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Stranger Things (Netflix Original Series)

Jim Starluck

Jim Starluck

CO, ICS Vanguard
Location
Cincinnati, OH
Kinda surprised there isn't already a thread for this.

A couple trailers:




This series is what stuff like J. J. Abrams' Super 8 tried to be, but this one pulls it off magnificently. Watching this show is like traveling back in time 30 years, and finding a show by Stephen Spielberg and Stephen King collaborating at the height of their careers.

Just look at the opening sequence:



The entire cast delivers stunning performances, from Winona Ryder as a frazzled but determined single mom, to some incredibly talented child actors. I loved everything about this series; the characters, the visuals, the story, the music... it just nailed it all so perfectly.



Has anyone else watched it yet?
 
Watched it with my parents over the last few days. Enjoyed it, though I probably didn't get very much of the callback to the 80s stuff.

Once it got to the point where Nancy and Jonathan started working together, I found myself kind of hoping that they wouldn't end up together at the end of the series. It was pleasantly surprising that it did turn out that way, which I think is a nice aversion of what might be expected to happen.

That's one of the main things that stuck out to me, I guess.
 
Yeah, I watched it a couple of days ago. It turned out to be way neater than I was expecting. Not perfect, but pretty good. 7/10, I think.

I ended up liking most of the characters a lot more than I thought I would. Nancy annoyed me at first, but she ended up being pretty compelling. Also, Steve is possibly the nicest douchebag of a boyfriend I've seen on a TV show yet. It's weird, but cool.
 
Jim Starluck said:
Probably helped that he clearly went through some character development over the last couple episodes, and then had a hero moment against the monster.
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I think it's more the fact that it's an inversion of the usual horror show trope.

Ordinarily, you'll have a douchebag boyfriend who either a) ends up a victim of the monster, or b) picks a fight with the girl at the wrong time and ends up putting her in danger and/or being eaten himself.

Steven, however, was portrayed as being a bit more nuanced than that. It's clear that he was pushing Nancy a little (mostly during the drinking scene), but Nancy didn't display much hesitance until after the fact, and when it became clear that Nancy was feeling off somehow, he did make several attempts to try and connect with her and establish what was wrong.

His character traits seem pretty clear- he's more concerned about his own problems than the problems of people he doesn't care about, like Barb, and he gets very defensive when it looks like somebody is hurting somebody he cares about. Those do cause problems throughout the series, but they can also manifest themselves in good ways, like we saw when he busted in after seeing how beaten up Nancy was in Jonathon's house.

It's something not a lot of shows do- it acknowledges that Steve might be a bit of a douchebag at times, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have good qualities, either.
 
Enjoyed this series a lot. It just felt like reading one of Stephen King's old short stories, except somehow it lasted 8 full hours.
 
I gave a little "squeeee" when I realized that

the monster was basically a cross between a dimensional shambler and a Hound of Tindalos--it only came to our world because Ellie drew it's attention. We reached out into the new frontier like humans do, expecting to discover new wonders, and got our hand bitten off for the trouble--very Lovecraftian.
 
I'm just glad Hopper didn't end up getting disappeared by the government at the end.
 
Just started working my way through this. It feels like they had John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg and Stephen King writing different threads of the story- the series manages to capture the feel of several Eighties movies in one work. Exceptionally well put together.
 
Jim Starluck said:
The entire cast delivers stunning performances, from Winona Ryder as a frazzled but determined single mom, to some incredibly talented child actors. I loved everything about this series; the characters, the visuals, the story, the music... it just nailed it all so perfectly.



Has anyone else watched it yet?
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Me! Yeah, that was great.

I give it 011/10.
 
Wonderful show and an amazing job from basically the whole cast. I liked that the interlocking narratives gave people that felt like they would have been backgroundy characters a much more central role, casting each age group's protagonists in their own story, though Mike and Nancy's parents were probably the low point in this, being stunningly oblivious to everything (admittedly in a way that was very consciously played for laughs at least once or twice).

The three kids were great, though Dustin probably got a lot of the best moments and the constant D&D references were very amusing.

El's character development throughout the show was also quite well done.

The box at the end seems interesting. It looked fairly clear that Hopper was leaving food for El, but is she hiding out in the woods, is she somehow able to get the food from the Upside Down or is she able to hop back and forth?

Is Hopper doing it on behalf of whatever of the secret government group is left or hiding it from them?

I expect Hopper's position in season to be a bit ambiguous. The secret evil government people have a very clear hold on him, but at the same time, even if he's leaving food out for El at their instructions, I doubt he's going along with whoever it is entirely.

Meanwhile Will may not quite be in his right mind.
 
So much sweet fanart!
Also,


(But VHS didn't have hi-fi stereo until '84. Betamax got it in '83 though.)

LOL, the Duffer Brothers were born in '84!
 
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Shadell said:
El's character development throughout the show was also quite well done.
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I agree, Millie Bobby Brown was a great actress that rendered very well all the subtleties of the subtext of the script.

But the last episode was to me something that soured her whole character arc, namely her disappearance.

It's such a glaring emotional dissonance: it's all happy and upbeat for the sake of end-of-season good bellyfeel, and setting up the plot for next season, but they are not giving a shit that she might be eternally trapped in a nightmarish/lovecraftian alternative dimension/universe.

Particularly the childish the way the kids were re-telling in an excited childish way, they treated her like she might have been an imaginary friend or some NPC in a D&D campaign. This would be disturbing in even younger kids than 12-year olds. But at least they thought about here, the adults seem to just be in denial about here, and just mention her in the most perfunctory way.

I think the writers were torn in having a satisfying end of season, and keeping up the mood for next season, and the glossing-over of El's character was the victim of that.
 
xa na xa said:
Particularly the childish the way the kids were re-telling in an excited childish way, they treated her like she might have been an imaginary friend or some NPC in a D&D campaign. This would be disturbing in even younger kids than 12-year olds. But at least they thought about here, the adults seem to just be in denial about here, and just mention her in the most perfunctory way.

I think the writers were torn in having a satisfying end of season, and keeping up the mood for next season, and the glossing-over of El's character was the victim of that.
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Considering who they are (D&D nerds who've probably fantasized about this kind of shit for most of their lives), how things went down (her disappearing in a flurry of ash and light while annihilating an otherworldly monstrosity with her brain) and the lack of time they'll have had to truly process this (probably less than 24 hours between the last time they saw her and them talking to Will), I can't really say it surprised me a whole lot.
 
Such a good little show. It's like Stephen King & Steven Spielberg were thrown in a blender.

Interesting thing I read on tumblr this morning is an observation that the three groups of protagonists all approach the situation from the perspective of a different genre (weird coming of age sci-fi, teen monster/slasher horror, adult conspiracy-theory thriller), but none of them can put it all together alone.
 
The tragedy of the series to me is Eleven. Deep down she is an abused, wounded, and lonely child who has spent her life without anyone she can look to or trust except Dr. Brenner, who simply uses her. Equipped with incredible talents she does not fully understand and set against the backdrop of a miserable life of pain and loneliness I think a certain duality has emerged within her. That deep down she is two things. On the one hand, she an innocent 12 year old girl who is experiencing the world for the first time, with all of its light and colour and people. She is forming healthy relationships with others, bonding and experiencing previously alien concepts to her such as trust, and real love.

The other side of her is much more frightening. Years of solitary confinement and emotional manipulation have had a damaging effect on her psyche, rendering her numb to empathy, uncaring for the suffering of others, and hungry for violence. Eager to lash out at the world which has so far only hunted and tortured her, part of her feels an indiscriminate need, a hunger, to inflict suffering and pain on others.

A predator, if you will...a monster from a place deep within her ego. When she enters the bathtub and sees the creature, is it just some monster or is she really seeing herself deep down?

We'll find out next year I guess.
 
DocHawkeye said:
The tragedy of the series to me is Eleven. Deep down she is an abused, wounded, and lonely child who has spent her life without anyone she can look to or trust except Dr. Brenner, who simply uses her. Equipped with incredible talents she does not fully understand and set against the backdrop of a miserable life of pain and loneliness I think a certain duality has emerged within her. That deep down she is two things. On the one hand, she an innocent 12 year old girl who is experiencing the world for the first time, with all of its light and colour and people. She is forming healthy relationships with others, bonding and experiencing previously alien concepts to her such as trust, and real love.

The other side of her is much more frightening. Years of solitary confinement and emotional manipulation have had a damaging effect on her psyche, rendering her numb to empathy, uncaring for the suffering of others, and hungry for violence. Eager to lash out at the world which has so far only hunted and tortured her, part of her feels an indiscriminate need, a hunger, to inflict suffering and pain on others.

A predator, if you will...a monster from a place deep within her ego. When she enters the bathtub and sees the creature, is it just some monster or is she really seeing herself deep down?

We'll find out next year I guess.
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This stuff is why I felt the finale was a missed opportunity and the coda was poorly conceived. The stuff with Eleven and psychics and a transformation and power was strong, but perhaps the part-season style worked against it and they wanted a big climactic finish too early.
 
I agree ultimately. Something about the Season 1 finale felt kind of unfulfilled. I think they were concerned they might not get a 2nd Season if the show was a flop, and was sort of meant to serve as a vaguely unsettling finale in the vein of most 80s sci fi. "Why don't we just wait here for a little while...see what happens."

Too many objectives were trying to be satisfied in one episode and that's the weakness of these split-narrative series that are the fad lately. The idea that Eleven was protecting her friends from herself was a powerful one I wish had been played up a little more.
 
Jace911 said:
I gave a little "squeeee" when I realized that

the monster was basically a cross between a dimensional shambler and a Hound of Tindalos--it only came to our world because Ellie drew it's attention. We reached out into the new frontier like humans do, expecting to discover new wonders, and got our hand bitten off for the trouble--very Lovecraftian.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaas. The Lovecraft is strong with this one.
 
So I think we can all agree that this is what's actually happened/happening between Eleven and the Demogorgon?

 
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