(TW: Potential Spoilers, Mentions of Death, Dorky Fan Theories?)
Though, I’ve come a bit late to the Stranger Things fandom, it has finally happened! Those of you who know me personally, are either rejoicing, or rolling your eyes at me. I’m pretty sure it’s split down the middle.
I have quite a few things to say about the series… and while I feel like I could make this post go on, legitimately forever, I’m going to try to stop myself from rambling. Firstly, I want to start off by saying that I absolutely love the music that they use in the series because, as a 90’s baby, I grew up listening to all of this music with my mom. It’s given me a new appreciation for her, and the way that she grew up in the 70’s-90’s and I think that’s why she loved the series so much because, for her it was like looking back into her childhood.
Before she died, my mom and I started watching Stranger Things together. She’d wanted me to watch it since it’d first come out but, at the time I was a little hesitant. If I could go back and tell myself just one thing, it would be to sit down, shut up, and watch the damn show with my mom. I’d only seen two episodes with her before she passed away in 2020.
(I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive myself for not just watching it with her. RIP Mom… I’m sorry.)
But on this past Sunday night when I wasn’t feeling well, Angel managed to convince me to turn on Stranger Things and… I am SO glad she did. And I have so many good and bad things to say that it is almost completely overwhelming!
Yes, we are binge watching the show.
No, I do not feel bad about it.
The only thing that I’m upset about though, is knowing that there are only four seasons, and at this rate… we’re going to finish watching it all, and then we’re going to be left hanging. Season four has just come out, meaning season five won’t be out for a very, very long time. So, that means that we can do one of two things- we can either stop watching it now or conserve the few remaining episodes that we have left.
(Sky from the future here- full steam ahead!)
Now, I wish that I could tell you that I’m the kind of neat, organized neurospicy individual that has a modicum of self-control. You know, the people who can actually follow serving sizes without wanting to binge eat and can be trusted to only watch one or two episodes of TV at a time, no matter how frustrating the cliffhanger is. But I am not. If you leave me alone long enough with a jar of pickles, or a box of Cheez-Its, I will eat them all. If you leave me alone long enough with a good book, or an interesting show, I will binge it until there’s absolutely nothing left of it. Then, I will proceed to whine about how it’s all gone for a year and a half (or longer) until the next season comes out… just to do it all over again.
(Unless they cancel it… in which case, I will still obsess over it for years because I feel like it just CANNOT end that way. In that case… fanfiction is a godsend.)
Now, if you haven’t seen this show, and you don’t know what I’m talking about… now is the time to click off. Spoilers for the first three seasons lay ahead.
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I don’t even know where to begin with this because, if you’ve ever seen this show then you know that there’s a lot that happens, and it happens incredibly quickly. So quickly that sometimes, I feel like I need to pause the show just to take it all in because… holy shit! You know?
(And I do pause it, a lot because Angel and I like to talk about the happenings, and all of our theories. Lots of theories.)
So, I guess I should probably start off with Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will. (And eventually Eleven and Max too.) As for the boys, I didn’t know what to really make of any of them at first, or why they’d be so important to the show. I mean, what could possibly be so important about a handful of prepubescent dorks playing DND in their friend’s basement? Right? Wrong. I was so wrong. And even though I’m into the fourth season now, I still question why Will didn’t cast protection, and whether or not it would’ve massively influenced the course of the show and it’s outcome, having only rolled a 13. Maybe that’s something that I shouldn’t be focusing on though, honestly. But they seem to make a big deal about it so; I’m not wondering if it’s an Easter Egg that the writers left behind for us to find and figure it out?
If not, then I just focus on the silly little details that don’t matter? Who knows.
I do, however, like that they show their friendship dynamic in a very untypical way, and I think that it really speaks out to the kids like me who had friends that were more like a family than anything else. People that you can go to no matter what is happening, and they won’t turn away from you, or treat you differently because of it. Sure, the four of them (and eventually six of them) have disagreements sometimes but, you can tell that they have each other’s backs no matter what. I mean, after all, not everyone has the kind of friends who will go into a literal alternate dimension to save you.
As for Eleven, I was a little unsure of her at first too. (Maybe I’m just skeptical though.) I guess I just wish that they would’ve shown some more about how she escaped, considering the “Bad Men” or facility workers were after her and they were vicious. I mean, look at how easily they’re willing to kill to get her back, and you mean to tell me that she got away on foot without even having shoes? It leaves me with a lot of questions. However, she does have powers, and she is a total badass, so who am I to judge?
After all, my doctors all want to know how I’m still walking considering how unstable my ankles, legs, and ligaments are. So… I guess it’s just fair to assume that stubborn people can get shit down when they must, despite the odds. Right? Right.
Max is an interested character- her brother Billy comes off as extremely unhinged and abusive. In the end, I’m glad we got to see a bit of his real personality, and I think that it’s great that she got together with Lucas. However, I do feel bad for Dustin and Will. That’s something that I might talk about a little bit later, or in a different post though. El did need a girl friend though, so I’m happy that Max joined the party.
Skyla N. Lambert
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I also like how they use less well-known DND monsters, instead of something simple and basic like orcs, dragons, or ogres. I mean, honestly, if my mom wasn’t into DND at one point (and I do still have her dice) I probably wouldn’t have understood half of the DND references in this show. Which leads me into my own dorky DND fan theories about how some of the happenings in Hawkins, and why everything bad always seems to happen to Will.
Personally, I think that maybe the boys are connected to the characters, and character class they picked and play as in DND somehow. That’s why Will seems to be the target of all the monsters. First the Demogorgon, and then the Mind Flayer? It just seems a bit too convenient to me. Kind of like Jumanji in a way?
My theories are endless. Endless. Endless. Endless.
But I do have to say that I do not like Steve or Nancy.
Nancy comes off as extremely self-centered, and she’s just not a good friend. For the first part of season one, I was seriously hoping she’d end up as a Demodoggy snack after the way that she treated Barbara. And again, in season two… and now even in seasons three and four… maybe that will change but, I really don’t think so. Now, right off the bad that may sound a little but harsh but, Barb didn’t want to go to that party. She didn’t want to be there but, Nancy still coerced her into driving there. She was also coerced into trying to shotgun a beer to fit in with the others, which is how her hand gets cut, and instead of worrying about her friend Nancy just goes on partying with everyone else.
Barb was a good friend. She even tried to stop Nancy from going upstairs with Steve- like she’d originally asked her to. She just wanted Nancy to be true to herself, and Nancy just didn’t care. She brushed Barb off, and told her to go home, even though she knew that Barb’s mom thought that she was spending the night with Nancy at her house. And when Barb got locked out, she just sat by the pool thinking, which is when the Demogorgon was attracted to the scent of her blood.
From there, Barb got dragged into the Upside Down, and inevitably mauled to death.
Did we get to know barb very well, no. But she didn’t deserve that. She in no way deserved that, when the entire time she was dying, she was still crying out for Nancy and begging for help. So, no, I do not like Nancy one bit… and while she’s found a little redemption throughout the series… I still don’t like her.
As for Steve… he’s finding redemption slowly. But I’m still not his biggest fan.
And you know what? Speaking of people who didn’t get a fair ending, I am still legitimately angry about what happened to Bob in the second season. Full disclosure here, I was iffy about Bob at first. I didn’t think that it was right of Joyce, going from having her son almost die in the first season to magically having this serious boyfriend that we didn’t know a whole lot about in the second season. So, at first, I thought that he may be a trap since he just seemed to appear out of nowhere. I hate that we didn’t get to know his backstory until after he was gone because, you could tell that she really did love him.
Bob was a good guy. He had a job, he genuinely cared for Joyce, he also seemed to care a lot about Jonathan and will. He wanted to move Joyce and her two kids to Maine, across the country, so that they could be happier and start over. He wanted them all to have a better life- together. He was even willing to take them all as they were, and love them, and support them despite the trauma. So, when he almost made it out of the lab alive, and then got mauled and killed right in front of Joyce, I was really upset.
(There were tears.)
He was funny and smart, and kind, and I think that he really could’ve made Joyce happy if they’d only gotten the chance. He was brave, and he deserved better. I mean, sure, I get it… a lot of people wanted Joyce to end up with Hopper (even me) but, I don’t see what the point of giving us such a fantastic character was, just to turn around and kill him. Sure, Stranger Things is technically kind of a horror and sci-fi show, and in a way, it’s sort of realistic that there are times in life where you are so close. You’ve almost made it to victory, and then you have all of your hopes and dreams ripped away but, really? Was it necessary to do him dirty like that?
I’ve read a little bit about what happened behind the scenes, and how Bob was originally supposed to die in the third episode because of how much people liked the character, and his growing importance in the plot but, I just wish that it could’ve been avoided. At least I know from what I’ve read that even the Duffers thought about the possibility of letting Bob leave the lab alive, so that means me feel a little bit better. I just hope they know that they broke a lot of hearts by letting him die- especially like that. And then to throw in that Bob is the one who started Hawkins AV club? Were you just trying to twist the knife in my heart guys?
(And don’t even fucking get me going about Billy. No… I mean it, I don’t want to cry again.)
The last thing I really want to get out about season two however, is the bullshit that I felt went on with Hopper and Eleven. I love Hopper, don’t get me wrong. He gives off all of the major protective Dad vibes, and I know that he’s super protective of El after his own daughter died but I feel like he was going about it all the wrong way. By keeping her locked up in his grandfather’s cabin (even if it was for her own safety) he was essentially doing the same thing to her that Dr. Brenner was. Sure, he wasn’t abusing her abilities, and making her hurt people but, she was still getting hurt.
Eleven spent her whole life in that lab, alone (aside from Brenner and staff) aside from the rainbow room, which means that she didn’t have friends. She didn’t have a real family. Leaving her by herself must’ve been extremely triggering for her PTSD, especially since she wasn’t allowed to go outside. (As someone who can’t go out much, let me tell you a TV is in no way a replacement for people and outside interaction.) So, I feel like he really hurt her by doing that.
I also don’t think that she would’ve run off to find her mother if Hopper didn’t lie about her. Sure, he didn’t say that Terry was dead but, by telling El that she “wasn’t around anymore” he really left it open for her to interpret that she was dead. Although, at the same time, I get why he did what he did because Terry was put through electroshock therapy by Dr. Brenner when she tried to forcefully rescue Eleven, leaving her in a permanent state of severe catatonia.
He should’ve just been honest.
I also don’t think Eleven would’ve gone looking for Kali (008) if it weren’t for the fact that she went to find Terry. By finding Terry, and trying to talk to her, she assumed that what Terry wanted was for Eleven to find the other little girl from the rainbow room. While I feel like this might’ve been good for Eleven, it was also definitely a traumatizing event for her. Finding her “sister” was both good and bad for Eleven because, Kali did help her learn to channel her abilities but, Kali had also become the person (or weapon) that Dr. Brenner wanted her to be. It seemed like she lost her heart and humanity and became a tool.
I feel like Kali was trying to use Eleven in that same way by having her find Ray Carroll, telling her that he was one of the Bad Men that had hurt Eleven’s mother. And while yes, Ray Carroll did do this, and administered the electroshock therapy to Terry, as Eleven had seen in her mind, he also knew that it was wrong. However, he didn’t have a choice. Dr. Brenner made him administer the electroshock therapy; he wasn’t doing it because he wanted to. Kali told Eleven to finish it (obviously assuming that means kill him) and she did not. She also didn’t allow Kali to kill him, especially once she realized that his two daughters were in the apartment.
That felt like a pretty lifechanging moment for El, when she realized that seeking revenge and killing people needlessly was a path that she couldn’t go down. I also know that it probably made her sad because in doing so, it damaged her relationship with Kali and her crew. I would however like to see the two of them reunited later in the series, and hopefully they can reconcile their differences. But honestly, I don’t know if that’s possible. Kali seems far to set in her ways, and too influenced by her friends, almost like she’s given up on the fact that there are still good people in the world.
What do you think? Have you seen Stranger Things? Do you have any lingering questions like I do? And what was that about what Ray Carroll said when he was trying to get El to stop. Do you think that Dr. Brenner is still alive?
No spoilers I haven’t made it past S3 episode two yet. I’m very excited to find out though.
-Sky
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