TV Party Tonight: Stranger Things (Season 1)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The following may contain offensive language, adult humor, and or
content that some viewers may find offensive. The views and
opinions expressed by anyone speaker does not explicitly or necessarily
reflect or represent those of Mark Ratleage or W two
M Network. Please listen with caution or don't listen at all.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
G A couple of hers, anything else we don't.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
We Jenny Kate, hell La La La.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Good evening and welcome to TV party tonight. I am
your host, Alexis Hana, joining me of one of my
frequent collaborators and fan of everything eighties, mister Jesse Starterer.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
Hey, Alexis my goodness? Am I excited to get on
here and talk about the night's topic. It is going
to be a blast, absolutely So.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
A couple of months ago I approached our boss, mister
Mark Rileiche because the final season of Stranger Things the
trailer had dropped, and I said, hey, so where are
we on that too? My shock? He told me that
no one on the network had ever reviewed Stranger Things,
and I was just like, what do you mean, this
is like one of the most de facto popular shows.
Oh yeah, you know, It's just like, how has no

(01:49):
one on our network wanted to review it. So with
the final season coming out, I suggested and mister Jesse
agreed me that this called for a full retrospective. So
we are going to be doing one season a month,
counting down to the big finale, and tonight we're starting
things off of where it all began in Hawkins. Grab

(02:09):
your Christmas lights, your a goos, and your D and
D dice. It's season one of Stranger Things.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
That's right, That's right. Yeah, this was Oh man, I
can remember a fledgling listener to the network and participant
as well because I started I started doing the comic
book podcast in twenty fourteen source material for the network,
and so that's twenty fourteen. This drops twenty sixteen, right,

(02:38):
so we're two years, two years enemy being a part
of the network at that time, and I don't even
know if TV party was around at that point, but
I just remember sitting there thinking like, I mean, we
were doing various things if a TV show struck our fancy,
but I did not have the I think, I guess

(03:01):
network clout to kind of come out and suggest it
and be like I want to be a part of it.
So but it was really something that I thought somebody
on this network would talk about, and nobody ever did.
And it continued that way even season two rolls around.
Nobody's like, hey, let's go out and talk Stranger Things.
I think the closest I think we got was maybe
me and Ronnie got together and talked about it on

(03:23):
Screaming Boy. But that's it. Well nothing for radlicch and
Broadcasting Network as far as I know. So this, uh yeah,
this right here, I was chomping at the bit to
talk about it with somebody. So I'm so glad we
are doing this because I'm so excited for season five
and season four blew my mind. It's gonna be fun
to revisit and actually kind of re Oh my goodness,

(03:48):
what's the word experience? That's the word.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
And it's so freaky that no one on the network
chumped a bit because this Stranger Things is essentially a
blended composition of everything that everyone on this network work likes.
Nostralgia for the eighties, Dungeons and Dragons, sci fi and horror, ambulance,
entertainment style, children adventures. Yeah, you know, I just like,

(04:13):
I mean literally, it's like there is something on this
show for everyone on our network, and I'm like, how has
no one wanted this?

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Well, here we are, we are bringing it to the
masses now. I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Absolutely so Yes, Strange Things started in twenty sixteen on Netflix,
massive runaway hit, launching the career of several actors, including
a Finn Wolfhard Millie, Bobby Brown, Gadin Mazarro, Charlie Heaton,
and helping relaunch the careers of Wenona, writer David Harbor,

(04:51):
Matthew Modin. And again, this is just you know, the
first season. We're gonna see so many more people brought
and we'll get to them, but we're going to talk
about season one and how everything started on that night,
which ended the way All Night should end, with a
ten hour D and D campaign, the Boys Going Home

(05:12):
and Young Will Buyers finding himself in the path of
the dem mg organ being whisked away without even a
single trace of where he disappeared to, and we follow
our ensemble cast as they try to put together what
had happened to this young boy and what this all
has to do with a young girl who only goes
by the name Eleven appearing mysteriously in the woods.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, I just remember when the first episode drops, well,
the whole season dropped at the same time with the
first episode of the one I watched it. I didn't
know what I was going to get, you know, no clue.
I don't even know if I had seen I probably
saw a trailer for it, and then I think I

(05:57):
watched the first episode and immediately it was like, Okay,
I got to watch this with the wife because I
have a feeling she would enjoy this. It's got its
equal parts creepy and that nice throwback you got your
you know, to the eighties, and you've got the soundtrack.
By the way, I want to say that three season

(06:18):
most likely never skip the intro, all right, absolutely always
listen to it, as that is a staple in our
house for sure. But yeah, I just remember being taken
like so, I was so surprised at how much enjoyment
I had and how on the hook I was watching

(06:41):
just the first episode, and immediately was like, Okay, I
got to watch this with the wife. And of course
we only have eight episodes here to really talk about.
You could really absorb this within three days and go
back and you know, talk to anybody else at the
water cooler shortly after it aired, because everybody was been
almost like, I mean, I feel like I'm sure Bene

(07:04):
culture was around prior to this because Netflix, Oh yeah,
a little bit. But I feel like this is definitely
one of those ones where it had to be banjed
and you needed to watch that first season because if
somebody else was talking about another episode that you hadn't
watched yet, it could very well happen and you're gonna
really hate them and probably yourself for not watching it.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
So I just remember I when I didn't watch it
when it first premiered, like I was a few episodes,
but the memes, the massive amount of memes that I
was seeing all over the place, the pictures of the
wall decorated with the alphabet, the Christmas lights, uh, the
joking about a goo waffles, the line she's our friend

(07:47):
and she's crazy, and I saw so much. The fan
reaction was crazy, was nuts, and I was just like, Okay,
this is something that everyone's talking about. I gotta figure out.
You know. It's one of those things where it's like
you hear enough people mention you go, Okay, there's probably
something to get into this told ANDRAS like, hey, there's

(08:08):
a show, we should probably watch it. We loved it.
We have been hooked ever since. We always try to
binge as much as we can whenever the season's premiere.
Although I think we try to do. We do try
to break it up into like three days of watching,
just so we don't burn ourselves out going through the
whole thing. Nah, I get you, but the nostalgia dripping

(08:30):
in this series is amazing. The first episode alone, I
actually wrote down all the references here. We have references
to Jaws, Et, Poltergeist, Elfin, Lead Goodies, Lord of the Rings,
just so much. And this is an ensemble cast and

(08:52):
that's part of the charm I would say of the
series is that we have multiple viewpoints who are circling
around this disappearance. You have Joyce played by Winona Ryder,
who is going through the trauma missing her younger son
and she's pretty sure she is connecting with him somehow

(09:13):
through the electric lights, and to anyone else's eyes, it
looks like she has gone off the deep end.

Speaker 5 (09:21):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's one of the most one of
the things that I noted as I was doing this rewatch,
how well, you know, first off, Joyce has lost her son,
you know, as any mother would. She's frantic, she's she
doesn't want to believe the worst has happened. And at
the time, I mean this first episode, he's lost and

(09:45):
we there hasn't been. They haven't been able to find
a body or anything like that. So she's holding on
a lot of hope. But also she Wenona Ryder does
this great job of portraying this like frantic mother who
also may have some mental issues. This is obviously something

(10:06):
that could possibly break her mentally. So people are starting
to kind of like, and this proceed this proceeds for
a few episodes. They are you know, she's crazy, Joyce
brought buyers. You know, she's not exactly all there, and
now this thing is going to push her over the edge,
and a lot of people, a lot of people kind
of treat her kind of hands off because they know

(10:26):
the trauma she's going through, but they also don't believe
anything that she has to say.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
Including the people who start to come around. Is David
Harber as our sheriff, who Okay, I actually had never
heard of this guy before this found out. He actually
has quite a filmography before this movie came out, and
you realized, like and it's amazing to see the way
the series has completely reinvigorated his career. Yeah, he has

(10:52):
gone from B list movies to now he's a frickin Avenger.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
Yeah. Yeah, it's so funny because that's one of the
notes that I had here too. When I was watching
this the very first episode, I was like, my gosh,
David Harbor. Did I even know about him going into this?
And I feel like I didn't, And him as Hopper
he does such a great job. I mean, he is
such a great actor. But yeah, I mean, just like

(11:17):
you said, he's Red Guardian, he Violent Night.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
That's one of my new favorite Christmas movies.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
Right right. We watched it there last and I was like, man,
this thing was our second time watching it. When Christmas
rolled around, I was like, this thing holds up. This
is such a good time. Yeah. I love David David Harbor,
you know, And just like you said, he had pretty
much a decent career prior to this, right, I mean,
he was he was out there acting. I remember reading

(11:49):
something about how he was thinking about quitting. Is that
is that, right, like prior to the role of Hopper,
And then I think that kind of like made him
go okay, well we'll stick with this career and it
took off from there. But yeah, you know him is
Hopper in this. He does a great job, a great

(12:10):
job of this. What you think is going to be
this dopey cop, this dopey policeman who's not going to
give Joyce buyers the time of day. But then all
of a sudden he starts to see things that this
are they a government a government agency? I think they are, right,
that's that's.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
Yeah, it's not explicitly spelled out yet, but this does
tie into the mk ultra. Yep, the CIA's a very
illegal experiments in the eighties to well to I believe

(12:52):
the exact words where it's like to train soldiers to
resist brainwashing and such. But let's face it, between Hollywood theories,
MK Ultra has been blamed for pretty much anything weird
that happened in the eighties, not to mention the source
of about eighty percent of characters from comic books who
got superpowers.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
Yeah right, right, Well I was you know, even in
the late eighties. I'm a young kid, I'm like ten
years old, eleven years old, but boy did I have
something about government conspiracies and UFOs and stuff like that.
I remember buying a UFO magazine off the rack at
People's News, which was a magazine place down here in Marietta.

(13:33):
But I was into that stuff. This is the late eighties,
and I remember hearing about MK Ultra and all these
things back then. So this this show is tapping into
that zeitgeist as well for me. You know, this is
all stuff that I I was into, was fringe science
and all this weird stuff that I was just hearing
about through weird magazines and stuff like that, and of

(13:55):
course movies and yeah, so again touching on something that
was popular at the time, and it did a great
job of using it to definitely. I mean, it's a
main part of this whole series with some really whacked
out results as far as like tapping into a I

(14:16):
don't know, different dimension I guess is what this is
the upside Down.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yep. We're going to find out more about the upside
Down throughout the series, including essentially how it kind of
started and who sort of formed it. We're going to
get into that in season four. But this show, it's
the pacing is perfect, but it is a very slow burn,
and part of that is also through the ensemble cast, because,

(14:42):
like I said, we have multiple viewpoints, but they're all
discovering the truth at the same pace in their own way.
In addition to Joyce and Hopper, we also have our
crew of Will's friends Mike, Dustin and Lucas played by
Finn Wolf, Hard Gotten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin is D

(15:05):
and D friends who are determined to figure out what
happened to their buddy, and that's when they stumbled across
Billy Bobby Brown as Eleven, who just stole the show
and has has gone on to become an A list
actress by this point.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
Yeah. A funny note that I came up with while
I was watching, and I didn't realize this until I
was doing some searching, But I think Eleven was eleven
when she was filming this, which is which is interesting.
Billy Bobby Brown was eleven, I think when this was
being filmed. So neat little neat little bit. But yes,
she turns out to be a you know, fantastic actress

(15:46):
as well. She's I mean a couple there's been a
couple movies that I young what was the Sherlock Holmans
and Nola.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Holmes Nola Holmes.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
Yeah. I don't know what else she's been in since then.
I know she's been in a couple other things. Oh,
she was in the Godzilla stuff.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Yep, she was in the Godzilla movies. I hate to
say it, it kind of shocked me the pictures that
came out of I want to say it was her
eighteenth birthday party, because she's wearing a backless, strapless, thigh
high split dress, just like screaming sexiness. And I'm just like,
this is the kid that we saw running, you know,

(16:23):
through the woods in a T shirt, you know, who
could barely It's so weird when you see a child
girl and suddenly become something like that. You know, it
takes it takes a second. But yeah, she is great
as eleven. We come across her running from something, wearing
a hospital gown, having telekinetic powers. She barely speaks. She

(16:47):
has no real understanding of social cues or how to
interact with other people. This poor girl, we've learned and
spent her whole life in a lab being tested on.
Because anytime, and I would say the United States, but
let's face it, any country comes across something with a
new and unusual power someone is inevitably gonna say, how

(17:07):
could we use this for military benefit?

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yeah, let's weaponize it exactly.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
She has been forced to do studies to spy on
the Russians. You know, this is dripping with Cold War yep,
and we will again, We're gonna learn more. So the
series goes on, but she is fascinating. You know when
she comes out in episode four, they give her that
pink dress, that blonde wig, and I just remember looking

(17:36):
as like and a million cosplays were born ladies and gentlemen.
I have seen so many girls dress up like that,
especially the ones who learned how to take a cardboard
box and make it into a purse. And they made
a go boxes into purses.

Speaker 5 (17:50):
That's awesome, that's awesome. Yeah, she you knows as a character,
the character eleven when she shows up. I mean that's
a big part of like the mystery of our first
few episodes, what she can do, who she is, who's
chasing her? She's central to the stranger things mythos here
and uh yeah they again you called this a slow burn.

(18:12):
A lot of that is built into like trying to
learn who eleven is and they're not rushing it, which
you know. One of my notes was definitely the pacing
of this as slow as it is. I the thing
is is that eight episodes hit and I want more,
you know, And if it was agonizing pacing, I wouldn't

(18:36):
want more. So I think as far as slow burn goes,
it's well deserved because the payoff is fantastic.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Mm hm, and they're like I say, a lot of
the build up is also the fact that again Eleven
doesn't really understand what she has done and how to
communicate that with other people. She has only talked to
other lab technicians, the guy running the lab played by
Matthew Modine, who she just calls Papa, and Papa is

(19:05):
definitely cashing in his creep card for that role. Yikes.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
I don't know if i'd seen Matthew Modine and anything
for a very long time until Stranger Things hit. I
know he'd been in some classic eighty stuff, but it
had been a long time. Hey, what's up, Jo, Just
so welcome back this.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Yeah, he was watching our review of weapons last night.
Welcome back man.

Speaker 5 (19:30):
Yeah, he joined us there when we talked about some
comic books this past Monday. Me and Mark, Yeah, welcome back.
Appreciate you watching.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
So let's see here, let me go through my notes,
and again we're talking about these kids. This show lucked
out on these kid actors. We talked so often on
the show about how hard it is to get child
actors who are really able to convey the weight of
the roles given to them. And this is why a

(20:01):
lot of times you get older kids who are playing
younger versions of themselves. And all of these kids are
absolutely amazing. Finn Wolfhardt especially, who we have seen to
go on to do really great things. He's amazing as
Mike Wheeler. He's kind of the self appointed leader of
the D and D group.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
The daughter has like three posters in her bedroom a
fin Lavard. I think she made a light switch cover
out of him. She's a fan.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
He's a good looking kid. You know. We got again Madrazzo,
who interesting little tidbit he was worn with. I am
going to so mispronounce the name of this Clyde cranial dysplasia,

(20:54):
which basically the front of the skull does not close. Okay,
it's like poorly developed her. Yeah. The collarbones are typically
either poorly developed or absent, which allows the shoulders to
be brought close together. The front of the skull often
does not close until later. Those affected are off for
shorter than average sends. Mouse include prominent forehead, wideset eyes,
abnormal teeth, and a flat nose. This is a condition

(21:17):
that the actor does have and they decided to work
it into his character. So you know, uh, glad to
hear that.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
She's glad to hear it. I'm sorry to hear it.
We we sympathize. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
So and again, these these kids all have great personalities.

Speaker 5 (21:41):
You know.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
I love the way that they use D and D
to compare to what is going on this real world.
I mean, at no point is the monster ever actually
named the demig organ. That's just what the kids name him.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
Yeah. Yeah, I can tell you that, Dustin, Just like
you said, they use what he was going through physically
and bring that into the show and it just works,
and you know, the kid leans into it. And plus
he's just a great actor on top of it. You know.
So imagine being a kid and getting this opportunity, uh

(22:18):
and just knocking it out of the park. I mean,
they did great, They did a great job.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
And again, so many actors are born with uh, you know,
issues like with this act what Gavin has and I'm
sorry gat Ten, not Gavin kind of slid my words there,
and for so long that kind of a thing would
be pretty much be a blacklist from Hollywood. You would
never get any kind of acting deals from this, and

(22:46):
they have. You know, he's worked through it and it's
and it was a great way to you know, see
some inclusion in the act in the casting.

Speaker 5 (22:56):
Yeah, yeah, and again you know they knocked out of
the park. Fantastic.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
Absolutely, And of course we have our third group in
that is Jonathan Byers, Will's older brother, who is also
kind of launching his own investigation, although for the most
part he seems to be going along with the police.
He ends up teaming up with Nancy Wheeler played by
Natalia Dyer, who is Mike's older sister who has also
noticed some strange things, especially after her good friend Barb disappears.

(23:27):
Hashtag justice for Barb. Do you remember when that was
all over Twitter?

Speaker 5 (23:33):
Poor Barb, Poor Barb. Oh my goodness, yes I do. Yeah,
I mean, just adding to the weirdness and the creepiness
of this whole series. You know, Barb, best friend of Nancy's,
ends up ends up getting lost and you know, it's
at a party, so you never know what could have

(23:53):
went down. At least a lot of the people have
no idea what could have went down a cause or disappearance.
Well we know, and Jonathan Bier's might have got it
on film.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Barb's also a really relatable character. I know a lot
of us have had friends who talked us into going
to events, parties, concerts, get togethers, whatever. And it's not
that you it's like actively dislike the other people, but
you realize quickly you're not in your circle. And so
often you're with friends who are in that circle and
you find yourself kind of left out of the loop.

Speaker 5 (24:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mean this was kind of a you know,
supposedly a party. There's like five people there and she
is like legitimately the fifth wheel. So and unfortunately, I
mean she's trying to ground Nancy at this point, you know,
keep Nancy grounded, don't you know, get into some stuff
that's over your head. And well, unfortunately she kind of

(24:48):
fails in that aspect, goes out and sits at the
pool side by herself, and you know, the the rest
is history, I guess, and comes the upside down.

Speaker 4 (25:00):
Poor girl cuts her hand and the blood triggers the
dom Gore and like like freaking like a freaking great
white shark in the water.

Speaker 5 (25:08):
Yea, yep, yep.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Man.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
So much of this, like said, is really inspired by
other sources. And I think one of the big things
I noted was how much a lot of the scenes,
a lot of the sequences are very amblem entertainment inspired.
What I mean by that is that there are so
many sequences that you swear were directed by Steven Spielberg.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
Yeah, the talk the I was gonna say, the big
one happens near the end where I was like, holy crap,
this is this is ET the Extraterrestrial, which, by the way,
one of the first ever movies. I remember going to
the theaters and watching and uh, you know, hey, I cried.
I remember crying at the end of ET because I

(25:54):
didn't want ET to go home. Oh it's a tough movie.
You through and watch it. It's it's it's so it's
so touching. This is not an ET. The Denmigorgan is
not an ET that you want to keep around. Different
story here, but yes, the bike chase that we get
very reminiscent of and one entertainment for sure.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
The scene that really coman not just the bike chase,
but there's a scene in episode three Missus wheeler Mike,
and Mike's mother comes over to talk to Joyce see
how she's doing. She brings her infant daughter, Holly with her,
and you have the scene, you know, all the Christmas
lights are up and there's a ton of lights in

(26:37):
uh Wiel's old bedroom and Holly, this this kid can't
be more than three, maybe four years old.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
Yeah, she starts.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
Following the lights and they're all going off, and she's
standing in the bedroom with all of these lamps and
different lights going off, and I just remember looking it's like, okay, seriously,
guest directed Steven Spielberg. It's dreams his style.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's creepy. It is uh, it's it's
just it's it puts you on edge. Man. That reminds
me of like Poltergeist. You mentioned that earlier. That's another thing.
You know, kids going and kids going into a room
and they're stepping into something that they just don't know
what's happening about. The closet doors about to open up

(27:22):
and the clowns about to come out. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
So yeah, seriously, that clown puppet freaked me out for years.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
Not a not a fun movie to watch when you
were a kid. I think the it is part one
where he gets sick and throws up like this. Maybe
that's part two anyway, I can remember, Oh my goodness,
the dad ended up getting sick and this thing comes
out of them. Anyway, that's more stranger things things feel. Actually,

(27:54):
very final episode final scene is almost what that is.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
Yeah, that final shot of Will going into the bathroom
coughing up the extraterrestrial slug looking thing and as he
coughs it briefly turns into the upside down, to which
we know whatever was holding him there still has some
kind of a grip on him, and he's not done
with them yet.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
That's right, that's right, that's you know, it's not going
I mean, what do you want to do here? I
wondered if they knew they had a hit on their hands,
because clearly the ending of this season is a situation
where like, hey, if this hits, we've got a way
to bring it back. And leaving us there with that

(28:39):
little bit of a cliffhanger was awesome smart thinking on
their part.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
Not just that, but we also have eleven disappearing into
the upside down to take out the Denmi Gorgan and
save her friends. But we also get that little hint
that Hopper thinks she may still be alive when he
puts the food in. I don't know what that box is.
I think something to do with hunting, but I don't
know what it is.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
It's the same here. I have no idea. It looks
like a it looks like a box you put potatoes
in or something. But it's out in the woods, so okay, whatever.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, I have absolutely no idea. If any of our
loyal listeners or viewers know what that is, let us know.

Speaker 5 (29:18):
It could just be something. Yeah, it could just be
something hop or built too, just you know, to kind
of set it out there, and that's where she goes.
But it looked like it had been around for a
little bit.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
And so much in the season one. Like I said,
it's so memorable and has quickly become incredibly iconic for
fans of just not just television, but horror and sci fi. Again,
I dare you to find anyone who doesn't know about
the letters and the Christmas lights on the wall. I mean,
how many Spirit Halloween stores that year had that display up.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
I feel like, my goodness, I could be wrong, but
I feel like, you know how they have on holidays,
they have like the yule Log. I feel like YouTube
had a yule log situation where Darth Vader was burning
on a bunch of things. And then they also had
one of the Christmas lights with the with the fire

(30:17):
beneath it as well, which would fit. I mean, it's
Christmas lights, but you had the alphabet up there looked
just like our living room.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
There were so many memes that were made where the
lights would flash of different letters and you had to
wait to spell them ount and ninety percent of them
were Rick rolls, Oh really, that's funny and E D
E RG oh oh, for God's sake.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
I will also say that if you go to Spotify
and check out the Stranger Things soundtrack, I can remember,
you know. It was probably shortly after the first season aired.
I grabbed the soundtrack and was listening to it with
Kleb and they have some really cool animations just on
the sound I think it's actually when it's playing, it

(31:02):
looks really cool. They only do that for a very
few select albums. I remember just what looking at a
Star Wars one recently and instead of the play button,
looks like a lightsaber that keeps getting longer as it
continues to get as it continues to play. So I
think there's something that they do. Yeah, they do something
with Stranger Things as well. It feels really creepy. But yeah,

(31:25):
he's so Jess is saying it's the music of Stranger Things?
Is that what he's talking about here? I think so, well,
I will say that. Yeah, the soundtrack of this thing.
I immediately went out and sought it out because, oh
my goodness, this synse on this thing. I think it

(31:45):
was shortly before I think it was before Stranger Things hit.
I was watching Kung Fury, which I don't know if
you've ever seen or heard of Kung Fury a Lexus,
but a nice little half hour YouTube short and there
is a great synth soundtrack that goes along with Kung Fury,
and you can easily find it out there on Spotify.

(32:07):
It also has a song sung by David Hasselhoff. So
if you're a if you're a fan, you're a fan.
But anyway, the syn synth wave, I guess the genre
that's called, well, that brought me right back full fledged
into that type of music. This soundtrack here Stranger Things
does it well.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
Definitely. This opening theme alone has just an other worldly
feel to it. I don't know how exactly it's maybe,
I mean, assuming it's just a synthesizer, but it really
doesn't sound like anything that you would hear any other place.
It's creepy as hell. Hebgb's very he be gbs. So

(32:57):
let me go ahead and talk to you then, Like
I said, I know you've been a big fan. What
would you say, are some of your favorite moments from
the first season?

Speaker 5 (33:03):
Ooh, I've got them all listed, I have them right here.
I will go episode by episode if you will permit.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
Me, please go ahead?

Speaker 5 (33:11):
All right, all right, now, I'm not going to go
through every single one of them because I was just
every time something was popping up, I was throwing a
note out there. But all right, checked out, Ted Wheeler.
He is the most checked out dad I've seen in
a show in a long time. So this is Nancy's

(33:31):
father who is just like, oh, I'll just let the
kids be kids.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
This guy is like pure eighties yuppie down to those
thick ass frame alan thick dial glasses. Sorry, Jesse, are
you still there?

Speaker 3 (33:52):
Just see hello?

Speaker 4 (33:54):
I think your computer may have frozen. If you're still there.

Speaker 5 (33:59):
I got booted. First second, Am I back?

Speaker 4 (34:01):
Yes you're back?

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Oh my VPN kicked me out? All right, I'm back.
Am I backs?

Speaker 4 (34:07):
We're supposed to do that. Yeah, you're back.

Speaker 5 (34:10):
Mexican. Mexico's having problems apparently. So anyway, so okay, episode one.
I'll give a nod to checked out Ted Wheeler. But
as far as my favorite moment in our first episode,
it's it's got to be the you know, Joyce's just

(34:31):
kind of Winona Ryder's portrayal of Joyce and how she's
just kind of she's kind of playing her off kilter,
which is very believable for somebody who's going through that
type of trauma. And I've kind of already talked about
that a little bit. We get our first I think, look,
do we get a look at the dem igorgan in
the first episode. I think we do, because Will's like
any like loading up a shotgun of twenty two or

(34:53):
is it off panel or off off screen? I cannot.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
We see a little bit of a silhouette of it,
but we don't get a really good look until much
later on. But yeah, that scene of him loading up
in the shed obviously very et inspired and the way
they do it. He looks up, he's scared. The lights
suddenly dims, and when it comes back on, nothing, He's gone.
The demigorg has gone. No sign of them is there.

(35:19):
It's just like just.

Speaker 5 (35:20):
Poof just to make you sit there and like wonder,
like what happened? You know. Okay, we're starting things off
kids disappearing. This is very strange what is going on?
Episode two. I love how Mike shows Eleven the wonders
of furniture lazy boy. He's like, hey, this is this is,

(35:43):
this is this is this is the couch and I
was like, okay, yeah, really nice. You know, watching those
two like kind of bond and we all have our
first boyfriend girlfriend and you definitely get that sense of
innocence between these two. Clearly Mike has a you know,
probably has he definitely feels something for Eleven, and he's

(36:09):
coming of age. I guess it is the best way
to put it. Yeah, we do have our first death,
I think in episode two, which is Benny. Benny gets
is the diner owner where Eleven goes and is episode
maybe it was I haven't listed down. I haven't listed down.
Here is episode two because Benny she goes to sees Benny.

(36:31):
But I don't think Benny dies until the second episode.
I might be wrong, but either way, we get our
first death with Benny, who at first was like, oh man,
he's this big, gruff like uh diner owner and he
catches Eleven and I'm like, oh man, he's going to
hurt her, and no he doesn't. He sits down with her.
He's trying to get a rapport and then the bad
guys show up to talk to him about it and

(36:54):
they put a ball in his head.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
Yeah. Really stretches how the people who are going after
Eleven will start at nothing to get her back, and
anyone who gets in the way there cannon fodder, right.

Speaker 5 (37:05):
Joyce's creepy phone calls also in the second episode, really
kind of just hammered the tone as to how like
just eerie this thing is going to be. Is she
gets the phone and she knows its will and all
she can hear is just him breathing. And then you
know something that a mother most likely knows. They know
when they're hearing their kid, they know, they know even

(37:27):
if their kid doesn't say a word, they know that
kid is on the other side of the phone. But you,
as the viewer, are like, is it really? Is it really?
Will you know? And then of course the phone explodes
and she goes in and she's like, buying more phones
and put it on my tab. Good stuff. Episode three

(37:49):
this is where we get the Christmas lights. I mean,
I don't think you can get much more iconic than
that moment. In this she's buying all these Christmas lights,
stringing them up. As she realized is that the lights
are the way to communicate. Again. She's desperate to find
her boy and she'll do anything. The demogorgan breaking through
the wall in that episode two, holy crap.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
Yes, the way she grabs the act, she could hear
something going on. She breaks the roll. She can see
will somehow through the end of the upside Down and
again the wood. She puts up the lights and she's like,
what can I do? And you just see.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
R u n run oh man, oh man. We also
start to you know, see a little bit more of
the upside Down. We get the spores or whatever, and
how you know, creepy and eerie that is to uh
what where is Will? Where in the world is he?
What's going on? Episode four? This is I have listed

(38:50):
down here Will's body? Is that? Is that the name
of fourth episode? Is it the body?

Speaker 4 (38:54):
Something like that? I had actually completely forgotten about the uh,
the fake death subplot when I went back to watching this,
and there are times like we found a body, is like, wait,
this happened. I don't know why I had just totally
fallen or totally forgotten about it, but I do remember
that scene of Hopper breaking into the morgue and cutting

(39:15):
open the body and finding the cotton. Yes, and the
way he's just like he suddenly realizes that something is wrong,
and you know it's I love that tipping point in
a good mystery when a character finally starts to realize
something is going on, and you see the gears in
their heads start turning, and then he gets he sent

(39:38):
he finds wakes up at home, and he instinctively starts
trashing his house, and he finds the bug, and he
realizes everything that voice is said is true.

Speaker 5 (39:47):
Yes, And that is what I was talking about before
we went on air that this series kind of did
for me. It subverted a bit of expectations, like I
fully expected to now Hopper is going to be the
subject of ridicule because it's gonna seem like he's going crazy.
And he also the before he even finds the body,

(40:09):
I was fully expecting him to be completely on the
fence or on the other side of the fence and
not believing Joyce most of this, most of the season
not the case. I mean, just like you said, there's
a tipping point. Now this character realizes something is wrong.
Who would go to the lengths of creating a you know,
a fake body for a young boy. What does that entail?

(40:32):
Uh So, Yeah, it was a great tipping point, great
episode because when he finally goes and he looks at
Joyce and he just says, you know, he believes her,
lets her know that he believes her. You know, you're
you're pumping your fist in the air. You're like, yes,
all right, now these two can get together. Now we
got somebody who's I mean, Hopper's a big dude, and
he is also also you know, not afraid to knock

(40:56):
out a dude, and he can do it.

Speaker 4 (40:59):
See. I think that's what appeals to me for David
Harbor to play this role is that he embodies both
strength and kindness. We find out pretty early on that
his daughter died I think of cancer. And we see
flashbacks later on in this season where we see him
playing with his daughter and reading books to her while

(41:20):
she's stick in the hospital. And I have no qualms
seeing this man being so loving and so kind to
his children, to his child, and the way he talks
to the other kids, It's like, this is a man
I would trust to the ends of the earth to
do what is write and protect me and the kids.

Speaker 5 (41:41):
Yeah, yeah, and that's great, that's great. I think. At
the end of episode four, recording to my notes here,
we also have Nancy going into the tree portal or
whatever that is, and basically the portal to the upside
down through the tree. And I can't remember if they
end the episode right when she goes through and you're like, oh, man,
she's never going to get out, or if we get

(42:04):
in the next episode where because that's what I thought
was going to happen, I was like, oh, Nancy's gone,
We'll not see her again. She'll be in the upside
down for a long time. No, she is immediately brought
back out by Oh my goodness, Jonathan Jonathan helps her out, which,
by the way, we got you know, Jonathan and Nancy
hook it their their friends here. They're monster hunters going

(42:26):
out trying to find this thing. And it's so cool
to see Jonathan, you know, as she reaches her hand
out and he pulls her out.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (42:33):
So at that point, now you have somebody who has
the knowledge of what the upside down is in the
real world. Uh, and is going you know, what are
they going to do to take care of it? All right? Episode?
You know, for some reason I did not Episode five
musta just have been really good or I forgot to
denote it.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (42:52):
Do you have the episode list there? By chance?

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Hang ones, So I'm gonna pull it up. My only
note on episode five. Thank god, mister Clark is not
questioning his student's interest.

Speaker 5 (43:03):
Yes, yeah, mister Clark.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
Yeah, mister Clark is the science teacher. He's head of
the av I. God completely forgotten that this was a
thing in the seventies, eighties and nineties, The av Club
you know before like podcasts and broadcasting and stuff like that,
was really a thing that students could get into.

Speaker 5 (43:25):
I just just throw this out here back again in
the late eighties. I was a fan of Ham radios too,
Like I was going to get my Ham radio license
as a kid, and did not do that because I
realized that there's no way I'd ever own a Ham radio.
They're a little expensive. But anyway, it again, it's just

(43:46):
little touches like this make this seem so so seemed
so authentic.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
And yeah, episode five is called The Flea and the Acrobat. Okay, yeah,
because this is the episode where mister Clark it basically
explains to his students how parallel dimensions can work. And again,
it's just like I love that his students are just
talking like, so, what do you know about parallel dimensions?
I think any other teacher would have been like, Okay.

(44:15):
He doesn't hesitate. He's like, oh you want to know
about this, Okay, well I'll explain it to you. And
it's awesome.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
I don't know, I don't think it's this episode. It
might be another episode later on down the line. We've
only got three left. But they call him up like
in the middle of the night when he's on a date.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Yeah, watching the Thing, Watching the Thing, Yes, one of
the best sci fi horror movies.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
Ever, absolutely and he's again, He's like, well, let's talk
about this next, you know, when when Monday rolls around
and they're like, no, we've really got to talk about
it now. He doesn't let the kids down. He helps
them out and talks them through it and says exactly
what they It tells them exactly what they need to know.
So mister Clark, is that his name?

Speaker 4 (44:54):
Yep, mister Clark.

Speaker 5 (44:55):
Thumbs up, mister Clark.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
I also love that episode for one moment in particular.
So the kids build a sensory deprivation pool for eleven
to go into, because yeah, I never really thought about it,
but you can't just put you know, float in regular water.
You have to make it saline salt water, you know,
the like the Dead Sea. And I think they said

(45:18):
they put in like fifty fifteen hundred pounds.

Speaker 5 (45:23):
Yeah, trust me salt. I said there. Doing the math myself,
I was like, how in the world I mean that salt.
Granted it gets mixed in with the water and you
can't see it, but for crying out loud, that that
amount of salt still is in there. So that pool
not only on with the water, weighs fifteen hundred pounds

(45:44):
plus the water. So he can float in regular water,
it takes a lot less effort to do it in
salt water. Bike, I got fifteen hundred pounds of salt water.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
So yeah, I think it's it's not so much that
you could float, but it's in fact you could float
so buoyantly on the top.

Speaker 5 (45:59):
Yeah. I I would love to try that. Like I
think that the most comfortable I've ever been is when
I fell into a snowbank and every inch of my
body was supported. You know, I throw me in a
sensory deprivation tank. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
Well, it's not just the building of the sensory deprivation tank,
which is great, it's the moment at the end of it.
So they put Eleven in, They put her, they give
her the blackout goggles. She goes in, and she tells
she finds Will. He's in the castle, that little ford
that he built, which is one of the first places
that Joyce looked for him in episode one, yep, which

(46:37):
I love. I love that tie back. And then the
demigorgan crashes through the walls and Eleven pulls herself out
of the water, screaming, and Joyce comforts her and holds.
She's like, it's okay, sweetie, it's okay, it's okay. And
you have to realize that is probably the first time
in her life that Eleven has been comforted by a mother,

(47:00):
their figure that she is, you know, feel because anytimes
she freaked out about that, you know, Papa was probably
just like, okay, write down what happened, put her back
in her room.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
You know.

Speaker 4 (47:10):
You just that moment of comfort that she is probably
experiencing for the first time.

Speaker 5 (47:17):
I get a sense that Matthew Bodine's papa, he does
care for Eleven a little bit, like he's he's not
as cold as he you know, somebody could be in
that position. He's he's a little he's a little caring,
but he was obviously more mission focused and let's go
ahead and see what the results are, just like you
were saying. But yeah, yeah, And one of the other

(47:41):
things that they find out during that The first thing
that they find out about that is Barber's dead. She's
laying there and she's got a few things crawling on
and out of her too. It's pretty gruesome.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
Yeah. I don't know if you've ever seen the Treehouse
of Horror episode where they parodied Stranger Things. But there's
a line where they're in the uh uh, the over
under as they call it, and Gil is laying there
wrapped up in the tentacles and goes, boy, these vines
are good at finding all the holes.

Speaker 5 (48:13):
Oh goodness, well risque there, Simpsons.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
Yeah, but again that's I saw a barb with all
the sot round and I'm like, that was literally all though.

Speaker 5 (48:26):
We tried to make it.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
I think I've watched that Treehouse of Horror more than
I have watched.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
Wow, Halloween rolls around. We try to make it through
the Treehouse of Horrors, and we got pretty We got
like the two thousands. We start from the beginning, made
it to the two thousands, and then we stopped at
some point. So I'm gonna have to go back and
start from the two thousands forward. I gotta see this
parody a Stranger Things.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
I watched Treehouse of Horror all the time. It's one
of my favorite things to have on in the background,
especially since uh Disney Plus as in their Simpsons collections,
they have the Horror collections. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, where
you could just get all of the Treehouse horse and yeah,
I've watched them all so many times. They're one of
my favorite things to have on in the background while
I'm working.

Speaker 5 (49:08):
Yeah, all right, moving on to episode seven, uh or
excuse me six, I'm gonna almost skipped an episode. Episode
six has a couple of great moments in this one.
This is when they make it to the quarry and
the quarry and this who was it that it's uh,
will not will excuse me, it's Mike. Mike jumps off

(49:29):
the ledge and Eleven lifts him up in front of
the bullies. Uh, and then you know, we we this
is this was a moment. I mean, you wanted to
see these kids get him get over on these bullies.
Another eighties kind of aspect I think, granted still unfortunately
continues today, but regardless.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
Yeah, so this is where you get the scene of
Dustin yelling she's our friend and she's crazy and.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
She's crazy, and they take off running. Great stuff. And
then we have the Steve versus Jonathan fight where Steve
is involved. I don't even know if he's involved, but
we find out later. I don't think I don't think
that he was, but he's upset at Nancy. And there
is some graffiti that's sprayed about Nancy and then Jonathan,

(50:19):
who by the way, is pegged as a pervert because
he was taking pictures of Nancy and Steve at that
house from the woods, which is, yeah, that is kind
of creepy. But regardless, Steve versus Jonathan, you wanted to
see this go down, and you were hoping Jonathan would
get the upper hand, and he does, and he beats
the crack out of Steve and gets arrested for it,

(50:42):
and then he gets arrested for it.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
Yeah, so if I remember correctly what happened. So Steve's
got these two friends who are total assholess, Yes, definitely,
and he's had a big fight with Nancy. They're not
totally broken up, but it doesn't look good well the night.

(51:04):
Then that night, that's the night that Nancy gets pulled
and or you know, nearly gets locked into the upside
down and Jonathan pulls her out. They go back to
her house and she asks him to stay. She know,
she's just been through a very traumatic experience. She's like, please,
I need someone to sleep here with me. I am
really just terrified about what I've gone through.

Speaker 5 (51:22):
You don't, Yeah, Jonathan's very honorable about it. You know
they're they're clearly friends. And even though Jonathan, they may
look at something later between for them, between them, the blossom,
but they you know that's not the case here. They
are very much, very much friends at this point.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Yeah, it's not till, not till the second season where
we get the classical line. So, Jonathan, how is the pullout? What?

Speaker 5 (51:45):
Oh Jesus, I don't know why I always remember it?
That why I forgot it? Well, I can't wait to
see it happen here in the I hear it when
it comes on there this season two.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
So he spends the night that nothing happens. But then
after they leave, Steve comes to the house. He does
the whole eighties boyfriend thing of climbing the lattice to
get that right, which is so cute, but he can
clearly see someone else slept there, and he's upset because
it looks like Nancy's cheating on him, and his two

(52:19):
friends decide to start spray painting. Nancy Wheeler is a
selette and Steve is he's not. It's essentially he doesn't.
I don't think he wanted them to, but he's too
upset to tell them to stop.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
Yeah, yeah, and granted, you know, okay, they did it.
Now let me see if I can use it as
a weapon against Nancy. And of course Jonathan Jonathan is
with Nancy at that time. Yeah, they get into this
huge fight. Steve gets the crap beat out of him
and gets arrested for it. So then we hit episode seven.

(52:53):
So here we go with like some of the biggest
moments I think of the season. We get the bike
chase and the van flip, which this is a the
the government has showed up. They know where Eleven's at.
The kids kids on bikes trademark something I'm sure because
I know that's a role playing game.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
We talked about this when we reviewed the Skeleton Crew
plug plug that golden era of Hollywood where kids on
their bikes could solve any problem.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
Yep. So the kids and at this time I think it's, oh,
my goodness, what is his name? I had his name here, Lucas.
Lucas is doing some investigation and figures out that they're
coming for either, They're coming after Eleven. They coordinate some stuff,
they start escaping. They get on their bikes to escape,

(53:42):
and the vans are coming in and Eleven is on
the back of Mike's bike and flips this van is
coming right at him and flips it. It is an
awesome shot slow mo and the music and everything as
this van just kind of flips over them as they
ride under it. It's awesome.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
And again, I love even just how Lucas stumbles upon this.
He gets into a huge fight with them over Eleven.

Speaker 5 (54:07):
He's a bit jealous, I guess is probably the best
way to put it, well.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
And he also was realized that, unfortunately Eleven, they were
using the compasses to look for the electromagnetic field. Smart move,
by the way, yep, And Eleven is so terrified of
going back that she is psychically or telepathically altering the
compasses and they're going in circles. And yeah, Lucas has
realized something's not right with this girl. And I'm tired,

(54:33):
and Mike is obviously very smitten and he's defending her,
and Luke's like, oh my god, we've been your friends
for years. You're throwing us under the bus for this girl.

Speaker 5 (54:41):
And you're not going You're not going after Will either.
That's the other thing is that they're wanting her to
help find Will. And granted it took Lucas forever to
number one, believe that she could do what she could do.
And then finally, after all this evidence that he got
to see, specifically the poor millennium falcon toy that got
dropped on the ground three times, which broke my heart,

(55:01):
kept hearing it hit the ground, and I know that's
all folly, but whatever. They better have had a pillow
underneath of it. But they, you know, the he finally
is realizing that she can do what she can do,
and now she doesn't want to go back and she's
kind of avoiding trying to help and find will and
that really sets them off. And of course, you know,

(55:23):
now now things are definitely escalating. Not only that, but
if she can do what she can do, you know,
there was a couple of moments that they explicitly said
when she is when the bad people show up, it's bad.
And they make you realize that you could potentially lose
your life dealing with the the federal government here or

(55:43):
the government agency that's coming after you. So there you go.
But anyway, yeah, Lucas's Lucas's motivations, I guess. So anyway,
kids on bikes, I interrupted.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
You, but like I said, Yeah, So Lucas goes off
on his own, but then he realizes with the compass
it's still working, and he just kind of puts too
into together. Is like, Eleven's not here to mess with this,
and Dustin was right about the electromagnetic field, you know
he put you know, he figures this out on his
own and he does his own little mini investigation. He's
still upset with the kids, but he wants to find

(56:12):
Will and he knows finding this gate is the best lead.
So this is one of those shows where it's like
you so often in the hands of lesser people, this
would be an incredibly contrived third act breakup kind of
a scene, but it works. We understand where Lucas is
coming from, and we understand why he continues the investigation.
It never feels like, oh, so he just happened to

(56:34):
stumble across his No, he figures it out.

Speaker 5 (56:37):
Yeah, And then I think what I believe is probably
it's got to be like at least number two as
far as my favorite moments of this season, and that
is when Steve shows up at Mike's No, let me
try it again. Steve shows up at Jonathan's house and

(56:57):
finds Nancy there and of course immediately goes into overprotective
jerk boyfriend mode, even though they are clearly at odds
at this point, but doesn't realize that he's stepping into
a monster hunting expedition and they are trying to lure
out the demogorgan and are on the in the process
of doing so. And at any point I was like,

(57:19):
just like you said earlier, this guy is food for
the demogorgan. Steve is dead. That's gotta be what happens, right,
mm hmm, No, does not happen? Does not happen. Dude
gets involved and immediately is like his head explodes because
he's just trying to figure out what the world is
going on. Why are you guys? Why do you have
a bat?

Speaker 4 (57:38):
Why do you have a bat? Why do you have
a gun? Why is there a bear trap on the floor?
Why won't you let me apologize? He loves Nancy and
he's trying to do right. He's like, I didn't want
to be broth this. I want to make up and
you don't go back to being your boyfriend.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
He's trying to be a good guy. Just watching him
freak out, like what is going on? What is going on?

Speaker 4 (57:59):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (57:59):
My god, what is going on? And then you're expecting him,
Like I said, they I think they end up kicking
him out of the house and they he's about to
get in the car and he turns around, he sees
the lights for flickering, and he goes back in, Oh
my gosh, grabs the bat. I mean, he's helping him out.
And I was like, that is what made this show

(58:20):
so good to me, is that they completely tossed what
I thought was going to happen out the window, and
Steve becomes one of the best parts of this whole
series in my opinion. I mean, he's definitely a crucial
part to it.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
So yeah, like I said, I forgot so much how
Steve was such a jerk, and he and because he
is such a crucial part of this series going forward,
you forget just what he was like because by the
third season he's best friends with these kids. You have
the scene where he's working at the ice cream parlor
in season three and Dustin comes back from from camp

(58:57):
and Steve's so excited to see him, and it's like
you're a high school student who's excited to see a
middle schooler and you're acting like this is your best
friend and to anyone else just looks like the dorkiest
thing in the world. Yeah, and he goes to such
lengths to help out to protect the people he loves,
and he has such a great character. And credit to
the actor. Oh my god, what is this dude's name,

(59:22):
Joe Carey, who's again his career has really taken off,
and it's great seeing him in other projects for sure.

Speaker 5 (59:31):
Yeah, I mean, my goodness, it was just awesome to
see that that complete one eighty just like you said,
of this character from the beginning to where we're at
here and as we further go onto the through the
rest of the series, and I think we I mean,
that's gonna take us to the final episode we'll finale

(59:52):
here of the season, season eight or excuse me, episode eight,
and I mean, my goodness, I do have my notes
are Steve's accidental hero moment, So maybe we get a
lot of the action there in that first part of
season or episode eight, I don't remember, but I mean
the big thing, the big moment that comes out of

(01:00:12):
episode eight is eleven versus the demic organ. I mean,
this thing that's what a face full of teeth as
the best way to describe what the demic organ looks like.
You got any better description?

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Man eating flour on a giant on a giant's body.

Speaker 5 (01:00:29):
Yes, that's pretty freaky. It's pretty freaky, you know. My goodness,
what I think it was twenty fourteen when Pokemon Go hit.
This is just a memory that flashed into my head.
Pokemon Go hits. It becomes like this mega sensation. You
could walk it downtown here in our small town and
see people playing it, you know, walking down the streets.

(01:00:52):
And granted, that was a pretty big trend for quite
a while. I think we were doing this through twenty
sixteen as well. And I can remember, Hey, there we go.
My wife still plays it, so.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
I play every days. Fun. It's fun. It's a fun
little distraction and hobby, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
Not only I mean not only that, but it's also
can get you healthy. I mean, there was plenty of
people guys saw that were out there walking because they
understood that they could get some exercise while playing this
fun game. But anyway, I remember down in the park
we were playing Pokemon Go or walking, and there was
a tree that looked like the tree that's in this
episode with this big hollow thing in the middle. I'm like,
oh my goodness, it's the upside Down. That's how you

(01:01:33):
know ingrained this show was and kind of affected the
way that I was thinking while we were just doing
about daily activities because it had this creepiness vibe that
kind of stuck with it. And therefore the Demo Gorgan.
When you finally get the Demo Gorgan, the flashing school
lights and it's Eleven versus the Demo Gorgan. What a treat,

(01:01:58):
what a showdown and quite you know, quite uh quite
an ending. I mean, you're you kind of get to
watch Eleven and you see her build up of these powers.
Not only that, during this time, we have Hopper and
Joyce in the Upside Down going to find Will, which

(01:02:20):
is the other the the other climax that we could
see Will, who was they had a funeral. They had
a funeral for this kid. Uh they find him barely
hanging onto life and bring him out of there. Uh So, yeah,
our two big moments is the rescue of Will and
definitely Eleven versus the demc Gorgan, great ending, great finale,

(01:02:42):
uh and great cliffhanger too. We kind of talked about
that already, but that's kind of Uh, that's kind of
all my big moments for each episode. Thank goodness, there's
only eight. This is one of those series or one
of these seasons. I said I wanted more earlier, right,
like I want I wanted more, and I I believe
they knew what they were doing by pacing things out

(01:03:04):
so slow, because the finale was so explosive and just
was something that allowed you to anticipate it and had
a great payoff. Although I wanted more, it was one
of those things where it was like perfectly done. There's
only eight episodes here. There's a very good possibility if
you would have stretched it to ten, it could have
got a little it could have got a little. As

(01:03:27):
slow as this thing went, it could have got really
it may have got on your nerves a little bit,
But that also gives you the opportunity. They built a
world with this first season because they had all of
this stuff that wasn't just all fleshed out. We got
little bits and pieces. What is the upside down? You know,
our Cliffhanger is well going to be okay, he's thrown
up slugs. That's a problem.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
You know, where's eleven? Is she coming back?

Speaker 5 (01:03:53):
Right? There's a great world here that still you know,
it isn't completely fleshed out, and it gives you a
basis to go, Hey, you guys want a second season,
just let us know. Okay, it's green, let let's go.
I loved going back and watching this again. Me too.
This was so it was so fun and so refreshing.

(01:04:13):
Like I said, this is my third time going through it.
When season four hit, which, by the way, I mean
we haven't talked about it, but my goodness, spacing out
seasons two years peace, that might be a little bit
of a stretch, especially if you're especially if you want
these kids to be kids. They ain't kids anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
I mean, I hate say. I think that's part of
the reason why the Duffer Brothers said they're ending after
season five, because again, uh, Millie, Bobby Brown, our precious
little eleven just freaking turn twenty one.

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
Yeah. Yeah, so it's you know, it's probably good that
they're ending it here with season five, but again, spacing
it out two years at a time. When the fourth
season hit, I told the kids, I said, let's go
back through and watch, you know, watch all of them
get and get prepared for season four did not regret
it one bit. The kids loved it at there, you know,

(01:05:04):
at that great age where they can enjoy stuff like
this as creepy as it is and kind of they're
definitely scary. Uh, you know, they wanted more, just like
just like we did. And then I'm so glad we're
going through this again. I'm so glad, so glad.

Speaker 4 (01:05:19):
And every season brings something new to the table. There
is again there's only been four seasons so far, going
on our fifth, but there is something that is introduced
into every season that is just so much fun. Season two,
we're gonna look forward to the introduction of Max and
the mind Flair. Season three, we're going to get the
big Fourth of July celebration and oh my.

Speaker 5 (01:05:39):
God, what what is that boy's name that shows up?
The heart throb? That's Max's brother, Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:05:48):
Yeah, Decor Montgomery, who before this, the only rule I
had seen him in was that Power Rangers movie that
came out a few years ago, right right right, and
who basically I think showed up and the only audition
was take off your shirt, we need to see your abs.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
That's a lot of girls, I assume when they saw
this guy.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
Yeah, Oh, and carry always coming in third season as
well to I think I've joked about this before. Carry
always only plays two characters anymore, cartoony buffoon or cartoony villain.

Speaker 5 (01:06:26):
Who's our guy from Matt about You. I cannot remember
his name. He's gonna be showing.

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
Up, Oh my god, Paul Reiser.

Speaker 5 (01:06:33):
Paul Reiser. And then we have Sean Aston. I mean,
my goodness, it's just it's gonna be so exciting.

Speaker 4 (01:06:40):
And then of course we get the fourth season with
the introduction of Vecna and Joe Quinn playing everyone's favorite character, Eddie,
and we're gonna have a long talk about him and
his character and spoilers for what we think is gonna
happen with him in season five when we get there.
That's why we're doing this one season of time, folks,

(01:07:00):
because there is too much to cram in all four
of these seasons into a decently LENGTHD podcast unless you know,
you want to check back with us at like six
o'clock in the morning tomorrow when we're talking about you know,
the D and D, you know the stylings of Vekna
and his vampire assistant. You know, just like, there's only so.

Speaker 5 (01:07:23):
Much we can cover yeah, we would still have another
three hours ago at about that point. Yeah, good stuff.
I am like I said, I am so excited I
get the opportunity to talk about it, so look forward
to it for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
Season one was a huge hit. It, like I said,
launch the careers of so many of these younger actors,
restarted the career, so many others who have been around
four and just got that shot in the arm that
they needed. It is amazing. It is fun and after
all this time, Season one is still fun. To go
back and rewatch. If you haven't rewatched in a while,

(01:07:58):
I recommend go ahead and binging it. It's eight episodes.
You can get it done in a weekend easily, and
this is a great way to get yourself pumped for
the series finale that is going to come in on
New Year's Eve.

Speaker 5 (01:08:11):
Awesome, fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
Until then, we will be back next month in September
to discuss the retrospective on season two again. We're going
to be introduced to Max and Mayfield, her brother, step brother,
half brother I don't remember, Billy. We're gonna find out
a little bit more about the upside Down. We're gonna
find out more about Eleven's background, where she came from,

(01:08:35):
and the nightmare that we find out her mother went
through that that episode freaked me out.

Speaker 5 (01:08:41):
Ye ye, yep. Terry Ives.

Speaker 4 (01:08:45):
Terry Ives who we do see in the first season,
but we don't know quite yet what she has gone through.
We're gonna find out later and it may very well,
you know, give you a nightmares. So we're gonna have
a lot of fun with that is we also get
to look at more eighties nostalgia with Dragons Lair and Ghostbusters.

(01:09:08):
You were a kid in the eighties. You dresses the
Ghostbusters at least once for Halloween. Admit it.

Speaker 5 (01:09:13):
That's right, That's right. Did you did? I? I I'm
sure that I wanted to. I was just talking to
somebody earlier this week about when I first watched Ghostbusters,
and I mean, I can remember it was on HBO
and what oh, I know what brought it up. I
kept seeing stuff on Facebook about how Ray Parker's Junior's

(01:09:35):
Ghostbusters was number one, like so many years ago, and
I was trying to figure out if I had heard
the song first before I saw the movie. It was
probably very likely I probably heard the song first because HBO.
I'm sure that you know it was in the theaters
and was playing the song left and right and probably
oh yeah, go on. But I didn't watch it until

(01:09:55):
it came out on HBO, so I probably heard the
song before I actually watched the movie, which I'm curiou
This is what I thought Ghostbusters was before I actually
saw the movie. But regardless, what a film. And of course,
you know, if I didn't dress up like the Ghostbusters,
I can tell you I I I definitely owned the
Ghostbusters cartoon action figures.

Speaker 4 (01:10:16):
Oh, oh my god. The Ghostbusters toys, yeah, oh my.

Speaker 5 (01:10:23):
God. I was.

Speaker 4 (01:10:26):
Who do you think had a more creative collection of toys?
Ghostbusters or Teenage Turtles?

Speaker 5 (01:10:33):
Yeah, my goodness. The Turtles line goes off there towards
the end, like you get some crazy stuff and some
of the stuff, like I watched that documentary Turtle Power,
and they show some of the stuff that didn't get made,
which was pretty crazy. But when you look at the
they could do anything they wanted with Ghostbusters toys. Like
you know, I was just looking at some guys selling
something here locally. Uh they had a oh my goodness,

(01:10:56):
there was this like football player looking action figure. But
of course you flip them up down. He becomes this
big mouth with these teams. Yes, I would say Ghostbusters,
Oh my.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
God, Toombstone Tackle. That was Toombstone Tackle.

Speaker 5 (01:11:07):
I can't believe you remember the name. Oh wow, god,
Tombstone Tackle. I'd say it's neck and neck. I mean,
you could do anything with some mutagen, but I mean
ghosts or ghosts, so they can. They could do some
freaky stuff with some of those things.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
Well, that actually does tie into a little bit more
about our future retrospective, because some of you might be
sitting there at home going, well, wait a minute. You
said you're gonna do one season per month, but there's
five months left until New Year's you're missing one, and
you're absolutely right. That's because in December we're gonna take
a break. We're gonna do September season two, October season three,

(01:11:45):
November season four. In December, rather than looking at another season,
we're going to be looking at a graphic novel. We
are going to review Stranger Things meets teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Speaker 5 (01:11:59):
This is why comic books exist, folks. You have to
understand that you're not going to see something like this
on the screen. You are probably going to have to
read a comic book about it, and I can't wait.
I really can't. I love that. Probably my favorite toy
property of all time, my favorite cartoon property. Oh yeah,

(01:12:21):
So it's you know, watching the TMNT who have crossed
over with a ton a ton of things Batman they've
crossed over with. I think there's a he Man line
of Turtles toys right now, he Man line of Turtles toys.
So it's you know, stranger things not off the table.
We're gonna talk about it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
I actually own Batman Versus the Ninja Turtles on Blu Ray.
It's one of my favorite animated guilty pleasures. It's so
much fun.

Speaker 5 (01:12:50):
I was so glad that they took that and turned
that into something animated, because you know, a lot of
times you can't get that stuff off the page, and
this is, you know, such a great, a great crossover.
I'm glad they did that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
I love it. And for the record, if you guys
are interested, if you want to go back a little
bit further into our archives, Mark Radlich and I did
an episode of Comic Strip where we discussed the graphic
novel the first volume of Batman Meets the Ninja Turtles
and the animated adaptation, where they were similar, where they differed,
which is the better version, what's more fun? And our

(01:13:25):
discussions about whether or not Ooz plus the Joker turn
them into a hyena or a jackal, because frankly, the
artwork it's kind of hard to.

Speaker 5 (01:13:33):
Tell some of the fun discussions we have on here.

Speaker 4 (01:13:40):
And for the record, if you have a chance to
watch the animated movie or check out the graphic novel
Batman meets the Ninja Turtles, I highly recommend both. A
lot of fun, awesome. All right, mister Starcher, why don't
you go ahead and give us your plugs?

Speaker 5 (01:13:53):
Well, once again, absolutely thrilled. I got to get on
here and talk about stranger things. Finally. Yeah, as for myself,
listen if you dig comic books, I have a comic
book podcast called the Source Material Comics Podcast, part of
the W two M network. If you wanted to go
to any YouTube or podcatcher and type in source Material

(01:14:15):
Comics Podcast should be able to find that. We have
a few shows on the feed, the Source Material Comics
Podcast Proper, which focuses on comics of any era. Last
show that aired was myself an Alsadano getting together and
talking about Quantum and Woody and finishing out that first
iteration of that series, which I think rolled into two

(01:14:36):
thousand and Yeah, it was My goodness. Christopher Priest is
an amazing writer. M. D. Bright was part of this thing,
and the humor really is saturated throughout that whole comic
and it's great. So you get an opportunity to listen
to me and AlSi Dano break it down. And then
this past Monday on Unspoken Issues, what is your nineties
comic centric podcast? Unspoken Issues affiliated with the Unspoken Decade

(01:14:58):
the nineties comic book Facebook page and website as well. Anyway,
me and Evan Bevans and Chris Armstrong got together and
finished out our third entry into Gimmick Cover summer. So
we did one for each month June, July, and August,
and this one was Fantastic four number three seventy one.

(01:15:19):
You may remember it as the completely white or completely
red copy of Fantastic Four that has Human Torch who
went nova. He went nova, folks, Yes, he went nova.
And he also notorious notorious for introducing the Fantastic four

(01:15:39):
Sioux Storm boob window costume. Oh yeah, the introduction. Actually,
I told Evan I said, the comic was actually colored
just fine until they put that panel in there, and
then it went up in flames. And that's why, Oh
you suck Jesse all right. Anyway, me and Evan Bevans

(01:15:59):
also get together and we talk about Marvel Snap. So
if you play Marvel Snap on your phone device, me
and Evan drop about I don't know, four episodes a month,
just talking about what happened last season, what's coming up
in the next season. We have our top fives on there,
We talk about some of the cards we unlocked. We
have a good time. Don't go to it thinking you're
going to get a lot of crucial information because we
usually get stuff wrong. But we have a good time

(01:16:21):
doing it. So that is all I have. Oh tomorrow,
I'm talking West Wing with Mark season seven. I never
thought i'd be political man talking a political show, but
here I am. And I enjoyed a lot of what
I watched with the West Wing. Really good show, so
you can check that out. That's happening tomar. That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:40):
I'm done, all right. If you've been twoting in previously,
this wraps up a very long stretch of shows that
I've been doing. Last night mister Robert Winfrey and Jason
Teasley and I discussed Weapons, which was number one of
the box offices last weekend. Week before that, we talked
together the New Body horror film. This is part of

(01:17:02):
our segments of Damn You, Hollywood, which we like to
call the Unholy Trinity, which three of us talking about
the scared about horror films now next or next week
on wrong calendar, monthly, wrong calendar. Okay, So on August twentieth,
I will be back to talk Resident Alien season four

(01:17:25):
with Mark, which I gotta find time to binge that
over the next few days. Then I get a week off,
and then on September third, I'll be coming back to
host a discussion with Jason Teasley and our occasional collaborator,
mister Josh. You know, we're talking Twisted Metals season two.
Then after that we're gonna be doing another Unholy Trinity review.
We're gonna be looking at the upcoming adaptation of Stephen

(01:17:51):
King's The Long Walk. And the day after that, September seventeenth,
is when you and I will be back to talk
Stranger Things season two, and I know that we've got
some shows coming up in November because we're gonna be
looking at gen V season two. I know we had
a lot of fun talking gen V season one, really
excited to discuss this and how this is building up

(01:18:12):
to the finale of the Boys. And we're gonna be
also looking in November at Only Murders in the Building
season five. I believe it is, so we got that.
In the meantime, I'm also going to be looking at
Peacemaker and a few other shows that are coming out,
because I am watching so much TV that, frankly, my
brain has just suddenly turned into a Friday Egg.

Speaker 5 (01:18:35):
I've been there.

Speaker 4 (01:18:38):
And as for the plugs that pay, let's go ahead
and do the honeysickle Hustle. I'm start to regret that
for the rest of his life.

Speaker 5 (01:18:47):
Best song on the Rattleistion and Broadcasting album, though.

Speaker 4 (01:18:51):
Robert said, I should figure out how to work the
sound bites and actually put the honeysuckle hustle chorus in
there so I can actually click that before I start
my plugs, and I said, to which I said, Marks
never taught me how to use the soundboard, because he
knows I would abuse the hell hell. Yes, yeah, he's
just like he knows that's not a smart move. So

(01:19:12):
Honeysuggle Rose Creations. We're fashion meets fandom at the intersection
of geek and cheek. We're getting ready to head to
Colorado Springs for the Colorado Springs Comic Con. It's one
of our favorite shows. We do it every year. I
used my TV mostly as an an so, yeah, I
don't get that luxury. I got so much. I gotta
watch from Mark. You remember when we were kids and

(01:19:37):
they said too much TV rot your brain.

Speaker 5 (01:19:39):
Here we are podcasting about it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
Yeah, pretty much right here, folks see the rot. You
see it? All right? So I get her head to
Colorado's Springs. I mentioned this last night. Normally this is
the part where I say our stores are fully stocked.
But we have a little addendum to that, and that
is that we have temporarily taken our Clue jewelry off
the shop because we had a massive amount of orders

(01:20:04):
for it over the last two months and I literally
ran out of tokens. Oh wow, So I'm currently I
just spent this last few days ordering a ton of
tokens from every dealer I could find. Our usual dealer
has shut down a store for the time being. I
think he's on vacation, or he's just not restocking. I
don't know, whatever's prerogative is. So we've been buying as
many as we can. As soon as I have a

(01:20:26):
decent amount of those tokens here actually in my hands,
we will relist the items, specifically the clue bracelets and
the dagger earrings. Those of the items that we did
have to take down. So if you've been following and
your wondering's like, well, where the heck are those clue bracelets,
they will be back online. I promise, just got to
have a little downtime while I wait for our supplies

(01:20:46):
to be refilled. And as always, you can follow us
on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, screw You, Twitter, Never looking Back,
and TikTok So. For myself, mister Jesse starts, thank you
so much for tuning in every one, and hope you
had fun and remember friends don't lie.

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