I just finished watching this season and was so pleasantly surprised at how the whole finale centered the girls!! I was further impressed with how the way the show was written, it didn't feel forced, like how it's so often blatant pandering and it's more ok it's a woman's turn and we have to show a tough kickass girl in charge. (Anyone else sick and tired of the snarky kickass girl trope?) All the plot lines blended seamlessly and you never feel like rolling your eyes thinking (ok here comes the "equality pandering". For the record, I want shows to give women equal treatment. I'm just saying it's always done so superficially that they're usually not convincing. You can just tell they don't believe in it, but just being PC or woke to satisfy public demand.

Anyway, some things that stood out to me in the season finale I think worth raving about: (SPOILER AHEAD)

1. I was really surprised and delighted when it was shaping up to be Max and Eleven to face off Vecna alone, with none of the boys involved. Literally all the younger boys just had to stand on the sideline while the two girls had to go it alone to fight this seriously frightening evil force with no help at all!! I love how it showed Max to be so incredibly brave.

2. It really made me laugh when Mike and Lucas played the traditional "girlfriend" role while Max and Eleven faced off Vecna. I almost died watching the scene when Mike declared his undying love to Eleven to help her rise from defeat. "Please, please, I love you, you must fight! I can't live without you!" OMG, I love it. It kinda reminded me of the scene with Trinity and Neo in the first Matrix.

I think what made the show and the finale works is that while the girls took center stage, they didn't purposely dumb down the boys. When Hollywood make shows with women at the center to pander, so often they dumb down the men (as in "wink wink", we all know the men are not really stupid. We're just doing this to meet the equality quota, get it? Here's a caricature of men for you to indulge, now don't bother us again until we made 12 more movies focused on men.). But IMO all that does is lower the quality of the show and deprive it of the due respect to the female character and the actress, and it gives male viewers an immediate fodder to dismiss the show no matter how good the actress and the character may be. In this show this season, we see the boys dealing with their own issues. Steve in particular matured quite a lot. Eddie is a wonderful new character. And that heavy metal scene with Eddie and Dustin was epic as a sideshow to the main battle.

3. I really loved the flashback memories of Eleven remembering the times she and Max had their girl times together. It's crazy how it's 2022 and it's still so rare when TV or film focuses on girls bonding and friendship. A big part of this show has been about boys bonding in tribute to some old 80s movies. Somewhere along the line they started trying to balance things out, even though not enough. But it was really cool to see those clips of Eleven and Max, just them, with none of the boys. It was about their female friendship. It was very heartwarming.

4. Speaking of female bonding, this season has some great scenes of Nancy and Robin teaming up.

5. And I love it they save it for Nancy to do the Schwarzenegger. In the past, it probably would've been Steve blasting Vecna away while the girls play supporting "kickass girls" role behind him. But they wisely kept Steve in the supporting role and save Nancy the best for last.

6. I gotta give some kudos to Winona Ryder. She's been wonderful throughout the show in all seasons. Very believable and I think casting her for a show set in the 80s really set it on the right foot to start. It's hard to think of anyone else more fitting for that role and harkens back to the 80s.

7. And this is not my take, but perhaps some might see Eleven's defiance against Papa as a rebellion agains the patriarchy? Haha. Papa certainly can be viewed that way with all he's done.

8. My only regret is Erica doesn't have as big a role in this season. I love her smart mouth. But I guess with how much they packed into this season (4 separate storylines), it was hard to cover everyone.

Anyway, these are my take. Wonder if anyone see it differently?

Coincidentally someone posted another thread about female superhero today. I think Eleven stands out as how female superheros should be done. Comments in that thread talked about Captain Marvel being the best role and movie. I agree the character and story line is the best representative role for a female superhero. But I have to admit, the movie itself has been quite forgettable to me. The character didn't make much impression on me at all. And she coming after so many Avengers movie makes it feel like a very belated "ok it's a female character's turn".