awkward

Stranger Things

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

I’ve watched Stranger Things for the past decade. Here are my basic feelings for each season.

Season 1

An excellent, atmospheric love story to the “kids on bikes” genre from the eighties. The kids are great and they didn’t feel the need to over-explain everything.

I find both Will and Mike kinda boring but the rest of the cast is good.

The adults are idiots and the teens are annoying.

5 Stars

Season 2

They tried a little too hard to get the same feel and try and expand the drama. It really showed how little they were prepared for a season 2 and made a lot of the season boring.

I liked the addition of Max, she came off as competent and not just the “girl” character. Erica is also pretty cool.

Still not a fan of Mike or WIll. The teens are a little better but Johnathan gives massive serial killer / incel vibes.

Truly despise the adults other than Bob. RIP.

2 Stars

Season 3

This season really went hard into the 80’s and was better for it. The whole gang is trying really hard to be normal kids.

Both Will and Mike are less annoying. Steve and Robin are by far my favourite story. The teens are getting more interesting.

I still can’t stand the adults. Murray however is okay.

4 Stars

Season 4

This is the season the writers did two stupid things. 1. obviously firing any editors and 2. realizing they can’t finish the show on vibes and atmosphere. The awkward length episodes and horribly shoehorned backstories made this a slog.

Still can’t stand Mike or the Byeres. They seem to oscillate between bad attempts at autism rep and just plain creepy.

Lucas finally starts to be his own character and his story with Max is kinda cute.

Steve, Robin, and Nancy are much more likeable. Eddie goes from a performative rebel to a real badass. His character was mishandled and it shows that they just wanted a martyr.

Robin and Nancy being awesome reporters was fun. I found it weird however that Robin changed personalities from season 3 to 4. Going from badass, sarcastic, and confident to a walking ad for AuDHD with anxiety.

I mostly speed up the show when it was time for the adults to be idiots again. I may have skipped it if it wasn’t for chaos Murray.

2 Stars

Season 5

This season showed what happens when writers don’t have a plan. They tried really hard to clean up the backstory and get everything together.

The “age up” of Holly was lazy writing when they could have used Erica or introduced another kid. That being said, the actress killed the roll and took a boring story and made it interesting.

After 2 seasons of giving Max interesting stories, they basically turned her into a spirit guide/plot convenience.

There’s been a lot of hate given to Will’s coming out but it felt more authentic than a lot of the other parts. It was quick and awkward but that’s what coming out often is. Still can’t stand the kid. Mike is neither likeable nor interesting. Dustin actually has character development which is nice.

Most of the teens are likeable now. Badass Nancy is pretty awesome.

The adults are still insufferable and I’m sorry they didn’t die. I wonder what happened to Murray.

How the hell did they manage to bring in Linda Hamilton and have her villain be so uninteresting.

3 Stars

The Finale

Trite, overly sappy, and ambiguous. It reminded me a lot of the Fringe finale that was basically just giving the fans what they wanted.

It’s also very appropriate for the show since the whole thing feels like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign from a pantser DM. Which isn’t surprising, since a lot of the beats were based off the D&D (I’m old and I refuse to call it DnD!) adventures with Vecna as an antagonist.

The ambiguity of the ending for certain characters reeks of leaving the door open for a reunion movie or series in 10 years.

It also doesn’t show us the characters grieving and getting over the multitude of deaths.

Overall

This series is uneven both in its storytelling and its characters. It’s a fantasy of nostalgia written by people who have only known the decade from movies and TV. There was no plan and it shows. Throughout the series, D&D is treated with more respect than any of the characters.

There is some nice character development when the actors were given input.

I’m left with an overwhelming feeling that I could write better. (And I plan on doing so.)

3 Stars out of 5

Do you disagree?

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2022 film Hotel Transylvania: Transformania.

Story

The story follows traditional comedy pratfalls. It’s all about ego and misunderstanding. As usual, Dracula means well, but screws everything up. The second half is better, but still dependant on the characters reverting to their pre-development stages.

Score: 0

Characters

Dracula is a controlling, narcissistic, and childish character. I did feel bad for him in the jungle though. He learns his lesson, but its a similar one to the last three movies.

As usual, Mavis needs to save the day. The characters were consistent with the previous movies and did grow, but weren’t that interesting this go-around.

I will say that I didn’t really miss Adam Sandler and thought the new guy was fantastic.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

Where this movie shines is in the one liners and quips. They’re often silly, but there are a few laugh out loud ones.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The visuals are good. They didn’t try to change or improve the style, but they did some interesting thing with the crystal cave.

I barely remember the music which means it did what was needed and that’s okay.

Score: 0.5

Fun

Once you get over the stupidity of the main character and that he literally causes all the problems, it’s a fun fluffy movie. Not much here other than the moral of speaking to your spouse before doing something stupid.

The kids loved it and the rest of us had a relaxing movie.

Score: 1

Overall

A possibly superfluous sequel with a lot of the same feel and jokes of the others. It’s fun, but doesn’t break new ground.

Final Score: 3 stars out of 5

Ron’s Gone Wrong – JenEric Movie Review

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How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2021 film Ron’s Gone Wrong.

Story

Ignoring the fact that technology just doesn’t work like the movie portrays, there’s a lot about the movie that really bothers me. The basic premise is cool, but the world building went from ridiculously accurate to completely unbelievable really quickly.

The idea of spontaneously developing artificial intelligence has been done before. The movie doesn’t even acknowledge that it happens, going for a weird commentary on social media instead.

Score: 0.5

Characters

The tech CEO and his partner felt underplayed while the family, kids, cops, were all overdone. The main character doesn’t learn to embrace and love his culture and family so much as tolerate and use them. The kids are all shown as having social media addictions and the cure wasn’t logical.

Old east-block grandma that is completely unhinged was a character type that was overplayed in the 80’s; now it just comes off as anti-immigrant.

Ron was funny but obviously dangerous, and that was never addressed.

Score: 0

Dialogue

The dialogue was clever and had a lot of references to older movies in the same genre. I liked the literalness of Ron and how they showed him grow in understanding language.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

This was a well animated movie with some great concepts. Bubble was well designed and unique and the colourfulness of the B-bots was awesome.

The score was so much more epic than expected and really helped punch up the emotion.

Score: 1

Fun

I just couldn’t help wondering where all the adult’s B-bots were. I don’t care if they were made for kids, we all know people would buy some for themselves. People who truly have trouble making friends are the 30+ crowd, not kids.

My daughter and son both got bored part way through.

Beyond that, the movie was entertaining, but left me uncomfortable at the lack of comeuppance for the tech company’s misdeeds, the release of a rogue AI, and the deflection of serious social media issues.

I don’t think this will be a rewatching kind of movie.

Score: 0

Overall

The movie tries really hard to go beyond slapstick comedy and doesn’t succeed. It’s a fun movie if you don’t think about it, but it misses the mark on serious issues and ethics. The conclusion felt trite and horrifying instead of heartwarming. However, there are quite a few good gags and jokes along the way.

Final Score: 2.5 stars out of 5

Blush: Oral Sex

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So far we have received almost three digits worth of questions, but I’m greedy, and I want more! Ask us your anonymous questions here!

I thought for a long time about whether I should include topics like this one. Then I realized that this is the entire point of this project. We need to discuss topics that make us uncomfortable in order to erase the stigma that surrounds them. And oral sex needs to be discussed especially, because of the dangers that come with it.

Representing cunilingus: a cream pie.
Representing cunnilingus: a cream pie.

Representing fellatio: the peeled banana.
Representing fellatio: the peeled banana.

Question

What’s so dangerous about oral sex?

Answer

Oral sex is dangerous if you don’t use protection. People are less likely to use protection for oral sex because you aren’t going to get pregnant. Barriers like condoms and dental dams protect against more than pregnancy though; they protect us from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Not all STIs show visual symptoms, including HIV. Until you and your partner are certain that neither of you have an STI (testing is fairly simple in North America), use a barrier to prevent transmission.

Question

What sort of barriers are you talking about? I hate the taste of latex – I don’t want to use it!

Answer

Condoms (for fellatio) and dental dams (for cunnilingus) are standard use items. If you don’t happen to have a dental dam handy, a condom can easily be turned into one using some easy steps. A natural rubber latex sheet is also safe to use, as are latex gloves.

I’m resisting the urge to say that if you don’t like the taste of latex, don’t give oral sex. No-one is forcing you to give oral, and if they are, you should reconsider being with that person.

However, here are some actual tips:

  1. Buy flavoured condoms or dental dams. Dental dams are fairly new to the market, but they still have one or two flavours. Sex shops might have them in more.
  2. Use flavoured lubricant. You should be using water-based lube on the side of the latex that it touching skin anyways, and you can add some on the other side to remove the taste of the latex (somewhat. It’s not perfect.).

Do NOT flip the dental dam over and use the other side once it has been used on one side. I think that goes without saying, but there you go. I said it anyways.

DO hold the dental dam in place with your hands. It doesn’t do you any good if it moves around.

Be safe, and have fun.

References

http://www.sexualityandu.ca/stis-stds/how_do_i_protect_myself_from_stis_stds/dental_dam
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/oralsex.html