I think I was most intrigued by the setting of 1989, and of course Winona Ryder was that iconic teenage actress from generation. I had my D&D playing friends and growing up with the fears of my generation: aliens, government, baby-booming adults, and MTV-motivated thinking about everything was what made the series a delight. I guess I never realized the campiness of our times. It was pretty dorky.
The last episode, especially the go-around of the final scene of playing D&D triggered a memory of my mid-20s in Louisville. A girl, Rachel, I lived with in London was taking her acting skills to California to find her big break and stayed with me as she was traveling West. She was coming alone but at a last minute a guy she broke up with jumped in her car, so he came, too. This is pre-Internet and cellphones, and we were in love with our youth. At one point we did a 14 mile hike around the city (because our bones were okay with that) and on the way we had a Canterbury Tales approach to the day. Rachel went forward with her perfect movie of drugs, sex, screw-the-establishment hype-fest as a perfect tale, whereas her vagabond boyfriend was all about World War III and aliens as his perfect flick. I was simply about a story where three people were talking about life sharing their ideas of a perfect movie.
For some reason, Stranger Things resonated with me as a fusion of all three of these tales, although the drugs and sex were not part of the series at all. Instead, the focus on youthful fears, monsters, 80s game play and music were the focus of the story. It made sense that the 1989 narrative would have all the elements it did, and the campiness of the show hit on the innocence of that time, but with the magic of modern-day effects. It worked. I think I watched the entire series knowing that this was a total throwback to the times we lived: the influences, the cultural craziness, and the total distraction of such films/shows to keep us entertained, because that is what we were used to. So it works.
And the generation got older, but such a show would appeal to us and our kids. I think that is the hoopla of it all. Anyway, it is done. I taught four hours last night, and I am friend. Four more to go tonight, although I have a plan to lighten the load on us all. I am just sad that I don't the distraction each night after I unwind for the day. I need something else to take my mind off the world because, as someone graduated in 1990, I'm used to this. Live my day and escape at night. It's the way my generation was raised to be.
I guess I'll go back to cooking shows to entertain me. Of course, I also have to grade. Such are winter sessions.
