I'm totally with you about the lack of communication - both the reasons for it and the consequences of it. The night "Will's body" is "found," The boys and Eleven are just outside while Joyce is communicating with Will. That really struck me as "what if" moment; how things could have gone much more quickly and been…

If all you are doing while watching and reflecting is suspending disbelief, you're not really invested. Being engaged in a story means that you accept its internal reality. But I didn't think anything of the fact that the adults weren't paying attention. It was a full gym, lots of kids coming down from the bleachers,…

Kids, especially girls didn't wear their hair that short - not at their age. (I graduated high school in 1980 and I certainly didn't have hair that short nor did any of my friends and we were all nerds.) She would have attracted attention just being looking so boyish. Besides, they are operating on the premise that…

I thought Nancy and Steve's relationship was portrayed exactly as intended: untenable in the long run. It's dull because, well, it's dull. Steve's attempt at humor earlier on ("Bad Steve") was pathetic that was Steve, not the writing. Their relationship, at this stage at least, is very shallow. It's not the script…

El's look when Dustin tries to get her to levitate the Millennium Falcon is great! Dustin says, "I bet she could…" and her look says, "Yeah, I could, but I'm not going to perform for you." Mike wraps it up perfectly, saying, "She's not a dog!'

Also, Mike tells El about the size of the TV and how it's so much bigger than Dustin's. Why would he think El would really care? What use would that information be to her? It's not intended to fill an information gap. It's only intended to make her feel at home.

Hi Emily, First, I wanted to say that I came across your chapter eight review and commented before i saw it was part of a series. But I what I said there applies even more now: thank you for such thought provoking reviews. As you will see, I disagree with you on a couple of big points, but that's not what matters to…

"Evil henchwoman"? I settled on "murderous b*tch."

Thank you for such a thought provoking discussion of the series. I'll just have to watch it YET AGAIN while considering the points you made here - especially now that season two has been announced.