Stranger Things - Netflix

Interesting. That was a perfectly good track as a standalone song, but it didn’t really seem like a cover. Maybe I need the 80’s logo forming to get the ‘right’ reaction, cause the theme song in the show itself gave me chills every time.

Da da da da eighties music da da da da eighties music…

*chills*

I treat it just like Dr. Who’s weeping angels. The shadow realm follows the real world exactly, but only when there’s nobody around to observe it. That’s why the monster has no eyes. :)

It’s actually really simple - if you ever played AD&D, it is like the Ethereal Plane - a dimension that is in the same physical space as the “prime material plane” (our own). Most, but not all, items that appear in our plane are also visible in the other plane - so to answer your question, a car in our plane that drove away would also drive away in the other plane.

It does NOT work the other way around - so items in the “ethereal plane” are not visible to residents of our plane. In AD&D, some creatures in our plane are able to see into the ethereal plane (or affect creatures in that plane - for instance, a creature in the ethereal plane that saw a Medusa in our world would also risk turning to stone).

Finally, some things in our world may not appear in the other dimension at all, or appear in altered form. Water in the upside-down seemed to be treated differently in Stranger Things, for instance.

One of the things I loved about Stranger Things was how it clearly depicted AD&D’s Ethereal Plane.

Agreed, although in D&D the “real” Demogorgon is supposed to be in one of the Abyssal planes, one which actually resembles the Ethereal (and The Upsidedown). Which makes me wonder a bit more about topics they may explore and the true nature of what we’ve seen.

Sure, but the Abyssal Planes don’t function like that I thought - they didn’t overlap with our geography and had their own locations -p so it’s more like the Ethereal (or Astral) plane.

I think they’re going to have the creature be an avatar of 11 though (which maybe explains its invulnerability to bullets) which I find disappointing and less interesting than the alternative - a strange dimension with its own ecosystem and lots of monsters, which would have more in common with Stephen King’s the Mist, which would be cool.

Yeah, that does make some sense. I’m hoping for another angle, actually - that something horrible happened to Will which sent Mike over the edge, and this is his mind trying to cope with the horrors of reality by replacing much of it with fantasy. Of course, that would have to be a wrap-up discovery at the end of the series. I’m 99% sure that will never be the case, but I think there’s just enough wiggle room in TV land to do something like that.

So you’re hoping for the Newhart ending.

Pretty much, lol

We finished watching this tonight. We both loved it overall but were disappointed by the last episode in that it left so many things unresolved.

Two episodes into this with my daughter who wanted to watch with me. I’m glad she didn’t watch on her own on the iPad or something, as it would have completely freaked her out (she’s 13). Thankfully it’s easy to tell most times when something really gruesome or creepy is about to happen and I can have her avert her eyes. =) We are both enjoying it.

I like how it evokes nostalgia for both The Goonies and Stephen King. It’s a nice mix of the two, and since I grew up in the 80’s (was 13 myself in 1983 when the show is set) I can relate to a lot of the background images, music and scenery. One thing that stands out is that in the early 80’s pretty much everyone I knew had at least one parent who still smoked, and this show is full of smokers everywhere. Nowadays when I talk about our childhood with people my own age we always seem to land on that topic, and how godawful everyone and everything must have smelled in the 70’s and 80’s. Watching the show I can almost smell the smoke through the screen, as if I’m back in my mom’s house in 1983 again.

We watched episode 3 last night, and wow did it ramp up in a hurry this episode! Loved the mom’s use of the lights to communicate with Will and how the footage the government guys showed the sheriff had the exact opposite effect they intended because he’s not nearly as dumb as they think he is. Best of all, the kids were each fantastic in this episode, both in the younger Goonies group and the teenagers group. Powerful ending to this episode too.

First glimpse of what appears to be an alternate universe too, which is really creepy. Guess the sister’s friend is monster chow, but obviously the torn up body they pulled out of the quarry is not Will if he’s still communicating with his mom. I’m guessing the government guys put the body there so the sheriff would close the case and cease investigating.

Powered through the final two episodes with my kids last night. WOW! We loved it.

Lots of unanswered questions that I wonder if Season Two will even touch on. Spoiler tagging so as to not ruin anything for anyone skimming the thread:

[spoiler]1) So the government guys show up and ask the sheriff to come have a chat, then later he’s back at the police station. Is he now working with the government? The building is still there (I thought for sure they would blow it up and trap the sheriff and Joyce in the upside down), so the gate is too. Maybe the sheriff struck a deal to be in charge of local security in exchange for them running a tighter ship and not recklessly endangering the town anymore?

  1. The sheriff also leaves food in the drop box, including Egos. Doe she know Eleven is alive, or just wishful thinking? The images of his daughter’s passing when he was rescuing Will were pretty powerful, so maybe he’s projecting some of that onto Eleven? Or maybe he knows something the government guys told him?

  2. Is what Will experienced at the end real, or in his head? Why would the creature have eaten all the other people it dragged into the upside down, but then saved Will for it’s weird Aliens-style hatchery? If what Will coughed up WAS real, then it sets the stage for the upside down to come to our reality next season. Could be pretty cool stuff. They could even spin it so that Will experience in the upside down gives him some Eleven-like powers, maybe the ability to shift between planes and effect things in the upside down? [/spoiler]

  1. Yes he is, as part of the agreement he made.

  2. Clearly they have developed a way to transport things to the ethereal plane using the drop box, and clearly the selected drop indicates the fate of the character you reference.

  3. Think it’s real, and that he was altered by his experience and/or the parasite. What his ultimate fate would have been in the other plane isn’t clear since he didn’t remain, but presumably being eaten after being in a larder was a strong possibility, given the bones in the same area. On the other hand, if the creature was an avatar of sorts of Eleven or her unconsciousness, maybe it was attempting to transform/evolve him too.

Official newscast:

Oh, ho! Paul Reiser and Sean Astin have been added to the cast for season 2!

Alt Shift X takes advantage of the Game of Thrones downtime to take a look at other things, delivering a synopsis of Stranger Things season 1 and doing some speculation on unanswered questions and season 2.