Ravin, Robert Carlyle, Rebecca Mader, Sean Maguire, Victoria Smurfit, Georgina Haig, Kristin Bauer van Straten Elizabeth Lail, Merrin Dungey

I’ve always like how people use the fairy tale characters and twist their stories or their nature. That is exactly what Once Upon a Time has always excelled at. Jumping back in, it feels like I never left with the exception of a few details that I needed to read up to remind myself or most that came naturally through the characters’ conversations. Season 4 is an all around fun time. Its pretty much split into a few plots. The first is how Elsa is stuck in Storybrooke and then Anna and Kristoff also get there and they realize that its the Snow Queen that has been behind this the whole time. The second being of Rumpelstiltskin who wants to get his bond broken from the dagger so he can have his happy ending and this leads us to the hunt for the writer of Henry’s Storybook and also bringing in three villainesses: Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella de Vil.

These three plot lines were all great. For one, Elsa and Anna when this series aired was probably riding the wave from Disney’s Frozen. Its costume and characters are also inspired by it. All factors that work well. They do brings in how the Snow Queen factors into all of this. We will discuss villains later. Elsa and Anna’s tale factors into the whole Prince Charming link and its really nice to see how everyone works together. Putting that one aside, the hunt for the author started out for Regina and a little secret project she had with Henry. Its incredible to see that Regina having a lot of growth here even in one dangerous moments somewhat mocking her old self. Emma and Hook also have the center stage which I love to death. If only they could have just one moment of peace and be together, that would be so great.

The villains here are quite inspired. The Snow Queen’s final showdown was pretty great as it brought a lot of quarrel which in some part was more comedic than anything. Another plan going awry send Rumpelstiltskin to his depths as he searches for his happy ending and its pretty fun to watch them get pulled back into another story and get back out then proving that no matter what villains come into the picture, and how competent they could be like Cruella de Vil, Ursula and Maleficent, Rumpelstiltskin is still the most powerful enemy they could have. Is that more a compliment on how great of a character they’ve created or that the writers are out of ideas on how to create better villains? I choose the former because I’m a fan of the show and this season still was pretty good.

Season 4 was a jam-packed affair though. There were tons of plots and tangents. It had so many characters enter the scene and they tried to give them all a backstory while also dealing with the going ons of Storybrooke. It might have been a slight overkill but at least it never gets boring and thats all good for me.

Thats it this TV binge! Its time for Season 5! 

TV Binge: Orange is the New Black [Season 4, 2016]

***Sorry for the inconsistent posts. I’ve needed a little break to just relax and take it easy.***

Out of everything, I chose Orange is the New Black to be the series that I’m totally on track with. Season 4 was recently released on Netflix a few weeks ago on June 17th. I can’t say that I remember a lot of Season 3 but here is the review of it HERE.

I can’t say that I’m incredibly excited to see this since I remember Season 3 being slightly lackluster. It was better than Season 2 but not as good as the epic Season 1.  I’m keeping an open mind for Season 4. With the craziness that Orange Is the New Black always ends with, we’re bound for at least a slight adventure.

Before we start, for those who haven’t seen previous seasons, there will be spoilers so I urge you to drop by again when you’re all updated. Unless you don’t mind spoilers, then keep reading! 🙂

Orange is the New Black
[Season 4, 2016]

Cast: Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Michael Harney, Kate Mulgrew, Uzo Aduba, Danielle Brooks, Dascha Polanco, Samira Wiley, Nick Sandow, Yael Stone, Taryn Manning, Natasha Lyonne, Diane Guerrero, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Constance Shulman, Laura Gomez, Kimiko Glenn, Dale Soules, Alan Aisenberg, Brad William Henke

Season Four of Orange is the New Black starts with where we ended the previous one. The inmates of Litchfield has gone through the wiring and is splashing around in the water outside. Caputo sends for help, Chapman wants people to bath in her scheme and realize how badass she is, and Crazy Eyes gets convinced to stay outside even after the guards come out to get them. Regardless of how out of control this all turns out, nothing beats Alex’s suspicions coming true and the consequences that follow especially pulling into more and more people into that mess and exposing us to a deeper look into Lolly and Frieda in particular.  I’m not going to lie when the first episode of season 4 started, I was so confused but they made a good effort to help jog memories and wrap up what happened in the previous finale (kind of) and start up some new issues.

It is hard to say how I feel about Season 4. There a lot of great individual bits in every episode but the first half of the season had some pacing issues that just didn’t keep me sitting around for very long. Usually I’d walk away after one episode and come back later to continue the season. If you use the norm of the previous seasons, that never happened before. However, the second half of the season or maybe a little earlier just built in awesomeness. It felt like the main thing this season did and was wildly apparent is that being in prison changes you no matter how you were outside and there are things you just can’t avoid doing to survive.

The main downfall of the series at this point is that they have put in so many characters and so many directions that there isn’t really anyone we can connect with anymore. Its no longer about Piper as it was in Season 1 with Alex and getting to know everyone. The backstories are not going into some other characters and remain some of the highlights of the show, making us understand further the characters that have been in the background since the beginning. While they still have bigger issues that they work hard to highlight throughout the show, certain characters do pop up and then I always question, “Oh right, she’s there. What’s her name again?”

Now that the complaints are out. I think we need to look at what stood out.

Alex’s situation and the body which implicates Lolly, brings in Freida and eventually more and more people into the know

This situation actually lead us to know more about the crazy Lolly who we realize is delusional. Using that delusion, the situation gets a little better and worse depending on where we were. It also brought out a super brutal Freida who is really quiet but also pretty intense in such a calm way. She is kind of like the voice of extreme reason but everyone chooses to ignore but they don’t want to touch that area. It also pretty much brings Alex and Piper’s relationship back to the front.

Pennsatucky and Coates (continuation from the previous season)

One of my favorite parts of Season 3 was Pennsatucky and her story and leading onto what happened with Coates where he basically raped her so she is taking measures to protect herself. This is how her friendship with Boo has grown. Coates however seems like he doesn’t really understand what went on but at times, there are vibes that he might be just manipulative or changed from all this prison job and authority is getting to his head. He has a deeper story and its one I’d like to see more of in Season 5.

 Caputo and Finding a Balance

 Caputo is a really frustrating character. On one hand, we have gone to know that he isn’t a bad guy. In fact, we do learn that he has the best intentions in mind except he is so easily manipulated into doing stuff. And he has this huge fear of losing whatever it is that he has. When he decides to take matters into his own hands, he realizes that the authority he wanted is gone because he ended doing so much behind the scenes that he no longer was even in the scene. The question now is how he’ll pick up those pieces in Season 5. And because of that, he also leads to the next problem that is quite key to Season 4.

The Guards

The new system coming in meant needing more guards especially since the old ones decided to leave (or most of them at least). We still have Coates and Bayley sticking around because they pretty much are useless guards with zero experience. Bayley is actually a really great character to learn more about. He doesn’t deserve to be where he was at the end of this one. While he did something bad, its hard to hate him for it either. It seemed like the circumstances was too harsh for him in general to be in. I truly hope that he doesn’t have to come back because this is one thing that he won’t get over because he truly just a kid. On the other hand, the new guards are a lot to talk about. They think they are high and mighty because they are veterans. All my respect to them but these new guards have got issues. Huge ones. As we learn more and more about them, they definitely lean into some very messed up territory (especially Humphrey) that Season 4 strangely doesn’t seem to have a lot of…other than non-guard related Lorna and her new husband. Some of these new guards made me want to punch them in the face and got me angry. I guess it means they did their roles well.

Aside from that, there was a whole focus on Piper and her illegal panty business that gets taken from her in a way. Its a war that brings everything down and goes all wrong when the prison turns into making the gangs even more apparent. Healy has a situation where we start learning more about him. There are back stories now for Maritza that I thought was good but lacked some depth linking into the messed up guards. Lolly’s back story was by far the most entertaining to watch. The funny bits mostly had to do with the new celebrity Judy King entering into the scene. And the most tragic one goes to Poussey dying leaving a heartbroken Taystee and Soso but that also made the final episode learning about Poussey so much more heartbreaking especially since she was a really great character and one with a wonderful personality and heart.

I hyper-analyzed the whole Season 4 at this point so I’m going to stop. Orange is the New Black lacked something at the beginning but it definitely picked up to add some depth to a good few characters and highlighted a lot of debatable issues. The finale is one of the biggest cliffhangers and for that, I look forward to Season 5 next year. Finally, we zero back into Dayanara who now is all alone with a lot of amped up feelings buried inside from trying to get the custody of her child back to her mom being released and still healing from the man who she thought she loved Bennett that never did return. The wait is going to be hard. Its been a while I’ve felt that way about Orange is the New Black and I missed this feeling!

Have you seen Orange is the New Black?