In the first few minutes of Stranger Things’ third season, not much seems to have changed. In a familiar-looking underground lab, scientists and soldiers steeped in a familiar frisson of stress and sweat blast an elaborate beam into a familiar portal, one that opens to a Cronenbergian world beyond our own.
But those scientists and soldiers aren’t a new crew at Hawkins National Lab, operating secretly under the U.S. Department Of Energy. This distant lab, buried in the bedrock of a bleak mountain range, is the U.S.S.R. counterpart to Hawkins. These experiments are taking place in June of 1984, months before the events of season two. And in this lab, promotions follow the style of the Vader administration: As his henchman chokes the senior researcher Vader-style, Comrade-General croaks out, “You have one year” to the unhappy successor.
Cut to one year later in Hawkins, Indiana. “Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy” don’t pack a lot of action, but the episode doesn’t miss a step as its actors swagger through the summer of 1985. That’s a tough feat for show with so many young and growing (physically and professionally) stars. These child actors are growing into lanky little near-adults, their faces glowing with potential. The styles of the ’80s enhance their vulnerability, with baggy shorts exaggerating their limbs while their heads float above slouchy necklines and the bulk of their huge backpacks.
If El, Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Max were a stew of burgeoning hormones, daring outbursts, and awkward pauses before, now they’re swimming in a perfume of possibilities and just a hint of swagger. Together, El (now legally Jane Hopper) and Mike have the familiar selfish ease of first love, giggling and whispering secrets. Lucas and Max, with their clichéd bickering, are just as stereotypical a teenage couple. Returning from science camp, Dustin is overflowing with news about his girlfriend Suzie, and ready to reclaim his position as “Gold Leader, returning to base.”
Of all these friends, these children who walked through hell together, only Will still feels its horrors hovering over them, prickling at the back of his neck. Noah Schnapp’s performance is characteristically quiet and understated, letting Will’s big, haunted eyes convey his concern, and most of all, his lack of certainty. Will is afraid, but he doesn’t know of what.
Mike has more than certainty, more than confidence. Mike does more than swagger. Mike barges. This once hesitant boy now shoves his way down crowded escalators, pushes through crowds, delights in insulting Jane’s adoptive father, blows off his friends or keeps them waiting, and appeals to the worst instincts of his (incredibly powerful telekinetic) girlfriend. Mike Wheeler has become, in Jim Hopper’s words, a “smug son-of-a-bitch.” Finn Wolfhard eats up the role in big chomping bites, swinging his arms and singing his words with the unassailable confidence of a teenager on top of the world.
All the familiar beats of the episode—the on-the-nose musical cues, the mixed nostalgia and disbelief of the period styling and setting, and especially the character consistency, even as they grow and change—don’t mean this season is predictable, for us or for its characters. “Suzie, Do You Copy” is about the familiar, and it is not. Like a walk through the Upside Down, this episode is where the familiar becomes strange. It’s the cheerful neon of the mall fizzling out as the whole town goes dark. It’s a old steel plant on the edge of town hulking in the dark, drawing masses of rats to it for reasons unknown. (In Hawkins, Indiana, when something is truly unknown, that’s really saying something.)
But “Suzie, Do You Copy” is also about the inevitability of change. It’s about the necessary losses that accompany our gains, and how hard it is to move on, even when change is welcome. “Just a little more time is all we’re askin’ for,” wails Corey Hart as El and Mike kiss, and kiss, and kiss. Joyce can’t go out with Hopper; she doesn’t have time, or maybe she means she needs more time. Will watches his friends moving on to other interests, and he just wants more time with them, more time to play D&D, more time being the way they used to be. Most ominous of all is the Russian researcher pleading, “We just need more time—” before time is choked out of him forever.
It’s Dustin who shows how delicate the balance is between certainty and doubt, and how just a little more time can make a big difference. Before he’s even home from his month at Camp Know Where, Dustin’s already sending out a transmission for his crew: “This is Gold Leader returning to base!” When his mother gently suggests “maybe they just… forgot,” the look that creeps over Gaten Matarazzo’s face is one of pure loss.
He hasn’t lost his friends, not for sure. But after a month away, he’s lost his certainty in them. Maybe his friends, lifelong friends and new ones, maybe they haven’t been waiting on the other end of a walkie-talkie for his return. Maybe they won’t be there for him. Maybe they haven’t even missed him. Maybe they just… forgot.
They didn’t! Sure, they have their problems, together and apart, but these kids are flourishing.
The rest of Hawkins isn’t. The once-busy downtown is abandoned, its business and bustle drained off by the new Starcourt Mall. The adults of Hawkins look as rough as downtown. Hopper sits, sweaty in the sickly glow of Magnum, P.I., shoveling down tortilla chips as he broods over his daughter (HIS DAUGHTER!) and her boyfriend (HER BOYFRIEND!). Joyce Byers, still working at Melvald’s General Store, still waking up two sons for breakfast every day, speaks the soothing language of self-help books. But in her clothing and her expression, she’s as ragged as ever, and as alert to the possibility of disaster.
In the aftermath of a big victory, it can be easier for the young—with a presumption of long life and growing abilities ahead of them—to swagger. Both Joyce and Hopper feel their losses (and their responsibilities) more keenly. Joyce lost Bob Newby, Superhero, and it hit her hard. But she’s also lost her certainty in the world, her understanding of what the world is. Joyce has lost what swagger she had, and what remains of Hopper’s has curdled into cruel jokes. (“Maybe I’ll just kill Mike. I’m the chief of police. I can cover it up,” he says cheerfully to the mother of a boy whose disappearance was covered up.)
But swagger alone is meaningless, even dangerous. Billy Hargrove is all swagger, whether he’s strutting to his lifeguard stand with all the suburban moms’ eyes on him or yelling insults at a helpless kid. It’s swagger, not confidence, that makes Billy lash out at a noise in the night after crashing his car. And it’s swagger that gets him swept into the dark by a creature he can’t imagine.
Stray observations
- SCOOPS AHOY, STEVE!
- There is nothing to say about Bruce (Jake Busey). His character is exactly as obnoxious and unreflective as his counterpart in any 1985 B comedy.
- Joyce isn’t the only one remembering Bob Newby, at least unconsciously. On Hopper’s TV, Magnum mutters “forget the dogs, work the locks,” and that’s the moment Hopper starts seeking a distraction.
- The opening scene of Day Of The Dead scarred me when I was right around the same age as these kids, and I didn’t have to sneak in through the back corridors of Starcourt Mall, so reminiscent of the underground compound’s cinder-block walls.
- It looks like two underserved actors are getting their due this season: We’ve already seen more from Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson) and Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) than in the rest of the series to date.
- I’ve prepared for the season by watching selection of 1985 releases—including Day Of The Dead, the queer-subtext goldmines Fright Night and Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Return To Oz, and, yes, Fletch. But Stranger Things’ reference bank has always been broader than any one year or genre, so stay alert for other homages, and I will, too.
- Thanks for joining me for Stranger Things 3! I’ll publish reviews for episodes one through four from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the hour on July 4th, and the remaining four from 9:00 to noon on the 5th. As always, I’ll review each episode before moving on to the next; please be considerate of your fellow readers by not posting spoilers from future episodes in the comments of each review. Friends don’t spoil.
211 Comments
Swagger, for what it’s worth, also gets Mike locked in a police car with an ice-cold livid Hopper who, he is reminded, has control over whether he gets to see his girlfriend and whose last button he made the mistake of pushing. See what happens when you get cocky with your girlfriend’s dad?
Didn’t he call Hopper a piece of shit? I was shocked by that, and shocked Hopper didn’t immediately drag him by the collar to wash his mouth out with soap.
No love lost between them with a one year admission of El being around
I don’t think Hop cares about the language, it was all about being disrespected. Hopper wasn’t right in lying to get him out of the house, but Mike was being an asshole and they needed to have that conversation. Hopper took it a bit too far, hence Mike lying to El.
Hopper tricked him into thinking something bad had happened to his grandmother, which honestly is kind of a piece-of-shit move. Mike was disrespectful as hell, but he wasn’t wrong.
I thought Mike was being a huge dick this first episode. However, Hopper did basically tell him his grandmother was dying, or, at least, hurting. Mike can be a dick, and Hopper can pull a lying piece of shit move. Both things can be true!
Pretty sure he called him that for hiding Eleven as well. Maybe he started to think he could get away with it in all circumstances.
It’s true, but he shouldn’t say it.
To paraphrase the Geico commercial: Teenagers, it’s what they do.
teens call their father-in-law “pos”?
To paraphrase the Geico commercial: Teenagers, it’s what they do.
Ccondoning disrespectful behavior based on an age? I hope not. No, it’s not what teenagers do unless they have permissive parents who don’t do their job.
But does Hopper really have control over whether he sees his girlfriend? I was given a similar macho “talking to” by my girlfriend’s dad 40 years ago and what it led to was me climbing in her window every night. It only fired our determination. Teenage lust is like water, it will find a way. And realistically, looking at the long term, does he truly think that El will never find out that he bullied Mike (the boy she loves) into lying to her (the girl he loves)? When she inevitably does, he runs a real risk of losing her trust and affection permanently. It’s played for sitcom fun in the show, but when things like this happen in real life families, they create rifts that last for years, and it’s not the bullying parents who come out smiling (much worse if the kids were able to snap a person’s neck with a twitch of their head!). I think for us it’s meant to be another indicator of what a self-deluded drunken loser poor Hopper has become. His own romantic life consists of pursuing a woman who clearly doesn’t want him, he’s a drunk, he’s lost touch with the community he’s supposed to serve, and now he’s done the thing most likely to alienate the person who means the most to him. I see where you called his “zen fury” a “thing of beauty.” I guess that’s gonna have to be in the eye of the beholder.
I don’t know how much of this applied to your situation forty years ago, but Hopper’s the town police chief, he lives with his daughter in a three(?) room shack in the middle of nowhere which doesn’t exactly have a lot of space to conceal people in and which is easy for someone who knows what they’re doing to set traps up designed to let them know if someone is approaching the house, and Mike’s obnoxiousness has given Hopper plenty of reason to want to make his life difficult. So while Hopper might not exactly ‘control’ the situation, he’s definitely got a lot of influence in how it progresses, and if Mike’s ambitions involve wanting to continue to make out with his girlfriend, he’s just made fulfilling them a lot harder than they have to be rather than easier. And seriously, if you were dumb enough to call your girlfriend’s dad “a piece of shit” to his face, you probably had that talking to coming as much as Mike did. And you’d have deserved it as well. Hopper might not be in the best place in this series, but that doesn’t make him entirely wrong in this situation either. A little basic respect goes a long way, dude.
Also, FWIW, yeah, I found Hopper’s response in that scene funny. Because teenage love or not, Mike was looking to be taken down a peg or two in this episode, and it’s just a TV show, not a real familial relationship. If that makes me a bad person, so be it.
I think maybe you’re getting things out of order. Mike didn’t say anything disrespectful to Hopper until after he had lied to him about his grandmother being sick and locked him in the cab of his truck. The kid was in a state of panic. Up to that point, it had all been playful, with kissing (nothing else), and El being the one breaking the only rule (closing the door, behind which they were still only kissing). Yes, making out constantly in view of the parents or other people in general is something to talk about. Like, “all right, I get that you guys are in love and you wanna to do that all the time, but I have to have you leave the door open, because I was a teenager once, and a cop besides, and I know how easy it is for that to lead into heavier stuff that I know you’re not ready for. And making out is something that you cool it with when someone’s in view. You can cuddle (maybe that part is optional), but the constant face suckin’ is gross.” Frame it as bad manners, which it is. You don’t lie to the boy about his relative being ill, kidnap him, then threaten him in whatever way to force him to lie, thereby messing with your already emotionally fragile daughter. That is not “zen fury,” it’s ill-considered alcoholic rage. The bit with “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” was funny and sad to me because it showed how deluded he was. I (ahem) suspect that they have Hopper on a path of alienating people in general. But I like the character and hope the writers give him some redemption.
Perhaps, but I think you might be leaving some things out to fit your preconceptions as well:Like, “all right, I get that you guys are in love and you wanna to do that all the time, but I have to have you leave the door open, because I was a teenager once, and a cop besides, and I know how easy it is for that to lead into heavier stuff that I know you’re not ready for. And making out is something that you cool it with when someone’s in view. You can cuddle (maybe that part is optional), but the constant face suckin’ is gross.” Thing is, though, Hopper genuinely tries that approach. It takes a lot of building up for him, and it’s clearly hard for him, and he’s not very good at it, but he’s still making an honest effort to do it. He’s clearly trying to take on board Joyce’s advice about talking to the kids on their level. I mean, he’s completely shit at it, but considering he’s a man’s man in the early 1980s the fact that he’s making an effort is worthy of mention, at least.
It’s only when Mike starts getting obnoxious and smug about his obvious awkwardness and starts undermining him in front of Eleven that Hopper makes up the story about Mike’s grandmother, and only after Mike calls him a piece of shit that he gets genuinely furious. He only pulls out the grandmother story to get Mike alone so they can have a private conversation, and things kind of spiral from there. Did he handle the situation as well as he could? No, clearly not. That’s partly what I found funny about it. But it’s not quite the “Hopper the violent abusive drunk who’s entirely in the wrong and we’re supposed to condemn” that you’re painting it as either. And also, dude, do you have to keep throwing that comment about ‘zen anger’ I said in a different thread in my face like I’m campaigning for legalised child abuse or something? I mean, I found the scene funny and I stand by that, but that comment was a hyperbolic and humorously-intended bit of off-the-cuff internet commentary commenting on how I found Hopper’s calm fury in that moment amusingly played, it wasn’t intended as an endorsement of anger management problems or anything. Slightly flippant and insensitive, perhaps, I’ll hold my hands up there, but the way you seem to have latched onto that single comment and keep bringing it up in an entirely different conversation feels kind of weird.
Aw, Scotty, as you said, it’s a friggin’ TV show, and we’re just fans interpreting characters’ actions from differing viewpoints. I’m sorry for bringing up the zen anger thing so much. We should be having fun here. I’ll just say that both characters acted badly, but Hopper is the adult, the chief of police for heaven’s sake, supposedly someone with good judgement, and as such, I thought countering bad behavior with worse behavior was very wrong. Anyway, fanboy time. My take on this thing is the writers intend for this to be part of a downhill slide arc for Hopper. He’s going to keep alienating people, the booze is going to get worse until he bottoms out. If we look at his life, he has no friends except for a woman he wants to be romantic with who doesn’t want him in the same way. He rescued El from imprisonment at the Lab, but in a way, imprisoned her again and is still sort of doing it. Part of why it bothered me is that I’ve always been rooting for the character and hope the writers give him redemption, but I think things are going to continue to get worse for him before they get better.
One thing that bugged me about that scene, to get power door locks on a Chevy Blazer in the early ‘80s, you had to get the Silverado “luxury” trim package (cloth seats instead of vinyl, carpet instead of rubber mat, a bit more chrome – think well-optioned Chevette but bigger, not modern luxury SUV) *and then* option the power package in addition. It’s not something a municipal-fleet-spec truck would’ve had.
I wasn’t quite prepared for chubby, crazy dad Hopper. they really never stop finding ways to push the limit of Harbour’s natural charisma, and I love it
His not-quite Tom Selleck moustache was just the perfect touch.
And the Hawaiian-ish shirt.
And top siders with no socks!
I personally didn’t think he was that chubby or that crazy, but maybe that’s just me.
And me.
I was somewhat ok with Season 2 controlling Hopper because it came from a place of clear and obvious fear and concern. He was doing the wrong thing but with the right motivations. Season 3 asshole Hopper on the other hand was overplayed and that really disappointed me. The interaction with Mike I can understand, to a limited extent, but it also carried over to Joyce in a very gross way.
Yeah, it was like they reset Hopper back to 80’s stupid. Which may have been a directorial choice, idk.
Since the Duffers directed this episode, it would be weird as a “directorial choice.”
It could be if, as showrunners, they decided for whatever reason that they needed Hopper to “lighten up” or be more 80’s sitcom-y. Or if they felt, since the back half of the series is dark (I mean all the series’ get dark, but this one tops those, imho) … that episode 1 needed to be extra jokey. It’s been a while since I watched s1 & s2, but Hopper progressed – he had marked progression… until S3, where he comes off as a doofus for stretches. Maybe I’m wrong and if his “boing-oing” comic relief was always there, then I stand corrected. This show is good enough that I’ll probably do a rewatch some day and if I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Hopper still snaps into focus when the mystery is in high gear, but Hopper and Joyce & “Hopper P.I.” is hit & miss.
It’s all toxic masculinity/cop bullshit and I hope he gets his comeuppance
This show is a cartoon, you do realize that?
Cosign.
Devil’s advocate read on this – I took it as him regressing because he’s in parenting territory that’s not just tough as it normally is for a parent, but it’s especially fraught because he’s doing it alone. He doesn’t have a mother figure for El/Jane to field this type of issue. He’s probably remembering his own hormonal teenage experience, hence the extra emphasis on Mike being the bad influence. He clearly has no idea how to talk to her about sex. so he leans heavily on Joyce’s opinion – to the point he tried to get her to talk to them instead.
To anyone else who went “Meh” watching this first episode, I just want to say that it gets MUCH better from the next episode onwards. It was tedious just watching them climb up that hill to talk to Suzie, I was ready to bail on them at around the same time El and the boyfriend were.I did find the scenes with Cara Buono and the other pool moms entertaining (though just looking at that pool made me itch). I was initially confused when they said “she’s coming down in 10” and theynstarted adjusting their poses – can all the pool moms be hot for the female life guard? Should have known it was all for Rob Blowe (is he wearing makeup and lipstick or is he just that purty?).I freaked out when Will cycled down that hill alone. After all the drama of seasons 1 and 2, how is that boy ever allowed to be out of anyone’s sight??
The first half of episode one, every character felt like they had been hit with a stupid-stick. But you’re right – it does get better.
Well, most of them are teenagers; getting hit with a stupid-stick is pretty much lock-step with puberty.
I liked the first episode more than it sounds you did. I thought they did a great job establishing that the kids are now young teenagers with a different set of concerns like making out, having boyfriends/girlfriends., being seen as cool etc. and also setting up the mall as a new primary setting for action.
I was a little suprised they didn’t show Joy at all react to Will not being their when she got home – I guess they covered that a bit in the last season. I supposed parents were a little more used to not knowing where their kids were in the pre mobile phone ages but yeah, I was totally expecting a mild freak out on her part
I reacted exactly the same to everything your said, lol
One great touch is how the ladies ogling Billy is scored with the same song as the notorious topless scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, where the legend goes numerous rental places had the tape break due to how much people rewound and watched that specific scene (though I have to imagine the hard cuts back to Judge Reinhold jerking off would have killed the mood just a bit). The reference is there if you get it, but not shoved in your face so you feel like you’re missing something if you don’t.
Which is also reinforced by the several references to Phoebe Cates in the rest of the episode. I suspect the Duffer brothers may have gotten an early DVD copy.
Ugh how the Duffer brothers couldn’t get Phoebe Cates to play one of the moms just even for a cameo. She maybe too old now? But still! to see her in that pool scene would have been priceless!
I think she’s retired, not sure she’d want to wear a bathing suit in her first scene after 20+ years off screen. Maybe a Bob’s Burgers voice role would be a more comfortable welcome back—Kevin’s Mr. Fischoder.
Bonus: In real life Phoebe Cates is married to Kevin Kline – which is the mayor’s last name.
That is a very, very good catch.
Yeah, Phoebe Cates could have been in that 5 second scene as Mrs Kline, the Mayor’s wife, when she comes home to see him all roughed up post-Hopper!(Phoebe Cates and Cary Elwes as a couple – 80s worlds colliding!)By the way, they missed a trick by not drafting in Cary Elwes into the last Kevin-Spacey-less season of House of Cards as Claire Underwood’s new love interest. Not gonna lie, I’d totally watch just for the scenes between those two on screen, and to see if at some point he says to Claire “As you wish”.
The name of the Mayor is Larry Kline, which is also an amalgam of “Larry”, the name of the obnoxious upstairs neighbor on Three’s Company, and the name of the actor who played him, Richard Kline.
I dunno, in that scene I just assumed it had to be the Fast Times music (without recognition) because it’s this show, they never pass up a reference and the scene definitely had that “do you get what I’m going for” look in it’s eyes (although as CogentComment pointed out the repeated mentions of Phoebe Cates probably already had the idea in mind)
Eh, maybe I like my shout-outs more subtle than this. I like the gender flip, but it seemed kind of obvious. (Of course it might matter that FTRH was set one suburb over from my own in San Diego, so it’s kind of my back yard. I also probably wore out one of those VHS tapes…)
The reference is there if you get it, but not shoved in your face so you feel like you’re missing something if you don’t.
I absolutely disagree. This reference is definitely shoved right in your face with none of the usual subtlety I was surprised at the ham-fisted nature of it.
How could it be shoved in your face if you don’t know the reference? It’s just a song playing in the background during a scene. If you don’t know it’s the same song from Fast Times then… it’s just a song.
Not all of us have seen the film, sir.
I should have read down further. Made the exact same point and also used the phrase “ham-fisted”!
The reference isn’t shoved in your face?! My problem with everything I’ve seen in the first three episodes of this season is that EVERY reference point is shoved right smack in your face. These aren’t subtle homages to things we knew from the 80s. This is ham-fisted “remember this?!” [elbow elbow wink wink]
I loved how they turned that scene around. The first episode seemed to be a lot of Fast Times call backs.
I’m really over the dad policing his daughter’s sexuality narrative. It’s gross and always has been.
So…parents in these things should just trust their teens to govern themselves when it comes to sexual involvement? Should they also be hands off when their high-school-aged kids start having kids?
Believe it or not that’s actually sort of how it’s done in other countries, just not the puritanical USA
I would expect it to be less of an issue in places where personal responsibility is a thing that minors are expected to understand.
While I’d generally agree with you on the trope being overused, it’s framed far better than you imply here. This ends up being a lot more about Mike having developed into a genuine teenage asshole to Hopper than said policing.Mike’s obnoxiously disrespectful backtalk when Hopper is trying to have a discussion with them and the subsequent lure into the truck for a slightly more private chat is one of the highlights of the episode.
Hopper’s wide-eyed, borderline zen fury in that scene is a thing of beauty. As is Mike’s equally wide-eyed “oh shit I’ve made a terrible terrible mistake and deeply regret my life choices” look of fear when he finally realises he’s pushed Hopper’s button once too often.
Yeah it is like he forgot 1) all the things Hopper is capable of 2) all the things Hopper has done for him and Eleven 3) That Hopper is a grown man and his GF’s dad.
Also, to an extent he’s still a bit getting used to being a parent – not sure how much time has passed since El moved in but it’s still got to be a bit “thrown in the deep end” – especially as a single parent(And yeah obvious he did have a child before, although I only remembered that half way through my comment)Also, also. Hopper isn’t supposed to be a paradigm of goodness / what is right. The character has always been presented as having a good heart but also kinda a bit of a punch first think later so of person. I don’t think the way Harbour portrayed his demeanor was supposed to suggest the character was rationally presenting the best way forward…
Still works though, since his daughter appears to have passed away at a young “Daddy’s little princess” age, whereas Hopper has found himself not just thrust into the deep end of parenting, but of parenting a moody early adolescent with hormones practically stampeding across the horizon.
Did you mean to send that to me? I was supporting Hopper.
Oh I was agreeing with you and adding to your list, sorry if that wasn’t clear!I spose given Kinja I should have responded to OP so they get notified to my argument, I always tend to use this more like a conversation (responding to the point where I’m interjecting assuming the group will hear) rather than message board debate 😛
Oh I gotcha. My bad. I enjoyed what you had to say. My mind is just fried after binging the whole damn show. all night. It really is that good/addictive.
I think we also need to keep in mind a few things about Hopper. First, he he’s dealing with the INCONCEIVABLY HORRIFIC TRAUMA of his daughter. He’s gone through the worst emotional damage any parent could experience and that’s going to affect every relationship that he has, every interaction he has. Now, he suddenly becomes dad to a deeply strange girl, nearly feral at first, who also happens to be a goddamn superhero. And now, suddenly, that little force of nature is in deep with a boy, and the two of them are acting like little assholes. Sure, teenagers do that. First love makes people assholes. But it’s easy for adults to forget that.The thing is, he likes Mike. Mike’s OK. But Mike is being obnoxious. Mike went too far because he’s a teenage asshole right now.Hopper is acting out of a crazy mixture of emotions, and as a cop is also worried about people being safe. Intense teenage relationships result in intense teenage anger and sadness, and he’s dealing with a girl who can throw people through walls with her mind. Someone’s gonna get hurt.Yes, he didn’t handle things the right way. Dude’s trying, but he’s out of his comfort zone right now.
He has, but I’m willing to attribute that to Teenage Hormonal Shitheadedness Syndrome.
Yeah I gotcha, but Mike has kind of gone above and beyond that syndrome. His dickishness over the past few seasons is making early Steve look like season 2 Steve by comparison.
I couldn’t disagree more. I think Hopper, who was already getting kind of sour in season 2, has become thoroughly unpleasant, just a downer every moment he’s on the screen. I can understand his discomfort with El’s burgeoning sexuality but through this episode (SPOILER ALERT FOR VAGUE DESCRIPTION OF A MOOD IN A FUTURE EPISODE) and even moreso the next he just seems to angry and almost unhinged. Coupled with the fact that he is actually a cop just makes the character very unsympathetic and not fun to be around for me
I would feel this way if Mike Wheeler wasn’t acting like a smug little shit
He’s 13 (or whatever)! That’s how teenagers act! It’s just bizarre because it seems like Hopper has completely forgotten about all the things he’s been through with Mike and just sees him as some predatory creep when he knows he’s a good kid
“That’s how teenagers act!”Yea, and teenagers suck.
I’m not saying that Hopper is the paragon of great parenting but Mike was just pushing buttons. When he started whispering into El’s ear while Hopper was trying to do the big talk…that was irritating. Maybe I’m just wearing my dad hat on this one. I was actually a bit more disturbed when Hopper just got plastered at dinner. I’m sure all this will get resolved down the road (only two episodes in).
Thanks for this perspective. White audiences are so comfortable with the convention that “small town cop” is always basically a good guy, if a little limited. It’s important to question that.
For example “joking” about how he can make someone “disappear” and probably get away with it isn’t very funny considering there are tons of cases where cops actually do stuff like that
I am baffled to read these comments and see how many people are defending Hopper here. I was borderline horrified by him in this episode.
Absolutely. I grew to strongly dislike Hopper over the course of season 2, and it seems he’s only getting worse this season.The troubling thing is that the Duffer brothers don’t seem to realize they’re writing a controlling father figure who covers for his abuse by framing it as care & concern.My hot take: what happened to Hopper’s bio daughter is sad, but he’s shown that he had no business being a father in the first place.
Hopper is an imperfect person whose character arc makes sense. From the beginning, he has been a punch first kind of guy. I do not like that the thoughtfulness of his character (putting things together about Hawkins) seems to have dropped out. This character, however, has now gone through some horrifying things – twice – and this has only amplified the worst parts of his personality. He knows he is controlling, but cannot seem to change. It is not good, it is not evil, but it is real. I don’t feel sympathy for him, but rather pity. Joyce, by comparison, has always had a grit to her, a centeredness and perserverence – and both of these get amplified as well. And teenagers – who wasn’t a bit of a pain in the ass as a teen. It is par for the course, and yep, Hopper is far less equipped for it than Joyce. SHE should have adopted Jane.
Yeah, the line Hop has about Mike disrespecting him is spot on; Mike was being a little shit.
I agree the trope is overused, but this hasn’t taken it to a bad point yet. We’ve only seen how Hop reacts to one guy dating his daughter; it’s a bad point when he’s meeting every potential boyfriend with a shotgun in hand. First-time dad (of a teenage girl, Hop’s deceased daughter wasn’t at that age I don’t believe) is absolutely bound to make mistakes like this.
It’s about 50/50. Mike is being a dick, but Hopper’s ridiculously overbearing.
Yeah, there are a few different things at play here. One is that this isn’t Nancy and Jonathan here…they’re supposed to be, what, 13 at this point? It’s not like his rule is no physical contact whatsoever; it’s “leave the door open a crack when you’re making out on El’s bed.” Seems pretty progressive, actually.Plus, the show quickly establishes that Mike is being incredibly disrespectful to Hopper, and that (plus the fact that he’s been at the cabin every day) is much more the catalyst for Hopper’s frustration than the fact that his adopted daughter is dating.
They’re like 13…. c’mon.
14, I think. They’ve just finished 8th grade, unless I’m mistaken.
Not a parent, huh?
I have three daughters and my first thought when reading the OP was…are you fucking kidding? Followed by clearly he has no daughters.
Or sons, for that matter… “Governing” your kids sexuality means something vastly different to me than what is going on here. This isn’t a Carrie White situation or something.
That’s a very appropriate reference! Given all the Stephen King influences going on in the show.
It’s also fitting with the genre of the series. Dads and moms did that then, they still do that now. Plus, remember that Hopper’s a cop with an adopted (13yo?) daughter of whom he is highly protective.Also, think of how long this has actually been going on between them. We’re coming into this well after they began dating, so my guess is that he’s been actively suppressing any discomfort up until this point.
tbf, they’ve apparently been together all day every day for like 6 months, which is pretty excessive.
TBF Hopper genuinely makes an effort here. He’s not comfortable with the situation, but he honestly tries to meet them at their level and be open and understanding while still expressing his discomfort with the situation. It’s Mike who’s being more of a dick in that situation.
I’m genuinely upset with the Mike/Hopper situation. I don’t want Mike turning into a dick. Or feuding with Hopper.I’ve only finished the first episode, so who knows how this progresses, but still…a troubling development. NO SPOILERS PLEASE.
TBF, Hopper has a lot of trouble communicating.
dude they are, what, 14 years old? And this is 1985.
To me it was less of “they’re making out” and more like “they’re doing it all the time and being obnoxious about it” and also Mike was being a smug, disrespectful little jerk.
im tired of virtue signalling non contributing zeroes.
neither are ever going to go away. it wasnt just eleven he was trying to stop. maybe watch the show sometime.
And I’m tired of trendy ad hominem silencing terms like “virtue signalling” and “mansplaining” and all that crap. To paraphrase, can’t we all just disagree civilly? LegoKinjago contributed by sparking a heck of a lot of discussion on here. The conflict of young lovebirds being separated by the disapproval of family members goes back at least as far as Romeo and Juliet (about the same ages as Mike and El), who in their story, both wound up dead.
And of course the replies to this sound like they call come from asshole dads wearing “rules for dating my daughter” t-shirts
LOL, you’re clearly not a parent, are you? If you are, I hope it’s just because you are naive, because I shudder at the alternative. I related to Hopper, as I expect most rational, sensible parents did.
Man, I’ll bet you thought this performative signalling of your virtue was just gonna rake in the stars.
this is why us liberals get mocked. Get a grip. It’s called BOUNDARIES
Maybe if she was 20. A 13 year old (of any gender) isn’t mature enough to make those kind of decisions.
But that’s essential for a series about American nostalgia. What’s more Reagan-era Americana than being weird about teenager’s sexuality? They can hardly switch to the libertine attitudes of the Scandinavian youth films of the era.
Well, maybe having Gary Busey’s cloned son do some scenery chewing as a bad guy is even more Reagan-era nostalgia.
yeah I’m a little annoyed at a lot of the replies here. Like I get it people like Hopper and want to defend him at all costs here but he was super gross about the whole thing with Mike and El. I get that it’s realistic but it definitely made me like Hopper a lot less and not terribly interested in watching this plotline play out.
You know you’ve got a problem on your hands when I’m more annoyed by Hopper and El than Billy by the end of the premiere.
She has lived in seclusion her entire life and barely knows how to exist in the world. She has just learned how interpersonal relationships work in the past year. Being protective while she figures things out makes perfect sense.
I still want Barb to come back. IS there any way that could happen?
Maybe with a new body constructed out of rat-parts.
I almost typed this exact comment, but was worried I’d be laughed out of the comments!But doesn’t stop me from wishing she’s been surviving – no, thriving – in the upside down all this time, and when she makes her surprise reappearance she’ll be a badass who saves the day.By the way, here’s an old joke the kids in the cast made while doing press for season 1:“What does the demagorgon like to do on a Sunday?”“Have a Barb-ecue”
But doesn’t stop me from wishing she’s been surviving – no, thriving – in the upside down all this time, and when she makes her surprise reappearance she’ll be a badass who saves the dayYeah, I guess that wouldn’t be very realistic ;)Those kids are so cute.
But doesn’t stop me from wishing she’s been surviving – no, thriving – in the upside down all this time, and when she makes her surprise reappearance she’ll be a badass who saves the day.By horror-movie rules, that wish stopped being viable when we (via El’s sensory-deprivation trip into the astral plane or whatever that is) saw her rotten corpse being used as a snake’s new condo. Barb’s turning out to not be dead after all would badly undercut El’s command of her powers by introducing doubt about their veracity. Barb is, alas, not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead.
Cara Buono is such an apt name that I can’t believe it’s her birth name.
I know, right? It even beats Tahani al-Jamil in name/person synergy, in my book.
It took me a day to figure out what was bugging me about this comment, but now I realize it’s because Tahani is the character and Jameela Jamil is the actress.
Cara Buono = ‘Dear Lovely’Tahani al-Jamil = ‘Congratulations Beautiful’ (… Anthony (Ant) Weiner = ‘A Creepy-crawly Dick’)
Isn’t Billy 17 in the show or something? I think pool scenes were creepy as fuck
Yes it was super creepy. I think if it was girls his age instead of 80’s wine moms fawning over him, I wouldn’t be a skeeved out by it.
He was 17 when introduced in season 2, so I guess 18 or 19 now. And sorry but I find it hard to look at Billy as someone being taken advantage of here, all the moms were doing is posing. And remember, *he* suggested Motel 6 …
It’s not that he’d be taken advantage of. He obviously has agency it’s just that the idea of women who are supposed to be what: 35? 40? would openly lust over a kid who’s no more than 19 like that is creepy.
Cougars gonna coug?
Obviously the wives’ husbands are too busy crashing on their Lazy-Boy chairs to pay attention to their wives as Karen observed with hers.
yeah… no. it’s just not creepy. much potentially creepier IMO are the objectified roles of teen girls in 80s horror fare, this is just a suggestive reversal NBD
I guess they’re sticking to their retro 80s guns here: If it wasn’t creepy in the 80s, it’s not too creepy for Stranger Things.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe this show just isn’t for you?
Creepy yes. Very much like a writhing pile of 80s summer comedy tropes exploding like rats? Also yes.
Are you saying that if a 17 year old girl seduces a 40 year old man, the 40 year old man isn’t taking advantage of her?
Also, this is the 80’s. Adults lusting after jailbait wasn’t considered to be as creepy.
Stranger Things: Season 3: Chapter One: Everyone Horny
Who would’ve thought that in an episode containing exploding rats, the most cringe-inducing part would be watching Steve flounder at picking up chicks.
Yeah I thought that was sort of weird. He’s still really handsome even if his “best feature” is covered up by a dorky hat. I mean Billy has ladies fawning all over him and Steve can’t get one positive response? I guess when they’re trying to buy ice cream and go about their day that’s not the best time to put on the smooth moves.
That’s true, but I think the fact that he’s a rather-pathetic ice cream salesman in a mall is what the girls are in disbelief about.
He’s Judge Reinhold in Fast Times.
This is exactly it. Here’s the climax:
Poor Hamilton. I would have gone out with him.
so many references and alludes to Fast Times at Ridgemont High; this being one of them
He’s doing it all wrong.
If Billy were working at the ice cream store, he’d drop a mild compliment, make a little eye contact, and just be patient. Play it right and she’ll be back to order more ice cream, this time with double-entendres.
Part of it is that Steve has lost his confidence. Add to that the dorky costume and the fact that he’s apparently not going on to college, which could mean he’s going to be stuck in menial jobs for life. It’s not a good look when he’s hitting on college bound girls.
Dustin has rubbed off on him too much, and he’s lost his game
Dustin has game. It is very constant.
I’ve felt that way about the whole series.
For me, the most nerve-wracking thing so far was the middle-school dance at the end of the last season.
Shit, for me it was the most horrifying. Dustin going into that world really enthusiastically and joyfully and thinking he’s going to kill it at this new stage of life and then finding out his abilities are pathetically short of his ambitions captured my experience at that age to a T.
Billy finding himself on a slight detour on the way to the Motel 6 in his bitchin’ Camaro was about as obvious as the sun and yet warmly satisfying.
Oh he’s checking himself out in the mirror instead of looking at the road? Yeah, he’s getting in an accident.
From Russia With Death!Now that was a killer cold open. Evoking something out of a Bond movie in tone at first before going full sci-fi. The special effects are never really talked about as much on this show, but damn was that laser beam thing extremely cool with how it fired up and twisted around, only then to go straight Raiders of the Lost Ark on those poor Russians.Great inverse of Fast Times with The Cars – Moving in Stereo, for Billy’s poolside WWE entrance. Mrs. Wheeler does indeed look great in that new bathing suit. Throw in some Corey Hart, REO Speedwagon, and Cutting Crew for extra flavor. I mean, the music budget for this show must be astronomical just for starters.I have to feel that Karen not meeting Billy is as good a thing for her as it was bad for Billy. Hopper ditching the script and going the alternate way with Mike was some great comedy, and it’s hard to feel sorry for Mike when he had it coming with his flippant attitude.Great opening episode and welcome back Stranger Things!
That pool scene was great with multiple homages. I loved Billy giving Karen the towel coming out of the pool, à la Caddyshack.I never thought the Murray Bauman Russian red herring would actually become something, albeit different than his original conspiracy theory, but that’s some excellent writing.
I too, was impressed with the special effects, and they knocked me out here. That beam in the beginning probably cost a small tv show.
I think one of the reasons the fx on this series haven’t gotten a lot of attention is, to be frank, because we have been taking them for granted. Lost in the love of the characters, or the mystery, or the 80s aesthetic, this is a show were the visuals kind of take a back seat, even though they are always around.
(Sidebar: The interesting thing about it though, is that when a Mind Flayer looms over the town, or the kids are running from a Demogorgon, I wouldn’t call it ‘seamless,’ so much as generic; Computer-generated monsters and aliens in our horror is something we’re so used to these days. CGI is the one aspect of Stranger Things that is firmly 2019, and one could even argue its usage is anachronistic to the show’s setting. It would be interesting to see how this series would look, if they used period-accurate practical and optical effects to tell their stories instead of the latest in modern technology. Not a criticism- I love the show- just…food for thought.)
“Friends don’t spoil. …..Now, since we aren’t friends, here are headlines vaguely describing everything that will happen in these eight episodes, posted to the front page immediately.” –The AV Club
“Suzie Do You Copy?”Only 2 minutes in and already some really nice Sound and VisualFX!
Back to the Future putting on jeans pratfall a little on the nose even for Stranger Things! But I really liked this episode.
Natalia Dwyer as Nancy is my favorite character so I was glad that she got that little bit of comedy, though it didn’t make her being patronized by all the jerks at the paper and even Jonathan any easier to watch.Lucas is also an absolutely shit boyfriend, but since Max barely tolerated him in this episode the balance of their relationship at least made sense.
Nancy, Joyce, Will, Max, and Steve are aces … everyone else kinda rises and falls with the material.
I’m liking Robin a lot as a foil to Steve. They both have interesting dynamics that obviously sees those two getting together…maybe? I guess in a way they don’t and just stay friends.
Robin was a great addition.
They have Steve working at an ice cream shop, single after being dumped by Nancy, and he has a pretty femail coworker with lines. This is a TV show – of course they’re going to get together. Also of course, he won’t be interested at first until something happens that causes him to see the real Robin.
I could see both sides. In the real world, you have to earn your dues before anyone takes you seriously. Even if the guys at the paper hadn’t been sexist a$$holes, Nancy as an intern would not have been handed a major story. To make things worse, she had zero concrete evidence to back any of it up. Also, unlike her, Jonathan doesn’t have well-to-do parents to fall back on. He really needed that job and any time he tried to talk about real world expenses, she scoffed and called it his Oliver Twist routine. Nancy needed a reality check.
the queer-subtext goldmines Fright Night Saywhatnow??
I never thought of it that way, but in retrospect, yeah, maybe it’s there with Chris Sarandon.
Not to mention Marcy.
Who was hawt.
Conceded. Thus the subtext!
Can’t not see (and especially hear) baby Uma every time Robin is on screen. Maya Hawke definitely has her mother’s voice and mannerisms.
Oh that’s who she is. Hawke, duh! I see it now.And now I feel old.
I had no idea!
Finn Wolfhard looks like Joey Ramone.
I already posted this hope on a different site before the new season even dropped, but it is my second most fervent wish to see them utterly DEMOLISH the mall in an action fight sequence.It must be.(I’m only through ep four so far.)
For some reason, I can’t mentally hear “Suzie, do you copy” except in a Streisand Yentl voice.
I can only hear it as Drake from “In My Feelings” but to each his own.
“Suzie, can you heaaaar me?”Which, having seen Gaten on Broadway, I’d endorse…
Suzie, do you copy?
So, Suzie do you copy?
Do you copy, Suzie?
Was I the only one that took a second to figure out who was who when they first cut to eleven and mike making out awkwardly on the bed?
Post-HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ Soviet tech should get more clunky and way less slick. The machine and lab in the cold open is way too nice. I’ll cut the Duffer’s some slack here but moving forward I would hope that production designers get the memo that Soviet-era tech is rough but functional, it don’t look all that great but it will still get the job done and cheap looking should win out over shiny when the design decisions are being made.
Am I the only one who saw the Russians’ laser/collider/dimension breaker opener thingy and immediately was reminded of the shrinking machine from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? Honey, We Opened Up A Portal To An Alternate Dimension of Shadow Monsters!
Reminded me of the oscillation overthruster from Buckaroo Banzai.
The melted windshield was also very Buckaroo Banzai.
I thought that was alien thingy slime.
Yeah I may have yelled HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS at the tv when they first showed the nozzle-thing with the laser-thing coming out, and half-expected there to be an old, comfortable couch against the other wall.
I like the fact that they’ve allowed Hopper to be a truly complex character, as both a loving protector of his friends and family, and a maladaptive hot-head that can’t express his feelings.I’ve noticed that while Mike seems to be pretty popular among kids, he’s a lot more controversial among adult viewers. I personally don’t care much for him, especially after the awful way he treated Max last season, but he does still have his moments.It’s nice to see Lucas show his funny side, although he does feel like more of second-tier character now.I appreciate the effort to showcase workplace sexism with Nancy’s arc, although the asshole journalists do feel a little cartoonish, to be honest. Having a handful of the men be so blatantly misogynistic is plenty believable, but I think it would have been more realistic to juxtapose that with the more benevolently sexist variety – the type who would say, “Okay, Nancy, I’ll take a look at your proposal,” and then shove it in the desk drawer to never be seen again. As for Jonathan, I think he had more lines in this one episode than he did in all of season two, although he’s still underused (which seems to be an ongoing problem on Stranger Things in general; with so many main characters, a few continuously fall by the wayside). It’s nice to see how much more comfortable he is in his own skin now then when we first met him in season one. Granted, I do wish they would flesh out his relationship with Joyce more. Nowadays it’s easy to forget that they’re related.Lastly, Millie Bobby Brown is a true powerhouse. I never cease to be amazed by the incredible talent that she possesses.
Extremely “out here,” as the kids say, for the Mr. Rodgers esque “and I will, too” in the stray observations.
yeah i noticed that hopper is a lot “meaner” than he used to be. i found him to be a pretty great guy with a long bout of shit luck. but some of the stuff he does in the first 3 episodes is like “what happened?”
“There is nothing to say about Bruce (Jake Busey). His character is exactly as obnoxious and unreflective as his counterpart in any 1985 B comedy. “
Maybe in the end he’ll get knocked into the pool fully clothed, flailing and sputtering while the rest of the cast laughs at him while a song by Journey or Kenny Loggins plays.
I’m just hoping he gets eaten.
eaten…while a song from Journey or Kenny Loggins plays.
Very cartoony to the point of making it ridiculous. Did they really need to a one handed strangle to tell us it was the evil empire? Hopper does not know what a heart to heart conversation was? The misogynists were a little to stupid and crass. Downplaying this would have made it better. Frankly they need to trust the audience a little more.
“Day of the Dead”?! That’s a deep cut right there.
OK, one nitpick from an 80s kid: While the point about Walmart is timely now, I don’t remember many malls in the 80s having a grocery store. So Joyce’s work, in theory, shouldn’t be hit as hard as the other businesses downtown.
the mall by my house had a grocery store. So nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh.
That’s interesting! None of the malls in my area (SoCal, for the record) had one. So the Sunday loop was always to hit the mall first for clothes/electronics/movies then hit the grocery store on the way back.
Most malls I have seen don’t have a grocery store in which you can walk internally into the rest of the mall. However, I have been to a number of malls, where at one end was a supermarket or whole foods – attached, but external entrance only.
The mall in this season is nonsense-ridiculous for what appears to be a mid-sized southern Indiana town. In 1985 there were no malls outside of Indianapolis in that region that would have had this open, two-story layout with central escalators. Remember the mall they drive through in Blues Brothers? That would be much more characteristic of a typical midwestern mall, flat with several connecting branches.
So (no spoilers, I’ve only watched this first episode), since we can only assume this mega-mall is obviously being funded by government black book money as cover for whatever new evil science project they’re doing this season, then sure, why not throw a totally atypical grocery store in.
Just to say, Joyce works at a general store, like a Woolworth’s; part hardware store, part CVS, a little old-school Target. I don’t think they sell groceries any more than CVS does (meaning, only kind of a little).General stores mostly went under by the late 20th century because they couldn’t compete with the convenience and price of things like malls and the big chain pharmacies, which were often at or near the malls. Walgreens is still a chain of multi-purpose pharmacies and used to be more of a general store.Disclaimer: I just remember things, and I hope that sharing them helps… I don’t know from any more authoritative source…I think Joyce’s store was popular because everyone would stroll and shop in the area, and pick up what they needed while they were passing by. Because there are still residences around, her store is still open, when many of her neighbors have shuttered. The same thing happened to the “Golden Mall” in Burbank when I was a kid. The Woolworths was one of the last remaining shops.OK here’s one authoritative source for some of my so-called point!http://wesclark.com/burbank/mall_called_key.html
Right. It’s very unlikely that the place Joyce works has fresh grocery.
Is her store a grocery store though? It seems like a general goods store (craft supplies, decorations, office supplies, etc.)
Not the most captivating episode but I guess it’s just a table-setter for better things yet to come. The cold (war) opening threw me. More Cara Buono please. Lots more.
This season is amazing. It’s as much fun as I’ve had watching TV in a long time. I started with the season last night, intending that I’d just watch one episode (before getting back to a lengthy to-do list) and ended up watching the first 7 episodes.I won’t spoil anything. Just generally, it does a really fantastic job with pacing, threading together its different character arcs, and drawing on the history and sentimentality built up with these characters over the first two seasons. To compare with Jessica Jones S3 – which I similarly wound up binging, unplanned – both shows have a knack for hooking you at the end of an episode, but then not immediately paying off the hook at the start of the next episode . Instead, the next episode always kicks off with a different story line. This seems like a deliberate Netflix formula, and serves at least two purposes: (1) it keeps me from turning off the episode a few minutes in, as I would have done had the cliff-hanger been immediately resolved; and (2) it covers up for the fact that the cliff-hangers are often resolved in an anti-climactic way. The potential downside is that it forces a show to have multiple separate story threads that it can alternate between. And with most Netflix shows, at least one of those story lines winds up being a plodding dud. Or the pacing just doesn’t line up, and one of the story lines has to be stretched or compressed. This season of Stranger Things was the first time I was totally invested in all of the different story lines that a season was alternating between. And they thread together fantastically well. 8 episodes, rather than 13, very likely helped with that, but this is a tremendous accomplishment by the writers.
Please dont bring erica back . She annoys the fck out of me
NO, she was great.
You seem to enjoy little pretentious entitled brats who add nothing but annoyance to the plot. Well, then.
You can’t spell “America” without “Erica.”
I´m not american. I don´t need her
Everyone’s getting awkward and lanky. Stranger things indeed!
Joyce Byers, bless her, is a hot mess.
I know Hopper has officially adopted Eleven, but still hearing him call her his ‘daughter’ makes my heart warm.Jake Busey’s character may have an 80s archetype, but in the world of this show, they need to be careful it doesn’t come off like caricature (which it is).
Are we just going to skip right over the fact that Karen Wheeler is the Hottest Mom in pop culture today?
This season is great. I Graduated from HS in 1987 , this show gets almost everything right. The Music, the Magnum PI. the super tacky outfits.
Are we just going to skip right over the fact that Karen Wheeler is the Hottest Mom in pop culture today?
This season was great. I Graduated from HS in 1987 so this show gets almost everything right.
1985 here, dead on.
Continuity Alert: One of the robot toys in Dustin’s room (behind R-2 in the pictured march of the machines above) was the Transformer Ultra Magnus…who was released around the Transformers movie, in 1986.
I guess y’all have an editor? Sentences like “’Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy’ don’t pack a lot of action” plus the burdensome overuse of “swagger”… I mean, c’mon! Hire me?
Can someone who worked at an actual mall tell me if the back passageways are authentic. I know stores that had rear doors for trash and I assume fire exits, but did some malls have passage ways between stores?
Yes the one I grew up with absolutely did. But, because emergency exits are necessary, it wasn’t that hard to get into those back passages from the side corridors. Though I guess security might catch you. The public bathrooms and a water fountain were down one of those corridors so nobody would have blinked at us going down the hall, but I see how that’s probably unusual, to usher the public into that secret space.But it looked just like that.
I worked in a store that was in a run-of-the-mill shopping plaza that also had one of these.
When I was young, my friends and I would amuse ourselves by sneaking in to those behind-the-stores hallways and evading the security guards. We called it ‘the maze’. So yes, it’s real.
I’m on my second viewing and I just want to point out in a (VERY vague spoilery) subtle way that the Rock This Town music cue has some wonderful foreshadowing in its lyrics.
Gonna Rock ‘til you pop, gonna rock ‘til you drop, gonna rock this town- rock it inside-out!
When Hopper is watching Magnum, P.I. the episode is the pilot episode, aired in 1980. This season is set in 1985.I hope someone got fired for that blunder.
Reruns were a thing in 1985.Jesus Christ, did I just respond to a 2 1/2-year-old post?