![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Stranger Things (Netflix, Series 1)
A geeky boy goes missing and a girl with superpowers shows up; moms freak out and the sheriff kicks ass; government conspiracies and aliens monsters, oh my!
My commentary is very spoiler-heavy.
This is so 80s. So very 80s. I don’t think it could have been more 80s if it was MADE in the 80s!
It’s a commentary on the strength of your actors when you have Winona Ryder going crazy and she’s only in the middle of the pack. The child actors in particular are very, very good.
There’s an amusing theory that each set of characters are in a different style of tv show (psychological thriller vs. conspiracy thriller vs. coming-of-age drama with supernatural elements) but it’s clear that they can only break the borders of their set story type (and win) once they team up.
It sucks to be Barb, not to mention the other four people eaten by the demogorgon, some of whom aren’t even named. While there is presumably some additional freaking out “off camera” and some official explanation for the disappearances is given in the time-skip following the climax, Will is the only person who seems to matter to the protagonists.
Relatedly, I didn’t realize this, but there’s a fan theory that there was more than one demogorgon the whole time, explaining how the one the teenagers messed up was back in badass fighting form twenty minutes later. The implication that the slugs are the larva and the upside-down school is a nest means that there could be a mated pair of two demogorgons, one who is badly beaten by the teens and limps home to die, and one who rampages through the government mooks and is eventually disintegrated by Eleven.
The exact nature of the upside-down dimension is nebulous (just how much does it mimic the real world? How often does it “update”?) but I think that works fine for the genre. I read it as being like the WoD Umbra or the D&D ethereal plane; both of which match or don’t match the real world in accordance of the needs of the story. There’s hard and soft science fiction, and because of the crossover with the paranormal / horror genres here, your sci-fi is going to be softer.
Clearly, the boys don’t have the D&D psionics supplements, because Eleven’s powers are classic psionics: Telepathy, telekinesis, remote viewing/clairvoyance, dimension-hopping. (Amusing takeaway from Philcon: Psionics were a major staple of space opera sci-fi for many years, but then vanished from it. Now they only appear in fantasy and paranormal stories—because they used to be considered “science,” and now they’ve been debunked enough that they aren’t.)
This show seems to really like minor antagonist characters who are jerks for the sake of being jerks. Dr. Brenner is arguably the main intelligent antagonist (the demogorgon is more like an animal or force of nature), and his motivation and actions actually make a lot of sense: He considers Eleven to be a non-human test project that occasionally must be prodded with human-like motivations, and everything he does flows logically from that. James and Tommy (the kid bullies) or Troy and Carol (Steve’s friends), on the other hand, just seem to be unpleasant people who do things for the sociopathic lulz. Granted, this is also a feature of the genre and time period (the role of the bully was to be a menace to be overcome, not a proper character), but it’s irritating.
Overall: When the show opens with a D&D game, do you really think I wouldn’t like it? That was a really fun bit of TV, even if the “children in danger” and child disappearance / death plot points freak me out a little. I’m looking forward to season 2.
My commentary is very spoiler-heavy.
This is so 80s. So very 80s. I don’t think it could have been more 80s if it was MADE in the 80s!
It’s a commentary on the strength of your actors when you have Winona Ryder going crazy and she’s only in the middle of the pack. The child actors in particular are very, very good.
There’s an amusing theory that each set of characters are in a different style of tv show (psychological thriller vs. conspiracy thriller vs. coming-of-age drama with supernatural elements) but it’s clear that they can only break the borders of their set story type (and win) once they team up.
It sucks to be Barb, not to mention the other four people eaten by the demogorgon, some of whom aren’t even named. While there is presumably some additional freaking out “off camera” and some official explanation for the disappearances is given in the time-skip following the climax, Will is the only person who seems to matter to the protagonists.
Relatedly, I didn’t realize this, but there’s a fan theory that there was more than one demogorgon the whole time, explaining how the one the teenagers messed up was back in badass fighting form twenty minutes later. The implication that the slugs are the larva and the upside-down school is a nest means that there could be a mated pair of two demogorgons, one who is badly beaten by the teens and limps home to die, and one who rampages through the government mooks and is eventually disintegrated by Eleven.
The exact nature of the upside-down dimension is nebulous (just how much does it mimic the real world? How often does it “update”?) but I think that works fine for the genre. I read it as being like the WoD Umbra or the D&D ethereal plane; both of which match or don’t match the real world in accordance of the needs of the story. There’s hard and soft science fiction, and because of the crossover with the paranormal / horror genres here, your sci-fi is going to be softer.
Clearly, the boys don’t have the D&D psionics supplements, because Eleven’s powers are classic psionics: Telepathy, telekinesis, remote viewing/clairvoyance, dimension-hopping. (Amusing takeaway from Philcon: Psionics were a major staple of space opera sci-fi for many years, but then vanished from it. Now they only appear in fantasy and paranormal stories—because they used to be considered “science,” and now they’ve been debunked enough that they aren’t.)
This show seems to really like minor antagonist characters who are jerks for the sake of being jerks. Dr. Brenner is arguably the main intelligent antagonist (the demogorgon is more like an animal or force of nature), and his motivation and actions actually make a lot of sense: He considers Eleven to be a non-human test project that occasionally must be prodded with human-like motivations, and everything he does flows logically from that. James and Tommy (the kid bullies) or Troy and Carol (Steve’s friends), on the other hand, just seem to be unpleasant people who do things for the sociopathic lulz. Granted, this is also a feature of the genre and time period (the role of the bully was to be a menace to be overcome, not a proper character), but it’s irritating.
Overall: When the show opens with a D&D game, do you really think I wouldn’t like it? That was a really fun bit of TV, even if the “children in danger” and child disappearance / death plot points freak me out a little. I’m looking forward to season 2.