re: Stranger Things: Season 1 ****SPOILERS**** Discussion Thread

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I think the show alluded to that and maybe I missed it. Is her mom Terry Yves?

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Did you skip the entire episode where Hopper and Ryder went to visit her and they straight out talked about the CIA experiments she did while pregnant that led to Eleven's powers?

It's not a matter of what he would like, it's a matter of ACCESS. There was no Spotify. You didn't have access to the entire library of culture at your fingertips at all-time. there were very real barriers to discovery, and it is established that Jonathan lacks those means to overcome those barriers. In order to have the Smiths in 1983, you HAD to be a tremendous music nerd, and you had to have money.

If this show was lazy in its other references, it wouldn't matter, but this show is so careful in its set design and musical cues, when they get stuff wrong, it felt like being off by orders of magnitude. Sort of like the Uncanny Valley.

Like, if Mike had an older brother who had a rare import 7 inch, I'd buy it. It would still make him likely too cool for the time period as he'd be literally one of the 1st 100 people in the country into it, but okay. But not a kid who uses his paycheck to help his mom with the mortgage.

It's partly about character, but it's also about class.

Another homage...last episode with the kids at the school. Dustin goes looking for the chocolate pudding in the cafeteria freezer. When he finds it and is enthusiastically gathering the pudding in his arms, the scene bears a remarkable similarity to the moment in Goonies when Chunk finds all the ice cream in the restaurant basement. Just watched The Goonies this past weekend with my kids.

Thoroughly enjoyed the series. Hope they have plans in place for Season 2 that have been ironed out over time. Don't want a quick, sub par product like True Detective Season 2.

Now on to my re-watch of Twin Peaks...gearing up for Season 3 next spring.

I just knocked this series out in 3 days: 2 - Tuesday, 3 - Wednesday, 3 - Thursday. Staying up to midnight each night wasn't that tough because I was so enraptured with this show.

I am a child of the 80's, class of 85. This show, along with Freaks and Geeks, really are the best I've seen at capturing the feel of that time. I'm a HUGE Stephen King fan, and this was so accurate to his style of story telling, down to the style of the font for the title page logo. I LOVED it.

On to some theories I've read in this thread, in no particular order.

I think Will was able to somehow escape from the monster when he was first dragged in to the Upside Down. He was a brave, smart kid, and he did have a .22 rifle, I like the idea of him being able to evade capture from the monster.

The monster's ability to traverse dimensions happened in the flashback scene after El touches him, he turns and roars at her, and she flips out, screams, and does her esp thing. Back in our dimension the room she was in was shaking and a huge big crack forms in the tiles of the wall of the cell where the experiment is being conducted. Those cracks were the tear in the dimensional wall that El created when she flipped out. She even said, she created the gate.

I REALLY hope they don't bring Hopper's daughter back. It wouldn't make any sense at all. She died of cancer, before this all occurred. And that teddy bear in the Upside Down wasn't hers. Her stuffed animal was a tiger. The bear just reminded Hop if her, helping to strengthen his resolve to save Will.

I LOVED Ryder's acting, her refusal to give up on her son, her acknowledgement to anyone who would listen that she KNEW she sounded crazy, but she wasn't. Stellar writing and acting.

I liked the way they portrayed the science teacher. They broke the nerdy science teacher stereotype when they showed him "netflix and chilling" with the asian hottie on a Saturday night. Sure, he was introducing her to The Thing, but she was in to it! I like that you could tell that this guys truly loved science, science fiction, and teaching. He was the teacher that got excited when his kids were interested in something, and didn't judge their interests in fanciful things like DnD, but instead encouraged them. Hell, I wouldn't doubt it if he had played a session with them.

The teens were great. Each initially fit in to a trope role, but then broke out of it in really great ways. I like that douche Steve redeems himself. I like that Nancy did everything she could to save Barb. She didn't abandon her uncool friend when she began hanging with the cool kids. Well, she did that one night, and instantly regretted it.

I agree with others who've said the unsung hero was Nancy and Mike's mom. She wasn't the naive dipshit trope, but instead a mom concerned with her kids, who knows that she's not fully plugged in to their lives, but is trying her best to be so. The dad was such a waste, and I kinda liked that. When they referenced his "cushy job" I kinda thought that the twist at the end would be that he worked for Hawkins Energy in some high up role.

The kids. Man, I WAS those kids. Mike reminded me so much of Bill from King's IT. He totally embodied that role, king of the losers. I like that these kids stuck together and from the way they referenced past experiences, it was so believable that these kids had grown up together. I like that they each had their moments to shine and "save the day". The conversation where Mike tells Dustin that they are all his best friends was awesome. Eleven was SO well acted. That little girl has instincts for telling so much with subtle facial expressions it's uncanny. So sweet and innocent and tragic. Perfect casting and acting.

Hopper, perhaps my favorite of all the characters. His daughter's death still haunts the hell out of him. When we meet him he's a guy who has given up on life and is phoning it in. As things unfold you see him come back from the dead and become heroic as hell. I loved when he discovers that Will's body is a fake and he goes and tells Ryder that she was not crazy, that she was right all along. Then, when Jonathan tells him "you wouldn't believe me" and Hop says "try me". That's the way stuff would work in the real world I think. Instead of the consummate non believer who still refuses to believe in the unbelievable even after they've seen it with their own eyes. This same thought applies to Steve freaking out at the house, starting to run away, then saying frick this and going back in to help save the day.

My wife didn't watch the show with me and I'm going to get her to sit down for my rewatch tonight.

I can't wait.


As far as season two:

I hope Eleven is still alive.

What the hell is happening with Hopper getting in the black sedan? I guess he made a deal with Hawkins Electric, but what the hell was that deal?

Since the Upside Down was completely unpopulated, except for the one monster, I wonder if the monster isn't from that dimension, but has been there a long long time and killed everyone who was in it? May there was an invasion of millions of them and they've killed everyone and then died off, with the one being the sole survivor?

The Duffer Brothers, whoever the hell they are, have made a meteoric crater in the industry, who the hell are they? What if they were really Stephen King and Steven Spielberg's pen names? I don't think anyone would be surprised.

Great stuff.

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Mike reminded me so much of Bill from King's IT.

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Ironically he's going to be playing one of the kids in the upcoming It movie, but he's going to be playing Richie, which is kinda weird to me. He'd be better as one of the other kids like Bill I think, for sure.

Guess we'll see what kinda range he has if he can play the jokester as well.

What I really like about Will being able to escape is that it was set up by the D&D game. He had run into the monster, cast his fireball, and failed. So when he encounters a real monster just minutes later, he casts the equivalent of a protection spell. He went to his fort.

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In order to have the Smiths in 1983, you HAD to be a tremendous music nerd, and you had to have money.

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Holy nitpick Batman!


If you're so obsessed with this minor detail, it could very easily be explained as The Smith's record being a gift from his cretinous "hip" dad.

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What I really like about Will being able to escape is that it was set up by the D&D game. He had run into the monster, cast his fireball, and failed. So when he encounters a real monster just minutes later, he casts the equivalent of a protection spell. He went to his fort.

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I think there are some similarities (maybe intentional) between D&D classes and and the kid character roles.

- Lucas was the ranger. He had the forearm slingshot.
- Eleven was the wizard (obvious).
- Will was the rogue. He was able to hide in the upside down.
- Duncan was the cleric. Never fought the enemy, but always tried to heal the bad feelings between Lucas/Mike/Eleven.
- Mike was the paladin.
- Jonathan was the fighter. Wielded a baseball bat with nails sticking out of the end.

I saw this past week that the creators intend to keep the same cast of characters together for several seasons if they are able to keep the show going and continue getting funding.

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Holy nitpick Batman!

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Kinda agree because that's something that only a person like Baloo would pick up on

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If you're so obsessed with this minor detail, it could very easily be explained as The Smith's record being a gift from his cretinous "hip" dad.

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But they established that his dad was not "hip". Jonathan tells Mike that he needs to be his own person and hates that his dad is trying to make Mike like "normal" things by taking him to baseball games.