Mike isn’t in 10th grade (age 15-16). I’m pretty sure he’s about 13 (8th grade)

I’m mentally ill and I’m not a violent racist who tried to kill three children on bikes with my car like Billy. I really hate this line of thinking. It’s like those people who somehow think it’s helpful to those of us who are mentally ill to assume every mass shooter is mentally ill

Billy is an violent abusive racist who try to kill three children on bikes by running over them with his car. There were also all these talks about “what happened in California” and these nods to the idea that there was some mind-blowing reason as to how he ended up in Indiana as his sister’s legal guardian. The…

It’s dumb either way and for any era. Basically all it is embodying the trope that Soviets are just pure evil and not human like all of the US’s enemies have been portrayed over time.

Yeah it’s absolutely ridiculous. All of it, even by Stranger Things standards. That they’d be able to build such a large so deep underground facility that has a large hadron super collider or whatever in it and building a new mall would be sufficient cover!? It’s absurd. The show has chosen to just lampshade it all.…

Yeah I thought it was a great episode too. My favorite of the four I’ve seen thus far. I love it when Stranger Things moves the plot fast like this but reviewers often criticize episodes like this for being “exposition dumps” or whatever

Jonathan was right that he suffered from more class-based oppression but as I say in the recap for the previous episode the overwhelming majority of what was going on at the newspaper was just out and out misogyny cruelly aimed at Nancy. I guess you shouldn’t play “oppression olympics” or whatever with your partner…

She’s annoying but she is totally right in this episode. It’s insane that they would put her in potential danger like that and she was right to bargain for as much as she could get out of the situation

Spiiiiiiiiies like us!

I mean there was a lot of interplay between the in show D and D campaigns and the other parts of the show in the previous seasons so it’s not that weird a thing to think about

I think the idea is that it’s pure misogyny and not just that they’re generally assholes. You notice only Nancy is expected to fetch sandwiches and coffee. I’ve worked briefly in journalism and known a lot of journalists and the behavior of these guys seems pretty realistic for 1985. The idea that a small town…

And of course the replies to this sound like they call come from asshole dads wearing “rules for dating my daughter” t-shirts

For example “joking” about how he can make someone “disappear” and probably get away with it isn’t very funny considering there are tons of cases where cops actually do stuff like that

He’s 13 (or whatever)! That’s how teenagers act! It’s just bizarre because it seems like Hopper has completely forgotten about all the things he’s been through with Mike and just sees him as some predatory creep when he knows he’s a good kid

It’s not that he’d be taken advantage of. He obviously has agency it’s just that the idea of women who are supposed to be what: 35? 40? would openly lust over a kid who’s no more than 19 like that is creepy. 

It’s all toxic masculinity/cop bullshit and I hope he gets his comeuppance

I liked the first episode more than it sounds you did. I thought they did a great job establishing that the kids are now young teenagers with a different set of concerns like making out, having boyfriends/girlfriends., being seen as cool etc. and also setting up the mall as a new primary setting for action. 

I couldn’t disagree more. I think Hopper, who was already getting kind of sour in season 2, has become thoroughly unpleasant, just a downer every moment he’s on the screen. I can understand his discomfort with El’s burgeoning sexuality but through this episode (SPOILER ALERT FOR VAGUE DESCRIPTION OF A MOOD IN A FUTURE…

Believe it or not that’s actually sort of how it’s done in other countries, just not the puritanical USA

I’m aware but I’m pretty sure people also change characters from time to time and I’m surprised that wouldn’t come up in the situation in this episode