Weekend Plans Post: Stranger Things Season The Third
When we first saw the mall in Stranger Things Season 3, I was hit with a huge wave of nostalgia. Seeing all of the old shops and the fact that even the escalators were full and everybody was running around and seeing each other?
Man. It was nice to go to the mall and know that you were going to see *SOMEBODY* you knew. When I was a senior in high school, I happened to go to the mall in the week or two before Easter and I saw Shelly and somebody else taking pictures of kids with the Easter Bunny. I walked over, chatted with Shelly and somebody else, and the Easter Bunny signaled to Shelly that s/he wanted a hug. What the heck. I gave a nice big hug to the Easter Bunny. “Who is that?”, I asked Shelly afterwards. “The Easter Bunny”, she told me.
Never found out who it was.
Anyway, it was fun to go to the mall and hang out and see friends and acquaintances and get hugs.
It was fun to see Steve and Robin working together and then see their own relationship evolve (she became cool and worked to translate the message) and then watch that entire storyline evolve into them getting hired at the Video Rental Store (‘member those?) and now I realize that I want to see a show with them on it that isn’t them fighting Russians or anything just them working and peripherally dealing with the kids (who may be dealing with supernatural stuff but, you know, low level supernatural stuff).
Okay, maybe they can fight Russians occasionally.
There is a thing that the show does pretty well: “This guy is actually a pretty good guy.”
In Season One, we found out that Steve Harrington was actually a pretty good guy.
In Season Two, we found out that Bob Newby was actually a pretty good guy.
In Season Three, Robin was actually a pretty good guy. Then they had another where Hopper wasn’t necessarily wrong to give the keys to the convertible to his acquaintance. (Seriously, I thought that that would turn into a comedy bit.)
I like how “this guy is a pretty good guy” gets sprinkled around a lot. I’m sure that there are a dozen examples throughout the show. (The diner owner in Season One comes immediately to mind.)
Hey, Robin Hawke is Ethan Hawke/Uma Thurman’s kid. That’s awesome. They managed an 80’s reference in there and I didn’t even notice.
I thought that the Russian thing was over the top (but, hey, it was the 80’s) and *REALLY* liked The Terminator Russian guy. And the scene with the Mayor! And the scene in the secret base! And the scene in the Hospital! And the reference to The Neverending Story!
I went into it with much trepidation but came out of it thinking “that was really good”.
And now I’m starting Season 4 and about halfway through the first episode and thinking “DANG THESE KIDS ARE A MILLION YEARS OLD”.
I mean, remember Glee? Remember making fun of how old those kids were? Well, that’s how old these kids are. And if I can get past that, then I will finally be able to tackle the main boss which is why I started watching this show a million years ago: Vecna.
Haven’t met him yet. Though someone did point out to me that there are Stranger Things Season 4 cafés popping up out there. The roast beef/Demogorgon pasta does look pretty good. And, yeah, I’d probably get a selfie at the alphabet wall from the Byers’ house.
This weekend will be spent watching at least one episode of Season 4, playing some D&D at a friend’s house, and actually *NOT* working for a couple days in a row. After a crazy weekend last weekend, it’ll be good to just turn into a blob. Well, I will have to hit up Costco and King Soopers and pick up some hecho en Mexico Coke and tzatziki and whatnot.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “When you’re done, I have a request”. Photo taken by Maribou.)
I haven’t seen past season 1, but your description of a mall has me hankering for an Orange Julius. I also suddenly want to reclaim my D&D books (I still prefer 3.5) from my son’s room. He plays online with a group out of Oakland. I’m jealous.Report
I was almost surprised at how much I enjoyed Season 2. “Holy cow. This is still good!”, I thought.
Season 3 has a *ROUGH* start. The first episode kinda sucks. Same for episodes 2-3. Somewhere around episode 4, it stops sucking. Somewhere around episode 5, it starts being as good as the previous seasons and it finishes strong.
Yes. I was surprised at how much of an emotional response I got from something as simple as a shot of a crowded mall. A pang.Report
Season 3 felt like a different show than the other ones. It was leaning hard into the nostalgia thing, both in setting and in plot (and, one might suggest, in the very idea of a long-running horror-movie series taking a sci-fi turn in a later installment.)Report
I didn’t grow up close enough to a mall to be able to be a mall rat, but I still miss malls. The nearest true mall (I think of the enclosed malls as “true” malls; there were a few more strip-mall type places closer to us) was Chapel Hill Mall which was like in Cuyahoga Falls (Wikipedia says Akron. It also says it’s permanently closed, which I guess I knew but had blocked from my memory). It was where we went for back-to-school shopping; there was a Stride-Rite shoe store that had a scale model tugboat dominating much of the store (that you were allowed to climb and run around on, a sneaky way of getting kids to try out their new shoes for feel). And several chain type anchor stores.
There was also a Woolworth’s, with a lunch counter. I remember often getting a grilled cheese and a chocolate milkshake there when I was at the mall. And there was a movie theater, it was where I saw E.T. and Goonies and other movies as a kid/teen.
I admit I miss enclosed malls. I know all the reasons they died – hard to heat or cool that much dead space, and expensive; some people didn’t like the roving groups of kids that hung out there; retail has changed. Where I live now we don’t really have shopping – you have to drive at least a half hour for much of anything other than wal-mart – and the “malls” that have the desirable stores are the strip mall type (or whatever they call the new incarnation of strip malls). There is an enclosed mall but last I heard they had shut off the heating and air conditioning, and all the anchor stores had left.
I didn’t realize it when I was a teen that the few times I got to go to a mall and hang out with my friends I was experiencing a “third place,” which is now apparently an endangered species in modern America….at least, I don’t seem to have “third places” where I live now.Report
I, too, grew up far from a proper mall, so most of my nostalgic mall memories come from being stationed in Omaha, Nebraska as a baby airman. Omaha had three malls: Southroads (which was technically in Bellevue and was TINY), Crossroads, which sat at the intersection of Dodge and 72nd and was The Place To Be, and Westroads, which as the name implies was waaaaaaaay out on the west end of the city in a burb who’s name escapes me right now. It opened shortly before the Air Force moved me to England so I most of my memories of that place revolve around it being really upscale.Report
Last time I visited my remaining family in the Omaha area, Omaha goes on for miles and miles beyond Westroads now. In fact, one of their advertising points is “only 10 minutes from downtown”. Not sure if it was ever in a different city — there was quite a bit of unincorporated Douglas County in those days. But since the only restriction on Omaha’s ability to annex is that it can’t cross the Douglas County lines, Westroads has been inside Omaha for a long time now.Report
There’s the mall you go to as a kid. “Can we go into Waldenbooks?” “No.”
Then, when you have a car, there’s the mall you go to as a teenager. Like the tagline to Mallrats said: “They’re not there to shop. They’re not there to work. They’re just there.”
Play video games with friends. Get a slice from Sbarro and a Julius to wash it down.
Now? The mall just sucks. (I wonder how difficult it would be to turn it into low-income housing. Or, in the case of the one on North Academy, luxury housing.)Report
The mall I went to growing up has been demolished for luxury apartments and an upscale storefront shopping center. It had already declined significantly by the time I was in high school due to newer, bigger, nicer malls that had opened up in proximity. In its final years I don’t think there was anything in it but a Burlington Coat Factory, a food court, and a few little stands selling junk in the concourse. Definitely a far cry from the place that once hosted a Babbages, a pretty good arcade, and other attractions of my youth.Report
Part of me wants to go to The Citadel and run around and check out what’s still there and what’s gone.
The Hooters sign still lights up after sundown so I assume that that’s still there. But inside? It used to have comic book stores and a Gamestop and an arcade and a candy store that sold those Smarties double lollies.
But I haven’t been in there since 2017, I guess. Maybe 2016.Report
mall can’t suck as bad as wal-mart on a before-a-holiday Friday afternoon. Also most malls had a “dressier” clothing store and a “more affordable” clothing store, wal-mart here just has one level.
I didn’t have a driver’s license until I was 18, then I went to college and didn’t have a car (parking was almost as bad as rent!) so I didn’t get the late-teens mall experience.Report
I go to the mall and think “I used to love coming here”.
I rarely think that at Wallyworld.Report
Maya Hawke also has two albums out. I’m told her musical stylings are classified as “folk rock.”Report
Folk rock I think translates to ‘miscellaneous, but involves an acoustic guitar.’Report
Warning: the last episode of Stranger Things, Season 4, is the longest TV episode ever.
Longer than the longest state-run television episode (from Turkey, oddly enough).
Stranger Things’ advertising budget went negative (that is to say, that Shibuya cafe is turning a profit — and has a 7 day waiting list).
You wouldn’t think a blockbuster like Stranger Things would have to pinch pennies, but then they go throwing in The Neverending Story (which Germany paid them for)…Report