OnjiMooteDaMarle

Everything is very nostalgic. The town setting takes the cake. Forget the alien monster, even if it was about a kidnapping, adventure, govt BS, romantic drama, etc, the setting matters. Though I never lived in a small town, I love the setting and want to get into it.

Next are the characters. They are kids. Well, at least they were during the first season. Stories of kids in a small town with a monster from another dimension? Very cliche but hell yeah. Add in small romances or sensual bonding to fill in the gaps without overdoing it, and it's a good drama.

The actors! Everyone is good except this Finn Wolfhard. I just can't tolerate him, can't see him, his hairstyle, his dialogues, his body language, everything is irritating. I love the entry of Sadie Sink. She is charming, but why does she walk like that in the 2nd season? Why is her body language so unnatural? BTW, it changes in the 3rd season. She no longer walks like that, and her hair colour changes too. Kids don't do that, especially her character. Kids whose parents aren't rich have walkie-talkies. In the 80's those must have cost a bomb. Couldn't stand Erica either with her overacting, which should have been cute, but it isn't. Luckil,y she has less footage until the final 3 episodes of season 3 where she becomes irritating. Even her character changes, and no, it's not because she has 'grown up'. Loved Gaten (Dustin) more than anyone else. Loved his acting and his character.

Finally, it's a lot of clichés with good VFX and good acting by most of the actors and a fun ride. But every season they open the upside down, fight the monster, think they killed it, close the upside down AND repeat in the next season. IT'S THE 5TH SEASON NOW!

I am giving this a 4 for its cliche writing, which disturbs the peaceful storytelling at an Iris West-Allen level and irritates the viewer.

The series is a cliche American story of spies and espionage, which obviously includes Iranians, if not Mexicans and/ or the Brits. What else are American spy/ political thrillers nowadays? Add a non-straight character, and voila, it's Oscars.

I liked Gabriel (Peter) in the first episode of the first season, but even he became a tad too much on his acting. The first season was digestible, apart from an irritating Rose Larkin. I wouldn't point fingers at Luciane who plays the character but its the character that is so damn pissing me she reminded me of Iris West Allen from The Flash series. I so much wanted Iris to die. Same here. Rose keeps poking and then starts crying about it. A very leftist feel.. In the 2nd season, I have no clue where the character Chelsea went, as she would have been great. Hong Chau is so fake with that silver hair. Why? Navid and Keon are good. Navid is an "all-time same character in American movies guy", but he is still good. Keon is wonderful. Somewhere, he scared me, too.

As for the story, apart from cliches in the beginning of the 1st and 2nd seasons, most actors were average, and the action scenes were pathetic. It felt very contrived.

And please kill Rose Larkin. Anyway not going to watch season 3 because of her.

The film is based on an incident happened in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The film is too lengthy for its plot. The writing is cliche, and certain moments are forced, making me wonder why did those characters do that, why this and that when the flow of the story wouldn't have brought the characters to the said point. Swarada acts wonderfully compared to everyone else in the film though her character is shown to be stubborn and strong in the beginning, she is a weakling. The 2 female characters are weak characters and their journey throughout the film is all sudden at the end. The brother's character is a waste. Another character we see in the beginning of the film has no conclusion. The characters or the dialogues are forced to reach the climax of the film. It rains only when the scene needs it and thus everything looks contrived. This film looks like a film school kid's 1st project.