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

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!

just "penis breath"

actually they said "shit" E.T. too

i've become such a fainting fanny!

How many episodes before this passes the Bechdel test? My missus is getting impatient.

Bechdel test is post-80s. It would be anachronistic.

the mom and daughter kinda talk to each other. and winona talks to a catatonic woman...

winona talks to L

Nobody's asked any stupid questions itt, you dick xps

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.

― scott seward, Friday, July 22, 2016 10:17 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah I rewatched it the time between was ridic, her blood drops in the water after he stops shooting. If that's what drew the monster then there's no way he got it in the photo

Nobody's asked any stupid questions itt, you dick xps

― just1n3, Friday, July 22, 2016 5:51 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Disagree, ilx's "suspension of disbelief is a lie" cru asks dumb things like "how come Will didn't get eaten but her friend did?" As if we need literally every step spelled out for this. These kids are torture on the game of thrones thread

That was me, not tuomas. Fuck off.

Well I'm going to ask some stupid questions

When 11 first made contact with the monster, what was it eating?
How did the upsides own go from black nothingness to a parallel universe?
Where was the portal?
What deal did hopper make with Modine? When they took him away at the hospital I assumed he was with them but there he was at the local cop shop Xmas party.
If the monster appeared every time there was blood, why didn't it show up whenever 11 got a nose bleed?

Not a question but I did like the parallel of the winter snow with the white floaty stuff in the upsidedown

Another question: why didn't Mike try to contact 11 on the walkie-talkie?

i wish they hadn't done the hopper getting into the car thing at the end. it bugged me. and mike should have been the one leaving waffles in the woods.

Netflix still hasn't officially confirmed a S2, but the producers and actors seem to believe it's a done deal. I imagine some of the questions left at the end will be addressed.

As for what new things might happen in S2, I wonder if The Upside Down will continue to play a role in the show's story or if they'll move on to some other freaky thing.

If 11 got her abilities from her mom taking acid while she was pregnant I'm thinking there are an army of 11s out there from the 60s and 70s.

and of course the obvious question - who were 001-010?

Most of sunny's questions are fine! I'm not saying questions are bad, just bad ones

This q though:

Another question: why didn't Mike try to contact 11 on the walkie-talkie?

― Quarter measures (sunny successor), Saturday, July 23, 2016 8:37 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Because she's the one who has to make the walkie talkie work as a receiver, she can't (as far as I know) just make herself appear on any walkie talkie

Also, the waffles suggest he knows she's around and might be intentionally hiding her

i wish they hadn't done the hopper getting into the car thing at the end. it bugged me. and mike should have been the one leaving waffles in the woods.

― scott seward, Saturday, July 23, 2016 10:29 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Idk it made sense of course the Feds want to question him

This scared me and I got a lump in my throat in the last episode, F-

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.