Finally finished tonight. Fucking fantastic show. I've been super critical of the whole nostalgia/reboot trend but this is how to do it right - it's a period show that totally evokes the 80's and wears its influences with style, but it's its own unique creation. It works at a basic level beyond setting and tropes and nostalgia. Way better than I expected.
Finally finished tonight. Fucking fantastic show. I've been super critical of the whole nostalgia/reboot trend but this is how to do it right - it's a period show that totally evokes the 80's and wears its influences with style, but it's its own unique creation. It works at a basic level beyond setting and tropes and nostalgia. Way better than I expected.
Couldn't agree more, just finished it tonight as well and feel the same things. This is more than just nostalgia, this show was a window in the past.
I can't say enough of how good the main cast of kids were. I felt like I was 13 again and in that basement playing with my friends, talking about nerdy stuff that only we would get. And the girl that played Eleven was such a sweet and strong actress, to portray all her emotions with so little dialogue was just amazing, bravo to her.
The moment when her and
Mike talk about not just being friends but being more than friends and going to the school dance brought tears to my eyes it was so genuine and innocent and sweet.
the music in that scene (as with all the scenes) was just perfect.
I'm 5 episodes in. It's good, but the fact that I've seen all of these tropes a dozen times makes this sometimes feel like a slog as a TV show. Like I'm sitting there knowing what comes next and I'm getting impatient for characters to get on the same page.
This is a pretty big lab, right? Seems like a whole lot of employees. Do none of them live in Hawkins? It seems really odd that it doesn't even appear as a blip on most people's radars. A big mysterious research facility in your backyard... that seems like it'd be circulating through the town consciousness, especially among the kids, with rumors and theories, and would come to mind as people start disappearing.
More or less. I love the presentation but the show itself is just passable for me.
And nah I got 2 eps left and the town is completely oblivious to the strange goings on. Don't worry breh. Lynch the gawd is coming back next year to show us all how it's done.
Up to the final episode after pushing through the season the past week. Love the show and as a child of the 80's myself, it hits the nostalgia bug as hard as expected even outside the central mystery.
I'm 5 episodes in. It's good, but the fact that I've seen all of these tropes a dozen times makes this sometimes feel like a slog as a TV show. Like I'm sitting there knowing what comes next and I'm getting impatient for characters to get on the same page.
I had the same reaction as you. While I enjoyed the show, it was very much style over substance. As much as I love her, I had problems with Wynona's acting, and some of the dialogue made me cringe (What is... "friend?") But nostalgia is a powerful thing. On the flipside, maybe now more people will watch Halt and Catch Fire, which I think is the better show set in the 1980's.
I'm 5 episodes in. It's good, but the fact that I've seen all of these tropes a dozen times makes this sometimes feel like a slog as a TV show. Like I'm sitting there knowing what comes next and I'm getting impatient for characters to get on the same page.
I feel like you're missing the point. The tropes are wholly intentional (and sometimes flipped/subverted). This is basically a tribute to those very tropes.
Withdrawal from Stranger Things made me start watching The Magicians to at least get a good production value fantasy show... Well it's no Stranger Things that's for sure
I had the same reaction as you. While I enjoyed the show, it was very much style over substance. As much as I love her, I had problems with Wynona's acting, and some of the dialogue made me cringe (What is... "friend?") But nostalgia is a powerful thing. On the flipside, maybe now more people will watch Halt and Catch Fire, which I think is the better show set in the 1980's.
It's funny you bring up Halt and Catch Fire because I got fed up half way through season 1 for the same reason. The aesthetic of the show was right up my alley, but was a mess otherwise. Stranger Things definitely teeters on the edge between homage and nostalgia bait but at least the execution is good.
Feel free to share speculation. Just remember to spoiler tag. I'm genuinely interested if you think you figured a lot out because one of things I loved about this show is how it plumbs material and concepts that have been underused, at least recently.
As a quick side comment, I want to echo the other comments that Netflix badly needs to ditch the 13 episode season and embrace the 8-10 episode one. This season stretched to even 10 episodes would have hurt it and at 13 episodes, it might have been irreparable, but at 8, its a godsend. Just imagine Daredevil at 10 episodes? Jessica Jones at 8 episodes? Holy shit the pacing would have been soooooo much better.
Feel free to share speculation. Just remember to spoiler tag. I'm genuinely interested if you think you figured a lot out because one of things I loved about this show is how it plumbs material and concepts that have been underused, at least recently.
Well now I'm two eps in. Still good so far. Here are just some things I'm going to go out on a limb and guess here.
Ok, the show basically has two options: play it straight with the 80s flick homages or completely subvert everything. So far it's playing it straight, so I don't think it will have some crazy Evangelion ending. From the first episode we know the secret lab was testing on both the monster and the kid. The monster is somehow connected with electricity, and can perhaps turn into it. It's not killing it's victims, but also turning them into electricity. I'm not sure why, part of me wants to think because it's an alien and it wants to power up its spaceship and go home but that is too cliche. We also saw a big blob and the monster leaves residue. I'm not sure what this is, perhaps the real monster is the blob as it's some sort of hivemind and the monster is just one part of it that is trying to get energy for the blob.
The psychic kid is one of many and their role is to communicate with the alien in some way. I originally thought Elle was going to be the sheriff's daughter, but we got the scene of her yelling "Papa" to the white haired guy. That could be a red herring though. I do think that the sheriff's dead daughter is/was somehow connected to the psychic kids.
I'm still not sure how a lot of the ancillary characters tie into the mystery, although maybe they are not supposed to and are merely there for some human drama and to aid the development of the main characters.
I'm probably wrong about all of it, but those are some theories two episodes in.
Really enjoying this show. The first couple of chapters were a bit slow, but it started clicking with me around the time that she put up the Christmas lights. I still have one episode left, so I haven't been reading the spoilers, but I haven't seen many people mention Dean Koontz in the thread. I know King is referenced a lot, but man this feels more like a Koontz story. Especially
The Door to December
parallels. A very real world with
a supernatural layer, not just a monster or evil chasing everyone.
Just watched it over the course of this weekend. Really fun show! It lasted the perfect amount of time, 8 episodes was the way to go to not stretch it out too much. I loved the homages to the genre and how cleanly they are pulled off. ENDING SPOILER
My favorite that I picked up on was the direct Twin Peaks ending with Will looking into the mirror and seeing there is something still wrong with him.
More speculation about the ending:
1. My immediate thought when the showed Eleven's tattoo was that, oh shit, there are at least 10 more of some sort of experimental humans. It is possible the demi-gorgan was one of them.
2. They pretty much inexplicably dropped Deb from the story right? Like not even Nancy was talking/thinking about her by the end. My thought was that she definitely is also getting turned into a demi-gorgan like Will was.
3. How did Hopper figure out that Eleven is still out there somewhere? Is she hiding/trapped in the Upside Down also or just hiding out in the woods?
4. When the second season comes out I hope they don't just rehash the demi-gorgan as a monster or even multiple demi-gorgans. It had already lost some of its mystique to me by the last episode.
Binged the entire season. What a show! Loved everything about it. Recommending it to just about everyone I know now. Eleven's actress was utterly amazing. I mean all the kids were solid but she was in a completely different league.
Well now I'm two eps in. Still good so far. Here are just some things I'm going to go out on a limb and guess here.
Ok, the show basically has two options: play it straight with the 80s flick homages or completely subvert everything. So far it's playing it straight, so I don't think it will have some crazy Evangelion ending. From the first episode we know the secret lab was testing on both the monster and the kid. The monster is somehow connected with electricity, and can perhaps turn into it. It's not killing it's victims, but also turning them into electricity. I'm not sure why, part of me wants to think because it's an alien and it wants to power up its spaceship and go home but that is too cliche. We also saw a big blob and the monster leaves residue. I'm not sure what this is, perhaps the real monster is the blob as it's some sort of hivemind and the monster is just one part of it that is trying to get energy for the blob.
The psychic kid is one of many and their role is to communicate with the alien in some way. I originally thought Elle was going to be the sheriff's daughter, but we got the scene of her yelling "Papa" to the white haired guy. That could be a red herring though. I do think that the sheriff's dead daughter is/was somehow connected to the psychic kids.
I'm still not sure how a lot of the ancillary characters tie into the mystery, although maybe they are not supposed to and are merely there for some human drama and to aid the development of the main characters.
I'm probably wrong about all of it, but those are some theories two episodes in.
Yeah, your so wrong. You're even wrong about Steve and his luxurious mane. But that's what makes the story great. I had no idea until about episode 4 or 5 of what was going on. Even then, they are revealing particulars all the way until the finale for the most part.
Alright, I just finished binging because I have no self control. I enjoyed the show. It is a solid mystery with some great performances. I see that some people criticize Ryder for overacting, but I thought she was very believable. I think my mom would act the same way if I went missing. When it comes to
the supernatural stuff, although it had a cliche idea of "secret government test goes wrong" I thought it had some interesting elements like the psychic kid being used to spy on the Russians and the organic aesthetic of the dimension. Perhaps it's accidental, but I got a real Junji Ito vibe from the Upside Down stuff. Ito also has a story where people delve into a mysterious dimension, and the slug stuff and mouthtubes could be ripped straight from his stories.
I'm not a child of the early 80s so I don't feel a lot of nostalgia for that time period, but I I felt like it got a bit too over the top with the references and 80s movie character archetypes. My main complain for the whole show is
the monster. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Why is there only one? We saw an empty egg, but there didn't seem to be more monsters. There's one monster in a whole dimension? And its feeding habits made no sense. Sometimes it would kill and eat immediately, but other times it would bring them back to his dimension. But when they are warped to the dimension, the monster is seemingly not there yet. And also Will managed to escape it for days. And why humans? Animals seem like a much easier prey. Also if it was just trying to eat, why did it specifically try to target Eleven at the end and ignore all the other dead bodies? And why did it not come to Eleven when she was bleeding all the time? WHAT'S THE DEAL
Overall it was fun and I recommend it. I am still on Team #FuckSteve though.
Just finished watching it with my wife. We both loved it. I am a few years older than her, so the 80's setting hits home a bit more with me. I would probably be the age of Mike's little sister.
I felt like this was homage done absolutely right. Surpassing most of what it emulates and giving us something as good as we remember rather than how it actually was.
The COSMOS reference got me a little choked up. Sagan is a very important role model for me.
Excellent child actors, great editing, outstanding soundtrack, superb writing. I know they are planning on a sequel approach with season 2, but I hope they don't fuck it up like so many 80's sequels did. I would be happy with character resolutions but I don't need every element and detail of backstory to be presented. The world can work just fine with a little bit of ambiguity still there at the end.
I had the same reaction as you. While I enjoyed the show, it was very much style over substance. As much as I love her, I had problems with Wynona's acting, and some of the dialogue made me cringe (What is... "friend?") But nostalgia is a powerful thing. On the flipside, maybe now more people will watch Halt and Catch Fire, which I think is the better show set in the 1980's.
Finished it the other night. Fantastic. Loved pretty much all aspects... instead of thinking of specific scenes that I really liked i'm forced to think about the handful that didn't work instead. For once that is a fucking JOY of a situation to be in. 95% of Stranger Things just hits all the right cords for me.
A few insights to the crazy I've been thinking on:
Whenever a character is near one of the portals to the underside it's almost like their perception is dulled/dimmed or even pulled into the other dimension. There is a kind of cool feeling of that unknown thing kind of transfixing them and pulling the characters towards it. I'm DIEING to see this team dissect and explore more of what the underside is, how it came to be, if it's always been there, what did the monster represent? or how about WHO was the monster?
MKultra acid tests making super special and adorable psychic death babies might as well have been my senior thesis so MORE OF THAT PLEASE
Everyone played their roles very well within the world. I'm not talking about the acting but the characters and the world they inhabit. Cops acting like cops. Moms and dads (except for Mike's dad...wtf dude lay off the prozac) acting like such, Benny being this large intimidating dude but a total sweetheart, kids that aren't stupid for stupids sake, Just so much good stuff.
Sorry for the spoiler wall but i don't wanna ruin this one for anyone. So many genuine creepy, feel good, weird moments in this show. Played almost totally straight without any watatweest! moments to spoil the good times. Can't wait for another season and i'm especially interested now that it's supposed to be a direct sequel? Like yasss please follow up on that ending but jesus... Will's been through enough already christ.
Question for anyone that paid more attention than me: Ending spoilers
The ending with Will and the mouth tube... i've read things here saying that he was being prepped to be turned into another monster? that there was an empty egg? I missed that i suppose just want confirmation. Can we guess that there's at least one more monster? Same weird slug thing was crawling outta Barb's dead ass face....
Last thoughts - Cold open, OST, presentation and that. Title. Crawl. So... SO good. And i'll echo one last time that the kids were - for the most part - great. Dustin and Lucas were on point (even though Lucas was pissssssing me off for a few episodes). Steve's "friends" i thought where the worst of the cast and Mike/Will both had a really ... odd? ... look about them which i'm guessing was intentional in casting. There is something eerily magical about the town, the people, the blunt nature of the violence. Just well fucking done. Netflix going in.
Done the first 3 episodes back to back last night. Man the sounds are great on a surround system. Wish there was a little bit more variety with the music though. Maybe some Carpenter Brut in there.
Anyway after the ending of Ep3, I think I know whats going on now.
Dimensions. Don't know anything about the monster though, but it looks like it's able to travel through this and another dimension, which is an image of ours. The kid is in there hiding in the house making the lights turn off/on. We'll see what happens to Holly? Girl with the glasses.
Fantastic show in every regard! I'm glad they toned down the references for the last two thirds and showed they're more than capable of their own thang, a lovely time all around. Sooooo rewarding and fresh to have unanswered questions.
The characters are central to the show's success, and the writers evidently have more to tell with the mythology they created, so it makes sense to continue, in my view.
Just watched the whole season in one sitting. Really enjoyed it.
Also it was really cool of Netflix to give us Mother 4 before Nintendo gives us Mother 3.
The characters are central to the show's success, and the writers evidently have more to tell with the mythology they created, so it makes sense to continue, in my view.
what are they gonna do turn the kids into monster hunters? they've seen so much shit. i don't really see their progression being all that interesting.
the fargo route would be better than keeping these guys going. they're very basic characters anyways I think they can spring up a fresh cast as good or better. only one i'd really miss would be the sheriff.
So I rewatched the last episode just now to see if I missed anything. I did.
In the ending the
boys are playing DnD and at the end of the game Dustin complains it was too short, Michael yells back 'it was 10 hours!', Dustin goes 'but it didn't make any sense!' 'It made sense!'. They're pretty clearly referencing the show itself. The boys then complain about no explaination for the 'Lost Knight' (Hopper getting into the car at the end) and the 'Proud Princess' (It's implied 11 is still alive when Hopper leaves the Eggo's in a box in the woods), but is it making reference to with 'and those weird flowers in the cave'?
So I rewatched the last episode just now to see if I missed anything. I did.
In the ending the
boys are playing DnD and at the end of the game Dustin complains it was too short, Michael yells back 'it was 10 hours!', Dustin goes 'but it didn't make any sense!' 'It made sense!'. They're pretty clearly referencing the show itself. The boys then complain about no explaination for the 'Lost Knight' (Hopper getting into the car at the end) and the 'Proud Princess' (It's implied 11 is still alive when Hopper leaves the Eggo's in a box in the woods), but is it making reference to with 'and those weird flowers in the cave'?
I'm guessing the whole bodies being hosts for the slug things. The show makes it seem like there is only one monster and yet it clearly used bodies to incubate the slugs for some reason. Will seems to be caught in limbo between the worlds because of it.
I'm guessing the whole bodies being hosts for the slug things. The show makes it seem like there is only one monster and yet it clearly used bodies to incubate the slugs for some reason. Will seems to be caught in limbo between the worlds because of it.
Yeah, there are more, remember Hopper is looking at one of it's hatched eggs when they enter The Upside Down. I thought maybe that was the 'weird flowers', but I figured I was stretching there.
