Stranger Things (Spoilers, duh!)
Discussion
ajprice said:
There are a lot of references to 80's movies and TV in this, in a good way. I'll spoiler this because there are bits from all the episodes, so don't watch if you haven't seen all of ST. https://vimeo.com/175929311 .
And Holly the little girl with her hair in bunches is a big reference to Drew Barrymore in ET. Just googled for separate pictures and somebody put the two together already.
Right down to the stripey top and dungarees
Another massively obvious reference is:-And Holly the little girl with her hair in bunches is a big reference to Drew Barrymore in ET. Just googled for separate pictures and somebody put the two together already.
Right down to the stripey top and dungarees The government guys turning up at the house and the kids escaping on bikes, straight out of E.T.
Zoon said:
ajprice said:
There are a lot of references to 80's movies and TV in this, in a good way. I'll spoiler this because there are bits from all the episodes, so don't watch if you haven't seen all of ST. https://vimeo.com/175929311 .
And Holly the little girl with her hair in bunches is a big reference to Drew Barrymore in ET. Just googled for separate pictures and somebody put the two together already.
Right down to the stripey top and dungarees
Another massively obvious reference is:-And Holly the little girl with her hair in bunches is a big reference to Drew Barrymore in ET. Just googled for separate pictures and somebody put the two together already.
Right down to the stripey top and dungarees The government guys turning up at the house and the kids escaping on bikes, straight out of E.T.
During the Q&A "Eleven" (who is actually British, never knew!) was asked how she prepared for the role... the movie she was told to watch as reference for her character was... E.T.
Since about a week ago Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) has started a new rule on his Instagram. Whenever anyone asks him for a photo with him, he does the same and puts it on his photos with a note about them. https://www.instagram.com/gatenm123/?hl=enJonesy23 said:
That was really good. The refined essence of 80's Stephen King, mixed with a bit of John Carpenter and a little Spielberg added too..
They managed to get the look and feel down, not pure 80's but specifically the King TV miniseries version of the 80's.
Casting worked too, I'm sure it was all set up to remind of characters & actors from older stuff to help keep the atmosphere; Natalia Dyer managed to look a lot like Mia Sara at times.
Seemed to owe a lot to Firestarter at times (lots of story bits, the look & the synth soundtrack) with generous helpings of other stories in there, plus all those references into a whole range of stuff.
One thing though is that people keep saying this is Sci-Fi which is isn't, it's classic King horror.
Anyway looking forward to more, and could certainly stand another watch.
The comments in bold are what I thought as I watched it. I'm not sure how well it would have worked for me without that feeling of nostalgia. I would probably have dismissed it as 'OK', but nothing more. However the general consensus seems to be that it works for most people. They managed to get the look and feel down, not pure 80's but specifically the King TV miniseries version of the 80's.
Casting worked too, I'm sure it was all set up to remind of characters & actors from older stuff to help keep the atmosphere; Natalia Dyer managed to look a lot like Mia Sara at times.
Seemed to owe a lot to Firestarter at times (lots of story bits, the look & the synth soundtrack) with generous helpings of other stories in there, plus all those references into a whole range of stuff.
One thing though is that people keep saying this is Sci-Fi which is isn't, it's classic King horror.
Anyway looking forward to more, and could certainly stand another watch.
4 episodes in and easily the best thing I've seen on TV. Absolutely nothing annoyed me until the sheriff headed off to break into the lab without telling anyone about the stuffed toy of a child. It managed to avoid most of the usual character decisions found in horror films until that point.
ILoveMondeo said:
Loved every minute of it. I want it to be the 80's again please.
Interesting problem the producers/directors said they have, it takes them 6 months to film a season and in that time the kids change physically so much that they were worried you'd notice it. I guess they need to hurry up and get all the kids filming done as quickly as possible, unless they stage it a few years later.Had this in my Netflix list for several weeks now and finally sat down to watch it. Did the series over three nights and it was really good, glad I watched it. Enough has been said already of the 80's references and feel, the opening credits certainly couldn't be much more 80's if they tried, even down to the grainy effect. Brilliant show and roll on series two.
ukaskew said:
4 episodes in and easily the best thing I've seen on TV. Absolutely nothing annoyed me until the sheriff headed off to break into the lab without telling anyone about the stuffed toy of a child. It managed to avoid most of the usual character decisions found in horror films until that point.
This annoyed me a little at first, however I like how the sheriff did actually tell Will's mother about the fake body, and before long those two and the daughter / brother were all on the same page about what was going on with the 'other world'. It actually felt quite refreshing to have characters actually communicate and let each other know what they've seen and what they know.Finished it in a day and a half. Fixed almost every issue I have with modern TV shows:
- 8 episodes
The writers clearly had a plan and were able to stick to it (the beauty of dumping a series on Netflix in one go, I suppose). Absolutely no filler, concise and well paced.
- No recap
The series could comfortably be packaged as one very, very long film and it would flow perfectly. There is no needless recap or exposition to bring us back up to speed. Again presumably because it was designed to be binge watched.
- Characters communicated
As mentioned by smithyithy above, when characters finally came together they actually acted like they probably would in real life, i.e. explained stuff to each other. The number of events intentionally designed to slow the story down or take us off on a tangent were very minimal, and there were very few lazy TV (or sci-fi/horror) tropes that had you shouting at the screen (Nancy actually crawling into the tree with Jonathan conveniently out of sight excepted)
- Ended well
We're swamped with interesting concepts both in movies and TV that go nowhere, tie themselves in knots or never end as well as they began (I gave up on Lost, Walking Dead and Wayward Pines), and bringing the characters together for the final act is rarely as strong as those early individual adventures, but this nailed out, Episode 7 was exceptional.
- Closure
Without going into spoilers, if this was never renewed it wouldn't matter, plenty to take away with what they give us and just enough left hanging to make your own decision on what might happen next in that world. On the other hand, what they do leave open/never explain gives scope to make another series without harming the first season.
- 8 episodes
The writers clearly had a plan and were able to stick to it (the beauty of dumping a series on Netflix in one go, I suppose). Absolutely no filler, concise and well paced.
- No recap
The series could comfortably be packaged as one very, very long film and it would flow perfectly. There is no needless recap or exposition to bring us back up to speed. Again presumably because it was designed to be binge watched.
- Characters communicated
As mentioned by smithyithy above, when characters finally came together they actually acted like they probably would in real life, i.e. explained stuff to each other. The number of events intentionally designed to slow the story down or take us off on a tangent were very minimal, and there were very few lazy TV (or sci-fi/horror) tropes that had you shouting at the screen (Nancy actually crawling into the tree with Jonathan conveniently out of sight excepted)
- Ended well
We're swamped with interesting concepts both in movies and TV that go nowhere, tie themselves in knots or never end as well as they began (I gave up on Lost, Walking Dead and Wayward Pines), and bringing the characters together for the final act is rarely as strong as those early individual adventures, but this nailed out, Episode 7 was exceptional.
- Closure
Without going into spoilers, if this was never renewed it wouldn't matter, plenty to take away with what they give us and just enough left hanging to make your own decision on what might happen next in that world. On the other hand, what they do leave open/never explain gives scope to make another series without harming the first season.
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