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

Haha yeah the ms butterworth thing was forced

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2!
.
.
.
Just finished this season, in a way I liked it more than than first, because it didn't feel like a pastiche of anything at any point, just a solid sci-fi thriller, with likable characters, like someone said upthread. I think they even made a bit of fun about all the eighties pop cult reference points of S1 by casting Sean Astin (aka Mikey from The Goonies), and actually having him refer to "the pirate's gold" in that scene where they were trying to figure out Will's drawings.

It definitely was the Aliens to season one's Alien in that it was less creepy and scary, but since a lot of the initial creepiness had already been dissolved in the first season when they figured out what the Upside Down was, it was inevitable... Kinda like the xenomorphs in the Alien franchise inevitably became less creepy once they showed more than the one in the first flick. But unless they'd completely ditched Upside Down and introduced some totally new threat (which would've felt contrived), this was pretty much their only option.

I still felt they got most out of it by focusing more on the character drama instead of just trying to rehash the horror aspects of the first season. I especially loved the whole foster daughter/father thing between Hopper and El, they built it nicely on what we learned about his daughter in the previous season without having to spell everything out.

I didn't even mind episode 7 with Kali and her punk crew... It was kinda extraneous, but it was important to El and her character growth, and they were quite obviously also setting up the plot for future seasons, especially with the revelation that Matthew Modine's character is still alive. So I'm hoping season 3 will focus more on the psychic kids and tone down Upside Down elements, they still worked fine here, but two seasons is enough.

whatever, enjoy your sub-literate derivative nonsense

aww shakey distraught that he didn't convince everyone to stop enjoying the thing they enjoy

Kali actress was so bad

and her crew was corny as hell

Boomers trafficking in nostalgia were just copying their parents. This was released in 1963:

https://waxvinylrecords.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/071011131.jpg

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, July 23, 2017 12:42 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Millenials are one of the biggest audiences for Netflix content, so I think that might account for the very specific era nostalgia you see in shows like ST as well

― Week of Wonders (Ross), Sunday, July 23, 2017 12:56 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I remember when yard sales were *stuffed* with moldy 20s comps from the early 60s (typically re-recorded efforts, no doubt due to quality/availability issues with the source material), but presumably they scratched the same itch. "Oldies" from the 40s and 50s were a reliable market and radio format for a long time. The Boomers, let alone the late Gen-Xers of Stranger Things, certainly did not invent getting wistful over old tunes, or kidding each other about how silly their old fashions seemed from a few years' distance.

As for Season 2, I dunno, they seem to be pitching it hard as basically more of the same. I liked Season 1 so I'll probably watch and like this. I'd be a little more pumped if the trailer hinted more strongly at genuinely new elements, or teased some intriguing new characters.

― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Sunday, July 23, 2017 1:09 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's a great pic of my grandpa taken shortly after he returned from WWII. He's with a bunch of friends celebrating being back home. They're at a '90s bar. 1890s. Everyone is dressed "old-timey", making good-natured fun of their parents' childhood era, when things were much simpler. The men in the photo are wearing huge fake Teddy Roosevelt-eque mustaches and mean-mugging at the camera.

This was a lot of fun.

a lot of the initial creepiness had already been dissolved in the first season when they figured out what the Upside Down was...

― Tuomas, Sunday, October 29, 2017

the what now?

I spent the longest time trying to remember which Jared Leto character Billy was making me think of, then I realized it was just irl Jared Leto.

Finally finished this completely, def more like a 3 Star season after s1’s 4.5 stars or whatever

The California family was super underdeveloped and inessential at least until the hilarious scene where the older brother is flirting with mike and nancy’s Mom

Lots of character beats were written in cliched and generic ways

I did think it was redeemed by the scene in the truck between el & her new Dad, but Lucas & max on the bus scene for example was totally rote & generic... in comparison season one was suuuuper economical, so little wasted motion

Glad i watched this but their strengths are filmmaking ones not writing imo

Idk definite step down

Also tuomas: modine’s character is not still alive iirc?

There’s an entire scene where Eleven and her Chicago posse go to attack a guy from the research place and he tells them Modine’s character is alive

Yeah I’m aware. He claims that but also he was trying to get them to let him live? And didn’t she see him die (or kill him? I forget) in season 1?

Apparently they said in an interview he might be back but I don’t think it was confirmed by anything on screen

Modine's "death" in season 1 was conspicuously off-screen, and we never saw the body either. A lot of people were speculating he might've survived based on that alone. And now in this season we have one of his lackey's saying he's still alive. Sure, you could explain it away and assume he was lying to save his life, but that's not how details like this work in genre fiction, is it?

Also, since they had shot some new footage featuring him for this season, clearly he's not against committing to the series for more than one season.

Yeah it wouldn’t surprise me I guess, seems stupid to me though. It seemed pretty clear (of unsatisfying) that he died in season one to me. It’s not like he was powerful; he was just a fed scientist confronted by a monster from another dimension? How would he survive that? Idk feels dumb to me.

Will was confronted by a monster from another dimension!

I mean that they cut away right after the demagorgon attacked him, what reason would we have to believe he’d survive that?

Also wouldn’t eleven be able to geolocate him if he was alive anyway?

idk, the writers decided to make it unclear for now, unless you're inside their heads I don't think there's a definitive answer

yes i agree! which is why i said to tuomas i didnt think there was a "reveal" necessarily

I agree that they decided to leave it intentionally unclear in the first season... But in this season they have a guy who used to work for Dr. Brenner say that Brenner is still alive, and that he can take El, Kali, and the others to him. Yeah, it's not 100 % absolute proof that he's alive, but come on! Stranger Things isn't some mega-subversive show that intentionally twists all genre expectations. In 99 cases out of 100, when a show like this strongly hints that someone who seemingly died actually didn't, that turns out to be the case.

Kind of surprised no one involved with the production or music clearance mentioned, "You know, nobody danced to Shout At The Devil in 1984. Nobody."

lol

Yeah, someone on another message board pointed out that exactly zero Clash-loving American teens were going to be giving a pep talk about how cool David Bowie was in 1985, his all-time low point in terms of stature. Millennials I guess assume he was a rock god straight through until the day he died. Goths always liked him, I guess, but Jonathan doesn't even recognize the cute girl at the party dressed as Siouxsie Sioux!

I think that's kind of how the remembrance and slow rewriting of history happens. The Duffer Brothers weren't the age of the kids on the show -- they heard the music as the background for their really young years, and grafted it on to experiences they had and the way that time's been portrayed in film and television.

So there are two levels of disconnect: people born later who have "the 80s" as a period defined by them looking back from their own youth, contextualized in the way we perceive that time in 2017 terms. You end up with pastiche and a flattening of culture that gives you both the middle school dance and the music that wouldn't belong there.

I thought Jonathan not recognizing the Siouxsie Sioux costume was almost a jab at that tendency! He might have the hair, but he's pretty much a normal dude who has some hair affectations

fwiw the Duffer brothers were born in '84

i fuckin hate this show

I appear to be the only person here or elsewhere who liked the Eleven/Jane sidetrip to Chicago and felt less nostalgia-bombed this season.

btw, my Chicago friend pointed out that one of the buildings in the Chicago-scape was completed in 2010 and the skyline seen from the warehouse was either superimposed from a location on the lake or from the observatory (which is not located in a warehouse district).

xpost

Well, chronologically, I thought they nailed the soundtrack to the dance. And I could even let Girls On Film go (though it's more likely you would have heard The Reflex or New Moon on Monday).

I can also get the not recognizing a Siouxsie Sioux costume. The Banshees were still really obscure. I don't recall seeing their videos on MTV, although I do remember Clash videos. Even ones from 'Cut the Crap'!

However, I also can't recall if I've told any one to get off my lawn today

Kind of surprised no one involved with the production or music clearance mentioned, "You know, nobody danced to Shout At The Devil in 1984. Nobody."

Yeah, someone on another message board pointed out that exactly zero Clash-loving American teens were going to be giving a pep talk about how cool David Bowie was in 1985, his all-time low point in terms of stature.

"You know, nobody danced to Shout At The Devil in 1984. Nobody."

Not sure where righteousmaelstrom grew up, but Motley was definitely already a thing by this time in Alabama.

Close to Alabama: Tulsa. And I owned that Motley Crue album and saw them on that tour! Where I was living at the time, they really didn't blow up until Theater of Pain.

My point being that you would have more likely heard Springsteen, Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson or even (shudder) Don Henley, but obviously there was no budget for that.

xxp "Shout at the Devil" has always struck me as the stupidest lyric I've ever heard

Didn’t Bob tell Will to do just that? To shout at the monster to go away? To, if you will, shout at the devil?

It’s all a rich tapestry.

lmao

That didn't work out so well

I appear to be the only person here or elsewhere who liked the Eleven/Jane sidetrip to Chicago and felt less nostalgia-bombed this season.

I felt pretty much the same on both points, as mentioned above. I'm also hoping the Invisibles shout-outs in the Chicago episode were more than just a cute gag, and next season we're gonna see some psychic punks vs. government conspiracy action, inspired by the comic, instead of yet more Upside Down monsters.

I appreciate this show much more when I keep in mind that the primary demo it's geared toward is probably kids around the ages of its main protagonists. So it has been the perfect thing to keep on the TV while I do paperwork, browse the web etc.

The Chicago episode just felt exactly like The Matrix to me...

I like this show, in some instances I even love this show, but I think the thing that prevents me from 100% embracing it at all times is that there's a significant hole in the middle of it. Will Byers is that hole. I don't think it's the actor. I think the writers have just left him terribly blank, and I don't understand why any of the other kids are his friends, why his mother is so protective of him, why his older brother treats him so kindly. ffs, Max's mom had one short sequence towards the end of S2, with little if any dialogue, and I already feel like I've got a better handle on her whole role than I do on Will, who is ostensibly the key piece of the show's entire puzzle.

aw i just finished ep 5 and was thinkimg how much i love Will’s character. and how great the kid himself is at being terrified & ~shook~

Watching ep 6. Man, Paul Reiser is full-on Burke in this season, isn’t he?

Also, the meta dialogue that both Max and Brett Gelman get is a bit much.

Okay, they’re hitting the _Aliens_ refs hard enough that I’m cringing.

Just hit the Bon Jovi song in ep 7. This is starting to piss me off.

watched everything up to the last episode which I'm saivng for tonight.

Man episode 7 was as stupid as I'd heard. The Invisibles references somewhat saved it, but I desperately hope that wasn't an attempt to backdoor pilot a spinoff already.

"Will Byers is that hole. I don't think it's the actor. I think the writers have just left him terribly blank, and I don't understand why any of the other kids are his friends, why his mother is so protective of him, why his older brother treats him so kindly"

I see this, but in his defense, he's been a victim and/or missing in every episode of the show. You never get to see him just be himself, except for a bit in episode 1.

he's the Egon of the group, what more do you need to know?

I'm happy it wasn't another season of thrusting the kid named Michael into an ad hoc leadship role. Why do people always do this to the Mikes of the world? So unfair.