Stranger Things
- flyonthewall2983
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- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: Stranger Things
It's insane how quickly this show has become part of the cultural landscape. I honestly can't think of another show in recent memory that had this level of instantaneous attention
- flyonthewall2983
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
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Re: Stranger Things
Absolutely. Until I'd seen the trailer this had completely flown under my radar.
What's more, this is the first time a show from any of the newer platforms of content has reached such status.
What's more, this is the first time a show from any of the newer platforms of content has reached such status.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Wed Aug 31, 2016 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
- jindianajonz
- Jindiana Jonz Abrams
- Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Game of Thrones would probably be the closest, though that attention was slowed by having a traditional release over a season.domino harvey wrote:It's insane how quickly this show has become part of the cultural landscape. I honestly can't think of another show in recent memory that had this level of instantaneous attention
- flyonthewall2983
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
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Re: Stranger Things
Weren't the books quite popular already?
- jindianajonz
- Jindiana Jonz Abrams
- Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm
Re: Stranger Things
They were popular among fantasy readers, but that's a pretty small niche. The show managed to break out and became a part of the mainstream consciousness pretty quickly.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad certainly became a huge part of the landscape (and bigger than this show), but not nearly as quickly
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- Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:54 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Empiredomino harvey wrote:It's insane how quickly this show has become part of the cultural landscape. I honestly can't think of another show in recent memory that had this level of instantaneous attention
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- Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 7:45 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Haven't House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black been pretty big culturally? Unless I misunderstand your meaning.flyonthewall2983 wrote:What's more, this is the first time a show from any of the newer platforms of content has reached such status.
- flyonthewall2983
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
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Re: Stranger Things
Those shows became popular instantly too, but not as intensely as it has with this.
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- Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:54 pm
Re: Stranger Things
How are you measuring this? Personally, I'd disagree with your statement. Game of Thrones, Empire and Orange is the New Black were both instant cultural talking points across media and the internet when they first came out.flyonthewall2983 wrote:Those shows became popular instantly too, but not as intensely as it has with this.
- flyonthewall2983
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Re: Stranger Things
Has there been any proof that this show has been popular with younger audiences? I would not doubt it, and if so that definitely puts it above at least 2 out of 3 of those shows.
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- Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:54 pm
Re: Stranger Things
We're talking about different things. I was sticking to the general theme of the thread discussion about recent shows and their impact on the cultural landscape. I do not think that younger audiences are the singular guiding force behind that.flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has there been any proof that this show has been popular with younger audiences? I would not doubt it, and if so that definitely puts it above at least 2 out of 3 of those shows.
- Black Hat
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
- Location: NYC
Re: Stranger Things
A friend of mine posted on FB she was a few episodes in, but the show hadn't passed the Bechdel Test saying she's angry male creators still get away with this and asking whether or not she should continue watching. The floodgates then opened, people were aggrieved by the show's 'patriarchy', 11 was offensive because she's the typical 'super girl' for boys to gawk over a la 5th Element, Star Wars, Garden State and another person said it's incredibly frustrating because the show could easily have been fixed with casting. How you ask? Make the sheriff a woman, the single mom a single dad and two of the boys into girls.
I was stunned to read all this so I made an attempt to explain how 'tests' are arbitrary and should never be used to judge art one way or the other, with Bechdel being problematic even towards feminism. I said their desire to recast the show is literally asking for a different show.
Naturally I was denounced as being 'anti-Bechdel' because I'm a man. Then it became pretty clear that unless you agreed your insight wasn't welcome and so I exited the discussion frankly as disappointed in my friend's narrow mindedness as I'm sure she is with my 'misogyny'.
I was stunned to read all this so I made an attempt to explain how 'tests' are arbitrary and should never be used to judge art one way or the other, with Bechdel being problematic even towards feminism. I said their desire to recast the show is literally asking for a different show.
Naturally I was denounced as being 'anti-Bechdel' because I'm a man. Then it became pretty clear that unless you agreed your insight wasn't welcome and so I exited the discussion frankly as disappointed in my friend's narrow mindedness as I'm sure she is with my 'misogyny'.
- Black Hat
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
- Location: NYC
Re: Stranger Things
I've never seen it, but you guys seem to have forgotten about The Walking Dead which was huge right out of the gate.
- barryconvex
- billy..biff..scooter....tommy
- Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:08 pm
- Location: NYC
Re: Stranger Things
You are not alone. I hated every minute of this. Like, hated with a capitol "H". I'm going to go easy on the actors here because even an assembly of the Royal Shakespeare Co. All-Stars would not have improved this much...and Sweet Winona, you know I'll always love you but you are not cut out to play a single mom.So it sounds like I'm alone in thinking this was one of the worst acted series in recent memory?...
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
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Re: Stranger Things
If one watches this as a knowing pastiche of 80s sci-fi/horror/supernatural films, then it's possible to accept most of the performances as exaggerations of earlier ones given by Corey Feldman, Henry Thomas, Josh Brolin, Dee Wallace, etc. However, there is an inconsistency here in that both David Harbour (Sheriff Hopper) and Millie Bobby Brown ("Eleven") are mostly underplaying their parts while everyone else is shooting for the moon. I gave a pass to all the child actors, but Winona Ryder's hunched-over, arms-extended, one-note hysteria wrecked every scene she appeared in, especially given how often she was paired with Harbour.
I see Stranger Things as good fun for eight short episodes, but with the homages quickly adding up to outright rip-offs, I'm not all that excited about a second season continuing with the same characters a year later.
I see Stranger Things as good fun for eight short episodes, but with the homages quickly adding up to outright rip-offs, I'm not all that excited about a second season continuing with the same characters a year later.
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- Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:37 am
- Location: Down there
Re: Stranger Things
The script and the direction were the biggest problems with the series. The scenes felt awfully mechanic and familiar, but did not feel organic or original at all. It felt like the script was written by AI. And silly little "mistakes": kids start to yell out loud their secrets despite the mother who left the room, just nanosecond before closed the door behind her. Also kids are talking loudly in the abandoned bus when the secret agents roam nearby. But these are just two tiny pieces in an iceberg of illogical, unconvinging pile of... the psychology is weak weak weak everywhere. Some of the acting is good (David Harbour + Millie Bobby Brown), but it's painful to watch it wasted in such stupid material
- flyonthewall2983
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
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Re: Stranger Things
For me, the sum is greater than the parts for this show. I don't have as negative feelings towards any one aspect of the show, but apart from a few of the performances (The kids, Harbour, and I even think Winona was good too), some of the story aspects and special effects I wasn't completely swept away by it either. I think some of the choices of music were smart here as well, particularly Peter Gabriel's "Heroes" and a few other very non-80's tracks.
- PfR73
- Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Speaking of recasting the show, I'd been thinking about the progenitors of some of the characters, and had some fun spending my lunch breaks at work the past couple of days making this alternate universe TV Guide adBlack Hat wrote:I said their desire to recast the show is literally asking for a different show.
SpoilerShow
Last edited by PfR73 on Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Uh, Goonies-era Martha Plimpton 4 Barb 4 realz
- flyonthewall2983
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
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Re: Stranger Things
Brian Dennehy for the sheriff
- PfR73
- Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Oh yeah, that's a good one. Truth be told, I've only seen The Goonies once. The only movies I can remember my mom expressly forbidding me to watch when I was a kid were Beetlejuice & The Goonies. I know Beetlejuice was because of the seance, but at this point, she has no recollection of why she wouldn't let me watch The Goonies. I only saw it for the first time like 4 years ago when a friend lent it to me.domino harvey wrote:Uh, Goonies-era Martha Plimpton 4 Barb 4 realz
On the other hand, when I started college (many years ago) & moved into the dorm, I had cable for the first time and one of the first weekends, Comedy Central showed Beetlejuice twice in a row one day. I watched it both times as kind of a "Take that mom! I'm an adult now, I can watch Beetlejuice if I want to!" stab.
- flyonthewall2983
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Re: Stranger Things
Beetlejuice is almost a joke in our family now. It scared the hell out of my brother, and me and my sisters still taunt him about it. I might have seen The Goonies in passing on cable once or twice.
If I have to admit one gripe about the show, is that I knew from the get-go there is no such town in Indiana named Hawkins. Not really a gripe but more of a fact of life that if a certain kind of movie or TV show is set in a generic fictional midwestern town or city, it'll be Indiana. There's of course Eerie, Indiana and also when David Cronenberg repurposed the town in Ontario he shot most of A History of Violence in to Indiana.
If I have to admit one gripe about the show, is that I knew from the get-go there is no such town in Indiana named Hawkins. Not really a gripe but more of a fact of life that if a certain kind of movie or TV show is set in a generic fictional midwestern town or city, it'll be Indiana. There's of course Eerie, Indiana and also when David Cronenberg repurposed the town in Ontario he shot most of A History of Violence in to Indiana.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: Stranger Things
Or AD Miles. Look at that, all of the kid cast is there and Fallon's staff couldn't even do more than beat a dead in both worlds horsedomino harvey wrote:Uh, Goonies-era Martha Plimpton 4 Barb 4 realz