80s adventures weren’t on bikes in suburbia. They were late nights in punk clubs of NYC’s East Village. CBGB’s followed by breakfast at 4am at Kiev or Odessa restaurants. It was seeing U2 at a small venue before they hit it big in the US and walking past Keith Haring graffiti on sidewalks not in museums. The movies that bring me back are films like Desperately Seeking Susan and After Hours. Malls were not a thing. Neither was Dungeons & Dragons. Or, LOL, basements. Instead of basements, it was NYC apartments with bathtubs in the living room (I don’t miss that part. My tub is in the bathroom now.) It was that time of living on my own for the first time, a little older than the teens in ST.
I didn't start it until season two had been released. For me, it lived up to the hype from exactly what it is. A nostalgic, exciting, fun, edge-of-your-seat sci-fi show. I was born in the 70s and grew up in the 80's so the clothes, hairstyles, cars and the mall stores take me back to my childhood. JW, Orange Julias, Sam Goody, etc.
I remember stirrup pants and big hair but also Mohawk haircuts and safety pins in black torn clothes.
No one is going to win an acting award here and no one is trying to. For me, the show is a mashup of The Goonies, Stand By Me, and Gremlins. Three movies I absolutely love. Dustin and Erica are my favorite of the kids. But I like everyone.
I actually never saw Goonies or Gremlins. I did see Stand By Me and liked it. I definitely relate to the pack of good friends. I also saw ET and some of the John Hughes movies, which the teens like Nancy, Jonathan and Steve remind me of. But I don’t have any particular love or emotional attachment to any of these movies.
Thank you for helping me figure out why I’m just not into Stranger Things the way a lot of people seem to be. I don’t hate it . But I don’t love it either. It feels a little like The X Files for kids. I loved the X Files. I’ll probably keep watching ST but slowly. I do hope S2-5 are better than S1 though.
