Deviation Actions
Distraction and discouragement are the anti-work ethic. Sadly they are my only true actions of consistency, which is why I have allowed the entire summer to pass with hardly a word.
Not all is dark however, as I have managed to actually write and publish on the Amazon Kindle a short, simple story that no one wants to read let alone hate.
www.amazon.com/Mountain-God-C-…
Such accomplishments befuddle the mind.
So to make up for my failures in fiction writing and Journal writing, I've been gathering my thoughts to write a little about Suicide Squad and the final results of the summer season, unfortunately that shall have to be for the next entry, because after last weekend my mind can't seem to focus, food has lost it's taste, walking down the street I'm startled by the wind and remain wary, my mind is full of Stranger Things than normal. . . .
Okay that's not true my mind has always been strange but I haven't felt this amped in almost two years. As I'm sure you have all figured out by now, I'm all abuzz like everyone else over the latest binge watch phenomenon: Stranger Things.
If you haven't seen the series because you don't have NetFlix, you have my sympathy, if you simply haven't gotten around to it yet just save us all a lot of time and watch it right now, leave this page and come back after you have viewed the entire series, go on I'll wait.
Still here? Need more? Fine, all you need to know about this series is that it is dripping with the spirit of the Eighties, not just in spectacular attention to detail with the sets, props and costuming but also in the very Tropes given new life and strength in this story. If you're a film buff, you will recognize beats and callbacks to many of the best loved films from this decade: E.T., The Thing, The Goonies, Poltergeist, Alien and pretty much everything else. Yet, though none of it could be called original (a useless term anyway) the writing is so good, all of it feels fresh and if not “new” than Renewed.
All you really need to know is a boy riding his bike home on a dark road past a government installation goes missing. What happened to him? His mother, desperate to find him seems to be slipping ever closer to insanity. The Sheriff, burned out and anxious to forget the world, begins discovering darker things in the shadows than he ever imagined. Does the mysterious girl who stumbles into the lives of the boy's three friends have something to do with this or is it the shadowy figure stalking their horny teenage siblings?
Honestly I've already given away too much now, if any of this appeals to you GO WATCH THIS SHOW.
Now that we've got that out of the way
This show is such an amazingly welcome breath of fresh air to our current environment it's staggering. Which seems strange considering how steeped the series is in nostalgia but that's part of the genius of having the story set in the early eighties. Despite the attitude of cynicism, the eighties were very much an optimistic time when the qualities of friendship and courage had regained some of their previous value. All of this of course existed under the shadow of the Cold War, economic recession and spiraling random violence. Despite all of this darkness, people persevered and the decade ended with far more stability, prosperity and hope than anyone could have thought possible.
In today's anxious times such hope is difficult to rekindle. Perhaps nostalgic reminders are a necessary jumpstart.
People forget that the Eighties themselves were very nostalgic, though mostly confining their nostalgia to television with revivals of favorite television series like Perry Mason, The Man from Uncle, The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke etc. As well as the various remakes of old classics including The Thing, Invaders from Mars, The Blob etc.
Even one the most Iconic film series of the decade was a nostalgic return to the roots of old time adventure films: Indiana Jones.
None of this would matter of course if the actors, the cinematographers, the editors, the grips, the electrical engineers and everyone else weren't good and they're not, they are superb.
A shout out has to be given to showrunners The Duffer Brothers and the various directors for their direction of the child actors. Child actors are of course notoriously held as the worst part of many films but unless you're a fanatic hater of all child actors, that criticism can't be leveled here. They manage to avoid the most common mistake and let the kids act and talk like kids or at least the way we remember kids from films like The Monster Squad etc. Even better, the kids are allowed to be human, to even be unlikable at times, rendering them as three-dimensional characters rather than just simple archetypes. This also extends to the actress of the mysterious girl, who has to do a lot of heavy lifting with some very intense, even heartbreaking scenes. If this had been shortened down to a film, they could easily have carried the entire storyline themselves but unfortunately there still have to be adults dragging the pace down....
Yeah right!
While David Harbour (who seems to be in everything these days) as Sheriff Hopper is excellent and Matthew Modine is creepy, the real stunner is Winona Ryder. After a few years where it seemed like she'd vanished, she latched onto our hearts as Spock's mom in the rebooted Star Trek, since then reappearing in films here and there but nothing particularly indelible. . . until now. She absolutely kills it as Joyce Byers, the frantic mother who has to find her boy. Who would've thought that Lydia Deetz would turn out to be the ultimate movie mom?
As for the “Teens” well there is really only one thing to say:
If I had to identify serious flaws in this story, no I couldn't do it, the most I can do is nitpick a couple of little things.
1: Matthew Modine's Dr. Brenner could have used some more dialogue. He didn't need any monologues or anything but just a little bit more to make him a real character as opposed to this vague shadow.
2: Slight Spoiler Warning but I wish the ending could've been a little more integrated together. I wish our three sets of heroes were united into one ending rather than the separate ones we get. I don't know how you would do it but if you could, it would arguably be more elegant.
3: Again a little Spoiler-ish but as much as I loved the kids, at the end they were totally useless to the deadly situation. What was the point of the quest, if the whole party couldn't measure up and slay the Demagorgon together?
Those minor quibbles are really non-factors of course because Stranger Things is the most enjoyable show I've seen since Gurren Lagann and far less likely to send you into a hallucinatory seizure. It will be perfect fodder for Halloween as well as fit right into an Eighties movie marathon, which will have to do until Season Two arrives.
I can't wait!
(Hold on... was that hope in those words? Naw....)
Thank You for Reading, Please Favorite, Watch and Share with members of your Party....
