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

it's strange they keep broadcasting it

I am pretty sure sitcoms and late shows are very popular even though I never see the latter and encounter the former only in reruns at the gym. I am also probably not a typical American. But are we talking "now" or generally about "pop culture"? Like, was Mary Tyler Moore specifically for "kids"? All In The Family? Setting aside sitcoms, what about cop and courtroom shows? I think these bore kids to tears but surely they are "pop culture."

Like, isn't the infamously "coveted demographic" 18-35?

I'm talking about now not 30 years ago

eh 3yos have no idea what they're seeing half the time, no context

having spent just about all day everyday with a child who is now 3, I think this is a tremendous underestimation of 3yr olds, better suited to <1yr olds maybe, though certainly a 3yr old has considerably less context to draw on than a 9 or 10 or 20 or 30 year old

Also figure that sitcoms are still popular with someone, though it isn't me. And though I do wonder how many people still watch TV like I used to, just flipping through broadcast and syndicated channels -- I doubt the key demographic has changed much. *Maybe* a little younger, but when I think of the prime pop-culture-interest age, 18-35 doesn't seem far off.

oh I agree, I was using "pop" in the ilx sense which usually has two necessary traits
- it is ubiquitous
- it does not exist

wins otm, in other words

idk about you're 3yo but mine basically has no concept of death or what happens when, say, someone actually loses an arm. He would probably understand what was happening if he saw someone get shot, but there's degrees of how traumatizing that might be depending on how it's portrayed. otoh he is cool with watching giant alligators swallow things whole, for ex. cuz that shit is just cool. but I can tell it's all kind of abstract, he doesn't register what he's watching as actually happening, it has no real emotional weight for him.

he might be sad if he saw a minion get dismembered lol

xxp

I haven't introduced my older kid to it, but I should get around to recommending it before school starts.

― how's life, Monday, August 8, 2016 2:39 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He's upstairs watching it with his mother and I just overheard 'Mom, they are so imitating Freaks & Geeks here!'

ahahha. this show, man, it's nothing but year-2000 sitcom references lazily flung onto the screen to get re-blorps from millennials who don't know any better.

thought it was weird when Will said he was 'watchin the game, havin a Bud"

"WASSSSSSUP... over"

https://i.imgflip.com/18n01p.jpg

d'oh, beat me to it

omg these kids are so cute

http://cdn01.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ryder-sthings/winona-ryder-gets-support-from-scott-mackinlay-hahn-at-stranger-things-02.JPG

I love that the actress who plays Eleven is named Millie Bobby Brown

otm

funny thing about ensemble casts, did modine have any scene with any of them besides El? how many scenes did winona have with them? but still.

tbf Will himself barely had any scenes with the other kids

I think Modine's only scene w/ the kids was that brief moment in the school when he finally found them but then he got (presumably) eaten not long after

someone said on twitter that Modine "looked like Treat Williams in old-person makeup" & I feel that this is hilariously otm

haahahahaha

dang that kid's teeth came in since they shot the show

Nice peewee herman outfit, keepin it period

finished this last night.... pretty much the most enjoyable watchy show ever.

one episode left to go and my impression of this show continues to go downhill - every single goddamn thing in it evokes something else, sometimes in the most hamfistedly obvious way possible (bike + vans chase scene, the especially lazy "Under the Skin" rip, kids' dialogue referencing D&D in *every scene*, etc.) I dunno this is really lovingly done but it's also annoyingly empty, there is literally not a single unique idea or original thought or twist or provocative angle to any of it. One thing I like about horror and sci-fi is their capacity to deliver surprises within familiar tropes - and this has none of that.

Anyway, some of the nostalgia I get from Stranger Things is a nostalgia for the warm childhood feeling of imagining those experiences, more than having them. I think that's okay!

This is a lovely thought and also OTM

those kids acted their butts off & winona was awesome & it if it was a book i'd read the shit out of it

This too

Seriously I have trouble with people complainng about Winona being too oddball and shouty - I feel like she totally killed this (as a usually kinda so-so actor it's possibly her best performance even)

Loved the scene with her ex where he talks about using the money to send the older kid to college, and she's all, "O RLY, what college?" and he replies, "Whichever one he wants" and she's all "NYU MOTHERFUCKER GET OUT OF MY HOUSE."

that showdown with her ex was so good, winona spitting fire

Totally. Also I love the final dinner scene revelation where are you realise Winona and her two sons all have the same haircut

lool omg

https://soundcloud.com/dj-yoda-uk/the-stranger-things-mixtape

(August 10, 2016 – Los Angeles, CA) – Lakeshore Records will release the STRANGER THINGS - Original Netflix Series Soundtrack in two parts. Volume One releases digitally August 12th and on CD September 16th. Volume Two releases digitally August 19th and on CD September 23, 2016. Both volumes feature the original score by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, members of the popular Austin experimental synth band S U R V I V E.

it's a shame there's not a 2xLP Mondo nosebleed-splash vinyl or w/e

this whole show was basically a mixtape

i'm sure there will be vinyl, how could there not be

http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/08/the-soundtrack-to-stranger-things-is-being-released-this-friday/

oh we already said that.

dog latin's post was an homage to the earlier posts

lol

I hope some fan does a side-by-side comparison

haha

time to poll the soundtrack

Sorry, ILX, not feeling the love.

Sadly realizing that the Netfix-ization of television is obliterating online discussion for anyone who doesn't binge the thing right out the gate. Sad!

Anyway, finished this last night, pretty much loved it sans reservation, don't have a whole lot to add that others haven't already said. Pastiche was fun and felt very self-aware (one ref everyone seems to have missed is that the specific X-Men issue they referenced early on was part of the Dark Phoenix Saga, and El seems very Dark Phoenix-y) but it wasn't distracting for me at all (congrats though Whiney on your Family Guy troll which certainly got the traction you intended, your predictable responses to the mere acknowledgement of pop culture never disappoint). I think they did a pretty masterful job of cherrypicking and remixing scenes and tropes they felt resonated and makingit all cohere into something of their own. I look forward to future projects from these brothers.

Funnily enough, it actually was filmed outside of Atlanta, in Jackson, GA - and the evil laboratory building is in Virginia Highland, twenty minutes from the house I grew up in. I went to summer day camp just down the street! So yeah... Stranger Things felt like my childhood, but not exactly my childhood.

― Silence, followed by unintelligible stammering. (Doctor Casino), Monday, August 8, 2016 4:23 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So yeah that's probably another reason this resonated with me. Besides being around the same age as the younger kids in that time period, Georgia and Virginia and Indiana were the first three places I lived within the first like seven years of my life. The scenery looked and felt v familiar.

I couldn't figure out why this had me wanting to watch V but then I realized that the time when this was set was roughly when V came out and it was the first scary thing I ever watched and those kids would've definitely been watching V if they hadn't been busy extracting their friend from the dark dimension.

i wasn't allowed to watch V but yeah it was a very big deal with my friends

Sadly realizing that the Netfix-ization of television is obliterating online discussion for anyone who doesn't binge the thing right out the gate. Sad!

I miss being able to check into threads like this once a week instead of having to wade through the entire thing only after finishing the show (which I just did last night).

I liked this a lot, as I would have been 9 1/2 when it took place so it was absolute nostalgia bait for me. Kind of like with the Americans though I keep second guessing word usages and slang, like I really don't imagine kids in Indiana in 1983 would use "chill" to mean hang out, but maybe I'm wrong?

It was hard to not see every little thing as a reference though, like were they consciously aping the A-Team and Macgyver and Home Alone during the booby-trapping of the house, or are they only so many ways to do something like that? And based on the internet love for Barb I thought she would have been on screen for more than ten minutes or so.

I liked the end more than I thought too, as it works as a single season ending or as a cliffhanger if it ended up getting picked up for another season, sort of like the first season of Better Call Saul and probably most other shows nowadays.

https://twitter.com/egg_dog/status/764375817765912576