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

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-

i watched this whole thing in <2 days and i'm deeply ashamed because it's so sunny outside.

thought kid w/o teeth was a perfect mix of neal and bill from freaks and geeks. he stole every scene.

Ryder is doing that thing that every single character in the omen does, of being like "hey, maybe if I act completely bananas 100% of the time, everybody will believe me! IM TELLING YOU HES THE DEVIL AGOOGOOBABAHEEHEE" which is obv a valid part of the playbook they're using here but can still grate

he stole every scene.

I really liked how they cast a group of people who looked so exactly like they stepped out of a 1980s film, then subverted the expectations people my age had for those characters. You expect the slightly chubby kid without the teeth to be the fairly useless, wisecracking one, but no, he's a solid group leader with science skills. You expect both him and Lucas to just do whatever Mike tells them, but no, they've got minds of their own and Lucas goes off to investigate by himself. You expect Nancy to be useless, but no, she's calmly amazing and resourceful and resilient. And so on.

Yeah the casting was excellent.

One thing I'm left puzzled by - was there/is there only one monster? If so whats with all the eggs and incubated dead people? Is the idea that S2 will mean more come back or something?

Don't apply logic to the monster

It's like alien they can do whatever they want with it

It killed all the soldiers it caught within seconds but that one kid it caught got away

The gunk covering everything in the parallel dimension definitely suggested 80s monster cocoons so I

...wouldn't be surprised by an aliens direction in s2

Oh great, a pile of references to a movie franchise I havent seen :(

this whole series is a pile of references! it isn't that alien-y tho

Yeah I got a lot of em! Alien(s) is the one Ive never really seen (and hasnt refs to it been done to death?)

Still, dont mean to sound like I'm whining, I thought this show was really good.

I was going off tuomas's comment re s2 but the main thing you need to know is that aliens has more aliens than alien (sorry if spoiler)

Speaking of references...

http://www.vulture.com/2016/07/stranger-things-film-reference-glossary.html

I've never seen Altered States. Is it good?

Yes it is. Or at least the first 80% of it.

I figured the trainline walk to be a hat tip to Stand By Me.

The reference to The Conversation was so well done bc you really *were* worried he'd end up like gene hackman's character

Reference to alien in the moment when he knocks down the older brother before the boyfriend shows up w a baseball bat

I'm surprised they didnt mention those two instances

This also in parts reminded me of every young adult novel I read at age 8-11