Stranger Things keeps wasting Lucas, the show's most interesting character - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 06-18-2022, 04:13 AM

https://slate.com/culture/2022/06/st...ter-lucas.html

Consistently, Caleb McLaughlin's Lucas "is the character of the main group who experiences the most change, who is set apart from the group in a major way but finds his way back by overcoming something big (his own fear, his friends’ narrow-mindedness, etc.)," says Nadira Goffe. "But the potential is entirely wasted, as it always is with Lucas. We don’t see him grapple with being wrong about Eleven in the first season, or how it changes his perception of trust or the supernatural. Even the gravity of the choice this season (Basketball or Hellfire) is cheapened when the show turns the basketball team from a group that welcomes Lucas as their teammate and real friend, to a bloodthirsty murderous mob of young vigilante teens? He had an actual believable conflict, trying to evolve while feeling seen in multiple communities—not to mention, his short stint on the basketball team showcases him talking to another Black kid that he’s not related to for what may be the first time—but the show even erases the validity of that choice (and also the other Black kid dies a gruesome death)."

ALSO:

Stranger Things' Black kids never get the story they deserve: "While I thoroughly enjoyed the fast-paced, nonstop action of this season, there’s still one giant upside-down-sized hole: If this is the second to last season, why have the Black characters still not been given rich backstories or subplots?" asks Khalisha Rae. "And why do the writers continue to rely on tired tropes, like the sassy Black woman or the basketball player, to move their stories along? Racism is glazed over or not mentioned at all, and the season’s soundtrack missed a huge opportunity to highlight the major influence Black musicians had on the 70s and 80s. Needless to say, Stranger Things left me wanting so much more from Lucas, his sister Erica, and (the few) supporting Black characters...I’m not sure what I actually expected from the Duffer Brothers, but as a young Black girl that grew up in a very Black town in Indiana, I did not feel seen by the Black characters in the series, nor did I feel compelled to care about any of them (except for Erica). It’s amazing how the writers can imagine a world of Demogorgons, alternate universes, and spiritual beings...but not Black people in Indiana."
Sadie Sink: We'd film scenes from different Season 4 episodes over the course of a day: "We had the scripts for everything, the locations for everything, so a lot of the time filming, we were bouncing back and forth between the episodes," she says. "We would shoot episode one in the morning, and then that night be shooting a scene from episode nine or something like that. It was kind of all over the place, just keeping up with where we were, plot-wise. It was challenging at certain points. I remember the biggest challenge was remembering whether or not I had my headphones on, and the continuity in terms of the headphones. Like, are they on her shoulders? Is she wearing them? Where are we in the scene? Does she even have headphones? A lot to keep track of!"
Millie Bobby Brown on the face-replacement process: "I went to LA and we did this really cool process called the Lola machine," she says. "For three days, I worked in this room and basically did every single scene that Martie (Blair) had done, but just acted with my face to replicate all of her movements. It was a really interesting process — definitely once in a lifetime."
Kate Bush is No. 1 in the UK for the first time thanks to Stranger Things
Robert Englund says his Stranger Things character had nothing to do with Freddie Krueger
Why is there so much squelching on Stranger Things?

06-18-2022, 04:13 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,844	Stranger Things keeps wasting Lucas, the show's most interesting character https://slate.com/culture/2022/06/st...ter-lucas.html Consistently, Caleb McLaughlin's Lucas "is the character of the main group who experiences the most change, who is set apart from the group in a major way but finds his way back by overcoming something big (his own fear, his friends’ narrow-mindedness, etc.)," says Nadira Goffe. "But the potential is entirely wasted, as it always is with Lucas. We don’t see him grapple with being wrong about Eleven in the first season, or how it changes his perception of trust or the supernatural. Even the gravity of the choice this season (Basketball or Hellfire) is cheapened when the show turns the basketball team from a group that welcomes Lucas as their teammate and real friend, to a bloodthirsty murderous mob of young vigilante teens? He had an actual believable conflict, trying to evolve while feeling seen in multiple communities—not to mention, his short stint on the basketball team showcases him talking to another Black kid that he’s not related to for what may be the first time—but the show even erases the validity of that choice (and also the other Black kid dies a gruesome death)." ALSO: Stranger Things' Black kids never get the story they deserve: "While I thoroughly enjoyed the fast-paced, nonstop action of this season, there’s still one giant upside-down-sized hole: If this is the second to last season, why have the Black characters still not been given rich backstories or subplots?" asks Khalisha Rae. "And why do the writers continue to rely on tired tropes, like the sassy Black woman or the basketball player, to move their stories along? Racism is glazed over or not mentioned at all, and the season’s soundtrack missed a huge opportunity to highlight the major influence Black musicians had on the 70s and 80s. Needless to say, Stranger Things left me wanting so much more from Lucas, his sister Erica, and (the few) supporting Black characters...I’m not sure what I actually expected from the Duffer Brothers, but as a young Black girl that grew up in a very Black town in Indiana, I did not feel seen by the Black characters in the series, nor did I feel compelled to care about any of them (except for Erica). It’s amazing how the writers can imagine a world of Demogorgons, alternate universes, and spiritual beings...but not Black people in Indiana." Sadie Sink: We'd film scenes from different Season 4 episodes over the course of a day: "We had the scripts for everything, the locations for everything, so a lot of the time filming, we were bouncing back and forth between the episodes," she says. "We would shoot episode one in the morning, and then that night be shooting a scene from episode nine or something like that. It was kind of all over the place, just keeping up with where we were, plot-wise. It was challenging at certain points. I remember the biggest challenge was remembering whether or not I had my headphones on, and the continuity in terms of the headphones. Like, are they on her shoulders? Is she wearing them? Where are we in the scene? Does she even have headphones? A lot to keep track of!" Millie Bobby Brown on the face-replacement process: "I went to LA and we did this really cool process called the Lola machine," she says. "For three days, I worked in this room and basically did every single scene that Martie (Blair) had done, but just acted with my face to replicate all of her movements. It was a really interesting process — definitely once in a lifetime." Kate Bush is No. 1 in the UK for the first time thanks to Stranger Things Robert Englund says his Stranger Things character had nothing to do with Freddie Krueger Why is there so much squelching on Stranger Things?