It had a cable life as well, and there were plenty of horror aficionado movie opportunities in the 80s, on TV and elsewhere. There were still drive-ins.

Nope, they were like that.

He’s a poor but smart kid who wants to make things better for himself and his family, using his talents and despite his handicaps. He’s not that complicated, really.

He can do more than one thing. He can love her and be an over-protective ogre. He can plan a nice date and then end up stood up and drunk. We’ve known about his addiction issues from the start. But let’s look at the other parents on the show. Nancy’s mom is horny for a lifeguard. Will’s dad is unreliable and far away.…

It’s all professional jealousy. Jake coulda been somebody! He should be happy he didn’t get John Carter as well as Prince of Persia.

Note taken!

What he was surprised about was that it wasn’t Mike. He heard voices, and jumped to the wrong conclusion, and the girls both laughed at his confusion when he found Max instead. Thus his embarrasment as he backed out of the room, and his glee when he closed the door. I’m confused that you haven’t noticed that Jim loves…

Except all signals from Ed are like: “dude, do not unload your shit on me. My job is to fix what you ruined with Madeline.” Yep, sounds about right.

You may be right. Certainly that was there with Elizabeth calling him an idiot to his face. He sort of expects to flirt his way past his problems.

He’s protecting her from too early sexual and emotional experiences for her maturity level. He can leave the house BECAUSE Mike is no longer there. If he really wanted El to be alone, he would have forbidden Max from coming over too. In his fatherly role (do you not think he sees El as his daughter surrogate now?), he…

And it added some early 80s lesbian frisson with Sarandon/Deneuve. And the Howling was mostly about blonde career woman Dee Wallace vs. a miasma of unstable male desires; I should really see the sequel!

Billy’s childhood visions weren’t all bad; he had the successful surfing day with his beautiful mom. I saw it as him trying to protect some part of himself from that intrusive storm on the horizon.

Even he remembers it, if not everyone he snubbed back then.

Slightly devil’s advocate: 9 to 5, Working Girl, Aliens (which is so important on so many levels this season), The Hunger and the Howling all complicate that narrative.

Also, check Lucas’ advice to Mike: Max had dumped him so many times, but he always managed to win her back. Military metaphors aside, it was kind of an adorably naive way of saying he was learning what pleased her and what didn’t. They are not sophisticated dudes. They went to the mall looking for an apology gift she…

Agreed. You might even call the Jonathan/Nancy fight a demonstration of intersectionality, rather than a depiction of sexism. They’d established that he wanted to keep the job because he was getting paid to take photos (and that Nancy, comically, never paid attention to the red light when he was working in the darkroom…

I think the last two or three episodes have captured that cinematic magic that ST did so well in seasons 1 and 2. The team is intact, they’re all thinking and acting and talking in concert based on their shared histories, and they’re fighting on several fronts. Is it implausible that a bunch of kids has unearthed the…

Whether he’s write or wrong, he was trying to protect her. Should she just be snogging Mike every night? He doesn’t want to isolate her (any more than he himself is isolated in that cabin); look at his surprised pleasure in her having Max for a BFF. She even apparently has enough allowance for a mall shopping spree. Wh…

“There’s too much clumsiness in this episode, including a (perhaps unintentional) invitation for racists and fascists to identify not with the murderous, repressive, unified force plotting to take over Hawkins, but with the band of scrappy individuals defending their home in America’s heartland.”

Maybe, but we know how Jessica is. Is there any way of interacting with her that isn’t an argument (boyfriends excepted, sometimes)? Gillian had her number from day one. Passivity to Jessica just looks like weakness, and will be rolled over.