Just finished Netflix's summer blockbusters, THE GRAY MAN and season 4
of 'Stranger Things'. Significantly, neither shortchanges the viewer in
production value, with expensive visual-sequences flying, umm, fast and
furious. However, I'm wondering if TV and movies may be running out of
story lines, as I'd be willing to swear that, not so long ago, neither
of these "tales" would've earned even a rough draft. GRAY MAN presumes
our sympathies for its James Bond-knockoff protagonist right out of the
gate, cinched with a cornball youth-in-peril side-plot ...this latter
despite 'Stranger Things' dumping the world's cornball supply all over a
cast too young to know better. This is writing not for the ages but for
the masses of Netflix subscribers. And maybe the strongest, most
reliable recommendation is now a 50% audience-disapproval rating...