Stranger Things

roundshort

Active member
Not a film but a new Netflix 8 epi. show.

If you, like me are a fan of the fun shows of the 80's and vintage Steven Spielberg movies this is a great show. Like Super 8 a few years back. Check it out!

Cheers!
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
I've been scheduling a date with this mistress, but keep missing it. I want to catch it early and not fall behind.

I missed Sopranos, GOT, American Horror and the like, by waiting too long. I barely got House of Cards.

One reviewer described it like this:

some random internet person said:
...It's the little things, like the kids dad banging on the TV in the background of one scene. They don't draw attention to it but it's enough to notice. I haven't though about banging on a TV since I last had to bang on a TV 25+ years ago...

and that was enough for me.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Okay. It's awesome. And now Netflix has announced they're releasing a soundtrack.

I can only speculate where they'll go with Season II.
 

roundshort

Active member
glad you enjoyed it! I really dug watching it. They had a few extra sotry lines that were not needed and some of the music was not in the correct time line - still a solid A to A+. A fun throwback to the glory days fo the 80's.
 

Henry Jones VII

Active member
The nostalgia is strong in this one, and that's a good thing!

Really entertaining series, with good characters, engaging story and a superb soundtrack.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Pale Horse said:
I missed Sopranos, GOT, American Horror and the like, by waiting too long. I barely got House of Cards.

You're not alone. I don't keep up with... well, anything these days. I stopped watching teevee concurrently when Frasier took its final bow. Still haven't seen any of the important series yet, and I probably won't see many of 'em.

That said, I was pestered to watch this. Two episodes in so far and I'm digging the atmosphere, but I'm not sure how I feel about everything else so far. Does anybody else find the Image Quality to be overly dark at times? Specifically, indoors at night?

Put a few more years on Nancy and she'll make a good surrogate for Marion Ravenwood.

Those ~$23 phones sure are going to add up.

It was described to me as "The Goonies filtered through Steven King."
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Get a couple more episodes in, there's a strong "man it feels like I'm watching Poltergeist for the first time, feeling.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
On episode 2. Fan artist did the official poster:

kyle-lambert-super-8-movie-poster.jpg


kyle-lambert-stranger-things-poster.jpg
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
roundshort said:
I will still take Super 8 over every comic book movie made in the last 10 years

That's bold. I know where you're coming from but these are notably good films:

300
Ironman
The Dark Knight
Kingsmen....
 

roundshort

Active member
Pale Horse said:
That's bold. I know where you're coming from but these are notably good films:

300
Ironman
The Dark Knight
Kingsmen....


Nope, Super 8 has most of these beat. I have never seen a green screen movie I could like, hated the Dark Knight and the emo joker, Kingsmen was cute. Solid pass, and I was caught up in the first Ironman. Probably the last comic book movie that I dug, but then the horrible sequels happened and cast a shadow of horrible on it all.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
shortly is a man of little words. I think this article says what he wanted us to know:

The best thing you can say about this summer?s roster of blockbusters is how forgettable they are. At the very least, their ugliness?in both their aesthetics and storytelling?can?t do that much damage. Once the credits start rolling, most of these films dissolve from the mind like cotton candy in water. Which brings us back to ?Stranger Things.? The show trades on those moments you never forgot; the frisson that makes you exclaim, ?Hey, I remember that shot from 'The Thing!'?

But what makes ?Stranger Things? more than pastiche is that it has remembered what made those moments click. That they were part of a well-told story, with fleshed out characters. That even if the movie was a sequel it was concerned not with brand extension but taking characters you cared about on a new adventure. And like ?Close Encounters of the Third Kind? and ?Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,? ?Stranger Things? remembers to be in love with its actors? faces; to step back and observe the rhythms of blue collar life in the small town where it?s set; to have the moment when a grieving mother and her older son look through his photos for one of her missing sons. She smiles and compliments her oldest son's photography skills and he blushes and then crumples into sorrow over his brother. These kinds of moments are vanishing from blockbusters, and for no good reason.

If nothing else, ?Stranger Things? reveals the harsh truth that Hollywood gave up on audiences long before they decided to return the favor.

I don't always agree with Ebert, but I respect him/them.

Though this time, I agree.
 

AustrianGoodbye

New member
I just finished watching this show after a friend recommended it and my wife and I couldn't stop watching it till we finished the season.

Great story, I loved the whole CIA/shadow government working behind the scenes and uses of MKUltra which is a real Nazi/CIA experimentation into mind control.

I give it 10 out of 10! Also loved the friendships of the three boys, family drama, and the Byronic hero of the sheriff.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Season 2 - Indy Style

As if the show wasn't good enough already, New Musical Express is reporting that the 2nd season will be partly inspired by "Temple of Doom".(y)

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/stranger-things-season-two-will-be-inspired-by-ind/415656

Sammy Maine - nme.com said:
Stranger Things season two will be inspired by Indiana Jones
Show will capture "magic" of 'Temple of Doom' say Duffer brothers


Stranger Things season two will be inspired by the cinema of 1984, as creators the Duffer brothers confirm that the show will be set a year after the events in the first season.

Season Two of the hit Netflix show has not yet been confirmed but Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently stated that the streaming service "would be dumb not to" recommission the series.

Speaking to IGN, Matt and Ross Duffer said that the second season will "draw influence from a lot of [1984] cinema". "1984 was a f**king amazing year, especially the movies that came out in the summer of 1984," said Matt.

"It was an awesome year for cinema, so we're trying, hopefully, to capture a little bit of the magic of those films. Something like Temple of Doom," he continued. "I actually really love Temple of Doom, I love that it gets a little darker and weirder from Raiders."

He explained that Temple of Doom "messed up a lot of kids" but that he loves that about the film ? "that it really traumatised some children." He added, "not saying that we want to traumatise children, just that we want to get a little darker and weirder."

Matt Duffer also said that season two is going to feel "very different", stating that he's "sure that a lot of people are going to prefer season one." "I think it's going to be a little darker, and a little weirder," he said.

In terms of finishing the show completely, Matt explained that the brothers have an ending that they want to get to "in a believable way." "It's just us figuring out how many episodes and potential seasons we'd need to tell that story," he continued. "That's the goal and the hope, and it's really, really difficult. But hopefully we get there."
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Stoo said:
As if the show wasn't good enough already, New Musical Express is reporting that the 2nd season will be partly inspired by "Temple of Doom".(y)
Sammy Maine - nme.com said:
...
Matt Duffer also said that season two is going to feel "very different", stating that he's "sure that a lot of people are going to prefer season one." "I think it's going to be a little darker, and a little weirder," he said.
...."

Darker and weirder than Season One? With a ToD vibe?!

I'm in. So much so that I might have to remove myself from the net to avoid spoilers. I was blind to this, knowing it had a buzz and being prompted by shorty. Then I binge watched it over the course of a week.

I'd hate to fall victim to over expectation for 2, especially by my own doing.
 

Z dweller

Well-known member
Heartfelt thanks to my fellow Raveners for recommending this excellent show. :hat:
I just finished watching season 1 and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pale Horse said:
I'd hate to fall victim to over expectation for 2, especially by my own doing.
I feel the same.

I'd have been much happier if the Duffer brothers had taken a bold step and announced a second season with a similar time setting, but a different storyline and characters.
In other words, I'd have preferred if they had made Stranger Things into a string of thematically related miniseries each with a standalone storyline, instead of going for the traditional multi-season structure.

It would have been easy to give this first story a satisfying end, while leaving a few aspects suitably unexplained (and up until the last ten minutes of the final episode, I hoped that that may actually be the case).

As it is, it's going to be very difficult for the second series to match the first, IMO.
It seems to me that all the main characters have pretty much gone through their emotional arc already, and delving further in the nature of the Upside Down and the shady organization(s) trying to control it is unlikely to prove as exciting the second time round.

Anyway, who am I kidding: I am going to watch it anyway, so let's be optimistic and give credit to the creative team behind the show.
They certainly proved they can deliver the goods, here's hoping they can do it again.
 
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