Stranger Things

[DerWaschbar]

p sure the writers on this show are just filling in blanks left by algorithms that record and prioritize viewer watching habits

[modey]

Some of you have a way of sucking the fun out of absolutely anything.

it's the wattm way!

[digit]

i loved this show. i recognized pretty much every thing that they are drawing from. it was all stuff i grew up with and loved so everything felt instantly familiar. of course it was warmly nostalgic for me. even the opening credits font gave me the feels.

 

i get what people are saying about this show being such a pastiche and borrowing so heavily from past works.

 

i guess what saves it for me is that the show has heart. i feel that there is a genuine love for the material and the characters as opposed to a cynical appropriation of elements for cool points or whatever. part of that is due to the directing & part of that is due to the excellent casting and the great acting throughout the show.

 

however - i do feel that for the second season, the directors have to step out from under the shadows of their influences. they've established this world & these characters in the first season, but i want to see them develop more of a unique voice in the second. whether they have that in them or not remains to be seen, but i'm going to remain cautiously optimistic.

[lala]

p sure the writers on this show are just filling in blanks left by algorithms that record and prioritize viewer watching habits

 

i just started to guess what was going to happen after the first few eps.. the only thing i didnt guess was the way the last ep happened.

 

it was all just so netflix.  My friends loved it though, but they dont read much horror

[oscillik]

Did anyone else notice the slight nod to the game F.E.A.R. in the storyline? I thought that was pretty nice.

[BCM]

it gets better i think and the subplots start to make more sense

[dr lopez]

this show is like a bubble bath. i want to be uncomfortable when i'm taking in horror, not coddled until i fall asleep. this is like a.a. milne's definition of "strange". this whole nostalgic creative generation sucks imo, completely juvenile and unable to produce anything beyond rote pastiche. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know what this says about creativity for the younger generation.

 

Don't bother working really hard for two or three years struggling to write something original like a fucking mug.

Just lift scenes directly from other movies.

Again, I think you are missing the point of this show.

 

 

 

But there are too many movies and shows that do this. I kinda feel like we don't need any more remakes, tributes, homages, inspired-by's for a quite a long time, as there's been no shortage of those at all lol

 

Hollywood has become a shadow of itself. Every now and then, an original idea comes out with a decent budget, but even then amongst those small occurances, it's very hard to find those kinds of productions that aren't compromised in some major way. 

 

Hollywood has been rehashing and reinventing itself since its inception - Star Wars was inspired by the Flash Gordon movies of the 40's and the Akira Kurosawa films, etc.

 

If anything, I think when a truly original idea does come along, it stands out and is more special. The problem is, there just really isn't many original, GOOD ideas anymore.

 

 

that's the problem i have with this show. it isn't good. it's bringing nothing to the table to subvert or reinvent the ideas it exploits. it's just a checklist of eighties references. star wars functioned as a kind of found art object, a dream of serialized fantasy from the forties with cutting edge special effects and a well developed, universally appealing mythology of its own.

one of the larger problems with nerd culture suddenly co-opting popular culture and especially movies is the tidal wave of reference laden, plot based films and television shows that reduce narrative story telling to its most basic components. there are no "original" ideas, obviously. everything is the sum of its influences. but a good artist can focus their influences into a statement that gives us some sense of their feelings about the world, some kind of self expression, even if its through the somewhat myopic prism of pop nostalgia. what i get watching stranger things is that the duffer bros watched a lot of shit in the eighties and read stephen king. i have no idea who they are, what they feel, what the purpose of their work is. and then the work itself fails to entertain or surprise. it's a game of spot the reference. this is what most films have been reduced to. either an ideological checklist a blogger can write thinkpieces about (did we have a strong female protagonist, did we subvert the patriarchal/racist hollywood paradigm, was it problematic?) or a bunch of references and techniques that a redditor can create a front page post about (here's all the shots in stranger things that reference other films). it's boring, lowest common denominator commercial art and i think we can do better.

 

yeppppppppppppppppp

[joshuatxuk]

this show is really underwhelming for how much hype it's getting. i'm on episode four and i don't know if i want to watch more. something about the show makes it come off as really shallow. i hate a few of the subplots (light bulb lady and teen romance). i only really like the gov. sci-fi conspiracy component but that also seems pretty shallow (they're evil, ohh noo).

 

does it get better or is this the quality of the whole show?

 

it gets better i think and the subplots start to make more sense

 

Yeah it starts to pick up and things start coming together. I say that cautiously, if you find the show shallow (it is heavy on aesthetics and mood over original plot after all) the rewards will probably be shallow as well.

[kcinsu]

OST volume 1 came out today. 36 tracks

 

Volume 2 comes out later this month.

 

!

[oscillik]

OST volume 1 came out today. 36 tracks

 

Volume 2 comes out later this month.

 

!

iTunes exclusive though. Meh.

[Nebraska]

 

OST volume 1 came out today. 36 tracks

 

Volume 2 comes out later this month.

 

!

iTunes exclusive though. Meh.

 

 

so far the ost is kinda meh too

[kcinsu]

 

OST volume 1 came out today. 36 tracks

 

Volume 2 comes out later this month.

 

!

iTunes exclusive though. Meh.

Ah didn't realize that.

[oscillik]

 

 

OST volume 1 came out today. 36 tracks

 

Volume 2 comes out later this month.

 

!

iTunes exclusive though. Meh.

Ah didn't realize that.

 

I mean, it doesn't mean much to someone with access to other methods of file acquisition, other than a really shitty music format, but even still....

[dr lopez]

half in the bag screwed the pooch on this one. I knew they'd come a cropper here. Trying to list all the references etc. I love redletterw/e but they are really just nerds a lil bit smarter than the rest - their frame of ref is still sadly small. 

 

NEXT THEY WILL BE HAILED AS THE TRUE MESSENGERS OF GOD!

[Haste]

I really enjoyed this show.  Saw it before all the talk about it started.

 

It's just a good show I think?  I don't really understand the hyping up, or the de-hyping that is going on either.  I just enjoyed it as a piece of entertainment, and then moved on.  Musicians got really excited because there were 80s synths in it?  But I hear those all over the place anyway.  I dunno.  I imagine it must be a burden not being able to let go and just enjoy stuff.

[juiceciuj]

not reading anything for fear of spoilers but watched two eps with the old lady tonite and she just got too scared and said she couldn't watch it anymore.

 

anyways... it's pretty damn good so far.

[Amen Warrior]

This really gave me the urge to play Alan Wake again

[lala]

this show is really underwhelming for how much hype it's getting. 

 

Exactly how I feel. it doesnt bring anything new to the table (for me) it just comes across as a few supernatural computer game tropes thrown together into a series. 

 

like seriously as if the writers havent read any horror, just played horror games on a playstation & liked how popular the goonies was

[coax]

I loved the first half of the show, up to about episode 6 or so. I binge watched all of them and the atmosphere was palpable, like waking up after a vivid dream and having it stick around and color reality after. The story and the ending didn't bring anything interesting to me, although the general locations and editing / etc was part of the atmos. It just got kind of cliche at the end and didn't really live up to say the originality of a lot of other sci-fi. 

[Atop]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9RiXQ9Bgk0

 

 

Kyle Dixon performing solo up in this mofo!

[rixxx]

I liked it.

 

 

It was as new, exciting or original as say, Utopia (UK channel 4 series) but the storyline was fun and well thought out- Im so bored of  series doing all these little substories or even main plot lines that never lead anywhere r they have you hanging on for so bloody long when they do finally reveal you feel disappointment. Everything tied up and as JR said they could do a different story next season- I wouldnt mind that.

I loved the choice of actors, the boys were cute AF and gave the perfect comic relief.

[Joyrex]

I liked it.

 

 

It was as new, exciting or original as say, Utopia (UK channel 4 series) but the storyline was fun and well thought out- Im so bored of  series doing all these little substories or even main plot lines that never lead anywhere r they have you hanging on for so bloody long when they do finally reveal you feel disappointment. Everything tied up and as JR said they could do a different story next season- I wouldnt mind that.

 

I loved the choice of actors, the boys were cute AF and gave the perfect comic relief.

From what the creators have said publically so far, it looks like they are going to continue the story. Not a bad thing, but I think considering the title, it would work better as a "series" of season-long stories rather than just one akin to more traditional television series.

[rixxx]

Bum just realised I did a typo; it was not as new, exciting or original as say, Utopia (UK channel 4 series)


That seems a shame JR. As you say given the title and whole 80s aspect (and it was well tied up, a few nice questions but nothing too much)

 

 

Im going to trust them, and fuck it, theres a lot of other stuff on so its no big deal if it does become shit.

[QBLA]

Just started watching this last night. Found time... at night... in bed... naked!

[Joyrex]

Bum just realised I did a typo; it was not as new, exciting or original as say, Utopia (UK channel 4 series)

 

 

That seems a shame JR. As you say given the title and whole 80s aspect (and it was well tied up, a few nice questions but nothing too much)

 

 

Im going to trust them, and fuck it, theres a lot of other stuff on so its no big deal if it does become shit.

Yeah, really curious as to what more of the story they could tell that would be as interesting as the first series.

 

Funnily enough, that's about how most 80's shows/movies worked - the original was great, and in most (but not all) cases, the sequel didn't measure up...