A Review of Stranger Things S4, Part 2

After initial worry about the second half of season 4, Stranger Things returns with a strong conclusion to the season finale. With the cast on various journeys to stop Vecna, it gives a powerful and entertaining demonstration to each individual character and their own roles in stopping Henry/One/Vecna.

From the very beginning of the season, we see some development between Steve and Nancy as they show sparks of their old romantic feelings for one another. As Nancy and Jonathan drift further apart, as we find out in a moment of dramatic irony that Jonathan decided to attend a different college than Nancy, unbeknownst to her. Just as the viewer becomes resigned to any hope of rekindling the flames of Steve and Nancy, we can see a definite foreshadowing of Nancy and Jonathan coming to an end and the romantic feelings between Nancy and Steve grow stronger throughout the season and Nancy jumping in to save Steve from the Upside Down. Though nothing officially happens between them, Eddie points out to Steve how Nancy did not hesitate to jump in after him. Nancy’s courageous act shows her love for Steve as well as her undeniable character development from a meek girl to a strong, independent woman.

Continue reading A Review of Stranger Things S4, Part 2

A Review of Stranger Things S4, Part 1

In the heavily-anticipated season 4 of Stranger Things, fans were able to see their favorite characters return (along with a few new faces). After a 3-year hiatus, the cast returns as high school students trying to make it in their new surroundings.

Millie Bobby Brown makes a sensational comeback as Eleven, now under her birth-given name, Jayne. She gives a fantastic performance as a normal girl struggling to fit in her new city and school while continuing her long-distance relationship with Mike Wheeler. The classic fish-out-of-water persona portrayed by El is seen to come to an ugly head when she hits the school bully in the face with a roller skate, thus demonstrating El’s struggle to focus her anger without her powers. Given all the change and growth of the characters, physically, El’s character has been surprisingly unchanged in terms of her innocence and mild manner until her realization of her friends’ peril. This is the truly pivotal moment in which Eleven turns from her sweet demeanor into the powerful force of good between the two worlds.

Continue reading A Review of Stranger Things S4, Part 1

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina… and Satan

A look at the nightmarish monstrosity of Sabrina’s satan!

 

Movie depictions of Satan are generally pretty lame — he’s either portrayed as generically seductive (Devil’s Advocate, End of Days) or she’s portrayed as seductive (Bedazzled), or Mel Gibson makes it a woman with a snake in her nostril (Passion of the Chris). Black Phillip, morningstar of my favorite wish-fulfillment fantasy The Witch, never really showed his true self, and I’m still sore about it. Not so with Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Satan is the the goat-headed, cloven-hoofed, full-bodied patriarchal monster of my nightmares, and I love it.

 

Look, you can come at me with your Biblical knowledge that Satan is supposed to be tempting and attractive, the beautiful angel fallen from grace. I know. I definitely Sunday School’d better than you, trust. But at the end of day, the seductive nature of sin, the frailty of temptation, they have no place in the world of Sabrina (or, quite frankly in any of the non-Witch movies I listed above). In her world, the Father of Lies, the Dark Lord Himself, should be as scary as the evil he is meant to embody.

 

Sabrina’s quiet little town of Greendale is home to a Satanist coven. Although primarily populated by women, the men have most of the seats of power, handing down orders from the Dark Lord with supreme authority. This literal goat, like all mediocre men who’ve risen to power on their own arrogance, believes himself the metaphorical GOAT and pushes that fantasy like herpes by taking advantage of women who wanted a sense of safety. Typical. And not so different from it’s alleged opposite, the Christian church. It’s almost laughable in its transparency, in the same way that seeing a horned monster in an otherwise melodramatic show invokes that same tickling unease.

 

The show itself has struggled with tone in the first half of its first season, but Satan is a welcome constant. He reveals himself to his demon-wife at the end of episode one in all his animalistic glory. It’s what kept me watching. Even when he’s not on screen, his presence is felt in a big way — the same way patriarchy colors all of our communal social interactions whether we wish to acknowledge it or not. Rather than trying to make him all things Evil, the creators of Sabrina made the devil a clear metaphor for the biggest evil plaguing Sabrina and her friends — unchecked misogyny.

 

While I would never pledge my loyalty to this monster, I am excited to see where he takes Sabrina as more of her Chilling Adventures hit Netflix.