S01.E05: The Flea and the Acrobat

[Athena]

Quote

Strange surprises lurk inside an old farmhouse and deep beneath the Starcourt Mall. Meanwhile, the Mind Flayer is gathering strength.

 

[zxy556575]

The boys +11 continue to be both adorable and awesome! Mr. Clarke is also a superhero, along with Chief Hopper.( Although I must say these people have very little regard for their own belongings/homes.)

The "nerds prevail" theme may be done to death in pop culture, but it's expertly carried out here and I'm enjoying it.

I don't even mind that the separate investigative teams -- the kids, the chief and Nancy/Jon -- aren't (yet?) communicating with each other and sharing info. It seems natural that they wouldn't, given the eerie/supernatural nature of the disappearances.

I just now got the tree roots being in upside down world. D'oh!

Edited July 15, 2016 by lordonia

[numbnut]

Can the Duffer brothers be innovative just once? Will the hook be more than a Poltergeist retread? I'm losing interest. And that all-black, liquid-floor inner world was ripped off from Under the Skin. *sigh* 

[lucindabelle]

How do you get there? Looks like it's just hanging out there in the lab. I didn't get the tree roots either but really that doesn't make sense tree roots aren't floating in space they are in dirt.

 

the synth pop is starting not to work for me and I'm getting tired of everyone always picking on El.

anyone else have a blonde wig hanging out at home? In 1983 12 year old girls didn't wear pink smocked dresses. She never needed a wig. They could have just said she's a cancer survivor. That's what most people would have assumed.

why would the government tattoo her? Why isn't she completely psychotic if she's ben kept in a prison and punished for not killing a cat? It's creepy and I'll keep watching it but I don't really believe it.

[SeanC]

I really like the retro-80s synth score.

For a moment it looked like the deadbeat dad character, though twas not to be.

The science teacher, Mr. Clarke, is a nice minor character.

Jonathan is basically a dick who fancies himself a sensitive artistic type; credit to the writers for fleshing that out, a bit, because there were parts earlier in the season where the sensitive photographer schtick was pretty stereotypical.

[Eegah]

Quote

Jonathan is basically a dick who fancies himself a sensitive artistic type; credit to the writers for fleshing that out, a bit, because there were parts earlier in the season where the sensitive photographer schtick was pretty stereotypical.

He never said a piece of trash blowing around was the most beautiful thing ever, which puts him rather ahead of the curve among those guys.

[DrLar]

And obviously Nancy is gonna fall in love with Jonathan... I think since day 1 it was telegraphed.

So inside up or whatever, alternate dimension, or something right out of D&D.. now we need wizards to cast fireballs.

[benteen]

Winona Rider's Joyce character is exhausting and so is the Lucas kid.  I think they yell and scream most of their dialogue.

Jonathan is creepy but I do like the character.

Agreed that Mr. Clarke is a good side character.

I like Modine's Hopper character the best though.

Enjoyed this episode.

Edited July 19, 2016 by benteen

[zxy556575]

3 hours ago, benteen said:

I like Modine's Hopper character the best though.

You scared me for a minute! I think it's just a slip of the tongue, though? Modine plays the evil Dr. Brenner. David Harbour is Sheriff Hopper, who I agree is kind of awesome.

[benteen]

My bad!  I don't think I've seen Modine in much so I literally didn't recognize him and just assumed Hopper was played  by Modine.  Whoops!  Thanks for clarifying.

[Primetimer]

Fact-checking the look of Stranger Things S01.E05. You know, for science!

View the full article

[zxy556575]

Great article, Eve! Appreciate the scientific method.

[kermitmissesjim]

My MIL lives in a double-wide. She used to live in a single-wide. Both the interior and exterior of the beloved chief's trailer are single-wide.

[MuuMuuChainsmoker]

As a former Northern Indiana girl of similar vintage, I was also impressed with the attention to period detail.   Barb's look in particular was amazingly on point.

That being said, the show seemed to be distinctly lacking in permed mullets on both the girls and the guys.  Though perhaps in 1983 that style was a year or 2 off from being completely ubiquitous?

[Josiah Bounderby]

How do you get there? Looks like it's just hanging out there in the lab. I didn't get the tree roots either but really that doesn't make sense tree roots aren't floating in space they are in dirt.

 

the synth pop is starting not to work for me and I'm getting tired of everyone always picking on El.

anyone else have a blonde wig hanging out at home? In 1983 12 year old girls didn't wear pink smocked dresses. She never needed a wig. They could have just said she's a cancer survivor. That's what most people would have assumed.

why would the government tattoo her? Why isn't she completely psychotic if she's ben kept in a prison and punished for not killing a cat? It's creepy and I'll keep watching it but I don't really believe it.

You're right...that heavy-looking pink dress with the smocking doesn't look 1983 at all. Which is probably why it ended up in the family costume box. Nancy got it in, say, 1977 and it has spent years getting dirty and sort of smashed-down. It worked for me: super girly to stress 11's growing sense of identity and just off enough that she stood out.

[Sakura12]

I think the dress is the idea of what 12 year old boys think would help El blend in. Even though it probably made her stand out more. 

[lucindabelle]

 I actuLly was 12 in 1977 and we didn't wear dresses like that then either. It looks like 1957. It's just all wrong.

[sniglet]

The Hawkins National Laboratory is actually the former Georgia Mental Health Institute in Druid Hills, Atlanta. It is currently part of the Emory University Briarcliff Property.

[Chyna]

Those smocked dresses were huge in the mid to late-70s (at least in the Midwest, according to my class photos) and that's about when Nancy would have been wearing something like that. I could buy it.

[KaleyFirefly]

On 7/18/2016 at 10:36 PM, benteen said:

Winona Rider's Joyce character is exhausting and so is the Lucas kid.  I think they yell and scream most of their dialogue.

I agree. Getting very tired of both of them.

[charks]

Love the music choices so far...although they're off a few years on some of the tunes (New Order's "Elegia" instrumental that played during the memorial service is from '85). But hey...that's the music nerd in me.

Haven't had this much fun watching a show in some time.

[paramitch]

I liked this episode best of any so far, although I'm slightly weary of the bait-and-switch format in which we never see the monster, just get the tiny slivers of El's past, and poor Winona Ryder once again has to play the same emotions over and over and over. I'm not sure I'm on board with the physics of the monster so far, even if I could believe in the upside-down-verse, but we'll see how it goes. I do think David Harbour is just terrific as Hopper -- I've liked him for several years for his character work, and think he's excellent here.

I'm also incredibly tired of Lucas. I wish the character was better-written -- he just comes across as needlessly over-the-top cruel to El, and he has since moment one. I think he's an unfortunately shrill and one-note character so far, but I'm hoping he'll surprise me later on.

On 7/23/2016 at 11:09 AM, charks said:

Love the music choices so far...although they're off a few years on some of the tunes (New Order's "Elegia" instrumental that played during the memorial service is from '85). But hey...that's the music nerd in me.

Haven't had this much fun watching a show in some time.

Yeah, I've noticed they cheat on the music to a wide degree, but I loved the use of "Elegia" here because it resonated so deeply with me from the era (and honestly probably most of all from "Pretty in Pink" a few years later).

I don't mind the producers cheating on the music here and there -- they did it most egregiously a few eps back with the Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" cover, which wasn't actually released until 1987.

I always hate scenes where people trash their own houses, so I have cringed at every scene of Joyce further destroying that house, especially since she doesn't seem to actually own it.

[Armchair Critic]

On 7/22/2016 at 10:22 PM, Chyna said:

Those smocked dresses were huge in the mid to late-70s (at least in the Midwest, according to my class photos) and that's about when Nancy would have been wearing something like that. I could buy it.

The Polly Flinders dresses with the smocking were very popular in the 70's, my Mom made me wear them. :)

I agree that Lucas is annoying, he is the whiniest of the kids. And Sheriff Hopper is hot, took me awhile to figure out what I knew the actor from and realized he was in the movie Revolutionary Road.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Armchair Critic

[Cigale]

I've finally found what bugs me in Rider's interpretation.  Her posture.  She's a single mother, she works a lot for her money, she is alone to raise her boys and she seems to be doing a darn good job.  So why, oh why, even though she's up against mysterious and impossible things, does she stoop so much?  

[zxy556575]

Ryder has definitely been employing the clomp-walk and scuttle-run method of acting.

[caracas1914]

The smock reminds me of the pinafore tennis dresses Tennis player Tracy Austin wore in the late 70's which seemed weirdly old fashioned even then.

[mehtotheworld]

On 7/25/2016 at 3:06 AM, sisterspoon said:

I've finally found what bugs me in Rider's interpretation.  Her posture.  She's a single mother, she works a lot for her money, she is alone to raise her boys and she seems to be doing a darn good job.  So why, oh why, even though she's up against mysterious and impossible things, does she stoop so much?  

The stooping makes sense to me considering what she's up against.

[Billdabeast]

Yeeeeah, that isn't a double wide on the inside. Not a tardis.

[DrSparkles]

On July 23, 2016 at 2:09 PM, charks said:

Love the music choices so far...although they're off a few years on some of the tunes (New Order's "Elegia" instrumental that played during the memorial service is from '85). But hey...that's the music nerd in me.

Haven't had this much fun watching a show in some time.

OMG, New Order & last epi Joy Division?! Yes please!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Capricasix]

On July 25, 2016 at 1:05 AM, Armchair Critic said:

The Polly Flinders dresses with the smocking were very popular in the 70's, my Mom made me wear them. :)

I agree that Lucas is annoying, he is the whiniest of the kids. And Sheriff Hopper is hot, took me awhile to figure out what I knew the actor from and realized he was in the movie Revolutionary Road.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks Hopper's a sexy beast :D

I just thought of another homage to Stephen King. In his book Insomnia, the characters reached another dimension by crawling into a hole in a tree trunk, much like Nancy did in this ep.

I must say that I'm much more comfortable sitting outside, watching on my device, than I am watching after the sun goes down O_o

[lucindabelle]

Hmm 1977 is late 70s and those absolutely were not age appropriate here in NJ. But maybe where they were. Though if it was the sisters dress it's six years old which makes more sense.

[gesundheit]

I'm very jealous of all the gals who were not forced to wear those smocked dresses in the late 70s and early 80s!

[Capricasix]

I don't think I wore the smocked dresses, but I do remember my mother putting my hair up in ponytails and using those awful hair elastics with the hard plastic baubles - ow! That was about 1976 or '77.

[Kalliste]

15 hours ago, Capricasix said:

I don't think I wore the smocked dresses, but I do remember my mother putting my hair up in ponytails and using those awful hair elastics with the hard plastic baubles - ow! That was about 1976 or '77.

My Mum made me wear those too and that was in the late 80's! Damn I hated those things.

Also I do quite like Hopper too both character and looks. When we first saw him passed out on the couch I thought I was going to hate him from the start but I think after an episode or 2 he turned into my favourite character.

[nodorothyparker]

I'm assuming the dress is a leftover of Nancy's that was still around the house for whatever reason.  I was the same age as these kids in next door Illinois in '83 and no, we weren't wearing smock dresses then but we were wearing them and other similar Little House on the Prairie inspired getups well into the late 70s when that show was still on the air.  The dress doesn't bother me nearly as much as the fairly realistic wig that just happened to be in the costume box.

Hopper waking up seemingly hung over and in disarray is a callback to so many movies and worked perfectly here.  He's the police chief, not an awkward teenage girl they can just disappear by parking her car at the bus station.  I love that he immediately recognized what kind of story he's in and starting looking for the inevitable bug.  Nice touch with the guy from the institute asking if he'd just forgotten all the cameras on the premises since that quickly would have otherwise been one of those smart characters doing dumb things moments that no one ever forgets.

Mr. Clarke is that favorite teacher we all had, and I love that he understood the boys' references and took the time to give them actual useful information even if it was merely "hypothetical."  It makes me happy how unabashedly geeky these kids are with their D&D and AV Club and LOTR references and seven compasses between them and they're not portrayed as sad or losers but it's just who they are.

Edited August 7, 2016 by nodorothyparker

[Jade Foxx]

On July 24, 2016 at 11:37 AM, paramitch said:

I liked this episode best of any so far, although I'm slightly weary of the bait-and-switch format in which we never see the monster, just get the tiny slivers of El's past, and poor Winona Ryder once again has to play the same emotions over and over and over. I'm not sure I'm on board with the physics of the monster so far, even if I could believe in the upside-down-verse, but we'll see how it goes. I do think David Harbour is just terrific as Hopper -- I've liked him for several years for his character work, and think he's excellent here.

I'm also incredibly tired of Lucas. I wish the character was better-written -- he just comes across as needlessly over-the-top cruel to El, and he has since moment one. I think he's an unfortunately shrill and one-note character so far, but I'm hoping he'll surprise me later on.

Yeah, I've noticed they cheat on the music to a wide degree, but I loved the use of "Elegia" here because it resonated so deeply with me from the era (and honestly probably most of all from "Pretty in Pink" a few years later).

I don't mind the producers cheating on the music here and there -- they did it most egregiously a few eps back with the Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" cover, which wasn't actually released until 1987.

I always hate scenes where people trash their own houses, so I have cringed at every scene of Joyce further destroying that house, especially since she doesn't seem to actually own it.

 Came here to say I caught the same "Pretty in Pink" score for the funeral scene. 

(Poor Claire)

80's kids unite!!

[Jade Foxx]

16 minutes ago, Jade Foxx said:

 Came here to say I caught the same "Pretty in Pink" score for the funeral scene. 

(Poor Andie)

80's kids unite!!

[lark37]

Another Hoosier here and totally agree about the corduroy jackets, the look of the science teacher, and that most small towns in midwest had a place where people dumped their junk. Steve's hair isn't that odd to me except that it should be parted in the middle and a tad longer at the back of the neck. Those leather trench coats were very popular in the late 70s and early 80s and I think Joyce might very well have worn one to her sons funeral. She doesn't seem to be a conforming small town mother who would care what anyone thought at all. I've just gotta say in reference to the reviewer's comment that Hawkins Lab looks like many buildings at Indiana State and Indiana University's Bloomington campus that I feel the need to defend IU. The Bloomington campus is made up of mostly Gothic style limestone buildings. There arent many of the concrete and chrome monstrosities like Hawkins in Bloomington. Indiana State on the other hand does have a lot of that type of building. I'm enjoying the show tremendously but the thing that bugs me the most about it isn't something out if context with 1983, it's that its supposed to be mid November and the trees are full of mostly green leaves!

[Capricasix]

Yeah, and Steve's pool is still open and heated! I live in Southern Ontario, where the climate is not vastly different from Indiana, and pool owners close up shop pretty much at the end of the summer.

[PatternRec]

4 hours ago, Capricasix said:

Yeah, and Steve's pool is still open and heated! I live in Southern Ontario, where the climate is not vastly different from Indiana, and pool owners close up shop pretty much at the end of the summer.

@Capricasix the PicardFail avatar you have makes even the tiniest criticism seem so much more severe :D 

[Capricasix]

PatternRec, my avi is in honour of the Young and Restless forum, a show which fails on a daily basis :D

[Danny Franks]

I'm liking Nancy a bit more now she's actually proactively trying to solve the mystery and not mooning over the douchebag boyfriend. I don't really buy the instant connection between her and Jonathan, and while I did enjoy them yelling some hard truths at each other, calling out their mutual BS, it felt too much like the 'I hate you so much... kiss me' trope. I've finally realised that Jonathan really reminds me of a young Kevin Bacon, which I guess is why I'm prepared to give him some leeway on his dreams of getting out of the small-minded little town and achieving his artistic potential.

Lucas is too anti-Eleven, and I'm not really a fan of over the top reactions driving narrative. But I guess you can just about argue that it's a combination of losing Will, then having this weird girl with these weird powers just appear in their group, and he feels threatened and scared. 

David Harbour is doing a great job, in this role. I've only seen him in supporting roles before this, and really liked him, but this is much closer to a lead performance, and he's doing everything right. He's got such a calm energy, even in the more frenetic scenes. I felt so bad for him when he phoned his ex-wife (presumably) only to hear her shushing her new baby. The burned out guy who lost everything is a well worn trope, but it usually works, and did here.

I like that they've not made a big thing out of him being rejuvenated by this case, and feel like he's on the road to redemption. He's just following the trail, and trying to get to the truth.

[Iguessnot]

My daughter and I think Jonathan looks like Daryl from the Walking Dead.

[thuganomics85]

Oh, shit!  Nancy has crossed to the other dimension and now the creature already knows she is there.  I hope this leads to her bumping into Will. The team-up between her and Jonathan was fun, if on the cliched side of things.  Them calling each other out was totally setting up a "They are so falling for each other!" relationship, that will probably happen once Steve is out of the picture (either by break-up or something much, much worse.) Plus, her automatically being good with a gun.  Then again, that might have just been beginner's luck.

I figured it was going to only be a matter of time before the boys had some kind of big, potentially friendship destroying fight, and I'm also not surprised it was Lucas, since he clearly never trusted Elle or was down with most of these missions.  That said, it does seem like Elle is keeping them away from ever finding the portal.  I guess she really doesn't want them to be in that kind of danger.  But I don't see anything stopping Mike from finding Will and the truth.

Hopper manages to break in the lab and find the portal, but is whisked away from the government.  But he seems to remember everything, and is now telling Joyce.  Glad he is a believer now.  David Harbour continues to be my MVP of this show.

Knew Lonnie was going to end up have other motive.  It really his hard to take him seriously when he calls Joyce a bad parent, considering he seemed to just flat-out abandon both of the boys.  Kind of lost any leg to stand on, buddy.

[Snookums]

Quote

Barb's look in particular was amazingly on point.

When I saw those stirrup pants I almost had a meltdown. I owned THREE pairs of those things.

I don't mind the music being from later in the decade as long as it's over the scene in general, and not being listened to by the actual characters, like on the radio or at a dance. I remember back when Mad Men was on the air and Don was driving a convertible, lots of people were freaking out that it was like, from 1964 and not 1965. My feeling was that it was probably hard enough to find a vintage caddie whose owner was willing to let the producers breathe on it, let alone let John Hamm's fine ham near the seat cushions, and was totally willing to let it go, so music as a mood setter doesn't bother me.

What took me out of the scene much more was Johnathan and Nancy with the gun. At least the writers set up Johnathan as having handled a gun before, but Nancy being A) a complete novice and B) about eighty pounds soaking wet? The recoil should have sent the thing backwards into her teeth! 

[Danny Franks]

5 hours ago, Snookums said:

What took me out of the scene much more was Johnathan and Nancy with the gun. At least the writers set up Johnathan as having handled a gun before, but Nancy being A) a complete novice and B) about eighty pounds soaking wet? The recoil should have sent the thing backwards into her teeth! 

Trouble is, if they'd shown Jonathan as being good with a gun and Nancy terrible, then they'd have been called out for being sexist. I don't mind that Nancy was a natural badass, because it added depth to a character that is becoming more interesting by the episode. 

She started off as the pretty, perfect student, then she starts trying to rebel and hang out with the cool kids, then she shows a lot of heart and determination to find her friend, and now she's not even blinking about the idea of finding and killing a monster. Not only that, but she looks capable of actually doing it. It's quite a journey, in the space of just a few days.

Also, I thought it was a nice, unspoken comment on Jonathan's character that he didn't try to keep hold of the gun as the Man usually does in this sort of situation. He saw Nancy could shoot, recognised he couldn't. Next scene, Nancy has the gun and Jonathan has the bat. No ego, no insecurity about looking less manly.

[Ions Earring]

Paper plates?! They explain things to the smartest kids in school/the audience using paper plates?! 

[EarlGreyTea]

Lucas is really annoying, and I really want to like ALL of the kid characters on this show. So I'm trying really hard to see it from his perspective. The audience knows what Eleven's been through and why she is so terrified of being sucked back in. But the kids don't. She hasn't told them even the half of it, which is her prerogative. So seeing it from Lucas' perspective, knowing only what he knows, it makes sense that he doesn't trust her completely. And from a storytelling perspective, there always has to be one who is mistrustful of the newcomer for drama purposes.

I'm pretty sick of how the boys are treating Eleven, though. It's rooted in realism that kids can be little shits to one another, but I hope it lets up soon. The whole dynamic reminds me of Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Harry Potter. Hermione was the brains and the power behind the operation, Harry and Ron were clueless much of the time, yet they treated her like crap a lot.

[Dobian]

I liked the All the Right Moves reference.  I remember going to see that in the theater with friends in 1983.

I like Mr. Clark, he reminds me of science teachers from when I was in school.

Why did they let Hopper go after what he saw?  It seems to me that while he may not be able to single-handedly expose their whole plot, he could certainly draw a lot of outside attention to the area with all the weird stuff going on surrounding missing people and fake bodies.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Dobian

[Unclejosh]

I keep getting distracted by Jonathan because I think he resembles a young Axl Rose and thinking he should play him if they ever do a biopic of Guns N Roses.