Did I ever mention that today — the day I started this post? — is 5th July, 2022?
It’s 5th July, 2022.
And a few things are happening.
I’ve had a repair man down: to look at my washing machine.
He’s back next Tuesday: complete with the relevant part.
I’m also listening to the News: very aware that (former) Health Secretary, Sajid Javid and (former) Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, have resigned their posts.
Sunak going is a worry.
He’s authorised a £650 payment to those of us in need: half this month, and half in the autumn.
Frankly?
Will it go through? Given the man who organised it has handed in his notice?
I’m blowed if I know, but it is a worry.
At any rate?
It’s Tuesday.
And?
I’m going to be sitting in front of my TV, watching the second episode of Stranger Things, series four.
The fact it’s only now — at blah o’clock in the evening — that asking when Lancashire day is, seems like a good idea.
You know … I really need to get out, more.
~≈§≈~
At least possibly get out more …
Or watch a film or two.
Not that there was anything catching my eye.
Which left me thinking I should raid my collection: to see what I could see.
You can tell that I have a copy of StrangerThings, series 3, sitting around, can’t you … ?
~≈§≈~
Episode 1 — Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy? — opens in 1984, in the Soviet Union: where a pair of scientist are demonstrating a new piece of equipment to a senior general.
Who immediately has the senior scientist killed … when the kit fails to open a portal to the Upside Down*.
A year later, in Hawkins?
The new Starcourt Mall has opened: and become a hang out for the romantically inclined Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and their friends sneaked into the mall’s cinema, to catch Day of the Dead: only for a power cut to happen at an inconvenient moment.
In other parts of Hawkins?
Hopper (David Harbour) talks to Joyce (Winona Ryder): he’s seriously concerned about Eleven and Mike … While Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is back home: after attending a science fair.
He’s got a home made radio tower he wants to show the gang: one that totally fails to work the way he intended.
But that — strangely or otherwise, for Hawkins — does pick up Russian radio transmissions.
The question, here?
Do those transmissions have anything to do with the exploding rats in the old steel mill … ?
We’ll have to find out …
~≈§≈~
Now, I have to say, I loved the first two series of Stranger Things, I really did.
How have I felt about this opening episode of series three?
The challenge, for any series?
Is to make sure that each succeeding series stays fresh.
Stranger Things’s first two series have done that: by showing us the demons of the Upside Down: in the first series.
How hard — in series 2 — it is to defeat them: but that they can be defeated.
In this third series, though?
The Duffer brothers have refreshed the franchise … by introducing an old fashioned Cold War menace, to weaponise demons.
