Spoilers Stranger Things - Season 3

[Jayson1]

It is amazing and a little embarassing to think about the slang words we used as kids thinking those words were less wrong than swear words. I didnt use any of those words very much, but I know that I must have on occasion.

It was a good move on the part of the writers to leave a lot of the dated negative elements out. This is meant to be the version of the eighties we know from the movies...kind of how Happy Days treated the 50s. Somewhat idealized.

I just started reading IT for the first time and it really threw me back to just how problematic was. The novel opens with the killing of a gay man and the cops interrogating the killers use pretty awful slang and attitude freely without shame.

I agree it is good for something like Stranger Things. Not so sure about stuff that is mostly for adults and where authenic is important. If this new Sopranos movie example tries to soften the edge it will feel so fake. To me some movies require more realism. For example their is homophobic slur in Teen Wolf that has always bothered me but nothing in Goodfella's that really shocks me. Jason

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Interestingly, this never happens with queer.

I think that may be because queer saw a resurgence in usage which came as gay was falling in disfavor as a pejorative.

 

[Jayson1]

What is bad is you end up just getting new slurs like this maam or wayman I think is how the say it when the old ones go away. Jason

 

[Trekker4747]

Hey, I think calling things "gay" was more a '90s thing, maybe late '80s.

Along this thread,

Over the last couple days I've watched through the first two seasons and I think I can settle on Season 3 being better than 2. Elements in 3 just worked better, it didn't have that one wasted episode, and just having Eleven largely back with the main group was nice, Season 2 was also harmed by Billy pretty much being just there as "annoying antagonist without any determinable purpose." In S3 he's not only an antagonist but the antagonist and there's a point and even something of an arc for him.

In S2 there's also a pejorative use of the "F-Word" for a gay person used by Billy's father towards Billy and his compulsion of starting at himself in the mirror. ("You've been staring at yourself in the mirror all night like a f*t?!" he says.) Granted it's not one of the kids throwing it out there as a general insult at another kid, but it's an insult.

And while they didn't use the stronger pejorative terms the bullies in S1 did imply Will was a "fairy" and such.

But, S3 end up more enjoyable for me. I think the biggest element for me is the mall setting and just so many of the '80s elements in it work for me more as it looks/feels like the 80s I remember as a kid. (Though younger than the kids in the show.) And spending a lot of time in a mall since my dad worked at one, in the RadioShack.

 

[Mojochi]

I was thinking after I finished this season, that I would love to see them pull a Harry Potter kind of thing at the very end, and give us a flashforward to show us what all of the characters are up to today. They should be in their 40s or 50s by now, right?

Cillian Murphy for grown up Mike Wheeler. Topher Grace as grown up Will Byers.

Jason Momoa as grown up Dustin

You know, the more I think about this, I'll go one better & say that if I were the Duffers, I'd be pushing to get a Stranger Things major motion picture cinema franchise... right. now.

And what I mean by that, is that instead of how the show is a period piece set in the 80s, it would be set right now, with flashbacks to the era when they were kids, setting up the events that will be resolved in the movie(s). So you'd cast older versions of the younger cast, & the premise would be that they are still fighting the fight, so many years later, & the twist would be that the upsidedown isn't an alternate dimensional plane at all, but rather the future, a future where they've seen the world ravaged by the Mindflayer… but in context... it's our present day, & that's how the movie would begin. Fade in to a time stamp heading "Present Day", & they are living in the Upsidedown now

You could call the movie Stranger Things Now. However, I'd want them all to be badasses, seeing how they'd have been fighting it all of their lives. So yeah, Dustin would be Jason Momoa. Will could be Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucas could be Idris Elba & Mike could be Adrien Brody. Maybe Kate Beckinsale or Natalie Portman for Eleven or something... & you know take it up a notch! Go big or go home lol

 

[Awesome Possum]

There was a big hoo has about describing things as gay a few years back....gay doctor Who writer RTD had a character say it. (It was popular late nineties, look at Kevin Smith films, but there he labels it as passive aggressive homophobia and a bit of repression even there) Much of the problem with the argument was..well, gay had already changed meaning once (minimum) and was basically changing again. There were sort of..territorial disputes over ownership of the word (if some one gay uses the word gay as a means of describing something crap, what does it even mean anymore?) and it all sort of faded away.
Interestingly, this never happens with queer.
Also interestingly, much earlier, we used to use the word ‘naf’ to mean something was crap, and that came from theatre-speech and Polari, and was basically a gay community slang word meaning ‘straight’ (aka hetero) before crossing into mainstream use to mean crap.
So...to say it all got confusing as heck but is nonetheless interesting if you are interested in words and language is an understatement.
Me? I enjoy being British in international forums, though am back on the vaping so can no longer cause a furore by saying I am going out for a fag and watching heads spin. And the BBC ruined faggots for me as a meal option too.

We are truly two nations separated by one language and a big ocean.

Kevin Smith has talked about regretting that and has tried to make up for it.

 

[jaime]

Kevin Smith has talked about regretting that and has tried to make up for it.

I think he covered it in the films itself to an extent. Besides which...it’s a product of its time. I am not having a go at him for it. It’s more interesting how it didn’t stick. It’s not often you have people fighting to not change words meaning...and winning. This was just after the eighties when bad meant goo and wicked meant very good indeed (at least here) but...i’ll stop. Not everyone likes word history.
Oh oh. Except to say I was utterly shocked when Loki used the word quim in avengers. That was terribly done. Not least because it’s not usually used in an insulting manner, but he was dodging the c word, and then the internet briefly grew a fashion for people calling themselves it because they liked Loki. It was astonishing.

 

[jaime]

What is bad is you end up just getting new slurs like this maam or wayman I think is how the say it when the old ones go away. Jason

O don’t know those...where?

 

[Trekker4747]

You know, the more I think about this, I'll go one better & say that if I were the Duffers, I'd be pushing to get a Stranger Things major motion picture cinema franchise... right. now.

And what I mean by that, is that instead of how the show is a period piece set in the 80s, it would be set right now, with flashbacks to the era when they were kids, setting up the events that will be resolved in the movie(s). So you'd cast older versions of the younger cast, & the premise would be that they are still fighting the fight, so many years later, & the twist would be that the upsidedown isn't an alternate dimensional plane at all, but rather the future, a future where they've seen the world ravaged by the Mindflayer… but in context... it's our present day, & that's how the movie would begin. Fade in to a time stamp heading "Present Day", & they are living in the Upsidedown now

You could call the movie Stranger Things Now. However, I'd want them all to be badasses, seeing how they'd have been fighting it all of their lives. So yeah, Dustin would be Jason Momoa. Will could be Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucas could be Idris Elba & Mike could be Adrien Brody. Maybe Kate Beckinsale or Natalie Portman for Eleven or something... & you know take it up a notch! Go big or go home lol

Uhhh. No.

Further, Adult Justin being played Momoa is kind of absurd. Not because of Momoa's physique but because of well... His... "physique." Dustin has a bone condition that, among other things, means he doesn't have collar bones. (Which is why he can fold his arms in front of him, and could largely fit in the air vent), Momoa has collar bones.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Unlike the tendency to drag every nearly franchise through the sequel/prequel/spin-off dirt until what once made it unique is lost forever, Stranger Things should have a natural end. Put it on the shelf. Leave it alone. Oh, and whatever serves as the series coda, I hope it ends on a positive note for the kids (in other words, no Stand By Me-type ending to depress viewers) that plays into who they are, not refer to some dark and/or wacky future that seems out of left field.

 

[jaime]

Unlike the tendency to drag every nearly franchise through the sequel/prequel/spin-off dirt until what once made it unique is lost forever, Stranger Things should have a natural end. Put it on the shelf. Leave it alone. Oh, and whatever serves as the series coda, I hope it ends on a positive note for the kids (in other words, no Stand By Me-type ending to depress viewers) that plays into who they are, not refer to some dark and/or wacky future that seems out of left field.

I think we are poking at tomorrow years tops, though this year suggests it is moving to location based continuity rather than purely character based.

 

[Jayson1]

O don’t know those...where?

It is just some things I keep hearing or seeing in some of those clickbait youtube channels. I don't think I am spelling them right. The upside is snowflake and npc seems to have faded away. Speaking of this stuff could someone explain the thumbnails with people they hate having laser eyes? I don't get the insult. Jason

 

[FreezeC77]

It's funny watching Stranger Things and when the nostalgia kicks in. This season took place in 1985 and I was 8 so younger than any of the characters on the show... but old enough to remember the era.

Looking at the movies playing at the theater in the 80s during the summer to now and the quality has really degraded. At this time in 1984 you would have had Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Last Starfighter, The Karate Kid, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the Neverending Story as some of the movies playing. Now most theaters then only had limited screens (and my parents probably wouldn't have taken me to a movie until it got to the 'cheap theater' which was about 4-6 months after it came out...

Of course I think the trade-off is that TV is a lot better today so you have options to watch something like Stranger Things during the summer movie 'blockbuster season'.

 

[Trekker4747]

Back to the Future, Fletch, DARYL, Cocoon, The Stuff and Return to Oz. I'd hardly say any of those moves, save one, are shining examples of how much better cinema was in 1985.

 

[jaime]

Back to the Future, Fletch, DARYL, Cocoon, The Stuff and Return to Oz. I'd hardly say any of those moves, save one, are shining examples of how much better cinema was in 1985.

All but one of those have fanbases. Maybe 2, but cocoon is generally well thought of.

 

[Trekker4747]

Cocoon is decent. But has anyone in 30 years ever watched Fletch, The Stuff, RtO or DARYL?

 

[jaime]

Cocoon is decent. But has anyone in 30 years ever watched Fletch, The Stuff, RtO or DARYL?

I have RtO on DVD. Fletch and DARYL were in huge rotation even a decade later, though I never saw Fletch. I have no idea what The Stuff even is.
Let’s not also forget that RtO is where Fairuza Balk pretty much starts her career of playing witches. (Though maybe Worst Witch came first.)

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I think we are poking at tomorrow years tops, though this year suggests it is moving to location based continuity rather than purely character based.

The focus has to be character based, otherwise there's no reason to care. It would be another slimy monster romp with no heart. I would like to see the characters left with no hard ending regarding where they ended up a week/year/decades later (unless its positive--the opposite of a Stand By Me), but that they were able to return to as normal a path as would be expected there. In other words, the kids should not think of revealing anything to the world, and moving on, but not because of (for example) some horrible tragedy that psychologically prevented them from ever looking to their shared past, but due to the group successfully ending the threat forever, so there's nothing fantastic left to stop them from simply growing up.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Back to the Future, Fletch, DARYL, Cocoon, The Stuff and Return to Oz. I'd hardly say any of those moves, save one, are shining examples of how much better cinema was in 1985.

DARYL...awful.

Return to Oz...how on earth would the legendary Walter Murch dare to make a sequel to The Wizard of Oz and think it had a chance at success/similar cultural appeal?

 

[jaime]

The focus has to be character based, otherwise there's no reason to care. It would be another slimy monster romp with no heart. I would like to see the characters left with no hard ending regarding where they ended up a week/year/decades later (unless its positive--the opposite of a Stand By Me), but that they were able to return to as normal a path as would be expected there. In other words, the kids should not think of revealing anything to the world, and moving on, but not because of (for example) some horrible tragedy that psychologically prevented them from ever looking to their shared past, but due to the group successfully ending the threat forever, so there's nothing fantastic left to stop them from simply growing up.

They’ve already moved half of them out. Though I think that’s just a midway ‘next year they get the band back together’ thing. It’s got a finite life anyway, unless they plan to take it into 90s nostalgia.
For arguments sake though, if the characters who are left stay gone, we get a new bunch in, mixed with those that remained...then next year a few more leave...and you slowly cycle through successive casts of characters, keeping it all in Hawkins...that could theoretically keep going.
Kinda like ER.
This year established that Hawkins is important because of its location...gate has been opened só stuff is weaker there. (It’s a hellmouth basically lol)

Personally, I agree...I think it is much more about the characters, and I do not know if I would be enjoying it as much without those. (Steve winning the surprise award for ‘I never expected you to be someone I was interested in watching do stuff when I watched episode 1’ and...the older Byers brother whose name I literally cannot remember winning the ‘I don’t find anything of interest in your character, and you mostly exist as a function of the other characters...I expected to like you more after meeting you the first series’ award. He also wins the ‘I am not sure the writers know what to do with you anymore’ Award.)
It’s interesting watching the very Scooby Gang thing happen again.