Stranger Things

[DSC01]

I haven't seen anyone talking about this show here, and that's a shame because I really enjoyed it. It was just released on Netflix on Friday. It's only 8 episodes, but it is the perfect length for the story it tells. It's very much an 80s nostalgia show, and I've seen it described as something like a combination of 80s Spielberg with Stephen King, which seems pretty accurate.

There are a lot of direct homages to to E.T., and the showrunners said that they were also influenced by Akira and Elfen Lied. I generally hate horror, but this is more suspenseful sci-fi than horror, even though there are definitely some scary moments. 

The soundtrack is awesome. The score is 80s-esque synth, and other songs are all from the period. Being that the show is set in 1983, that's stuff like the Clash and Joy Division, not the more over-the-top day-glo pop one usually associated with the decade.

I sat down to watch an episode or two last night and ended up watching the whole thing. It was a lot like watching a novel unfold visually than just watching another TV show.Highly recommended.

[Left]

I finished the series just the other day, and I LOVED IT. I really loved it. I loved how it payed homage to its inspirations without just copying them. So many good things about this show. 

[Guest Mix]

Ahhh, I just started this one!
Many of my friends also describe the series as a baby of Spielberg and Stephen King. I'm not that good with jumpscares and whatnot, but can mostly predict when something's about to go wrong, so I'll definitely continue seeing as many people are so enthusiastic about it. 

[Vicious Parker]

I binged episodes 3-8 today, and I absolutely loved the show. I ended up really liking every main character, which is something rare in media for me. The young actors were also all excellent, especially Millie Brown as Eleven. And I'm right with the OP and loving the soundtrack. It's probably what hooked me in to the show in the first episode.

[The Invested Beard]

Man I love this show. I'm almost done with it, need to watch the last episode. As a child of the 80's, this really hits all the right notes. That opening credits sequence is one of the coolest things I've ever seen and heard, even with how simple it is. Love the Stephen King/Spielberg/Carpenter vibes.

Really glad they plan on doing more.

[Briar King]

I power watched 1-8 in one day. I couldn't stop till I finished. If S2 doesn't get lit and those kids don't get awards then something is seriously wrong. It was epic and I don't even watch supernatural shows like this but my friends on Malazan were raving about it. Glad I tuned into it for sure

Edited July 30, 2016 by Briar King

[MrMistborn]

I'm binging it as i type this and I have to say it is absolutely amazing, what with the 80's vibe which was absolutely nailed, and an awesome atmosphere with some genuinely unsettling antagonists. Eleven's Dad is so cold and creepy

Edited July 30, 2016 by MrMistborn
Typos

[Delightful]

Just watched the first two episodes and I bet ill have finished the rest within the week. 

So it's like Supernatural crossed with Gravity Falls in the 80's and with more parental supervision. That's my impression so far. And the soundtrack is awesome. 

[Delightful]

Barb? El? Nooooooooooooooo!

 

and Will coughing up slugs is somehow perfect.

[Delightful]

The more I think about it, the less sense the plot makes. 

 

So Earth and the Upside Down are different dimensions, and an immensely strong force was needed to open a portal between them. 

The Demagorgen uses the portal. 

So. 

Minor question to start, how come the scientists didn't notice the mini portal out in the forest?

ok. 

1. The Demagorgen is wandering out, smells Barbs blood, attacks her. Why is she suddenly in the Upside Down? The Demagorgon didn't drag her through a portal because she's clearly still in the pool and we've established that portals are the only way to cross dimensions, for people and for the Demagorgon (eg when it couldn't follow Nancy back through to earth)

same question when Will was taken. He disappears from the shed, no portal. 

Barb was also on the edge of the pool before, but suddenly she's inside without having fallen? 

2. Will. He's in the upside down. Getting to earth needs a portal etc etc. so he's hiding out in his Upside Down house, how does he communicate with his mother? So when he's talking through the wall okay maybe the inter dimensional walls are thin or something. How do you explain the phone and the lights? He didn't suddenly get power over electricity. People in the Upside Down are still themselves.  Why would he call and not say anything? How can he light up individual bulbs attached to the same electric circuit?

3. In one of the last episodes the police chief mentions a bunch of other people went missing, implied also taken by the Demagorgen. Where were they? Do we not care about them? Are they presumed dead? 

4. Why did the Demagorgen kill Barb instantly but not Will? Nancy barely escaped it, how did Will? How was a blanket fort in the woods enough for the Demagorgen to not notice him? How did he survive in its creepy lair when no one else did, even though he was basically taken first?

and a general worldbuilding question-

5 The Upside Down is a whole dimension. Why does only the Drmagorgen live there? What does it eat when there aren't conveniently powered children to rip holes through dimensions for it? Is it ancient? Does it mate? Is it the last of its kind? 

Edited August 15, 2016 by Delightful

[DSC01]

15 hours ago, Delightful said:

The more I think about it, the less sense the plot makes. 

  Hide contents

So Earth and the Upside Down are different dimensions, and an immensely strong force was needed to open a portal between them. 

The Demagorgen uses the portal. 

So. 

Minor question to start, how come the scientists didn't notice the mini portal out in the forest?

ok. 

1. The Demagorgen is wandering out, smells Barbs blood, attacks her. Why is she suddenly in the Upside Down? The Demagorgon didn't drag her through a portal because she's clearly still in the pool and we've established that portals are the only way to cross dimensions, for people and for the Demagorgon (eg when it couldn't follow Nancy back through to earth)

same question when Will was taken. He disappears from the shed, no portal. 

Barb was also on the edge of the pool before, but suddenly she's inside without having fallen? 

2. Will. He's in the upside down. Getting to earth needs a portal etc etc. so he's hiding out in his Upside Down house, how does he communicate with his mother? So when he's talking through the wall okay maybe the inter dimensional walls are thin or something. How do you explain the phone and the lights? He didn't suddenly get power over electricity. People in the Upside Down are still themselves.  Why would he call and not say anything? How can he light up individual bulbs attached to the same electric circuit?

3. In one of the last episodes the police chief mentions a bunch of other people went missing, implied also taken by the Demagorgen. Where were they? Do we not care about them? Are they presumed dead? 

4. Why did the Demagorgen kill Barb instantly but not Will? Nancy barely escaped it, how did Will? How was a blanket fort in the woods enough for the Demagorgen to not notice him? How did he survive in its creepy lair when no one else did, even though he was basically taken first?

and a general worldbuilding question-

5 The Upside Down is a whole dimension. Why does only the Drmagorgen live there? What does it eat when there aren't conveniently powered children to rip holes through dimensions for it? Is it ancient? Does it mate? Is it the last of its kind? 

There is going to be a second season, and apparently, the way that the Upside Down works is going to be a big part of it. The show's creators said they wrote up a 30-page document that explains its workings in detail (and they did say that there's a reason that there was only one Demogorgon, which is to be explained). Personally, I suspect that the Demogorgon 

Spoiler

is not from the Upside Down, which is also not even a whole universe. I think that when Eleven contacted the creature, it was pulled towards our universe (well, the Stranger Things universe, but it is apparently supposed to be our universe, for the sake of the story), but left it in an "adjacent" shadow realm that isn't fully its own universe. It almost got into our world, but stopped just short, with an area of the "walls" between the dimensions damaged. The portal itself is the biggest tear, but there is an area around it that is weakened and porous. Sometimes things can get through a certain place, and sometimes they can't.

I have no idea about the electricity-based communication, though.

[The Invested Beard]

Yeah if you think back

You'll remember that the place 11 first contacted the creature did not appear to be the upside down. It was all empty blackness with very shallow water on the ground. The upside down seems to be just a shadowy-ash-fall version of our reality, not a completely black space. The one thing I caught that I haven't seen anyone else talk about yet is when 11 first approaches the creature in that black place, it is crouched over an object that is never fully shown, but looks almost mechanical, like a generator. I want to know what that's all about.

[ThirdGen]

21 hours ago, Delightful said:

The more I think about it, the less sense the plot makes. 

  Hide contents

So Earth and the Upside Down are different dimensions, and an immensely strong force was needed to open a portal between them. 

The Demagorgen uses the portal. 

So. 

Minor question to start, how come the scientists didn't notice the mini portal out in the forest?

ok. 

1. The Demagorgen is wandering out, smells Barbs blood, attacks her. Why is she suddenly in the Upside Down? The Demagorgon didn't drag her through a portal because she's clearly still in the pool and we've established that portals are the only way to cross dimensions, for people and for the Demagorgon (eg when it couldn't follow Nancy back through to earth)

same question when Will was taken. He disappears from the shed, no portal. 

Barb was also on the edge of the pool before, but suddenly she's inside without having fallen? 

2. Will. He's in the upside down. Getting to earth needs a portal etc etc. so he's hiding out in his Upside Down house, how does he communicate with his mother? So when he's talking through the wall okay maybe the inter dimensional walls are thin or something. How do you explain the phone and the lights? He didn't suddenly get power over electricity. People in the Upside Down are still themselves.  Why would he call and not say anything? How can he light up individual bulbs attached to the same electric circuit?

3. In one of the last episodes the police chief mentions a bunch of other people went missing, implied also taken by the Demagorgen. Where were they? Do we not care about them? Are they presumed dead? 

4. Why did the Demagorgen kill Barb instantly but not Will? Nancy barely escaped it, how did Will? How was a blanket fort in the woods enough for the Demagorgen to not notice him? How did he survive in its creepy lair when no one else did, even though he was basically taken first?

and a general worldbuilding question-

5 The Upside Down is a whole dimension. Why does only the Drmagorgen live there? What does it eat when there aren't conveniently powered children to rip holes through dimensions for it? Is it ancient? Does it mate? Is it the last of its kind? 

Spoiler up to one of the last scenes of the show.

Remember the "flea and acrobat" story?  It takes a lot of energy for *us* to breach into another dimension.  But the flea of this story can basically just burrow.  Even its young can zap through quickly.

[Delightful]

5 hours ago, The Invested Beard said:

Yeah if you think back

 

  Hide contents

You'll remember that the place 11 first contacted the creature did not appear to be the upside down. It was all empty blackness with very shallow water on the ground. The upside down seems to be just a shadowy-ash-fall version of our reality, not a completely black space. The one thing I caught that I haven't seen anyone else talk about yet is when 11 first approaches the creature in that black place, it is crouched over an object that is never fully shown, but looks almost mechanical, like a generator. I want to know what that's all about.

 

I thought the blackness was just what Elevens communication looked like, not what the actual Upside Down is itself. 

ie she sees Barb dead but not the lair, sees Wills hiding place but not the forest around it.  

[Ammanas]

I'm late to the party, but everyone has raved about this show so I gave it a try. I'm 2.5 episodes in and its just ok. It really needs some comic relief; the show is always either creepy, sad, or intense. Its got enough going for it that I will continue.

[Zathoth]

I still have 20 minutes left of episode 2, I keep telling myself that I'll watch the rest of it some day, but if I am honest to myself I doubt I will.

[Briar King]

The sweet spots start hitting in ep 3-4. Stick with it

[PlanetReelo]

Stick to it, I'm certain you won't regret it! I ended up binge-watching it all in a day. I read somewhere that they're planning to make a second and third season, and I honestly can't wait.

[Zathoth]

eeeeh, I might. I just keep pausing the episode because it is entirely unwatchable and it is going to take me about 40 minutes to get past those last 20 minutes of episode 2... and then I have more episodes...

Eh... really don't feel like it.