What I’m Watching: Stranger Things

Stranger Things: Season 1, Episode 5 “Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat” (B+)

We’re getting somewhere – after a trippy but productive visit and what I expected to be a memory wipe, Hopper went straight to Joyce’s house to tell her that he knew he was being listened to and that Will was indeed very much alive, somewhere. Lonnie’s visit wasn’t helpful to anybody, and Jonathan was not happy to see him. I worry that Joyce was too easily convinced that she might be crazy, and all this grief could be driving her insane. Fortunately, she now has an ally who is the last person who would have ever thought such a thing possible. I like that Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are tackling the problem of where Will is by looking to intellectual literature and comic books, interrogating their teacher about the upside down. Dustin trying to explain what a compass is and how it works was very funny, and it’s good to see that he knows what he’s talking about. Eleven knows that where they’re trying to go is a bad place, and the fact that she was redirecting the compass so that the boys wouldn’t head into dangerous territory was unfortunate since it once again seems like a betrayal to Mike, who has given Eleven a chance when Dustin and especially Lucas don’t particularly like her or want her around. The flashbacks are all very helpful and informative in showing Eleven how she got to where she is, and there’s definitely some creepiness in there, a sentiment I certainly feel towards whatever fate has now befallen Nancy as she wandered through the woods at night with Jonathan.