Netflix series STRANGER THINGS
 

Anyone on board with this?

We just watched the first episode last night. It's getting a lot of buzz. It's like an homage to Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, John Carpenter, and other '80s sci-fi gurus, with maybe a shade of Neil Gaiman, little JJ Abrams (for all I know Abrams helped make it.)

It's, like, SUPER nostalgic. Everything about it feels plucked from 1985. It's a supernatural small town suspense story about ... y'know... some shit. I'll know more when I watch more. But three soundtrack is amazing. It's reminiscent of what Cliff Martinez did for the Street Fighter-esque soundtrack for Only God Forgives. Maybe not as edgy, but still pretty damn powerful.

I don't know. I'm liking it so far. It has Winona Rider in it after all, and she's nice to look at, and you don't see much of her these days. I kinda feel like they wish they'd been able to get Seth Rogan for the part of the police chief (anyone feel me on this one?) But generally I'm optimistic.

Really just drills through those '80s teen film tropes though. Five minutes in and you've already got a nerdy outsider kid with a best friend who's into his hot, bookish sister, and some kinda monster that manipulated electricity and energy AND a distant bespectacled father figure, not to mention D&D, a couple of mini Stand By Me-type bullies, and an audio visual club element. It's like they were checking shit off on a list.

The effect is pretty damn uncanny though, I have to say.

My wife just mentioned this last night. We will prob check it out soon.

I meant to post this in the non-sonics section. Weird. Sorry.

But I guess I did talk a lot about the soundtrack, so many it fits here too. At least as much as that "black lives matter" thread.

Looking forward to EP.2

It may well turn out to be exactly that. But honestly, the style is SO deliberately derivative that it almost doesn't seem to have any style at all, as odd as that sounds. I figure there must be something bigger or more important going on underneath all of that for it to be gathering as much positive press as it has.

Plus Winona Ryder. I mean, that's really all I need.

I've watched two episodes so far cause I'm trying to do one episode a day, and making it last. I tend to do that with all of Netflix's shows, and even more so for this since its only 8 episodes. I grew up in the 80's so this show is just giving me a big grin. Loving the music. Let's be careful of spoilers in here. Nobody has posted any yet, but I'm not watching it all at once and I don't want to read something spoilery about an episode I've yet to see.

Yeah, agreed on the spoilers. I was supposed to watch EP.2 with my girlfriend last night but she had to stay with her mother who just brok her leg, so I didn't get through it.

(Actually, I did put it in on without her, but only made it halfway through the episode. Sshh!)

I grew up with this stuff too. That's why I call it uncanny. It's like being transported back in time for me. I'm a few years younger than the kids in the show would be, but I was still raised on E.T. and the other films this show is clearly indebted to. The feeling is very surreal, right down to the dialogue between characters (especially the high school girls — "Oh come on, Nance." They just nailed it.

And the soundtrack is just seriously baller. At first I thought it was Com Truise, then the aforementioned Cliff Martinez (though it does lack some of his droney ominousness) ... Turns out I'm not actually familiar with the guys who composed it, but I like it. It's the best thing about the show so far.

Poltergeist, yes. Definitely.

A lot of King elements in there too, though nothing solidly plot derived. At least not that I can recall (been a while since I gave a fuck about Stephen King).
The font that's used for the show's title is straight out of Needful Things.

made it to episode 5. if you haven't, you guys are in for a treat. it starts to carry a 90's X-Files vibe. which is much more pleasurable to me because the 80's retro thing is tiring and 20 years played out old now.

anyway good show with interesting characters with a slightly derivative story from Beyond the Black Rainbow but less boring.

----spoiler alert----

they play an Echo and Bunnymen song at the end of one episode. wickedly fitting.

Did you catch that scene with "Atmosphere" playing? I thought that was pretty glorious. Joy Division was mentioned by Jonathan in ep. 2, but actually hearing the song against the backdrop of that scene was pretty powerful.

I'm at Episode 5 also. Waiting to finish this thing with my girlfriend. Hoping to get an episode in when she we're both done with work for the day.

you guys finish this? I was a little sad last night after watching the last one because I was growing attach to the characters just like I did as a kid.

overall, a success of a little show. the fat kid was straight up 80's goonies and I was waiting for Matthew Modine to do his John Wayne impression.

maybe the second season will have the same characters but with a completely different separate plot.

I finished it. And yeah, I'm sad too. It really packed the punch of a feature film, only extended over 8 hours (or 2 weeks, in my case).

I hear they're planning 2 more seasons, which feels appropriate. If it's not an isolated event, the only other thing that makes sense is turning it into a trilogy. I think the plot will obviously be an extension of the first season's. I've heard nothing about it being an "anthology" a la True Detective and American Horror Story.

Really well done. These Duffer Brothers, whoever they are, have really tapped into something. I think this is the best use of the Netflix platform this far, honestly.

Some questions were definitely left unanswered. which they seemed to acknowledge in the writing, in that final D&D scene, and the show ended essentially on a cliffhanger (or three), so I think it's going to have an extended arc.

Feels like a classic in the making. The "upside down" really reminded me of Neil Gaiman, especially Coraline. That's almost exactly how I pictured the unfinished world the "Mother" character stitches together to trap Coraline in that book. The movie kinda sucked.

Now I'm looking forward to American Gods on Starz, though I have no idea why that dude from Deadwoow is playing a Cubano Odin/Mr. Wednesday. I mean... what the fuck is that all about? That part has always belonged to Richard Attenborough... In my mind at least... though that dude may well be dead by now.

And I've always pictured Clive Owen (or maybe Bruce Willis) as Shadow. Clive's already got a deal with Starz, so why not kill two birds?

the concept of 'The Upside Down' reminded me of Stephen King's The Talisman, as well.. with the existence of a parallel world slightly similar (and accessible) to the present reality, but fantastically different. might have to revisit that one, really dug some of the environments that he set up in the story

I've never read the Talisman. Not really into King. But I really like the whole barren, alien alternate world thing, so maybe I'll check it out.

Gaiman's novels and stories are more my speed. I like the well-educated takes on pagan and old world mythologies that Gaiman brings to his fiction. Epic stuff. Wish he wrote at a more King-like clip though.

Just finished ep2. Liking it.

Just finished ep3. Also enjoying it. It's got a weird, Lovecraftian vibe. Great stuff so far!

About 5 episodes in. Good stuff.

the wife and I have been watching Penny Dreadful. about to finish up season 3.

Lovecraftian, Cronenbergian, Carpenterian, Spielbergian... X-Filesian. Gaimanian. It's all in there. '80s/early '90s sci-fi geel's dream. Keep going, shit's about to get real.

And by real I of course mean imaginary, but more intense. ;)

Just finished it. Really enjoyed it a lot. They took everything from the 80's movies that just made them so good and packed it all into a great little story. Very fun watch. It completely wears so many of its influences directly on its sleeve without getting overly copy-heavy and cheesy. Almost more like homage after homage in a way. And yes, every song chosen seemed to fit its place in the show so well. So well thought out. Just a really, really well done little gem of a show.