This week we will be finishing the last three episodes of Season 4 Part 1 of the phenomenon "Stranger Things." "Stranger Things" is the continuing saga of Eleven a girl with a mysterious past and super psionic powers and her group of ragtag friends from Harper Indiana, who face the challenges from the bizarre mirror dimension The Upside Down. This show is an homage to everything 80s and beyond. With allusions this season to Stephen King's "Carrie," infamous Dungeons and Dragons battle modules, "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Silence of the Lambs," you'd think that the storytelling would get muddled down with all the nostalgia. It doesn't. The nostalgia just increases the value of wonderful world building done by the Duffer Brothers who created this very successful series on Netflix.
Though the execution of this excellent series is largely due to the creative minds of Matt and Ross Duffer, I don't think it would've have been as successful without the help of one man. The one. The only. Donald Trump.
Okay, okay mutants I can see some of my leftist woke friends just about trigger themselves into a seizure but here me out. Since 2015 we have been living in "The Age of Nostalgia" when it comes to our entertainment. These nostalgia blips have happened in the past in America. This is not something new.
The last time something like this happened was during the Regan era of the 80s where if it wasn't an 80s slasher that was being peddled to us at our local cinema it was some teenage dramedy pushing 1950s nostalgia with its clean suburban lifestyle and traditional family units that by the 80s were morphing into something else due to the fact that both parents now had to work in order to pay the damn mortgage. Films like "Back to the Future," "Stand By Me," "Dead Poets Society" "Porky's" and "Peggy Sue Got Married" to name a few. Yes "Peggy Sue Got Married" takes place in 1960 but you get the point. So why does this happen?
Any time a country goes through a conservative ideological wave of thinking the general populous turns to the past. That's what conservative philosophy is. It's not gun rights or pro-life. It's not first amendment protection or censorship. It's not even pro-marriage or find the votes thinking. Conservative philosophy is essentially looking to the past in order to solve the problems of today. That's it. It is tradition and using context clues and history to solve modern issues. Sometimes we need this type of thinking in order to get out of a rut, for example if we are in a depression or if inflation is out of control, it's important to look to the past to see how others dealt with such a crisis. And in these times of conservative ideology, we long for how things used to be. Today Generation Xers might long for the comradery of his gang to go hang out at the mall or the arcade. They might long for the freedom to ride their bike to the next small town and feel that rush of being on an adventure with friends. They might crave sugary cereal, soda made with sugar and not corn syrup, and McDonalds fries that were fried in beef tallow and the desire to consume these things and not be judged by woke America, where you are informed that corporations are making American's obese, torturing cows before slaughter, and that being vegan is the only ethical way to live one's life, if we deserve to live at all because isn't there also a population crisis? Sigh, to be back in the 80s where we only had to worry about nuclear war, the gay flue and the crack epidemic. The point here is that every era has it's struggles to overcome, whether it be a cold war or a war on terror, and today is no different, even if it seems as though things are getting worse through the ever increasing information junk ball that is social media.
So where does Trump come in you ask? Well with conservative ideology seeping into the mainstream due to a recession that never really ended and watching 15 Republican candidates run against one another in the most competitive Republican primary in recent history, Donald Trump spoke four words that has changed the climate of our entertainment for the last seven years. "Make America Great Again." With the utterance of those four words he shifted the mindset of the country back to 1986.
Boom and we're off and week after week film after film released we seep into the nostalgia of yesteryear, whether it be the 80s or the 50s with films like: "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," "It Chapter I," and "Super 8"or requeals where we have popular stories that remain connected to it's past because some of the original characters are returning to the franchise, but there are also hip new additions to the cast. These films included 2018's "Halloween," "Top Gun: Maverick," and "Scream." And Hollywood keeps churning them out, because with all the negative news stories of the day, as a public we want to escape to a past where things weren't so complicated, mainly because when we were kids it was all an adventure and not a horror story.
It's been proven time and time again and study after study that children actually handle trauma much better than adults do. The older we get the less trauma we can handle. Which makes sense to a certain degree. We expect our lives to get increasingly better as we age, and we look back to our youth with pride that we survived it: nostalgia.
This brings us to the genre "Kids on Bikes." What exactly is this genre that I've been referencing the last two weeks. Well it has a few very basic tropes.
Nostalgia is often used as a plot device.
It is typically a coming-of-age story.
Kids typically go on adventures bicycling on bikes.
Anyone with a car is seen as being of a higher status and often is used to push the plot along.
Negligent parenting is considered normal.
Kids are acting like adults and dealing with adult themes: love, jobs, poverty.
There are entities out there seemingly bigger than it would seem possible for a group of kids to defeat, often of a supernatural nature.
The kids always win and end up on top. Most Kids-on-Bikes stories end with a happy ending. E.T. goes home. Pennywise the clown is destroyed. The Goonies find the treasure.
It defies genre and becomes a genre of it's own. It can be paralyzing horror (Stephen King's It) or a family friendly comedy (The Sandlot)
Kids-on-Bikes can be traced back to the "Hardy Boys" book series, which originated in 1927 and the "Nancy Drew Mysteries" which came along in 1930. There would be many who would try to copy the success of these long-living beloved books: Alfred Hitchcock and the 3 Investigators, and The Great Brain. None of them would have the success of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.
Actually we can go back even farther, with Mark Twain and his "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and actually the book "Tom Sawyer," which is more akin to the kids-on-bikes genre than the epic that is Huck Finn.
But it wouldn't be until the 1980s where the genre really took off and became something larger than itself. No longer could this genre be contained within the pages of a book, but now the action was on the screen. It all came to pass with Spielberg's 1982 classic "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial." This movie would spawn at least a dozen of movies with a similar structure during the decade. Films like "Gremlins' and "The Goonies." Also horror maestro Stephen King would jump into the genre with his opus "IT," which would be adapted in 1990 as what is probably the best made for T.V. horror movie ever made. The genre would fizzle out in the 90s. One of the last great ones would be "The Sand Lot" a movie about baseball and growing up.
And here we are and its 2022 with "The Stranger Things" phenomenon. It has either saved or started the careers of most of the cast of the program. This will take a minute.
First there's the creators the writer/director/producer team the Duffer Brothers, Matt and Ross. After shooting a single horror short for Warner Brothers called "Hidden" and writing and producing the Fox bomb "Wayward Pines" series they developed a show for Netflix and the rest is history.
Wynona Ryder would star as the neglectful but well-meaning mother Joyce Byers. Wynona starred in such great films as "Heathers" and "The Age of Innocence." But legal trouble in 2001 involving shoplifting and drugs would put her career on hold for at least the next three years until she completed her community service and paid her fines of over 10,000 dollars, not to mention the negative publicity that went along with that. During her comeback she has been in "Start Trek," but really her biggest role has been in "Strange Things." She's great, and I hope she continues to keep her life together.
David Harbour plays Jim Hopper the often drunk and damaged city sheriff. Before "Stranger Things" he was a successful New York actor, performing on Broadway in the revival of "The Rainmaker" and then in 2005 he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." He did the New York thing which means guest starring on every incarnation of "Law & Order" possible, and then got supporting work in Hollywood in such movies as "Quantum of Solace" as CIA Agent Gregg Beam, who is basically Felix Leiter's right hand man, so pretty much a supporting of a supporting character in the Bond universe. Supporting roles kept coming in the form of the romance "Revolutionary Road" as Shep Campbell the neighbor friend to the characters played by DiCaprio and Winslet and Russell Crowe's source in the political thriller "State of Play." Harbour is a great character actor who can add something interesting to everything he is involved in whether it's a heavy drama like "Brokeback Mountain" or a silly action comedy such as "The Green Hornet." However his role as Jim Hopper has thrust him from reliable supporting character to leading man status and since then he has starred in two superhero blockbusters 2019's "Hellboy" where he played the self-titled lead as well as "Black Widow" where he would play the Red Guardian, a part that pretty much was the highlight of that rather mediocre MCU retread. Harbour has struggled with alcoholism in his passed and at the age of 26 was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. As someone who is also affected by the disease he has my admiration and support for all his continued successes. Harbour has been sober for over twenty years.
Milly Bobby Brown plays the part of the supernatural Eleven. Her career has taken off since being cast in this role and she has made a home for herself in action films starring in both the new Godzilla movies (Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong) as well as the lead in Netflix's spinoff of Sherlock Holmes, "Enola Holmes" Sherlock's smarter and more observant sister.
Finn Wolfhard plays Mike Wheeler. He also hit the mainstream with roles in both of the Stephen King "It" movies as well as the most recent incarnation of the Ghostbusters franchise "Ghostbusters: Afterlife." He is also a musician and kind of gives me Johnny Depp vibes with his love of movies and music and his somewhat feminine face and lithe build.
Gaten Matarazzo plays the part of Dustin Henderson. He actually started his career on Broadway in such shows as "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and played the part of Gavroche (you know the kid who gets shot on the Barricade) in Les Miserables. He has an amazing voice but also suffers from a mild form of dwarfism called cleidocranial dysplasia which affects the collar bones by either causing them to be poorly formed or absent altogether. In this most recent season you can see it actually starting to affect his body more, when in other seasons he was just seen as a young kid. Now at the age of twenty its showing. The Duffer Brothers actually cleverly gave the character that same disease and it's written into the show, but his future as an entertainer is certainly up in the air as much of casting is based on look and he no longer looks like a kid, but has the Gary Goleman issue, though he does have his amazing voice to rely on and he has recently landed the part on Broadway as Jared Kleinman in the final cast of the smash hit "Dear Evan Hansen." He is also hosting a hidden camera series on Netflix called "Prank Encounters" which is where I imagine he will end up eventually. Gaten has a lot of charisma and an interesting look, which will make him a great MC for any game show or reality program. He may also do more voice acting work as he has lent his talents to "The Angry Birds Movie 2" and "My Father's Dragon."
Caleb McLaughlin plays Lucas Sinclair. He was previously also a Broadway actor playing the role of Young Simba in "The Lion King" and has recently been seen in the critically acclaimed movie "Concrete Cowboy" co-starring with Idris Elba.
Noah Schnapp plays the confused Will Byers. He seemed to have been having more success before his role in "Stranger Things" in other endeavors such as starring in Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies" as well as lending his voice to Charlie Brown in "The Peanuts Movie." However he has since been in independent filmmaking which is probably feeding his soul a little more and has his own YouTube channel with over 4 million subscribers. He also may be more business minded, as in the last year he has launched his own environmentally focused snack company.
Sadie Sink plays Max Mayfield. She was also in the recent horror trilogy "Fear Street" as the part of Ziggy Berman. Along with much of this cast she is also a Broadway kid having worked on productions such as "Annie" and "The Audience." She is also beginning a modeling career. If any of these kids have a long stay in horror I would say it's this girl as she has that right amount of edge to be a final girl in a horror film, grit and fits the bill of most other famous genre performers, they are typically classically trained, beautiful and hardworking. Sadie is all of those, and I hope she's in many horror films to come. She was remarkable in the "Fear Street" miniseries.
Natalia Dyer plays Nancy Wheeler. She has been in several critically acclaimed movies since landing her role in "Stranger Things" such as "Yes, God, Yes" and a Netflix favorite of mine "Velvet Buzzsaw" about a haunted art collection.
Charlie Heaton plays Jonathon Byers he is also a musician and has been in the movie "The New Mutants" playing the part of Cannonball since being cast in "Stranger Things." He is also more the Bohemian type and spends a lot of time focusing on his band and starring in Indie films, many of them horror.
Joe Keery who plays the delightful slacker Steve Harrington also a musician was in the recent action comedy "Free Guy." He is a very talented good-looking actor and it's nice to see he has made the jump to mainstream film.
Maya Hawke (daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke) plays the closeted lesbian co-worker Robin who works with Steve Harrington at both the frozen yogurt shop as well as the video rental store. She is an amazing actress and has been in seasons three and four of "Stranger Things." Previous to this she was a model (just like mom) and starred in BBC work, namely the 2017 adaptation of "Little Women." Julliard trained I see her working in horror as well. She's quirky, talented, beautiful with great comedic timing that all horror movies need in order to break the tension of fear. She was also in the first "Fear Street" film and the Indi film "Mainstream." Also a musician and vocalist she is a real Renaissance woman that horror often collects in it's web of production. Her father Ethan has been in several horror films, namely "Purge" and "Sinister," but her mother mainly stuck with mainstream critically acclaimed films with famous directors such as Quinton Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. We will see which path she chooses to follow.
Brett Clifford plays the eccentric Murray. he is a comedian and though he's been in another horror miniseries Stephen King's "Mr. Mercedes" before "Stranger Things" he was mainly in comedy. He's produced shows for Adult Swim (Eagleheart, which I absolutely loath) and has been involved with nothing that I really like beyond "Stranger Things" though they are some notable titles: Fleabag, Married and so forth. This seems to be just something he did for the money as his heart appears to lie in comedy.
Priah Ferguson plays the nerdy sister of Lucas, Erica. She's done some short and independent films, but she seems to be rooted in reality a little more as she is just 16 as of this year and is focusing on school, being a kid and donating her time with United Way to help bring awareness to child well-being.
Matthew Modine plays Martin Brenner the scientist who believes Eleven can safe us all from the wickedness inside the Upside Down. This famous actor has been in such films as "Full Metal Jacket" "Cutthroat Island" and "The Dark Knight Rises" and like so many other great actors who are getting on in years and struggle to find challenging roles he is resting comfortably in the world of genre filmmaking. He was recently in the Hicksploitation remake of "Wrong Turn" I hope to see him in something else exciting soon.
Paul Riser plays the kinder scientist Dr. Sam Owens. He is also easing into horror parts, though not as nicely as Modine. You would know him as the star and creator of the hit sitcom "Mad About You" as well as his roles in James Cameron's "Aliens," "Diner," "Beverly Hills Cop both I and II" and "Whiplash." he is still working his tail off mainly in television in the show the "Kominsky Method" a Chuck Lorre comedy on Netflix about aging actors.
Newcomers to the series include James Campbell Power who plays the villain psion inspired by Fred Kruger Vecna. He has been in such films as "Sweeney Todd" and the "Twilight" and "Mortal Instruments" Franchises. He seems right at home in teenage horror films.
Joseph Quinn plays the newcomer Eddie Munson the super senior Dungeon Master D&D expert burnout. He is a British actor with a great American accent who has stared in several BBC series such as "Les Miserables" and "Strike."
And there are about 20 more names in "Stranger Things" I could focus on. What it amounts to is that "Stranger Things" has given a reinvigoration to the kids-on-bikes subgenre and it's been instrumental in rebuilding or establishing careers. I hope this show lasts for ten more seasons, but only time will tell.
So mutants come on over we are going to be serving 80s food so that means sloppy joes and make your own taco salads. Have a Coke or a wine cooler or make yourself a sex-on-the-beach cocktail and relax by playing some classic Mario Brothers before the movie starts. Hope to see you there!
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