Stranger Things (Netflix) [Spoiler Thread]

[the tower of albion]

I Would totally read a novelization of this show.  Alan Dean Foster used to adapt all those movies from the 80's into novel tie ins. Man that takes me back, couldn't afford trips to the cinema but the town library would get the novelization in. I would convince my friends I had seen the movies. I wonder is that still a thing?

Kids today eh? It's so much easier being a sci fi fantasy fan today don't you think.

[-Ghost-]

Absolutely loved this show. They nailed the 80's feel. The cast was awesome, all the kids, especially Eleven. She didn't have many lines, but nailed it with her eyes and facial expressions. Glad we're getting a season 2.

[kissdbyfire]

3 hours ago, the tower of albion said:

I Would totally read a novelization of this show.  Alan Dean Foster used to adapt all those movies from the 80's into novel tie ins. Man that takes me back, couldn't afford trips to the cinema but the town library would get the novelization in. I would convince my friends I had seen the movies. I wonder is that still a thing?

Kids today eh? It's so much easier being a sci fi fantasy fan today don't you think.

I was thinking about this just the other day! And I remembered my dad telling me when I was a kid - circa 1823 - how much easier I had it as a sci-fi/fantasy fan than he'd had growing up. He had just taken me to see 2001 in an old artsy cinema that always had old/older films on.

[Argonath Diver]

Oh, so glad I saw this thread, after trying to both promote the show to social media friends while also wanting to gossip about the stuff that happens. I absolutely loved the vibe of the show starting with the incredible intro track (my musician buddy in Austin says he knows the guys who created it! Neat!).

Spoiler

First, one minor rant/rave: When Nancy ends up back with Steve at the end, I was immediately furious. But after the scene ended, it hit me a bit more, and became one of my favorite moments in the show, simply because it was so unlike all the constant 80s callback shots. Having the teenage girl go back to the penitent wrong-guy was suck an awesome kick in the balls while we all waited for the high-five freeze shot ending. 

As much as I wanted MOAR MOAR MOAR even before the last episode, now that I've had some time to cool off, I don't think I need a second series. The teasers in the last couple minutes were perfect. Just enough for me to hope El is out there, and just enough for me to be worried that the faceless fella might re-form somehow. Once we start to examine the other dimension, the weird critter, etc, it starts to unravel a bit. Supernatural stuff aside, I think it's best to not think about things like "Where the hell are Dustin and Lucas and Barb's parents? How could all the crazy shit that happened in the few days in this town not be shocking national news?" and all the other stuff that bogs down a delightful spooky romp like this.

The Variety article explaining their 30 page explanation almost bums me out. Then again, this first series (and I think of it as a series, British-style, more than an American "season") was so well done that I expect they have a great plan for more.

 

[RumHam]

Regarding future seasons, I hope someone at Netflix has the sense to realize "hey these kids are going to grow up soon maybe we should fast track this." Unless they're planning on skipping ahead a few years in the narrative. 

[HexMachina]

4 hours ago, RumHam said:

Regarding future seasons, I hope someone at Netflix has the sense to realize "hey these kids are going to grow up soon maybe we should fast track this." Unless they're planning on skipping ahead a few years in the narrative. 

I think the Duffer brothers will try and push this actually. From the interview linked earlier it looks as though they put a great deal of thought into the casting of the kids, and I don't think they'll want to waste that. 

A few year jump might feel a bit weird I think and I don't think they'll go that route because

A few years and the...whatever we see at the end of Season 1 just sits in Will and does nothing. Nothing supernatural happens, El just chills in the Upside down. I think it's more likely they go for a more direct continuation. Anyway, the age of the kids in the show, they are nearing puberty right? Kids shoot away at that age so hopefully it won't look too bad/out of place

One other thing I wondered, that personally I put down to plot necessity, was why the creature killed/ate all of the others it took, but not Will. I'm willing to accept it was just needed for the plot. But if anyone else has any ideas I'd appreciate sharing. 

 

[Slurktan]

3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

 

3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I think the Duffer brothers will try and push this actually. From the interview linked earlier it looks as though they put a great deal of thought into the casting of the kids, and I don't think they'll want to waste that. 

A few year jump might feel a bit weird I think and I don't think they'll go that route because

 

  Hide contents

A few years and the...whatever we see at the end of Season 1 just sits in Will and does nothing. Nothing supernatural happens, El just chills in the Upside down. I think it's more likely they go for a more direct continuation. Anyway, the age of the kids in the show, they are nearing puberty right? Kids shoot away at that age so hopefully it won't look too bad/out of place

One other thing I wondered, that personally I put down to plot necessity, was why the creature killed/ate all of the others it took, but not Will. I'm willing to accept it was just needed for the plot. But if anyone else has any ideas I'd appreciate sharing. 

 

 

I never got the impression the creature was eating any of the humans at all.  My impression was that it was impregnating them, Alien style.  The little worm thing that Will threw up also came out of Barbs corpse, then of course how they were stuck to the walls much like how the people who have been infested in Aliens we stuck onto them.  If it was eating people it would have no need to eat the deer given that the show takes place over what.. 4-5 days?

[kissdbyfire]

6 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

 

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I never got the impression the creature was eating any of the humans at all.  My impression was that it was impregnating them, Alien style.  The little worm thing that Will threw up also came out of Barbs corpse, then of course how they were stuck to the walls much like how the people who have been infested in Aliens we stuck onto them.  If it was eating people it would have no need to eat the deer given that the show takes place over what.. 4-5 days?

 

Spoiler

Yeah, that's what I thought too. But I thought the monster could eat people too if necessary, or, say, that not all the people it took were used as incubators, only some. 

 

[MisterOJ]

Just finished this last night. I loved it and I'm glad I was able to space the episodes out over at least a couple weeks.

So... when does it become kosher to stop using spoiler tags in this thread? 

[Kyoshi]

7 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I think the Duffer brothers will try and push this actually. From the interview linked earlier it looks as though they put a great deal of thought into the casting of the kids, and I don't think they'll want to waste that. 

A few year jump might feel a bit weird I think and I don't think they'll go that route because

 

  Hide contents

A few years and the...whatever we see at the end of Season 1 just sits in Will and does nothing. Nothing supernatural happens, El just chills in the Upside down. I think it's more likely they go for a more direct continuation. Anyway, the age of the kids in the show, they are nearing puberty right? Kids shoot away at that age so hopefully it won't look too bad/out of place

One other thing I wondered, that personally I put down to plot necessity, was why the creature killed/ate all of the others it took, but not Will. I'm willing to accept it was just needed for the plot. But if anyone else has any ideas I'd appreciate sharing. 

 

I also think  

Will hid after his mom told him to. I thought that was significant. Even when they find him he's in the Upside Down version of Castle Byers.

[HexMachina]

1 hour ago, Kyoshi said:

I also think  

  Hide contents

Will hid after his mom told him to. I thought that was significant. Even when they find him he's in the Upside Down version of Castle Byers.

 

but it pretty much killed Barb immediately. Why was Will left alive?

[Corvinus85]

8 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

but it pretty much killed Barb immediately. Why was Will left alive?

 

Unlike with Barb, where we see the demogorgon looming over her, we don't actually see if the demogorgon grabbed Will. One moment he is in the shed, the next he is gone. It's possible Will got away from it as soon as he arrived in the upside-down, and then kept hiding.

[Kyoshi]

I agree with Corvinus. To me it was like Kill Bill, in a weird way. The enemies had to see each other in order for the flashback thing to happen. Hope that makes sense.

[Astromech]

1 minute ago, Corvinus said:

 

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Unlike with Barb, where we see the demogorgon looming over her, we don't actually see if the demogorgon grabbed Will. One moment he is in the shed, the next he is gone. It's possible Will got away from it as soon as he arrived in the upside-down, and then kept hiding.

 

In addition,

Spoiler

Barb was bleeding which attracted the demogorgon and perhaps made it treat her as food and Will as an incubator. We need David Attenborough to do a special on it to further the publics knowledge.

 

[Kyoshi]

4 minutes ago, Astromech said:

In addition,

  Hide contents

Barb was bleeding which attracted the demogorgon and perhaps made it treat her as food and Will as an incubator. We need David Attenborough to do a special on it to further the publics knowledge.

 

I though the reason Will was captured in the first place was because

he bled a little after falling off his bike. I thought that was how he attracted it to be honest. That's how I was able to come up with the blood theory before the show revealed it.

[Dr. Pepper]

It's so disorienting to open a thread and it not be at all what you'd thought it would be.  I never ever would have expected this show to receive this sort of acclaim.  

This show was very meh for me.  It wasn't good and it wasn't terrible.  I didn't mind watching it, but it also felt like a chore much of the time.  There's only so much that can be done with kid actors.  I also didn't feel any of the excitement about the 80's setting.  Could be that I was only a child then so didn't really get into the 80's tv scene so there wasn't a nostalgia there.  

The season is short enough that I'd likely tune into a season 2, though I hope they'd do an anthology sort of thing and start off with new characters instead of sticking with the kids.

[HexMachina]

16 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

 

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Unlike with Barb, where we see the demogorgon looming over her, we don't actually see if the demogorgon grabbed Will. One moment he is in the shed, the next he is gone. It's possible Will got away from it as soon as he arrived in the upside-down, and then kept hiding.

 

Maybe @AncalagonTheBlack Could change the thread title to make this a spoiler thread, so we don't have to keep tagging? 

Hmm, that's a good point, I can go with that. We do see that Will's house is something of a hotspot for the creature/portals, so what you say makes sense (it was near but didn't grab him and drag him back). Also, when it is hunting Nancy it doesn't seem to have particularly keen senses so it's feasible Will could elude it.

Whether this is true or not it works well enough for me, thanks  

 

 

[Astromech]

1 hour ago, Kyoshi said:

I though the reason Will was captured in the first place was because

  Reveal hidden contents

he bled a little after falling off his bike. I thought that was how he attracted it to be honest. That's how I was able to come up with the blood theory before the show revealed it.

 

I had to rewatch that episode to confirm

Spoiler

he wasn't bleeding.

 

[Martini Sigil]

There is a selfie of the 5 kids floating around facebook.... its priceless...

https://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/shes-our-friend-and-shes-crazy?utm_term=.xfqpg0MzR#.tnm9AWmrZ

[Talleyrand]

I really enjoyed this, probably my favourite netflix original - plus a great use of Peter Gabriel which is always extra points.

3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

 

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but it pretty much killed Barb immediately. Why was Will left alive?

 

Spoiler

Even with Barb there was a bit of delay between transporting to the Upside Down and grabbing them down there - Barb just had the poor luck of being stuck in a pool with nowhere to go and she spent a bit shouting cause she got a tad blindsided.

Whereas Will is repeatedly said to be good at hiding and given that he knew he was being chased by something creepy he would immediately run rather than shout for help.