Stranger Things: Episodes 7 and 8 — Chapter Seven: The Bathtub and Chapter Eight: The Upside Down

You know, one of these days?

One of these days, I swear, I’ll get a day when I don’t have palpitations.

Really!

Over the weekend?

We had quite a few snotty customers.

Well, I say weekend.   If you want me to define it loosely, you can include Monday and Tuesday with that.

So, when my copy of iTunes acts up, exactly when my AppleTV updates itself: right in the middle of making the videos for another few days worth of teasers?

The past few days haven’t exactly been a barrel of pigeons, let’s put it that way.

At any rate?

That kind of intensity makes me value the time off I get.

And certainly value the time I have.

Catching up with discoveries: in between housework!

“Discoveries?”   I hear here you ask.

Well, yes.  Interesting albums are good: I’ve been listening to Brian Eno’s Ambient series for example, which are something to hear.

Films: and one of these days, I’ll sit down with one!

Books: I still can’t believe one co-worker hasn’t ever sat down with a good book.

That’s possibly vaguely heretical, now I think about it.

At any rate … discoveries.

Something I have discovered?

Is that there’s some interesting TV shows lurking around: both online, on TV, on DVD … 

Enough to keep me happily sat in front of a TV, for the past few weeks.

Watching both Mr Robot.

The the recent — for me — discover that is Stranger Things.

And, yes: I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this first season.

~≈Â≈~

But … ?

Let me quote you Wikipedia’s entry for the last two episodes.

Episode 7 — Chapter Seven: The Bathtub — Lucas warns Mike via walkie-talkie that government agents are en route. Mike, Dustin, and Eleven flee the house.   Eleven telekinetically flips a van that blocks their path, and the kids escape.   Lucas reconciles with Mike and Eleven.   Joyce and Hopper are called to the police station because of Jonathan’s assault. Jonathan and Nancy reveal their knowledge of the monster to Joyce and Hopper.   The group contacts Mike and his friends and they rendezvous.   They ask Eleven to search for Will and Barb, but her earlier feats have left her too weak to find them.   To amplify Eleven’s powers, they break into the middle school and build a sensory-deprivation tank.   Eleven finds Barb’s corpse with a slug-like creature crawling out of her mouth.   With Joyce’s help, she finds Will alive, hiding in the Upside Down ‘Castle Byers’, his backyard fort.   Hopper and Joyce break into Hawkins Laboratory but are apprehended by security guards.   Nancy and Jonathan resolve to kill the monster and steal their hunting gear back from the police station.   In the Upside Down, the monster breaks into the fort where Will is hiding.

Episode 8 — Chapter Eight: The Upside Down — Hopper gives up Eleven’s location to Brenner in exchange for access to the portal.   He and Joyce enter the Upside Down.   Hopper recalls his daughter Sarah struggling to breathe before her cancer diagnosis.   Nancy and Jonathan booby-trap the Byers’ home, then cut their hands to attract the monster with their blood.   Steve arrives, intending to apologize to Jonathan about their fight.   The monster attacks but disappears before springing the trap.   Steve gets in his car to leave but stays when he realizes the monster is returning.   The monster springs the trap but escapes back to the Upside Down.   Eleven and the boys hide in the middle school.   Mike asks Eleven to a school dance called the Snow Ball and kisses her.   The military storms the school.   Eleven kills them and collapses.   As Brenner cradles her, the monster attacks.   The boys carry Eleven to a classroom and hide.   Hopper and Joyce find the monster’s nest in the Upside-Down town library. Will is there, unconscious with a tendril down his throat.   At the middle school, the monster finds the children.   Eleven pins it against a wall, and she and the monster vanish.   Hopper and Joyce perform CPR on Will and revive him.  Will is hospitalized and reunited with his mother, brother, and friends.   Hopper is reluctantly picked up by a black car.   One month later, Nancy has gotten back together with Steve, and both are friends with Jonathan.   Hopper leaves Eggo waffles and other food in a box in the woods.   Will coughs up a slug-like creature and has a vision of the world as the Upside Down, but he hides this from his family.

The originals those are copied from can be found, here*: and are better summaries than I can manage, at the moment!

~≈Â≈~

Now … 

Have I enjoyed this first series of Stranger Things?

Yes!

I’m something of a neophile: through something new at me, and I’ll love it.

But, in all honesty?   This first series of Stranger Things is easy to love.   The writing is on a par with fellow horror series Penny Dreadful and The Strain.   And certainly a match for Mr Robot.

I’m thinking the Duffer Brothers have also put together a good production crew: knocking out sets and props that certainly look very authentic to the period.

The soundtrack?   Is actually the strongest I think I’ve heard for a while    The Tangerine Dream feel that composers Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon have used is something I’m thinking fits perfectly with the production, and something I know I value.

Up until now, though?

Something I would have told you, is that Penny Dreadful had one of the strongest ensemble cast I think I’ve seen in a modern TV Series.   Headed up by Eva Green and including Josh Hartnett and Timothy Dalton amongst others, Penny Dreadful’s cast had a strength, depth and gravitas few other series could match.

The cast of Stranger Things, in its mix of ages, experiences and ranges … ?

Is that match.

Roll on Series 2, in October.

I’ll be watching.

*        Those were copied from the Stranger Things entry, on 29/3/2017: those entries are © Wikipedia, 2017.