Nice writeup! I'm looking forward to seeing a deeper dive into this weird and wacky and wonderful show. It kinda reminds me of when I read H. Beam Piper as a kid in the '80s and thought his future society was really cool and alien, not realizing he was just describing white collar culture of the '50s.
The think that I think really makes it perfect is the injection of the fantastical. A straight-up kids-dealing-with-adult-problems would have felt flat and surreal. As soon as you spoon in psychic powers and government conspiracies, it feels right. Maybe it's the ironic distancing this allows, but I think it's because the '80s were a surreal time that just can't be taken at face value and understood. More thoughts in that direction here: https://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2019/05/oh-80s.html
"I’ve tried not to give anything away, contextually, on the off chance that someone on the planet hasn’t seen the show."
It's me. I'm that person.
To be fair, I finally got around to actually seeing /some/ episodes recently, but now that I know there're Easter eggs throughout, I'll have to go back and start at the beginning.
I had a pretty visceral reaction to you calling this the ultimate Gen X show because my definition of Gen X is kids who grew up in the 1990’s, not the 80’s. Until today I thought you were are all boomers, not first-half Gen Xers.
I really don’t have 80’s nostalgia. I’m not really into Star Wars or any of that kind of stuff so Stranger Things also kind of misses me. Shrug.
Mark, I haven't watched the series yet, but as kid who grew up in the 1960s, something like 15 to 20 years before all of the clues, signals, allusions, and what-not in this show...wow, does this seem foreign to me! Which is not a bad thing, just a thing that is. Back in the days of the Mercury astronauts, the Bay of Pigs invasion, Famous Monsters of Filmland and the Aurora monster models, dreams of getting even a peek at a Playboy magazine, the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot image, flying saucers, Marvel comics...really a whole different line-up of childhood allusions, huh? Gawd, I'm old!!! : ) Dave Smith
Nice writeup! I'm looking forward to seeing a deeper dive into this weird and wacky and wonderful show. It kinda reminds me of when I read H. Beam Piper as a kid in the '80s and thought his future society was really cool and alien, not realizing he was just describing white collar culture of the '50s.
The think that I think really makes it perfect is the injection of the fantastical. A straight-up kids-dealing-with-adult-problems would have felt flat and surreal. As soon as you spoon in psychic powers and government conspiracies, it feels right. Maybe it's the ironic distancing this allows, but I think it's because the '80s were a surreal time that just can't be taken at face value and understood. More thoughts in that direction here: https://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2019/05/oh-80s.html
"I’ve tried not to give anything away, contextually, on the off chance that someone on the planet hasn’t seen the show."
It's me. I'm that person.
To be fair, I finally got around to actually seeing /some/ episodes recently, but now that I know there're Easter eggs throughout, I'll have to go back and start at the beginning.
I had a pretty visceral reaction to you calling this the ultimate Gen X show because my definition of Gen X is kids who grew up in the 1990’s, not the 80’s. Until today I thought you were are all boomers, not first-half Gen Xers.
I really don’t have 80’s nostalgia. I’m not really into Star Wars or any of that kind of stuff so Stranger Things also kind of misses me. Shrug.
Mark, I haven't watched the series yet, but as kid who grew up in the 1960s, something like 15 to 20 years before all of the clues, signals, allusions, and what-not in this show...wow, does this seem foreign to me! Which is not a bad thing, just a thing that is. Back in the days of the Mercury astronauts, the Bay of Pigs invasion, Famous Monsters of Filmland and the Aurora monster models, dreams of getting even a peek at a Playboy magazine, the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot image, flying saucers, Marvel comics...really a whole different line-up of childhood allusions, huh? Gawd, I'm old!!! : ) Dave Smith