That’s proper, youngsters! Right this moment we’re having a look at 10 ’80s continuity errors we present in Stranger Issues. From Season 1 to Season 4, we’re watching it ALL and in search of any small errors within the props, scripts, costumes, and soundtrack! And don’t fear — I’ve requested a few of my elders (I imply, the JoBlo crew who have been raised within the ’80s) to assist me with analysis for this video.
I suppose to be protected, we must also put a spoiler alert in impact. Let’s get into it!
You realize what I miss most concerning the ’80s? Nothing, as a result of I used to be born within the ’90s. However I need to admit I’ve been a sucker for ’80s popular culture my complete life. I really like ’80s comics and films, I really like ’80s TV — and folk, imagine me after I say that I LOVE ’80s music.
However as a product of the ’90s, I’ve grown up wanting again on the last decade earlier than and longing to have my Spielberg-like “kids on bikes” second. And people, I’m not the one one. The truth is, Netflix’s Stranger Issues is an ’80s-romanticizing interval piece that additionally appears again on the period with rose-colored glasses.
It’s a present that re-popularized Kate Bush’s iconic ’80s ballad Operating Up That Hill and made Ghostbusters cosplay really feel like a ceremony of passage for all of us nerds on the market. And you may ask ANYONE — this present PERFECTLY captures the aesthetic and continuity of the ’80s in each single episode… OR DOES IT?
Properly, let’s speak about it.
The Tech:
In Episode 6 of Season 4, we see a shot of Suzie — Dustin’s girlfriend — utilizing a pc and typing a hyperlink with HTML code to seek out the Mission Nina location. Don’t attempt to inform me you have been doing that within the ’80s, as a result of HTML wasn’t invented or utilized till someday after 1990. This episode is ready firmly in 1986 — making that hyperlink years away from being usable. I hope it wasn’t one thing pressing…
This subsequent one isn’t precisely “tech,” nevertheless it’s price mentioning. In Season 2, Episode 1, there’s a short scene in a Hawkins science classroom the place you’ll be able to see the trendy periodic desk of parts held on the wall. Upon nearer inspection, this desk consists of parts that hadn’t been added but within the 1984 continuity of the season. For a small city, they actually appear to be tapped into scientific discoveries — to have a bootleg model of the fashionable periodic desk on show!
Or we may speak about Barb’s automotive from Season 1. BTW, I’m nonetheless not all the best way over how they did Barb on this present. We miss you, Barb. In Episode 2 of Season 1, Barb could be seen driving a automotive — I don’t know what number of of you on the market are motorheads or grease monkeys, however when you’ll indulge me — this automotive is a 1988 Volkswagen Rabbit. Now, I’m not an skilled myself however… this automotive is from the future. The season takes place in 1983 — 5 years earlier than it was created. This one, I’ll depend as a Again to the Future Easter egg.
However hey, at the very least the children’ bikes are period-accurate… OR ARE THEY?! No, they are surely. However we would must get a close-up on these floodlights they’ve received.
Music / Pop Tradition:
Look, I admit it — the soundtrack to this present is mainly a biggest hits of the whole Eighties. Nonetheless, as an aficionado of ’80s music (particularly no matter form my mother would play within the automotive and home after I was rising up), I believe it’s essential to level out that considered one of Jonathan’s mixtapes incorporates a track by The Smiths from their first album — which got here out in 1984, whereas the season is ready in 1983.
Or how about one all of us seen? When the Bangles’ track Hazy Shade of Winter performs within the background of Season 1, Episode 2 — that track, which is a canopy of the traditional Simon & Garfunkel monitor, wasn’t out on the time this episode is ready.. Nevertheless it DOES go well with the ending of that scene with a little bit of irony, doesn’t it?
Additionally, Grasp of Puppets being Eddie’s solo within the Upside Down was epic, so I’m giving it a cross on the truth that the track hadn’t been launched but when the episode takes place — however fuck it, it’s so rattling cool I’m putting it from the document!
And man, all of this discuss has made me hungry. How about some scrumptious and completely wholesome Kentucky Fried Rooster? Do you know that the abbreviation “KFC” wasn’t used within the firm’s branding till 1991? Properly, somebody forgot to inform the set designers in Season 2, Episode 1 — when the household could be seen with a bucket of the Colonel’s goodies. Man, I truly am form of hungry now.
Talking of Hopper, the radio he’s utilizing in Season 1 was additionally not accessible till the Nineteen Nineties. At this level, are we being too particular? I don’t need to converse for everybody, however I doubt anybody would catch that — and in the event that they did, it in all probability wouldn’t hassle them… wouldn’t it? (Put YouTube touch upon display with somebody complaining concerning the radio Hopper makes use of.)
I’ve additionally seen lots of discuss concerning the vary on the children’ walkie-talkies being not possible for an ’80s youngsters’s toy — however truthfully, I wasn’t there, and none of my researchers had walkie-talkies throughout these years, so… that appears unhappy to me.
However what about Season 2, Episode 7, when edgy Eleven visits Chicago and we see a shot of the Windy Metropolis skyline. Discover something? How about that constructing — which I imagine is Trump Tower — that wasn’t constructed till the Nineteen Nineties. Additionally… this episode is ridiculous. Most likely the cheesiest one, no?
Conclusion:
Properly dudes, after a really lengthy rewatch of considered one of my favourite trendy TV exhibits — 4 seasons of thriller and misfortune, a zillion ’80s references, packing containers upon packing containers of Eggo waffles, and like half of all of that being in gradual movement so I may analysis every episode — I really feel two issues: I really feel exhausted and prepared for a protracted nap, and I really feel extremely curious and excited for the conclusion of this collection, the place all of it involves its (hopefully) epic ending.
