Strange things are out of flow

Author: Robert Skuch updated 6 seconds ago

biggest worry stranger things It’s clear that fans are already interested in Season 5 even before it’s released. A lot of time has passed since Season 4, and all of the kids are much older than they are portrayed on the show. I expressed my concerns about this while we were still speculating on production and release dates. Now that the truth is out, I’m reevaluating my position, because it wasn’t the child actors who aged out of their roles that took me out of the story. it is Everyoneincluding adults.

What’s happening is deeper than teen stars going through puberty and becoming adults playing high school students. we are watching most stranger things The cast failed to achieve the flow that once made their performances feel natural, and the three-and-a-half-year gap between seasons was to blame.

What is flow state?

Flow states (often casually referred to as “being in the zone” or “locked in”) are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain as streaming episodes stretch for so long between seasons. Not long ago, the five-season series was set to air and air over the course of five years. The actors live and breathe their characters throughout. breaking BadThe show ran from 2008 to 2013 and is a perfect example of the main cast finding a rhythm and locking into their roles. Even if they take on other jobs between shows, they still work around the clock during critical moments.

If you want an analogy outside of streaming, imagine a basketball player shooting free throws or a jazz musician playing scales. If basketball players spend most of their time practicing defense instead of shooting, the shots will suffer until they shake off the rust. If a jazz musician gets a last-minute call for a metal gig, they’re going to sound like a jazz musician sitting in a metal band. The flow state has been broken. Technically, there’s nothing wrong here, but something just feels a little off, and you can feel it but can’t immediately explain it.

The influencing factor is not age, but time

stranger things Working on the same issue. Delays between seasons meant actors were cast in temporary roles while time kept ticking. Three and a half years is a lifetime for a young actor. Think about how much you change between your freshman and senior years in high school or college. If you meet your past self, you may feel like you’re talking to a completely different person.

Older and more prolific working actors also have to work between seasons. They’re not completely locked in stranger things Also taking care of other projects. For example, David Harbor can be found in night of violence, black widow, We have a ghost, a workerand thunderboltto name just a few of the pieces he produced during his break stranger things. It’s entirely reasonable to assume that throughout all this, he wasn’t doing an in-depth character study of Hopper. Nor should he be like this. His job is to focus on the work in front of him, and stranger things Isn’t it?

play yourself

stranger things I fell into this trap because there was so much time between seasons 4 and 5. Starring Millie Bobby Brown enola holmes 2, daughterand power country since she last played Eleven. She is 21 years old, married and has an adopted child. This is what happens at full speed in real life. stranger things It may not have been her top priority during that time, and that’s not a criticism. This is just reality. She is no longer the kid who became a household name overnight. She spent many years living a life outside of her character, and when she returned for season five, she was no longer the same person.

I recently saw another shocking example of outage NCIS: Tony and ZivaThe spinoff brings Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo back into their roles after a long absence. They have been out of flow state with these characters since 2016 and 2013 respectively. As much as I wanted to immerse myself in this run, there was always an uncanny valley-like feeling.

They look and sound like Tony and Ziva, but they don’t act like them. It feels like both actors were once completely in tune with their characters, but not anymore. They came in to read lines and play the character, but it all felt wooden, as if they were two aliens returning from their home planet to put on human costumes for the last time.

Character actors know how to lock in a character

Looking at the overall situation, stranger things Season 5 is stuck in an uncanny space where the show feels a little out of place. The only character who still hasn’t broken my fantasy is Brett Gelman’s Murray Bowman. It seems to me that Gelman locked into this role because he primarily works as a character actor. He’s not always front and center, but he’s great at playing certain types of people. It doesn’t matter how much time has passed, or how many other roles he’s played. He channels the same manic energy elsewhere, which keeps his Murray blueprint in place.

what happened stranger things The technology is becoming commonplace as streamers abandon the one thing linear TV is good at: sticking to reliable production schedules. When a show is filmed every year or two, everyone remains immersed enough to maintain continuity. When you stretch three or four years between seasons, that visceral sense of immersion disappears. even though mind hunter Returning for a third season (wishful thinking, I know), it’s been six years since the second season was released. This is not a delay. That is, a factory reset makes it unrealistic to expect the original actors to reprise their roles with the same psychological precision.

stranger things In 2016, he captured lightning in a bottle. Part of what made season one so exciting was everyone’s unity and performance. The actors are young, hungry, and completely locked in. Once the bottle breaks, you can’t put the lightning back inside. You can approximate it, but the viewer will feel, even if they can’t articulate it, the crack in the hairline because the flow state has been broken beyond repair.

stranger things Now streaming on Netflix.