# Stranger Things 2 (Netflix) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2017, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966 "2017-10-27T07:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/81 "2017-11-01T23:19:02Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > I really loved the second series—not much else to be said. > > But one thing that’s gotten lodged in my head is how it was decided to use three-digit codes to identify the government experiment’s subjects. I mean, who set up this thing and went, well, we’re probably gonna have more than a hundred of these (but less than thousand)? Why bother tattooing two extra zeros? What an odd thing to care about. Future-proofing? I number lots of my files and am always annoyed when I don’t anticipate that it might reach 3 significant figures and I have to go in and renumber them all. At least I can and they’re not permanently inked into skin. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/82 "2017-11-02T00:13:00Z")
If Will is a paladin, Lucas a ranger, Will a cleric, Dustin a bard and El a mage, what class is Max? What makes Lucas a ranger and Will a cleric? Episode 7: As it is, the payoff is a tone-shifting, what-show-am-I-watching sidequest and a trite “anger can be tapped into” lesson. Having it either longer with more payoff or not at all would have been better. With more time, El could have brought back 008; Having an illusionist mage would have been useful for the final fight. ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/83 "2017-11-02T01:29:45Z")
[quote=“MichaelEmouse, post:82, topic:799966”] If Will is a paladin, Lucas a ranger, Will a cleric, Dustin a bard and El a mage, what class is Max? What makes Lucas a ranger and Will a cleric? Max, who does not play DnD, says she is a “Zoomer”, I guess because she’s fast on the skateboard. I figured she might work as a barbarian, what with her temperament, and I think barbarians get a boost to movement speed? Plus, (almost) smashing her brother in the dick with a spiked club is definitely a barbarian move. Bonus to Intimidation skill, definitely. A bit of a stretch, admittedly. I don’t remember how the original four got their classes, but Lucas does sport that wristrocket, and Will is a conduit for extraplanar entities, which more or less correspond to their respective classes. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/84 "2017-11-02T03:40:43Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > I watched 4 (of the 7) episodes last night, and am unimpressed. The kids are fine – at worst they’re just being kids; at best they’re Gaten Matarazzo – but frankly I find the adults to be kind of annoying. Jim Rash (host) and Matt Duffer (co-creator) talk like teenage girls, complete with every sentence sounding like a question. Shawn Levy (producer) does it sometimes, too. Rash actively gets on my nerves. I haven’t heard any insights/backstories yet that are interesting enough to justify listening to those guys, and right now I’m not planning to watch any more. > > Unless one of you tells me that something cool gets revealed in the last three episodes… 😉 I find Jim Rash super irritating, Shawn Levy gets smug and/or condescending from time to time which is also not fantastically entertaining. I can’t tell which Duffer is which so I can’t really pin any negative feelings directly. Mostly, I feel like they spend so much time screwing around that they forget to talk about the show in any insightful way. And the one issue I thought might be good, the Venkman vs Winston controversy, they didn’t seem to want to address in front of Caleb, so they dropped it after a bunch of awkward laughs. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/85 "2017-11-02T11:30:38Z")
I agree, they could’ve done a lot more with the aftershow. Still, for a first-time effort, nothing surprised me. The host could’ve reined the kids in, though. Max barely got a word in edgewise. The Duffers and Shawn Levy didn’t bother me in the least :shrug: ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/86 "2017-11-02T14:22:27Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > The real Stranger Thing is Shawn Levy’s facebones. 😃 > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > I can’t tell which Duffer is which so I can’t really pin any negative feelings directly. I had to go look up pictures of them before I posted that, but I believe Matt is the one who tends to sit on the left (our left). Slightly longer hair. Regarding your spoilered issue: Yes, they totally squandered a great opportunity to discuss Venkman vs Winston! Also, WTF was going on with Caleb during that episode?? The apple, the nose-blowing, he didn’t speak much, and frankly he didn’t look so hot to me. He seemed much more “with it” during the next episode he was in. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/87 "2017-11-02T17:48:30Z")
Finished it last night, and I loved it. A few specific comments: [spoiler]Chekhov’s tripwire apparently got left on the cutting room floor, which is weird for a show that they release all the episodes for at once. Why bother having multiple scenes about it for no payoff? I guess it’s just to show how paranoid Hopper was. Kali’s crew were not part of the experiments. Eleven checks one of them for a wrist tattoo and Kali explicitly tells her that they’re not like the two of them. I don’t have a problem with them following her to hell and back, though. They were lost, and she saved them. She’s clearly both a powerful personality and a powerful manipulator. I expect that a future season will involve Eleven and Kali on opposite sides of the conflict, a la Prof X and Magneto. I kept waiting for Paul Reiser to be a bad guy, so good job subverting expectations. Max and her step-brother’s origins seemed shrouded in mystery for an awful long time to just end up being step-siblings with an asshole dad. I can buy the demigogs getting through the polycarbonate. But knocking the vault door off its hinges is a pretty big stretch. I also thought that the map on a thousand pieces of paper was a stretch, because most pieces were just interchangeable. How would you know that a particular curve went anywhere specific? But whatever. I didn’t find Bob’s figuring it out unbelievable, though, because he was treating it like a game. He didn’t think of it as the output of fevered possessed mind; he assumed it was a puzzle set up for him to solve, and he’s the kind of geek whose brain is particularly well-suited to pattern matching.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/88 "2017-11-02T18:30:05Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > What an odd thing to care about. Future-proofing? I number lots of my files and am always annoyed when I don’t anticipate that it might reach 3 significant figures and I have to go in and renumber them all. At least I can and they’re not permanently inked into skin. Well, it’s rather more something I noticed, and then couldn’t not notice; it didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the show at all. It’s just that, when you mark that very first subject, why not just go with ‘1’ instead of ‘001’? Why ink those extra two zeros that don’t really do anything? It’s not like there’d be any ambiguity once you get to ten, or even a hundred… ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/89 "2017-11-02T18:39:45Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Well, it’s rather more something I noticed, and then couldn’t not notice; it didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the show at all. It’s just that, when you mark that very first subject, why not just go with ‘1’ instead of ‘001’? Why ink those extra two zeros that don’t really do anything? It’s not like there’d be any ambiguity once you get to ten, or even a hundred… Because they’re bureaucrats, and it says in the manual that you start the number system with 001. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/90 "2017-11-02T20:19:07Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > Regarding your spoilered issue: > > Yes, they totally squandered a great opportunity to discuss Venkman vs Winston! Also, WTF was going on with Caleb during that episode?? The apple, the nose-blowing, he didn’t speak much, and frankly he didn’t look so hot to me. He seemed much more “with it” during the next episode he was in. Yes. In hindsight, I can easily imagine Caleb wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t really in a place where he could contribute. And to be fair, I wouldn’t expect an adult level of analysis of the impact of race on the storyline, but all the adults sure acted like someone farted when the topic came up. They were just totally unable to discuss it in front of Caleb, and I don’t know if it was because he was black, because he was young, or maybe both. In the end, I felt sorry for Caleb (if he was paying attention and all that) just because he seemed to make the other folks uncomfortable. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/91 "2017-11-03T22:37:53Z")
So what do you think will be the nostalgic centrepiece of the next season, presumably set in 1985? There’s Back to the Future, Goonies, and The Breakfast Club, among others to choose from. I think it’s going to be The Color Purple. ---
**Author:** ![Hrududu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Hrududu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hrududu)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/92 "2017-11-03T22:38:30Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Well… > > To me, that seemed implied by the scene with the ID dump, when Kali says “Everyone you see here was in some way responsible for what happened to us.” But I thought “us” meant her and the outcasts - now I’m thinking maybe she just meant herself and Jane/Eleven. I’m pretty sure she just meant herself and Eleven. Because at one point Eleven is looking at one of the gang and Eight says something like “If you’re looking for a number he doesn’t have one.” Which made me think her gang weren’t from the same program as them. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/93 "2017-11-03T22:47:08Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > So what do you think will be the nostalgic centrepiece of the next season, presumably set in 1985? There’s Back to the Future, Goonies, and The Breakfast Club, among others to choose from. I think it’s going to be The Color Purple. For Halloween, Max can be Celie and Lucas can be Mister! ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/94 "2017-11-03T22:52:19Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > So what do you think will be the nostalgic centrepiece of the next season, presumably set in 1985? There’s Back to the Future, Goonies, and The Breakfast Club, among others to choose from. I think it’s going to be The Color Purple. They really blew their Goonies opportunity by killing Sean Astin’s character this season. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/95 "2017-11-03T22:59:14Z")
I think it will be Back to the Future. For geeks, Back to the Future is to 1985 what Ghost Busters was to 1984. Goonies was very good but not as big or as great. I don’t think The Breakfast Club fits as well. Another great movie but very different. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/96 "2017-11-03T23:28:27Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > So what do you think will be the nostalgic centrepiece of the next season, presumably set in 1985? There’s Back to the Future, Goonies, and The Breakfast Club, among others to choose from. I think it’s going to be The Color Purple. _Breakin’ 2: Fill In Obvious Joke Here_ Though I don’t think they will go so far as to have time travel, they did have several time travel movies around then, _Back to the Future_ (85), _The Terminator_ (84), _Flight of the Navigator_ (86). There may be a theme or two borrowed from them somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus\_alba](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quercus_alba/32/4061_2.png) [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/97 "2017-11-04T15:52:33Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > P.S. My favourite character in Seasons 1 and 2 is Mike’s oblivious dad. He doesn’t have many lines, but each one of them is pure gold. The best being his oblivious napping through Billy’s “Stacy’s Mom” moment…😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/98 "2017-11-04T16:38:49Z")
Maybe someone will find some large cocoons with useful properties. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/99 "2017-11-04T16:58:20Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > So what do you think will be the nostalgic centrepiece of the next season, presumably set in 1985? There’s Back to the Future, Goonies, and The Breakfast Club, among others to choose from. I think it’s going to be The Color Purple. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Maybe someone will find some large cocoons with useful properties. 1985? What this show really needs is a sexy naked space vampire! ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966/100 "2017-11-04T23:45:05Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > _Breakin’ 2: Fill In Obvious Joke Here_ > > Though I don’t think they will go so far as to have time travel, they did have several time travel movies around then, _Back to the Future_ (85), _The Terminator_ (84), _Flight of the Navigator_ (86). There may be a theme or two borrowed from them somehow. All three of those movies have a time-travel element. I wouldn’t mind seeing Stranger Things do something with that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-2-netflix/799966.md?page=6)