Hey everyone! The votes have been tallied and it looks like the selection for our first TV Show Club project is Stranger Things! Anyone is welcome to join in the viewing process, so don't be shy! First things first, though, we think it's a good idea to figure out how often we will meet and how many episodes to watch at a time.

Stranger Things' seasons aren't that long, so we could probably do one episode every couple of days. If you have a different idea of how many episodes to watch at a time and how often we should watch them, please feel free to share below. Otherwise, we'll get this project underway!

18 minutes ago, Ventus_ said:

I concur, that Barb is probably dead. 
It's possible she was the corpse found in the lake, since we don't get a good view of it and she had a short haircut I believe. 

It couldn't possibly be Will, he told Joyce he was alive. Unless that wasn't Will communicating with Joyce. 
Then again the corpse seemed a bit small to be Barb. 

It's a head scratcher. If it's not either Will or Barb, who could it be? 

On another note, I'm liking the Eleven flashbacks, I'm interested in finding out exactly what she is. 

Ooooohhhh, I didn't even think that the body might be Barb. That would be interesting. 

I also have been wondering whether or not it was actually Will talking to Joyce through the lights. If it's not him, though, i still think it's someone who's not necessarily evil. They did tell Joyce to run, after all.

Ooof having gone ahead I know the answers to most of your questions @Ventus_. But I’ll keep quiet. ? 

I didn’t actually think Barb died despite being dragged down the way she did. I was just kinda optimistically like “they’ll find a way to get her back” but we shall see. 

As for the corpse, the boys seemed pretty shaken up when they saw it being pulled from the lake, so that leads me to believe it was Will, but I also think there’s more to this. It seems strange to have clues like the scenes where Joyce is communicating with him through the lights and then suddenly declare that he’s dead. 

The scene where the lights spelled out run btw, I thought that was so well done. I was so scared for Joyce in that moment and I think the build up and music/sound effects all helped to really keep me on edge in that moment.  

13 minutes ago, WakelessDream said:

The scene where the lights spelled out run btw, I thought that was so well done. I was so scared for Joyce in that moment and I think the build up and music/sound effects all helped to really keep me on edge in that moment.  

Agreed. This show has some seriously awesome atmosphere. It's just creepy enough to keep me on the edge of my seat and give me goosebumps, but at the same time I don't have trouble sleeping at night. Then again I never sleep alone, so maybe if I did sleep alone that would be different, lol.

10 minutes ago, Allwil13 said:

Agreed. This show has some seriously awesome atmosphere. It's just creepy enough to keep me on the edge of my seat and give me goosebumps, but at the same time I don't have trouble sleeping at night. Then again I never sleep alone, so maybe if I did sleep alone that would be different, lol.

You know I absolutely agree! Normally with horror/thriller genres I get scared really easily to the point I do get paranoid at night, but this show can creep me out just enough to where it’s scary but at the same time I’m not scared, if that makes sense. 

4 hours ago, WakelessDream said:

As for the corpse, the boys seemed pretty shaken up when they saw it being pulled from the lake, so that leads me to believe it was Will, but I also think there’s more to this. It seems strange to have clues like the scenes where Joyce is communicating with him through the lights and then suddenly declare that he’s dead. 

The boys did not have a clear angle, I didn't get the sense that they were able make out enough of the corpse's features to be able to determine for certain that it was Will. it came across as an assumption to me but you're right the anguish was so real. 

At the same time though, as you've pointed out, to have all that build up with Joyce and the lights for Will to be declared dead doesn't add up and that it was something else communicating with her seems like a stretch as it's so random. 

I don't scare by fiction unless it's something with realistic prospect such as 'I am Legend'. 

Part of me wants to go ahead but then I'd have a difficult time keeping quiet. 

 

How does everyone feel about thursday for the deadline for the next episode? Sound good?

Sounds good to me  

Thursday is fine by me. 

Hey guys! Has everyone found time to watch episode four?

 

I’m ready when everyone else is!  Things are getting more and more interesting. 

1 minute ago, WakelessDream said:

I’m ready when everyone else is!  Things are getting more and more interesting. 

Yeah, no kidding. Also, full disclosure here: I kinda broke down and followed your lead yesterday. I just couldn't wait to see how the season plays out and I watched the rest of the season. This show is just so wonderfully creepy and weird and I love it!

10 minutes ago, Allwil13 said:

Yeah, no kidding. Also, full disclosure here: I kinda broke down and followed your lead yesterday. I just couldn't wait to see how the season plays out and I watched the rest of the season. This show is just so wonderfully creepy and weird and I love it!

I’m two episodes away from finishing season 2 ? don’t be like me guys, be strong.  

Seriously? I'm the only one still progressing at the designated pace? 
This seems to be quite unfairly out of balance now as we're all at different points and it puts me far behind even though I did watch episode 4 last night. 
 

41 minutes ago, Ventus_ said:

Seriously? I'm the only one still progressing at the designated pace? 
This seems to be quite unfairly out of balance now as we're all at different points and it puts me far behind even though I did watch episode 4 last night. 
 

 

1 hour ago, WakelessDream said:

I’m two episodes away from finishing season 2 ? don’t be like me guys, be strong.  

I'm realy sorry, guys, After watching episode 4 my willpower broke; I just couldn't wait to learn what the heck was going on. I swear when we get to season 2 I'll keep better control over myself.

The show really does a great job at keeping you guessing. I was sure the body wasn't Will's but then... it was. And then near the end of episode 4... it wasn't.

1 hour ago, Allwil13 said:

The show really does a great job at keeping you guessing. I was sure the body wasn't Will's but then... it was. And then near the end of episode 4... it wasn't.

I never entertained that it could be Will. 
It just didn't add up with Joyce's communication with the lights and I stand by that the boys didn't get a good view which it turns out was intentional. 

What did surprise me though was that it wasn't a real body at all but a stuffed doll. I've never seen that before. Usually when a death is falsified a real, identical body is used.
This comes off as pretty stupid actually. Of course, a mother is gonna request to see distinguishing markers such as birthmark and someone at the precinct was gonna find it suspicious that the regular coroner was excused in favor of someone in on the scam. 

It might be just at the beginning but I'm thinking Nancy/Jonathon could be shippable. Steve was such an asshole about Barb!

21 hours ago, Ventus_ said:

I never entertained that it could be Will. 
It just didn't add up with Joyce's communication with the lights and I stand by that the boys didn't get a good view which it turns out was intentional. 

What did surprise me though was that it wasn't a real body at all but a stuffed doll. I've never seen that before. Usually when a death is falsified a real, identical body is used.
This comes off as pretty stupid actually. Of course, a mother is gonna request to see distinguishing markers such as birthmark and someone at the precinct was gonna find it suspicious that the regular coroner was excused in favor of someone in on the scam. 

It might be just at the beginning but I'm thinking Nancy/Jonathon could be shippable. Steve was such an asshole about Barb!

I agree that the decision to make it a stuffed body was really weird and didn't make sense. But I guess they needed to make sure it was absolutely visually identical. Though they could have at least filled it with blood and innards from a butcher shop or something.

While I agree that Steve wasn't super nice to Barb, I always found that his friends were the real assholes. They just treated her like garbage, while Steve at least acknowledged that she was Nancy's friend. But at the same time, the fact that all he cared about was his dad's reaction if he found out about the booze was a pretty douchey response when Barb went missing.

Will to me seemed like one of the main ensemble of cast members so with the body even though they want us to believe it's him, I knew there was more to it than that.(Knowing this show has multiple seasons I also didn't think they would nix the character just like that) I was kind of on edge when Hopper was opening up the body, relieved that it wasn't Will, but also nervous for the off chance that it was.

As for Steve, I agree that his friends seem to be more of jerks than he is, doesn't excuse him, but at least he somewhat cared. I thought it was also pretty messed up that they broke Jonathan's camera in the previous episode and that kind of contributed to my distaste for that group. 

Btw I thought the boys giving El a makeover was so adorable. I was like "really? a couple of teenage boys who probably have very little interaction with girls are going to make her look like a "normal" person?" Idk why but that whole sequence reminded me of the scene in E.T. when they dress him up as a girl too. 

I concur that Steve's "friends" are the core assholes but I was referring to his caring more about getting in trouble with his father for the booze than not just someone who went missing at his house but that it was his girlfriend's friend. 

As for the group destroying Jonathon's camera and photographs, I'm on the fence as to whether or not that counts as asinine as the photographs did make Jonathon look like a stalker/creeper. 

I agree it was insensitive for him to be worrying more about what his parents would do if they found out about the party, but I kind of get it, they’re teenagers stuff like that is a big deal to them. It was still pretty selfish considering there were larger problems going on though. And I understand why Nancy was upset and felt like no one was listening to her. 

As for Jonathan I just feel like his family has been through a lot with Will going missing and being presumed dead. And I felt like those kids were kicking him when he was down. It wasn’t right to take those photos and I get why they would label him as creepy for it, but I also didn’t think he meant to take those to be a pervert. The Byers also seem to be poorer than the other characters’ families so breaking a camera like that I imagine it’s not something they could just replace. I think that’s why I side more with Jonathan despite the distasteful pics. 

I agree with ventus that the response to the photos was both understandable and over the line. On the one hand, the photos were inappropriate and did not represent Jonathan in a good light. On the other hand, however, the camera was not their property and therefore they didn't have a right to destroy it. EVen the photos weren't technically theirs, so destroying those was also technically over the line. It seemed like taking those photos was a spur of the moment thing.

I feel absolutely terrible for Nancy in this episode, since she's the only one who seems to be truly concerned about Barb's wherabouts. I especially loved the scene where she was arguing with her mother over it since her mother only wanted to talk about the fact that Nancy slept with Steve. I just felt so frustrated for Nancy there and it was such a relatable scene because we've all been there in that kind of situation where no one is able to see things from your perspective and they're not really listening.

. 

4 hours ago, Allwil13 said:

On the one hand, the photos were inappropriate and did not represent Jonathan in a good light.

Precisely. For clarification, I'm not hating on Jonathon, I know he's a good guy and I quite like him, it was just difficult to sympathize with him in that particular scene as the photos as already stated didn't represent his character in a good light. 

Particularly in the sense that he justified himself by claiming to have been searching for Will. 
I found I was unable to argue with Tommy (or was it Steve?) that those photos of a private residence with no grounds to suspect the owners of involvement in a kidnapping and two young women in said private residence, one in a state of undress did not support that claim, not to mention were illegal. 
It, unfortunately, sounded like the desperate excuse of a creeper. 

Obviously he did start out searching for Will but once he came across Steve's house the objective clearly changed. 

As for the destruction of the camera, we wouldn't be having this argument if the jerk group had been a celebrity's security team and Jonathon's character had been a paparazzi, as that action would have been entirely condoned. 
I feel this is not much different in terms of the raw action in itself but can see how there was a sense of kicking Jonathon while he was down embedded into it considering that Will's disappearance was a public crisis.
I could, however, employ the same argument @WakelessDream did regarding Steve's attitude toward's Barb's disappearance; that these were just teenage boys who saw only a creeper not a distressed older brother and eldest son. Additionally, the difference from Steve's dismissal of Barb was that Barb is someone their own age who disappeared from his house while Will is just some kid their class has probably barely ever seen. 

Hell, look at...what's his name, the one Mike calls "mouth breather", Tyson? He and his asshole friend laughed at Will's memorial assembly and Will is their classmate. So if his own classmates can be so dismissive, that's twice as much so for teenagers. 

I felt for Nancy as well, and for Barb that no one cares half as much about her as Will. So far Nancy is just about the most relatable character on the show and I'm glad she now has Jonathon on her side. 

Shall we set a deadline for the next episode? How does Wednesday sound?

Wednesday is fine by me though I feel as though I need to finish off the season to level myself with you two. 

I’m good with whatever the rest of the group decides. If it makes you feel better Ventus, I’ve stopped watching more episodes so we can all be around the same area again.

And as I said before, Ventus, when we start Season 2 I swear I will stick with the original pace set by the group. My will power will not waver again; I promise.