“Stranger Things” a Multidimensional Delight!
It’s daunting to deal with the Netflix series Stranger Things in a single post because of the scope and complexity of it. For those unfamiliar with it, suffice it to say that the series is a science fiction/horror delight, and it doesn’t get much sweeter than this!
Stranger Things might be compared to the works of Stephen King blended through The X-Files and run through Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though the comparison is inadequate. If watching the series, begin with Season 1 Episode 1, or it will seem incomprehensible. You may think you’re watching a kid’s series at first as the protagonists are all pre-teens initially, but hang in…
The Duffer brothers who created the series set it in the sleepy Indiana town of Hawkins in the 1980’s, where the government has been conducting secret unethical experiments on children with psychic powers, kinda like human lab rats. One of them, named Eleven as her subject number, has awesome psychic powers, and is at the heart of the show…psychokinesis and remote viewing are among her talents. Raised in a lab, Eleven initially shows a lack of language training, conventional education, and even human contact, but is a fast study...
And it gets stranger still, turning out that there’s kind of a portal to another dimension in the area called the Upside Down, through which monsters pass, and abduct people when it suits them. Some of the monsters closely parallel those of Dungeons and Dragons, such as the Demogorgon or Demo-dog…
There are other monsters jumping between dimensions, too, like the Mind-Flayer, which can possess people and assume a variety of forms. Those possessed can be referred to as the Flayed… 🙀
At the top of the food chain is Vecna, which sounds like an insurance company but who is actually another lab experiment gone terribly awry, and turned to the dark side. Once human, Vecna resembles someone who has been flayed and burned, and also possesses powerful psychokinetic powers, which leads to epic good-versus-evil battles with Eleven.
Soon to enter its fifth season, Stranger Things brings together science fiction, horror, and a little leavening humor in a rare combination, and is likely to hook you into its winning formula...
Tags: Stranger Things
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FOXSYLVANIA 
October 17, 2023 at 9:08 pm
It sounds more like a cross between a couple previous NBC fantasy/sf series. GRIMM and EERIE, INDIANA. The latter series lasted for three seasons, there (a minor miracle given their usual lack-of-success rate with the sci-fi genre) before moving over to Disney Channel for two seasons of reruns plus one spin-off/reboot.
Speaking of Disney: they had a nice little eight-minute short subject this past Sunday night, on ABC, commemorating the centennial anniversary of their founding. Called “Once Upon A Studio,” it featured all their most memorable characters getting together for a group photo in front of the Roy E. Disney Animation Building. Including the vulpine version of Robin Hood from 1973!*
Of course, Wikipedia demonstrated their intellectual snobbery once again. Choosing to do a _third_ google doodle to National Teachers’ Day (when they had already done two others, earlier this month) rather than devote just one to Walt Disney Studios.
As Jonathan Harris’ Dr. Smith used to say so frequently to the late, great Mark Goddard’s Major West on LOST IN SPACE: TOS… “Oh, the pain. The pain!”
*And I just realized…it’s the golden anniversary of that underrated animated feature, in itself. One week after Halloween!!
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October 17, 2023 at 9:13 pm
P.S.—funny you should compare the monsters in STRANGER THINGS to those depicted in the various versions of D&D. “Mind-flayer” is the generic term for the octopus-headed illithid species!
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October 19, 2023 at 11:48 pm
Further postscript: that other aforementioned series, GRIMM, was about a Portland, Oregon, cop who inherits supernatural powers from his mother’s side of the family. Including the abilty to see creatures called “Wesens” (German-American versions of the old fairy tale “monsters”) in their true forms!
Apparently, Grimms were like Slayers. Except they could be male or female. And, evidently, they took trophy heads from the renegade Wesens they dealt with back in the Middle Ages on up. The only trouble is most Grimms became more like scalphunters of the Old West…believing the only good Wesens were dead ones!
Detective Nick Burkhardt came to believe otherwise after meeting Monroe (a clock-making werewolf) and Rosalee (a werefox pharmacist) who eventually became husband and wife. Despite the objections of various Wesen supremacists (like the KKK-style Black Claw)!
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October 23, 2023 at 6:35 pm
Makes me wonder if furries would condone mixed marriage between were-cryptids of different species in real life.
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