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

3 episodes in, this is really taking a thompson submachine gun to nostalgic references isn't it

The DJ Yoda mixtape about this is loadsa fun.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dj-behind-hit-stranger-things-916853

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

I'm digging the mix of inspirations for including Dolly Parton and Toto amongst the more obvious ones.

was there any black music at all? LL Cool J was massive at my rural Tennessee middle school

"LL... This is your cousin Barry. Barry Cool J. You know that sound you been looking for?"

Your rural Tennessee middle school was apparently a couple of years ahead of the curve on LL!

Black artists were just starting to crack MTV around '83. I was in Indiana when this took place and I don't remember hearing much beyond Michael Jackson. But I was like 6, so, y'know.

maybe not by '83 but i thought we had established that this show takes place in a kind of impressionistic mid-80s popcult era. in which BREAKDANCING and RAP were like a pretty big deal (but actually i guess NOT in the movies it's referencing!)

They're mostly on-point with the references and diagetic musical choices. Breakdancing and rap definitely became a big deal a year or two later but definitely feel a little out of place in cloistered suburban '83.

I def remember breakdancing circa '84, not sure about '83. As far as black music that WAS a part of white suburban culture circa this show's era, it's probably more a case of "we couldn't get the rights to Michael Jackson or Prince"

The only character with any visible interest in music is Jonathan who, let's face it, is going to be more of a Smiths and Joy Division kind of guy.

Loved this anyway, real kicker right at the end which sets things up nicely for S2. At the start it really did feel like a pile-up of cute reference points but sometime around episode three it just became its own thing and I stopped noticing them.

I kept calling Eleven ET and it drove my gf nuts. But I appreciated it for the affectionate homage it was clearly meant to be.

maybe not by '83 but i thought we had established that this show takes place in a kind of impressionistic mid-80s popcult era.

it takes place in 80s movies.

And 70s/80s Stephen King books

Tho I don't remember if King was leaned quite as heavy into specific popcult refs or explicitly naming things in his early work.

pop culture was a huge part of his writing
music, politics, brands, tv shows, ad jingles

dead zone is wall to wall vietnam & election news, all kinda shit specific to the time/place

goole read my next sentence where i realize this :)

I found this an enjoyable kind of gentle viewing experience, like nothing was really THAT shocking or unexpected and there were no crazy twists or modern-feeling edginess, but managed to be absorbing in its own 'authentic' way. Once you get over the reference points and realise it's nothing but, I didn't find it jarring or distracting - except for the 'this music will change your life' nonsense, and the Under the Skin rip offs (btw I have been saving UTS to re-screen on my TV box thing for months and then the bloody thing wiped it grr).
The plot was a bit simplistic, everyone just assumed there was only one monster in this whole other dimension? I thought for sure the AV science teacher guy was a goner so glad he was ok but sad he didn't get to see the upside down.

Jean Ralphio was also really distracting actually, but I had literally just finished watching a season of P&R before starting this. Jonathan kept reminding me of Simon Quinlank too.
Disappointed none of the bullies ended up in a dumpster, try harder next time guys. The kids were really impressive, loved them.

Anyone body policing can gtfo, thanks

Really enjoyed the show's loving devotion to its reference points. Felt like a couple of images transcended the referentiality (to me anyway, quite probably I am simply oblivious to the sources): Winona talking to the Xmas tree lights in the alcove. As lovely and uncanny as the car radio communion in Orphée. And then Nancy crawling through the tree - in a kind of magical Cronenberg meets Blyton moment - into the Upside Down, which, with its drifting snowflake spores, feels like a kind of ruined Narnia.

the floating stuff looked so cool

Been fighting an ear infection and cold team-up so I went straight through the series. Unsetting at just how efficient the reference machine gun works now, but I suppose that's a natural side-effect of getting into film when every movie ever can be dialed up on demand. I was 10-20 years old from 1975-1985 and have every right to be reactionary about what Stranger Things did/didn't get right - but the show did feel like something I would have seen on Z Channel in 1982 or at the $2 Academy Six. By 1988, some vendor at SDCC is selling bootleg Hawkins Sheriff Dept. caps, though I was really hoping that the overwrought Sheriff (did anyone stop to think how dumb and time-wasting his lines are?) would have been consumed in the Upside-Down.

Amazingly good simulacrum. I kept thinking of Life On Mars' simulacrum of 70s UK crime shows. Unsure if I liked it enough to sign on for season 2 - worried that it might go past the event horizon like Welcome To Night Vale did.

HOLY SHIT LISTEN TO DUSTIN SING

https://www.facebook.com/whatsonstage/videos/10153706299800896

What the fuuuuck wow was not expecting that

omgggg <3

wait, you guys never told me that dustin's mom was...

http://cineplex.media.baselineresearch.com/images/146587/146587_full.jpg

now my mind is really blown.

Wait, I know the last name is the same, but I didn't know he's Heather Matarazzo's son!!!

that's cos he isn't. well, he IS Heather Matarazzo's son, but not *that* Heather.

This is his mother: https://twitter.com/HeatherMataraz2/with_replies

Yeah, I just found that out too.

he was in Les MIs on Broadway, that explains why he's good at singing it!

oh jeez sorry someone on facebook gave me the wrong info...

ZOUNDS!

I believed it because it seems thoroughly believable.

it is a pretty big coincidence for the mother of an actor with surname Matarazzo to also share the name of the known actress.

IMO she should apologize to Gaten's fans for not being Dollhouse actress

my favourite of the slight twists on classic tropes is that jock jerk steve is actually a more-or-less reasonable and decent guy like 90% of the time.

one thing that felt like a reference that i couldn't pinpoint was the trail of christmas lights and/or the circle of lamps, reference or not i thought it was a great visual

totally me too

upthread i compared it to the m&ms reese's pieces in ET

late to the party but

a) good show
b) kinda bummed to see so much obsession w/ catching/naming the references. quotes of famous flicks aren't pokemon, fuck. you aren't clever for finding them OR for being annoyed by them. it's part of the grammar of the show?
c) that said, i was pretty transported by the story and stopped caring about references after twenty minutes
c2) el is wonderful, so is winona, all of the main kids were good,
d) this reminded me of the last season of fringe (RIP)
e) #1-10 clearly signposted
f) geography of the show was weird. hard to do on budget and w/o big f/x, but i would've liked some more town establishing shots
g) all matthew modine did was walk quickly into rooms looking pissed
h) the novel i've been writing for the past two years covers a lot of the same ground as ST (dirty supernatural underbelly of 'kids on bikes'), so i feel weirdly protective of this show, but also glad to know it works

a) good show
b) kinda bummed to see so much obsession w/ catching/naming the references. quotes of famous flicks aren't pokemon, fuck. you aren't clever for finding them OR for being annoyed by them. it's part of the grammar of the show?
c) that said, i was pretty transported by the story and stopped caring about references after twenty minutes

OTM

Yeah, same.

looking forward to that novel!

geography of the show was weird. hard to do on budget and w/o big f/x, but i would've liked some more town establishing shots

this is v true!

Funko has gotten in on the hype, and here are their first two figures:

http://nerdapproved.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/barb-funko-480x600.jpg

http://nerdapproved.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/funko-eleven2.jpg

Goddamn it, Funko. Every time I think I've tamped down my desire to tread the dark path of starting to buy your shit...

b) kinda bummed to see so much obsession w/ catching/naming the references. quotes of famous flicks aren't pokemon, fuck. you aren't clever for finding them OR for being annoyed by them. it's part of the grammar of the show?

The big things this pulls from are major/iconic Hollywood films and nobody feels impressed with themselves for “catching” them, just maybe annoyed by the fan service/nostalgia pandering that makes up the “grammar of the show”.

xpsts

^^^ dingdingding

I wasn't patting myself on the back for recognizing super obscure films ET and Close Encounters

and it's not that quoting things or using other sources as the "grammar" for a show is an inherently bad thing, it was just irritating how obvious and slavish they were about it.

Not slavish imo

The thing is, you could be 15 and never seen ANY of those movies and still think this was a sick show

regardless i think 80s fetishism has hit peak and maybe should quietly shuffle off now

i can't handle any more of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZu5iDTtNg0

The thing is, you could be 15 and never seen ANY of those movies and still think this was a sick show

haven't met any 15yo that think this btw. it is weird to me that people keep saying "this is a kids show" and yet the only people I know who are *really* into it are 40+. The youngest kid I know that watched it (20) told me he thought the best part was the theme song/opening credits, which reminded him of Goblin's theme to "Profondo Rosso" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You've got another 20-30 years of baby-boomer style self-obsession by millennials before 80s fetishism shuffles off. At least until after one becomes President.