After the Stranger Things finale: What I believe happens...

As of tonight it has been 120 hours since the series finale of Stranger Things dropped on Netflix.  And in that time the Internets have been going full-blown wacky with theories and speculations.  It's the kind of debate and discussion that I can't remember seeing in a very long time, at least not since the Lost finale almost sixteen years ago.

I have now watched "The Upside Down" twice all the way through and numerous bits and pieces of it since it went live on streaming.  And I thought it was the most beautiful thing that I've seen on the television medium in quite awhile.  But if you've seen it also, you're well aware that it left a few things dangling.  Not "critical" information, but we are certainly teased a bit about what becomes of these characters who we've followed for almost a full decade.  The Duffer Brothers, the creators of Stranger Things, have given us just enough to whet our appetites for more.  Or as one friend put it, they made a satisfying conclusion without putting a solid padlock on it.

So since everyone else it seems is weighing in with their own thoughts and theories, I might as well chime in with my own.  What happens to our heroes after their struggle against the Upside Down and Vecna?

Be warned: Spoilers ahead!!

I believe that El survived.  She did so knowing that never again could she see Mike and the rest of her friends but it had to be done.  El knew that she had to break the cycle and that nobody else could do it.  That there would always be people like Brenner and Kay who would continue the work.  So El took herself out of the equation and I think that in her dying breath Kali saw to it that El would escape as cleanly as she could.

I'm thinking to something that Hopper tells her earlier in the episode.  About El getting to have a normal life, and be a parent herself and have children.  I believe that she goes on to do that.  El goes on to find herself, and in time she will marry and have children.  But she will never forget the love that she had with Mike and I very strongly doubt that Mike is ever going to forget her. As long as they live they will be thinking of each other.

This finale evoked so much thought.  It's been a LONG time since a story has had me ruminating upon its ending.

I can't help but imagine that Will went on to have a better story than he could have imagined.  And I say that as a trauma survivor also.  The full measure of what Will went through because of Vecna was something that could not be portrayed on screen.  Will survived but he's going to forever be scarred.  Maybe Will goes on to make his life a triumph over Vecna.  I think Will becomes something like a behavioral therapist, with a master's degree and everything.  Will knows what it means to be damaged, he's going to use that experience toward helping others who have survived their own Vecnas.  Just a hunch that I have.  I may not have ever had a homosexual temptation but in many ways I still identify with Will (I also identify with Dustin a lot, but I digress).  I know what it's like to be hurt and be discarded by society.  There was a Vecna in my own life, and that's something I write about in my book.  Going through that, coming out on the other side, a person absolutely wants to do what he or she can to keep others from knowing that same pain.  It's what led to my having a career in the mental health field and I think that if Will doesn't end up doing much the same professionally, his heart is definitely inclined toward that direction.

I had wanted Dustin and Suzie to come together and get married.  But it's been established by the Duffer Brothers that their relationship ended.  It was mostly Dustin's fault.  He was so torn up about Eddie's death that he pushed aside almost every other relationship he had with people.  It took the party and especially Steve to pull Dustin back from the brink of self destruction.  In the end we see that Dustin comes back, and has embraced life again.  I like to think that he goes on to have a brilliant time in college and career in science and technology afterward.  That Dustin comes to fall in love again and he and his wife have a son who they name Eddie.

Lucas and Max are going to end up together happily ever after.  I've seen love like theirs a few times.  Sometimes it goes well and others, it doesn't.  But a young man like Lucas doesn't go to the hospital every day for a year and a half to play "Running Up That Hill" for a comatose girl without that meaning something profound.  By the way, the Duffers have said that the movie we see them sitting together watching is Ghost, so by the summer of 1990 their love is still going strong.  I think it's going to keep getting stronger.

I also think that Nancy and Jonathan end up with each other after all.  The two of them are each in a place where they're discovering who they are supposed to be.  They had that taken away from them for the better part of six years.  Now Nancy is pursuing her dream of being a journalist and Jonathan is where he wanted to be, studying photography and film at NYU.  They've seemingly gone separate ways but they're always going to share something remarkable and very unique and that's going to draw them together sooner than later.

Steve is a wandering journeyman of sorts for a few years.  But he comes to discover that his heart really is for helping young people be their best.  It started with being "baby-sitter" for the Party and it's going to continue.  If he doesn't get his full "six nuggets" he's still going to get that family he longs for... and that is very encouraging and inspiring.

Robin?  I'm not sure of her.  I do believe that she completes her college education.  I like to think that she ends up happy.

Holly, Derek, and the other kids that Vecna captured bounce back none the worse for wear.  Derek though has discovered personal responsibility, including for himself.  I think that Derek becomes quite the athletic type, taking part not only in baseball but also swimming (I say that because I was a swimmer in high school and taking part in that was one of the best things that ever happened to me).

Murray Bauman, the Duffers have already said he continues to be weird.  Maybe so but he's also a happy weirdo.  By the end of the series his conspiracy theories have been proven true, he's taken out government forces and he's saved the day for the entire world.  I imagine that ten years or so later Murray has become the master of a website devoted to conspiracy theories, and maybe even hosting a late-night radio show a'la the one Art Bell had for many years.

Mr. Clarke is going to be Hawkins, Indiana's most eligible bachelor.  But his first and foremost love is going to be teaching children.  Playing a part in the final battle against Vecna, seeing his star pupil Dustin come up with the conclusion that the Upside Down was a wormhole, filled Mr. Clarke with enormous pride.  He truly got to have a dream come true as a science teacher and he's going to do his best to catch lightning in a bottle again.

Erica.  Ahhhh yes, Erica.  Who ties with Dustin as my most favorite character in Stranger Things.  The Duffers have said that she goes on to be valedictorian also when she graduates.  Erica Sinclair is a force of nature and she goes far.  She's either going to get involved in Internet commerce at the start of the industry revolution (like Bezos, she can call her company Ericorps) or, more likely, she enters politics.  For some reason or another I think she's a registered Republican.  Erica eventually runs for U.S. Senate, wins the race, and provokes discussion about her running for higher office.  But that's maybe saying too much.

Hopper and Joyce spend the rest of their lives happy.  Hopper finds fulfillment that he never knew he needed before.  It's a quiet life at Montauk.  The only real trouble that comes about is when a great white shark starts prowling the waters and eating people.  Just kidding 😛 

And Mike?  The storyteller?  He goes on to write what he can about the time that he and the Party and their friends had together.  It becomes a book that goes on to be a bestseller, and it's going to be a story that will forever perpetuate debate and discussion about whether it's true or not.

The title of Mike's book?  It is "Stranger Things".

Read More

"The Rightside Up", the Stranger Things series finale, finished about 20 minutes ago

 What did I think of it?

This was as perfect an ending to a story as The Lord of the Rings had.  I am soooo not kidding.

The final scenes... wow.  I was almost in tears.  Those nearly came after everything else that preceded it in this very last episode of Stranger Things.

I feel like it's the end of a journey for me.  This show, which I first discovered while staying in a hotel in Albuquerque in September of 2016, has been a part of my life ever since then.  I became a true believer in this story and its wonderful characters.  And now the story is done and... I don't quite know what to do now.  I feared this would happen.  Stranger Things has been the one thing of pop culture that I've held onto for almost a decade and now it's ended.  That is an enormous void that it's leaving in my time on this earth.  It's like a part of my youth peacefully passed away tonight.

Well, like is said at one point in this final episode, there are two paths to take.  I am going to choose the one that leads away from the sadness.  I am going to choose life.  Just as I've always been trying to do.

I think I needed to see this episode.  More to the point, I think that I needed this show.  What a ride it has been!

One of the greatest endings to a story in the history of anything.  I'm going to have to watch it again, after my brain calms down.

Dear Duffer Brothers: Thank you for sharing this story with us.  I for one feel all the better for being along for where you took us.  And I wish you well in your future endeavors.

Read More

I've been called conservative. I believe homosexuality is wrong. And I'm about to defend Will Byers on Stranger Things (buuuut...)

 On Christmas Night I started watching the newest three episodes, volume 2 it's being called, of the final season of Stranger Things.  I was as eager to see these next three chapters as I have been to watch anything else from the television/movies sphere of things in the past ten years or so.

I'll be honest: I felt like I'd "missed" something.  Volume 2 failed to stick the landing it seemed.  The previous four episodes were a high-balling rollickin' ball of high-grade hashish washed down with a bottle of pure awesomeness.  But these three episodes, well...

It seems that I wasn't alone in that sentiment.  Many people have said that these were the low point of the entire series.

Especially...

(SPOILER SPACE)

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

P

A

C

E

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

P

A

C

E

Let's talk about the scene in episode seven, "The Bridge", that got the most attention.

I actually don't have an issue with Will's situation.  Not anymore than I do regarding Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books.  That does NOT mean that I can condone homosexuality at all though!  That is something that I am forever going to believe is wrong.  But I also understand that it is a temptation that some people face, for whatever reason.  God knows that I have my own temptations, some even that I wonder if anyone on earth will ever remotely understand.  Having a mental condition that inflames those temptations at times only makes things worse, but I digress.

Will's confession to the others was something that had been building up since the first season.  He has always been different, off-kilter, something of an outsider to "The Party" and their allies, no matter how much he has been a part of that group of close-knit friends.  His own father cruelly believed that Will wasn't normal.  His ordeals relating to the Upside Down further severed that connection Will had to the human condition.  If nothing else, what he went through because of Vecna mutilated and disfigured Will in heart and soul.  There is no telling what he would have been like had the events of November 6th, 1983 not happened. That night forever marked Will Byers as being different, for the worst, in every possible way.

In some ways I find myself relating to Will.  I was quite an outsider also, growing up.  Always "looking in".  And as I've shared in my book, I did go quite a long time unable to allow myself to appreciate females.  I had been abducted also, and pulled into an "upside-down" too.  There was a Vecna figure who came into my life.  As I share in my book, I was thought of as being different - sometimes being called "fag" by other people - because of my reluctance to appreciate how girls look.  That stemmed from the abuse I experienced.

So, I can absolutely understand Will in ways that maybe most people can't.  I can empathize with Will.  It's almost like the Duffer Brothers were writing about me, when they wrote for the character.  I of all people am in a position to understand Will Byers more than many if not most other people can, and I'm glad that most people DON'T have to understand what Will has gone through.

For a lot of reasons, I am never going to be able to accept homosexuality as being something good.  But it is a temptation that many people have.  And I can understand Will if that's what he's been driven to.  If that makes sense.

So no, in all honesty, I don't have any problem with the scene in "The Bridge" where Will is "coming out" and saying "I don't like girls."  I can readily understand why he's telling the group that.  It's something he was ashamed of, and harbored deep resentment about.  He had to confront that, and make it into something that Vecna could not turn against him and consequently the group.  It was Will's biggest weakness and he negated it.  That is certainly something that I can appreciate, and even admire.  It could have been practically anything that Will had shame about.  But in the case of Will it was the most private thing that any young person in the years surrounding adolescence can wrestle with.  Vecna has become THE prototype of the child molester, in a fashion that no other fictional monster has ever been.  Will was his first and most tragic victim.  Of course there is going to be a secret shame from that.  But Will confronted that and came through with flying colors.

No, it's not what Will did that bothers me.  It's HOW that was handled is what bugs me.

Much of the entertainment industry has been accused of fronting an agenda.  It's not an unqualified accusation.  Stranger Things has been no different.  I've never found it any more so than most other series or movies though.  Indeed, other than the profanity (ehhhh Duffers, most kids did not talk like that in the Eighties, trust me, I was there) it's been pretty neutral so far as projected ideologies go.  Now, some are saying that Will's "coming out" is going to be a textbook example of leftist propaganda.

THAT is something that is certainly not an unfair accusation.

It was too "in your face".  Too blatant.  It was too much aimed at the audience more than it was a revelation meant for the group to absorb.  It was designed for shock effect, even if all the signs were there from the beginning that Will was headed for this moment.  I've never read Stephen King's It but when Will's time came, I imagined it would be something like Eddie's revelation in the It miniseries from 1990: his confession that he was still a virgin, that the only people he had ever really bonded with were the rest of the Losers.  That could have been the model for Will's confession.  It would have let down the burden of Will's secret shame and beautifully established his acceptance by the group, that no matter what Will was never going to be alone.  As it happened in the episode, it was too blunt, too "brusque".

That's the biggest problem I have with Will's coming to the group as he did.  It could have been written and executed and even acted better.  But the cast did the best they could with what they were given.  Maybe the Duffers will learn from this experience.  It certainly seems like I am not alone in my assessment about this episode.  Perhaps the Duffers will take it to heart.  Hey, we can't hit a home run every time.  And so far the creators and producers of Stranger Things have been doing pretty good.  I can forgive this one faux pas.

That's pretty much it.  That's everything of what's been bugging me since watching volume 2 about 96 hours ago.  But last night I rewatched these three chapters again, and found myself enjoying them much more than I had initially.  So much so that now I don't think they're bad at all.  They did what they were supposed to do at this stage in the same: set the board up for the final moves.  The pierces are now in place and war is coming.  Everything else has been cleared away.  The Duffer Brothers have been pulling rabbits out of their hat for the better part of a decade... and now they'd darn well better pull out an alligator.

Whatever else could be said about those three episodes, I'm expecting the grand finale, "The Rightside Up", to wildly exceed them.  Maybe in hindsight we'll all these three episodes as being set-up for what is to come.  And then they will be better appreciated.  Perhaps so.

Read More

"It is time": Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 has a trailer!

Since Thanksgiving night I have watched the first volume of the final season of Stranger Things twice.  The shock still hasn't faded.  Dang it I want to talk openly about what's been streamed so far!!!  But there are still so many who haven't watched the latest episodes yet.  I'm going to be considerate of them.

But if you have seen the first four episodes of season five already, here is the new trailer that dropped earlier today:

I'll share an interesting theory I've heard, though.  It's being posited that Vecna, for all his malevolence and power, is not the ultimate villain of Stranger Things.  That there is some one or some thing over him that is the true monster behind everything that has happened.  I've heard it suggested that in keeping with the Dungeons & Dragons motif that's rife through this show, this final entity could be code-named Tiamat.  I kind of like that idea, though I don't know if there's going to be enough time to elaborate on that in the four final episodes.  Still a neat notion.

I'll go ahead and share my personal theory for the big finale.  Stranger Things's very last scene is going to be fifteen or twenty years later.  We get to see our heroes all grown up and happy and long past all the trauma and heartbreak that they went through together.  Among other things, Dustin and Suzie are married and have a son named Eddie.  That would be a happy ending for Dustin, who I've been cheering for since I first saw this show in a hotel room in Phoenix years ago.

Ten days to go.

Read More

"Found you": The trailer for the final season of Stranger Things just hit the Intertubes!

Just like "Running Up That Hill" did three years ago, "Child In Time" by Deep Purple is no doubt going to burn up the charts on Spotify and iTunes the next few days

Behold the trailer for the very last season of Stranger Things:

The kids look GREAT!  It's almost like no time has passed at all since we last saw them in 2022.  For all the delays that COVID and then the strikes caused to this series's production, it doesn't really seem like the cast has become too old for their parts.

Maybe we should call Stranger Things "the little Netflix series that could."

Part one of the final season drops the day before this Thanksgiving.  The second part on Christmas Day.  The grand finale on New Years Eve.  And I seriously don't know what my pop culture drug of choice is going to be after this series is finished.  For the past decade Stranger Things has been the only series of television or movies that has really interested me.  What's going to take the place of that?  Or could it be that the final season will herald my "growing up" at last ?  I like to think that I've still got a smidgeon of "the old fire" in me, waiting to be fanned into new life with the right kindling.  But I really don't know what that could be.

EDIT: late yesterday Netflix released the poster for season five.  I'm getting the shivers looking at this one....

Read More

Release dates announced for Stranger Things final season

Well, I know what I'll be doing from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve in another six months...

"RUN!!  RUUUUUUUNNNN!!!!!"

Volume One at Thanksgiving.  Volume 2 on Christmas.  The finale on New Year's Eve.

Stranger Things has been the only show that I've followed at all during this past decade. I seriously don't know what's going to fill that void in my life.  It's one of the few things pop culture-wise that I've been interested in all this time.  I haven't watched Star Wars: Andor though I keep getting told that I must see that, it's supposed to be the best thing that Disney has done with that franchise since it took over.

But Stranger Things will forever have a very special place in my heart, just from when it started.  When I was on the road going across America for a year.  That it's ending this coming holiday season, well.. it's almost like that extended life journey since 2016 is finally drawing to a close for me.  Maybe something else will come along now.

EDIT: Netflix has released some pics from season five.  The kids don't look that much older than they did in the previous season three years ago (though it's good that the show is wrapping up now cuz this is no doubt the last time they'll be able to pull off that trick).  Click each image to embiggen it.

Read More

Am two episodes into Netflix's adaptation of The Sandman and...

 ...maybe I should give it time to still prove itself?

The Sandman from Netflix is attempting to pull off what most of us have deemed impossible: adapting the classic graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman, into a television/motion picture format.  This has been a project about a quarter century in development, going from one set of hands to another.  I've been a fan of the comic series for more than twenty years now, having bought the first volume about a week and a half after 9/11.  The Sandman was the literary escape I needed just then, and I've since read the entire series.  Heck, at one point I had every issue loaded onto my iPad.  

So I'm a real fan.  And I've been looking forward to seeing how it would fare as a Netflix series: arguably the perfect medium for an adaptation.

And now, having seen the first couple of episodes?

It looks right.  It's hitting on all the right cues visually.  That isn't a problem at all (though at the risk of being labeled a racist I do think that Death should be the pale goth girl that she is in the comic).  But something is off and it's making it hard for me to get completely engorged by this series.  The first episode is a fine replication of The Sandman's premiere issue, other than introducing the Corinthian WAY too early in the story.  But the pacing could have been better.  The episode ran a little long and with some editing could have spanned maybe half an hour.  There are ten episodes in this first season and I'm wondering if Netflix erred in devoting almost an hour to each one, when perhaps each issue could have thirty minutes of screen time devoted to it.

Speaking of the Corinthian, I don't really care for him being turned into the stereotypical bad guy of the tale.  Again he looks perfect, but his execution is so wildly off that it corrupts the story around him.  Then again, that is perhaps counterbalanced with touches like Cain and Abel, who are exactly like I imagined they would be from the book.

Apart from the matter of Death (which to be fair, I haven't gotten to see her really in action yet) the casting is strong in this series.  Tom Sturridge is as close to a perfect portrayal of Morpheus as we're apt to get, and he brings the right intensity and sense of vengeance to the role.  Vivienne Acheampong has won my approval as Lucienne.  In fact, other than being gender-flipped from the graphic novel her attitude and speech are pretty much how I envisioned Lucien's.  Charles Dance turns in a fine performance as Roderick Burgess, the sorcerer whose dark ritual imprisons Dream for a century. 

Yes, all the right ingredients are there.  But two episodes in and it's not resonating with me at all.

Or, maybe it really is simply the matter of being unfeasible to adapt The Sandman books.  Reading about Morpheus and the spheres he influences is a dense exercise.  It requires a fluid mind switching on and off between the worlds of waking and the Dreaming.  Gaiman weaves a thick tapestry rich in metaphor.  Which, is what the Endless (Dream and his siblings) are: anthropomorphic embodiments of the base concepts of the universe.  How does that translate off the page and onto the screen?

I suppose I'll give The Sandman a few more episodes to convince me.  But if not, there are the books and I will always treasure them for the company they have provided.  Imagination is a beautifully protean thing, and some things don't need to be seen on the screen to be fully appreciated.

But I will say this: Netflix's The Sandman it is an admirable attempt.  Maybe others will find it suits them in ways that a book cannot.  And that will be fine, too.

Read More

Go-ing in blind...

If you're one of the few dozen who haven't seen Bird Box on Netflix yet, it's about a woman leading two children to safety.  The catch is that they must remain blindfolded, or very bad things will happen to them.  Being that ours is the same culture that a year ago made a "challenge" out of eating Tide Pods laundry detergent, of course now many idiots people are making a game of doing ANYTHING blindfolded.

From tonight's weekly gathering of our Go club:

That's from an actual game.  I was blindfolded, Leo wasn't.

It didn't end well for me...

Read More

Internet video, Netflix enticing many to cut cable TV

Interesting story about technology and the economy: vast numbers of people are canceling their cable television service, opting to get their TV with old-fashioned antennas instead. Rising cable rates and the ever-increasing need to cut back on expenses is one reason. So is this: a lot of folks are now turning to broadband Internet - either through pay services like iTunes or bittorrent downloads - to get their fix of the shows that they like. Netflix's popularity is also considered a factor in the decrease for cable TV.

I could easily see this trend continuing, and into some potentially very interesting new territory over the next several years. Like, f'rinstance: a group of video bloggers, armed with inexpensive equipment and bleeding-edge Internet bandwidth, setting up a live operation on par with anything Fox News and CNN is doing.

Don't think it can't happen.

Read More