Stranger Things

Right now I just had some Eggos for my Sunday morning breakfast because I am in serious withdrawal from having completed season 3 of Stranger Things!  Warning: If you have not watched season three yet,  do yourself a favor and stop reading now and just start binging Netflix! This review contains spoilers!

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I know that books are more of my beat but I just have too many thoughts about what I have just seen to not explore this more on my blog! However this would not be the first time that I've dipped my toe into my Stranger Things obsession as I shared my thoughts previously of the book Suspicious Minds which serves prequel to the first season of the hit Netflix show! 

I'm pretty vocal about the books that are influential in my horror obsession but I have to give a huge nod to Stranger Things leading me into this path. I watched season one of this show not long after I started my  Stephen King obsession. It was very clear that Stephen King's work is a strong influence on the show.  There are plenty of articles on the internet that point to King's writing in relationship with Stranger Things. I'm not going to redo some of the work that has already been done, but I can point you in the direction of this article that does into more details about this.

But when I first started watching the show I found myself enamored of how it made me feel like a kid again...and felt like it had a lot of the components that I just love--a young girl with psychic abilities, an unseen world, a group of really smart kids who band together trying to solve a mystery.  It was an innocent story that made me want to dive deeper into components that I really loved that served as an important gateway to me for my interest in horror fiction.

Season Three of Stranger Things lived up to a lot of things that I love about the show. This particular season feels more like a coming of age show. Eleven and Mike are in a romantic relationship and deal with the throws of young love.  One of the lines that made me laugh really hard is when Eleven is talking to Max about her dilemma with Mike's ignoring her and Eleven says, "Friends don't lie," and gets the response, "But boyfriends do."  Or how the hilarity that ensues when Hopper is trying to figure out how to have a talk about boundaries with Mike and Eleven.  The funny part about watching this show at this point in my life is that I remember the talks my parents used to give me about my own boyfriends and many of my peers have kids that are old enough recounting stories like these sooner than later.

And I also love that this particular season takes place in the summer. I mean, who did not secretly wish to be cracking a Russian code while working in an entry level position at a mall ice cream shop? Or felt left out when they were still wanting to play games while everyone else was eager to find love? Who did not want the intrigue of the attractive pool life guard to be possessed by an evil spirit? Or having special power to help save the world?  Or hoping that their new sweetheart knew the math formula that would give them the real life solution to a tricky situation?  Well, even if you can't relate to these kinds of things, I know that these were similar to the kinds of things that I fantasized about as a young teenager. 

This was exactly the type of show that I needed to watch! I have been craving a summer adventure this year. Adventures have to be carefully planned now and I have experienced enough of the world that experiences are not as earth shattering as they were when I was younger. A lot of the major things that I spent my teens and twenties chasing after have been resolved as I am happily married and have a stable office job.  Now that this chase is over, Season 3 of Stranger Things satisfied that craving as it reminded me of the point in my life when the adventures seemed like they were just beginning.  While I do not romanticize the hard ways I learned about growing up,  my real nostalgia is for the sense of possibility and adventure that came a long with it.  

Watching Stranger things on the 4th of July was the perfect escape and adventure as I did not have enough time off from work to go anywhere. The show actually dropped on the 4th of July and Independence day was a backdrop for this particular season of Stranger Things. I love finding shows and books that tie in with holidays and major events as they go on throughout the year.  It is a great way to celebrate...and frankly as I do not have my own kids and I like to go to bed early, the fireworks that went off on the show satisfied my own need to see colors exploding in the sky...while staying in the comforts of my own couch.

Stranger Things is not only a throwback to the painful innocence of youth...it is also a major throwback to the 80s. Some of the kids sneak into the first Back to the Future movie trying to escape the Russian enemies and while I found the singing of the Never Ending Story theme song to take up a questionable length of time it was a really fun piece of nostalgia.  I will never stop laughing at shoulder pads, cutting edge 80s technology and 80s hairdos.  While Stranger Things has such a strong, enjoyable plot I often can't help but wonder if the 80s nostalgia contributes to the popularity of this show!

While I found this whole journey to be quite enjoyable I was critical of the ending.  I cried when Hopper died. Then the very last scene of  of having an American character in a Russian cell that we do not know that much about left a lot of questions as to whether or not Hopper really is dead or not after I was finally going through the motions of coming to terms with the death of the character. Also since there are so many suggestions of this being the end, the ambiguous ending leaves me asking questions that makes me want the show to continue.

Seeing the gang get split up by Joyce Byer's moving her family and taking Eleven with her upset me.  I hated seeing Eleven lose her powers. But as I reflected on the direction that the plot had taken these resolutions held up a lot better  than I wish that it did. Who doesn't feel critical when their summer friends have to say goodbye? Since friends don't lie I must confess that I can't get enough of this show!!