A thread for Stranger Things, the "Goonies meets X-Files" new Netflix series (with SPOILERS!)

Yeah, I guess they could still reveal him to be Will's father. But that'd mean he was having an affair with her while he had a wife and daughter, not sure if they want to go there?

We're going to need a full character chronology to sort this out

Joyce and Hopper probably have some kind of ties back to high school, because he seemed to have some weird relationship with Lonnie (competition, disdain, something).

This was like the perfect blend of Spielberg and Stephen king

Was that a hatched egg hopper stopped to look at when they were in the upside-down?

I thought so. Nice Alien reference.

I wasn't sure, not after will choked out that baby slug

I imagine the snakey thing that Hopper pulled out of Will's throat hatched from the egg, then left a little creature thingy inside him to do...what? Who knows.

Eleven is the monster, guys

i.e. she created it

why was will still alive but barb was dead?

Will found hiding places

And was incubating the thing

i.e. she created it

Did she, though? Whenever she was in that black space with the wet floor, she could hone in on already living creatures (people to eavesdrop on), but there's no indication she could ever manifest something into being. She just brought it back out with her.

Xps yeah but the monster snatched him, right? So how did he get away?

And how did the monster get the scientist dude in the elevator at the beginning?

It came through a hole between the dimensions in the ceiling.

Yeah, it was a bit dodgy that the creature dragged both Barb and Will to the upside down dimension, but somehow Will managed to slip away from it while Barb didn't. But I guess Will is smaller and it was easier for him to hide? The creature didn't seem to have good eyesight, or possibly it was even blind? And Barb was bleeding while Will wasn't, so it couldn't track him by smell.

Since there were so many homages to the movie, I'm wondering whether season 2 will be the Aliens to season 1's Alien? The creature couldn't really have taken over a whole planet all by itself, and it was breeding anyway, so we should get multiple monsters next season... Though I'd be more happy if it was more about the mysteries of the upside down dimension in general, I'm not sure if the monster was successfully enough done that it could carry another season.

Yeah, the creature would have to have some amazing backstory for me to be happy with them focusing an entire second season on it.

One more interesting thing that wasn't really discussed in the finale: the sheriff pretty much sold out Eleven to save Will, didn't he? He told the bad guys where El and the other kids were hiding, so what happened next was kinda his fault. At first I thought they'd reveal he was faking, that he told the bad guys some false location, but that didn't seem to be the case... Maybe that's why he's bringing food to El at the end (and possibly helping her hide from the men in black?), because he feels guilty about it?

feel like we were robbed of epic modine death. but maybe he didn't die...it was too quick. they should have had him talking up against a wall in the school and the monster comes out of the wall and chomps his head off. that's always a good way to do it.

Yeah, I didn't really understand that sudden shift in his character. I guess his primary concern was making Joyce's family whole again, all else be damned. I don't know if El is still alive, or if she is, that's she's even in "our" world, but him leaving the Eggo waffles out there makes me think he feels pretty guilty.

I've only seen like 2 and some change episodes of this but my early reaction: fuck this show. Have a lot of affection for the things it references, but (or because of that) this feels so pandering, witless, and soulless. Does it do anything interesting in the back half or does it continue emptily jerking off ppl who were kids in the 80s?

i'm an 80's kid who has shrugged and ignored over 5 million 80's revivals and i loved this!

Yeah, the same here. It doesn't really go above and beyond it's inspirations, but IMO it's a solid, intriguing mystery story with mostly good actors and some neat visuals, not just an empty pastiche. The 80s tropes are really just the cake dressing, I would've liked this story even with a present day setting. But if the first 2 episodes haven't convinced you, I can't imagine the rest of it will.

one break with 80s form-- the girl who has sex lives and the virgin dies

I was thinking that mustve been deliberate hey?

How do you know she was virgin? Just because she looked geeky?

like i said on the netflix thread, it reminded me of the faux-spielberg Super 8 and i loved that movie to death. it's not like you can't do the 80's right its just that so many people get it wrong or just go for surface visuals. this had the surface visuals but it also just had a good t.v. movie story.

gotta say the first scene with her friend at the lockers, man, they nailed the brainy redhead hairdo and outfit so perfectly. stunning really.

this was better than M&M too. i eagerly awaited this t.v. movie in 1982 after i read the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awTKqydci_c

plus, as far as nostalgia goes, i'll take Poltergeist and Stephen King short stories over stupid Ghostbusters any day.

one break with 80s form-- the girl who has sex lives and the virgin dies

― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Thursday, July 21, 2016 12:44 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This occurred to me too. I thought at least Steve was a goner.

I was convinced steve was related to Jean ralphio till I looked him up on IMDb

steve not dying was a total shocker! there were multiple instances inside and outside the house where you really thought he was done for. man, that hair of his...

Even though "child with special powers on the run from the authorities" is one of my least favorite genre tropes ever, this was good

I read somewhere that Steve didn't die because they liked the actor a lot and decided to give him more to do.

Similar thing happened with Aaron Paul on Breaking Bad IIRC

I thought Steve was pretty awesome.

btw, here's the band of the guys who did the show's instrumental score.

https://survive.bandcamp.com/

Good lord tuomas you asked some stupid questions itt

I thought this was great btw. For something so heavily referential it was surprisingly unpredictable ... Like they played with these tropes and cliches in a way that made them feel new and unexpected.

Also I don't think will choked out a "baby" creature, it was just goop that suggests he's become infected himself

My nitpicks were when you watch the pool scene he stops taking photos well before the monster shows up and when the phone gets electrified it obviously doesn't look blackened and burned at first until they do a close up later lol

i liked how the two friends who weren't Mike conveniently didn't have parents. even at the end after almost dying at the school they are just sitting by themselves in the hospital waiting room.

also trying to figure out the Barb timeline. she doesn't go to school for two whole days and then Nancy calls the police about her? it was kinda unclear. and Nancy kind of a bad friend in general. telling her mom that Barb is at the library? when there is already one kid missing? that's mean!

also i don't think he stopped taking pictures well before the monster showed up. he took one last picture and then looked down and when he looked up she was gone.

I thought the token black friend was a really good actor!

still weighing up whether to dive into E02

my 80s sensibilities were a little rattled by terms like 'shit' and 'douchebag'

douchebag a thing in the early 80's! "chill" was the one that got me. "let's go chill in my car". don't think that was a thing back then. the word chill existed but i don't remember people using it like that at all.

"chill out" existed back then. maybe not in Indiana though.

they could have gotten away with chill pill. if they needed a chill thing to say. that was a thing in 1983.

they could have even had The Big Chill playing at the movie house.

i'm not saying it didn't exist. pretty sure "shit" existed then too. just that you wouldn't hear it in spielberg film!

Nah, that’s hopium. There’s no way Kali could have orchestrated that.

yeah that would actually have destroyed the show's meticulous logic

Anyway, the creators on the ambiguous ending:

“There are two roads that Eleven could take. There’s this darker, more pessimistic one or the optimistic, hopeful one. Mike is the optimist of the group and has chosen to believe in that story."

For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away. We thought it would be beautiful if our characters continued to believe in that happier ending even if we didn’t give them a clear answer to whether that’s true or not. The fact that they’re believing in it, we just thought it was such a better way to end the story and a better way to represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults."

yeah I dont think it’s true in-story, it’s part of Mike the storyteller giving himself and them some hope/positivity to draw strength from (and for Mike to work through his guilt etc) - it was a nice way to do it

feels like a cheat to leave the door open for a potential spin-off/sequel

I’m just happy Steve’s hair made it out

Netflix is making a live action spin-off (as well as an animated one) but supposedly it features none of the characters from Stranger Things.

Steve’s baseball coach getup was choice <3

For all the Prince chatter, the Iron Maiden needle drop was the big one, in my opinion. They NEVER license their stuff, and that moment got a big pop from all us Gen-Xers who were bullied outcasts in school. Because after all, that's ultimately what Stranger Things is all about: the lowest of the low in the teenage pecking order overcoming trauma and saving the normie world. Having Dustin echo Eddie Munson by giving the principal the finger as The Trooper plays was beautiful. Many of us dreamed of doing it 40 years ago but were too scared.

Dustin actor the only main one in the entire show that ever looked like he was actually having fun.

xpost otm! \m/

pretty much stuck the landing i guess (what else was going to happen w this level of bloat) but it def felt like the whole business lacked discipline wrt pace or what have you. basically all the complaints noted elsewhere.

Watching the hourlong paley center finale celebration with (some of) the cast plus the duffer bros and 1. the kids really do come across like BFFs, which is sweet 2. Jamie Campbell Bower really does sound like he smokes two packs a day.

Now watching a BTS by netflix on the climactic battle with vecna and the mind flayer and did they spend the money? it would appear they did

this was a chore.

Good take

Everything else I was going to say was expressed above.

I highly recommend the Season 5 making-of that's up on Netflix. It's fascinating. They put so much work and money and effort into the show, and the cast and crew seem to have genuine affection for each other and the story (lotta crying), but at the same time you can sort of witness the Duffers recognizing they've maybe bitten off more than they can chew. It's subtle, for sure, because no way this kind of BTS hagiography is going to be critical or totally transparent, but even though I came away giving the Duffers more credit than I had before, you can see the struggle to untangle all the threads they left dangling right up to the end, and they've got no one to blame but themselves. It's kind of a small wonder that the show ended on a relatively "fine" note and not as a disaster, given the probably impossible task they set up for themselves.

BRING BACK BARB

bring back billy

There are so many holes and there is so much hand waving in this show that I think it could safely bring back *anyone*.

They’re doing an animated show set between seasons 2 and 3. Safe to say Billy will show up.

they are no consistent rules, so no rules to be broken. it'll be like LCD Soundsystem, give it 5 years and Netflix will cut a desperate enough cheque to get them all back

Undoubtedly already posted here somewhere, but I heard this for the first time on CBC today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aQPVevcqHc

Total Matthew Sweet, but if you're predisposed to like that kind of thing--and based on a single listen in the car--I thought it was surprisingly good.

(A year old.)

he's somehow involved in a Replacements biopic?
That's something I'll be avoiding

If that is being made, I hope they have the good sense to pay whatever is necessary to use actual Replacements music--sorely missing from the documentary a decade ago.