I have a friend touring with a band (selling merch) and he texted me last night and said eleven was on the guest list. Pretty cool.
Ya Steve became super like able haha. I have my nit picks but it was a fun watch. Episode 7 depressed me but we hopped right back into it after that. Episode 7 lost its "goonies" feel and felt like an episode of agents of shield haha. But Netflix with another home run here in my opinion.
Dustin became super annoying real quick. The hell man..how you gonna keep a little creature knowing damn well it might have came from the upside down! And surprisingly Will's mom was more logical and less annoying. She opted to put Will to sleep and a few other things that she wouldn't have agreed to in Season 1.
That's where it started losing me. They'd all have had more respect for the principles of the upside down.
this reminded me of Force Awakens, where they take the same basic plot as the original and just remix it a little (instead of Will missing, he's posessed, instead of one baddy there is a pack of them, etc)
That was great, I liked it. Watching Stranger Things makes you wonder what Marvel wastes all the money on when they make their Netflix shows. These guys had to have paid a fortune for all the 80's music and still had money for the CG.
The creatures and the Upside Down are pretty much the cenobites and the Labyrinth. Having one of the kids who's aware of the Upside Down suddenly go, "Let's keep a cenobite as a pet!", spoiled it a bit for me.
Finished Season 2 last night and loved the show. It didn't have quite the charm of Season 1, mostly because it was straight into action with more mature character development. I read a bit of this thread so I'll clear up a bit where you guys missed some references. As with season 1, this thing is chock-full of 80's homages. I found a decent article here. It's about 90% correct IMO. Here are the main references it notes that I agree with: -Children of the Corn (corn fields) -Alf (Dart eating a cat- I missed this one) -Aliens (obviously; paul reiser, guys with flame throwers, the ambush scene) -Cujo (scene with Steve going out to fight the Demodogs) -ET & Gremlins (Dart eating a specific candy, El in the Ghost costume, Feeding the mogwai after midnight) -The Exorcist (this is a bit of a reach, I think, but the scene where the mind flayer is exorcised is certainly reminiscent of The Exorcist) -Firestarter (I missed this one; the final scene where El is closing the gate) -Halloween (decaying pumpkins, and....it's Halloween) -Goonies (duh) -It (I'm not really conversant in this story so I'll take their word for it) -John Hughes (the entire High School love triangle throughout the first and second seasons reeks of JH. What struck me the most was when Johnathan and Nancy hook up, which the article misses. Also, the dance at the end.) -Jurassic Park (Not 80's but I buy the article's comparison) -A Nightmare on Elm Street (I missed this one but the first episode with El coming through the wall into the High School nails Elm Street. -Poltergeist (TV Static, obvs) -Punky Brewster (I almost didn't buy this one until I thought about it; El has a ton of similarities to this show...which I hated as a kid, btw) -Mad Max/Road Warrior (The muscle cars, kids almost getting run over) -Stand By Me (I missed this one in both seasons: kids walking down the railroad tracks) -Star Wars (El's power, obviously) Missed in the article: -80's hair rocker (Billy so utterly nails the cheese hair rocker it's funny) -The Shining (Will's epileptic fit when he gets possessed is just like Danny having a vision from The Shining) -The Terminator (when El steps into Will's house it's a frame copy of The Terminator stepping into a scene) Episode 7: El Goes To Chicago: I read a few articles and apparently the Duffer bros said this was like a mini-pilot. The article also mis-identifes the reference. I guess you have to be a comic nerd to catch it. Episode 7 is clearly a homage to the 1980's X-Men, specifically the Morlocks storyline (link) Billy Theory: Other than Billy being the amazing 80's hair rocker archetype, my wife and I think he has a deeper character that will be expanded on in future seasons: Spoiler: Spoiler Billy is gay. He's so utterly over-the-top macho and this show doesn't do characters like that. You also never see him nailing girls in any scenes, it's just alluded to. You then see his abusive father, another reason for his macho tough guy act. His father clearly doesn't like gay folks (calling Billy a f*****). Billy has finely crafted his image as you can see in his scenes at his house and the party to throw people off. Most importantly, he tells Nancy's mom that Nancy 'isn't my type'. I think his storyline is going to morph into a gay kid in the 80's coming of age tale. Dustin was great; I urge you guys to think back to your pubescent years and how obnoxious you could be. I guess it helps that I have a son going on 12...some of the stuff he and his friends say and do is downright tooth grinding. I guess if nothing else you should be grateful for the lack of fart jokes. I must say that I was a little disappointed with the mind flayer as the previews made him out to be a giant monster...who ends up being smoke/shadow, who then ends up possessing will. I was hoping for a giant monster rampage. I love this show and overall this season kept the bar up. Can't wait for S3. .... Oh ****, I just realized while writing this that there's another gate in the High School (Jr High?) where El escapes in the first episode! Maybe THAT is what the mind flayer is really hovering over!
@Xerobull definitely agree with your spoiler. The shower scene definitely hinted to that, especially when the 3rd wheel guy left the scene. Dustin's character was great this season. That annoying schtick he does with his 'pearls' even when people keep telling him to quit it, its like a defense mechanism to mask the hurt of being put down. The plot to have him keep baby alien as a pet? Maybe they could've showed the reason why he needed the reason to do so better. Maybe its just him and his mom, he wanted the fame and money for them, etc.
Some indirect spoilers. Is Nancy turning out to be the most unsympathetic character in the show? Worse than her parents... There was a Pokémon reference with Mews at the end. Dustys interactions with his mom reminded me a lot of Cartman. Lot more plot holes this season. Didn't like the Lost trope with the final boss, but still very entertaining. Watching this makes me realize more and more how shitty the eighties were. Millennial blasphemy, I know. There should be an inside joke with Steve that carries thru into every season. Spoiler where he gets his face smashed in Great references. Part of the fun watching was calling them out when it happened. Spoiler That 2nd pickup game and shower scene makes more sense if they go that way. I wonder if the chief is impregnated this time. Guess it'll be easy to shake off that cold if he was
A few other homages/references I misses: Indiana Jones- Hopper is clearly channeling Indy in this show, and I can't believe I didn't see it before. Note how he grabs his hat when he is freed from the Upsidedown vines. He also calls the kids 'kid' just like Indy called Short Round 'kid' in the Temple of Doom. War Games- Something about the scene with Nancy & Johnathan and the Detective/Conspiracy theorist reminded me of War Games (Mathew Broderick).
Yeah, I'm the same. I'm curious to see what happened with the other kids, 1-7, 9, and 10 but I also don't want the show to be a super hero show. It would suck the charm out of the show.
One of my co-workers makes that noise every time she yawns. It's super freaking annoying. It just reminded me of that. I hated it in the show too.
