Ugh, Mike's dad. He's so pointless, and it's weird, because everybody in his family knows it but him. I do think he's a reference to a pre-Vietnam way of thinking about the world. Mike's parents are part of the last generation to grow up just trusting that the government knew best. They've had that blown apart by now…

It also adds a neat note to his story - he's got either a much-older brother or a dad who fought in Vietnam. Just kind of a silent, not-remarked-upon touch to the world-building.

Yeah, it's a callback to Barb's earlier comments about his previous girlfriends - the comments Nancy shut down when Barb got slut-shamey about it.

Yeah, they kind of let you believe Steve did it, then Jonathan and Nancy find them and it's his douchey friend doing it while he stands by and watches. The actor actually does a lot with this sequence - he manages to look kind of ashamed, then working himself back into fury, within about a couple of seconds when he…

The show's creator says they have a pretty lengthy document that answers a lot of questions about the Upside Down, including why the monster is there and why we don't see any other fauna from that dimension during the show. I wonder if they'll touch on that in the next run (I don't really want ti call it the next…

Dustin is amazing - he not only gets great writing but also was so perfectly cast. The actor adds some pretty incredible depth even to throwaway lines.

Plus, in a subtle detail that has really stuck with me, she drops the judgement on Jonathan's decision to work the extra shift instead of be with Will literally the second she realizes Will isn't just not at home but actively MISSING. Not only does she not in any way penalize or guilt Jonathan after that, she actually…

My siblings are five and seven years older than me respectively. We essentially had no relationship beyond their vague annoyance/occasional furious frustration until I was midway through adolescence. While we never sniped at each other, her sort of "ignore him until he goes away" way of interacting with Mike felt very…

I had the sense that they had slept together early on after he moved to Hawkins/moved back(?) to Hawkins, relationship didn't really work out, so they settled into being friends after that.

Honestly, that's actually just a Super Realistic Detail when it comes to a show set in the small-town Midwest. I grew up in small-town central IL and every single small town seemed to all have exactly one black family in it. It was just a really weird random thing.

I think he's not given nearly enough nuance to work with, too - between those two things he stands apart from the other kids, who are all written very three-dimensional.

Yeah, there's an implication that Nancy and Mike were probably pretty close siblings before she hit puberty and outgrew him, and they're still figuring out what kind of relationship they have now that BOTH of them are hitting puberty. It definitely reminded me of Freaks and Geeks, too.

And also, when he lies to her and says, "Yeah, I'm drinking" and they have the ex hesitate just slightly, and then say, "I can't-" the way her voice sounds is just so perfect and just those few words make it clear that their daughter's death isn't why they couldn't make it work, but Hopper's resulting alcoholism.

No, you're not (100%) wrong. There WAS an interview she gave, in which she never names Depp, that she discusses an unnamed "ex" of hers when she was a certain age (18, I think?) who used to go into violent rages when drunk and, while she said he never hurt her, he would damage hotel rooms/their apartment.

Agreed. I think the reviewer must not remember school before the rash of school shootings started us down the road to zero tolerance.

Not a lot by any means, but you can see where the references are very clearly.

Yeah, being repeatedly lectured and/or punished for "being aggressive" when the teachers somehow just never saw me being shoved into lockers (three feet away from them) or hit in the head (while they stood nearby chatting with another teachers) and yet they could just EAGLE EYE IN when I would push the person away…

Small town cops, man. For every cop that's dedicated like Hopper, there's two or three that just don't give a damn and want to get back to sitting at their desks discussing last night's game.

Yeah, he seemed like he was pushing hard to "get it over with" for his obvious horrible slimeball reasons/he doesn't particularly care all that much and wishes it would stop being a thing he's bothered with.

Yeah, the minute we really see the monster I turned to my husband and said, "Either they got del Toro's guy or they hired someone to make monsters like his."