What I’m Watching: Stranger Things

Stranger Things: Season 2, Episode 3 “Chapter Three: The Pollywog” (B+)

This episode was all about the eighties and the things it offered that aren’t true anymore in today’s world, like Dustin having to distract the librarian so that he could check five books out when he already had five sitting at home and Joyce tracing the TV so that she could have a copy of the image from the VHS tape. Radioshack hasn’t been celebrated like this in a long time, with both Joyce and Nancy realizing that Bob and his employer were crucial to their investigations. What I like about this show is that its main characters don’t deny the existence of the Upside-Down; instead, they just don’t understand it and how it works. Joyce panicked because Will wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but she should be much more worried that Will took Bob up on his monster-defense advice, which has apparently resulted in a whole lot of that monster swirling like a storm through Will, which can’t be good. Mike lashing out at Max and telling her that she couldn’t replace Eleven was unfortunately timed since all Eleven saw was Mike laughing with a girl, and though he raced out to try to find her, she was obviously angry enough to make Max fall off the skateboard. I look forward to their eventual meeting, though I suspect it’s going to be another few hundred days. I love that Dustin thought he had discovered a new species – which he sort of has – and that he’s intent on keeping his close relationship with the thing a secret while Will is well aware that it’s much more dangerous than anyone else realizes.