(This is all negative critique but the episodes were fine entertainment. I liked the “most metal concert of all time” and appreciated how they set up the location of El’s final battle.)
🤔 I don’t think acknowledging that something is on the nose excuses it from being on the nose. It also has a feeling of breaking the fourth wall without actually doing so by commenting on the meta of the story. But I guess they needed to pound it into our heads to set up the climax? I wanted a more completion of a character arc from the active protagonist of the climax, without prompting.
Also some really heavy-handed visual metaphor going on for the final scene. (Where’s the line between heavy-handed and effective? Maybe it needed the drama.)
A lot of the dialogue was really predictable because they lean so heavily into the tropes. When does homage descend into generic derivative? The episodes to some extent felt cobbled together of obligatory scenes and moments, trope-fated. Even who lived and died. Maybe I’m being a snob here and this is just effective storytelling 🤷‍♀️ This isn’t a show that needs nuance, it is what it is, a celebration of the 80s and horror.
But I feel like the earlier seasons had more surprises? Perhaps this is inherent to resolving a long-arc story, since you have to stop adding new stuff and work with the pieces you already have, and as viewers get to know the characters there are fewer surprises.
