unforum

[Tharol]

Season one had to start out slow as well as point.

[tijde]

I wrote this on my phone during lunch and forgot about it till now. Redherring said some of it already:

I've genuinely enjoyed the turn S2 has taken toward storytelling. S1 did have a different flavor, but I doubt I would remain as interested as I am if we hadn't seen the interpersonal dynamics and characters evolve. The scares and WTF-ness of S1 were fresh and different. As an avid horror fan, I love that. But it's hard to sustain a long-term project on that alone--stay there too long, and it becomes stale. I appreciate S2 because I'm also an avid mystery fan. S2 has been much heavier on the more human mystery angle, while still incorporating elements of cosmic horror. Seeing the two interwoven is an even newer take on what was fresh about MH to begin with, IMO.

Maybe I just have a hard time hearing "It used to be better!" as anything but cryabeetus.

[MistrPibb]

46 was the only entry to have me scared this season. For the most part it was very well done, and really brought us back to "HOW THE HELL IS THAT NOT REAL".

In my opinion, Season 2 turned the series into a drama, and I don't care for all of that. I became hooked because of the mystery and scares we had in the first season. I was hooked because I wanted to see Jay walking through creepy places where doors randomly teleport him to other doors. I was hooked because I liked feeling Alex's growing paranoia that would lead to a mysterious end of the footage.
You get it, Season One was the bee's knees.

Now I am only hooked because I want to know what the hell I just saw.

[pravado]

season one is by far more creepy, season 2 has better TTA entries and overall has me on the edge of my seat more, but season 2 lacks any sort of creepy factor due to slendy not moving

[Tharol]

People could say the season one was better updating the videos.

[Spritey]

Season 1 had better scares.

Season 2 has a better plot, better acting, more character development, a higher production value, and is more fast-paced.

I just wish they'd make Slenderman move around again rather than relying 100% on the "distortion + teleportation" method. It works most of the time, but sometimes he just looks like a high-class scarecrow.

[awakeasaurusrex]

[redherring]

[awakeasaurusrex]

[redherring]

[awakeasaurusrex]

[redherring]

[tijde]

redherring's interpretation of my post was pretty spot-on (minus pronouns--I'm a she ). I was saying I have a pre-existing bias against "It used to be better!" That may be influencing my opinion here, since the original post could be boiled down to "IMO, it used to be better, and here's why." Much more reasonable than "OMG IT'S JUST DIFFERENT!", but since it still includes "It used to be better," I might not be entirely objective. In the same self-disclosure vein, I should say that I came in late, around #43, so I saw S1 and half of S2 in one go.

[rand__althor]

Well, I'm still waiting for season two to officially conclude before thinking about this, but if I were to decide right now...

The two seasons have obviously felt different. Season one was a mixture of things, with entries all over the place, in terms of the timeline. There were no continuing narrative threads to tie various entries together (well, maybe some narrative threads, but not many). Most of season one was comprised of footage from Alex's tapes.

Season two started off in the "present timeline", and eventually switched over to the tapes J found in his safe in the hotel. Since Entry 33, we've been seeing footage from the tapes, footage that fills in the seven-month gap since Entry 26. There have been longer narrative threads, with several consecutive entries forming a single narrative thread. There's more dialogue, the story is more developed, characters more developed, and a lot more to discuss and speculate about.

Season one was primarily all about these mysterious, perhaps paranormal characters lurking and creeping about, and main characters visiting abandoned and mysterious locations. Season two is more character-driven, with the Operator having not so pronounced a presence.

Both seasons have their share of creeps and scares, but the scares in both seasons are of different natures. Season two was about the enigma that is the Operator (and Timasky, to an extent). Season two is about human characters trying to figure things out, and one apparently having an agenda of his own. There is still a mystery, but it's focused on the human characters, with the enigmatic characters in the background.

Don't know if anything I typed made any sense, but whatever.

[dinorobo]

inb4 Season 3 is the best season ever.