The funny thing about stranger things is that almost every single detail in it is a clear reference/visual parallel to another piece of media. Which is super fun at first, because it feels like a puzzle where you can put the pieces together to find clues about what might happen in future seasons, because good writing only mentions things that will be relevant to the story, right?
And all is going great until you’re a couple seasons in and there’s still no payoff, more and more plot holes are being introduced, and by the final season you’re starting to realize that it’s actually not an elaborate meta movie-nerd puzzle, but just two dudes ripping off a bunch of other people’s ideas and mashing them together because they can’t think of anything themselves.
sigh. we could’ve had so much more. thank god for ao3. 🩷