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You remember 1996, don't you? You remember slap bracelets and Pogs and AOL chatrooms and Two Goddamn Princes? The 90s were loving great, because we were out of the neoconservative hell fog of Reaganism and Thatcherism and becoming aware of a bigger reality to the world. We were broken and angsty, but we were hopeful, because we were making powerful advances in technology and communications and it felt like computers were going to save the world. To put it mildly, that ended up not happening...but it was cool. And we remember it being cool. Or at least, Netflix is betting we remember it being cool because we sure as hell remember that the 80s were cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_YjzEvYeQ Where Stranger Things drew its 80s pastiche from Spielberg films and Stephen King novels, with little dashes of Carpenter and Altered States for good measure, Everything Sucks!—created by Ben York Jones (Like Crazy) and Michael Mohan (Save the Date)—takes inspiration from far more innocent shows like The Wonder Years, My So-Called Life, and Freaks and Geeks. The setup is fairly typical: Luke and his friends are nerds who are just getting started in high school in their small town of Boring, Oregon—that's literally the name, people drive up to take pictures at the sign and then drive off. They've been making movies their whole life, so naturally they link up with the school's AV Club, where he's immediately smitten by school news camerawoman Kate, who's a year above him. However, Luke is immediately warned off her by the AV Club's advisor because she's the daughter of the school principal. But he seems to be a goofy kind of guy, too laid-back for his own good, so maybe he won't have to worry about that. As we find out at the end of the first episode...well, he's not wrong. I've only seen two episodes so far, and I'll tell you this right off the bat; when it comes to 90s nostalgia, they go real hard in the paint. It's not at the point where the dialogue is "Columbia House Hypercolor Oasis? Star Wars Special Editions! Seinfeld Friends Super Nintendo Clinton," but it'll be close enough for some of you guys. But if the show doesn't have any shame about what period it's set in, it also doesn't put on a whole lot of airs, and goes all in on building a stable of strong, lovable characters, a few of whom are already starting to show some subtle layers. It's off to a fantastic start, and based on that trailer and the reviews it's been getting, it's only getting better. If you guys have a Freaks & Geeks or My So-Called Life itch that needs to be scratched, try throwing this on; it just went up. Meanwhile, here's a reaction thread. High school dramedies that don't rely on obscene plot twists involving characters from a beloved comic don't get a lot of traffic in these parts, but do us a favor and spoiler-tag your posts until the end of the weekend anyway. Thanks, and enjoy! DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 11:23
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 04:31 |
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The first episode was very fun, it’s really trying hard as hell but it’s endearing and the characters are cute. e: hahaha ok the Wonderwall bit in episode 2 provoked my first legitimate eyeroll e2: not referring to the ending of ep 2 which is great Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 12:10
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Episode 5: I don't want to overstate how great that "Rocketman" performance was, because it was such a small, delicate moment, but holy poo poo that was great.
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Feb 16, 2018 13:00
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Episode 4 end credits music is perfect
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Feb 16, 2018 13:32
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Well, I'm glad that it sounds like this isn't as eye-rolling as the trailer seemed like it would be. I was 15 in 1996, so maybe I'll find out how my parents felt watching The Wonder Years over the weekend.
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Feb 16, 2018 14:17
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Episode 6/7: gently caress YES Kate. very glad she called Luke out on his poo poo. I appreciated that this wasn’t the typical “he learns she’s gay and is immediately accepting” story, this felt much more realistic. same with him being a whiny poo poo afterwards and everyone blaming her.
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Feb 16, 2018 14:26
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I'm 8 episodes in (wtf, I only wanted to watch 1 or two to see if it is any good) and I really, really like it. The characters are handled really well, it's really funny and they are way less annoying with the 90's references in the second half of the season. The comparison to Freaks and Geeks in the OP is spot on. Edit: Also great use of It's a Beautiful Life. Popelmon fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 14:54
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Wow I guess I'm in the minority. This is like C grade teen drama with 90's references tossed in. It's getting compared to Freaks and Geeks, but F&G blows this out of the loving water. It has none of the wit or humor. I was in high school in the mid-late 90's and I don't relate to these characters at all. It feels like it was written by someone who didn't live through the 90's but watched a lot of VH1 I Love the 90's.
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Feb 16, 2018 19:17
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I mean it’s definitely no Freaks & Geeks but barely anything is. It was light breezy fun with cute characters that I blasted through in a morning.
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Feb 16, 2018 21:49
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I feel like the show's title is going to kill its appeal. I mean, I get what they're going for, but it's a misjudgement given that this show is so aggressively courting the Freaks and Geeks crowd.
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Feb 16, 2018 23:47
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Why wasn't there much 80s nostalgia? Seems like we went from 70s nostalgia in the 90s to 90s nostalgia starting in the late 2000s and 80s didn't get as much nostalgia revisitation.
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Feb 17, 2018 08:14
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Jose Oquendo posted:Wow I guess I'm in the minority. This is like C grade teen drama with 90's references tossed in. It's getting compared to Freaks and Geeks, but F&G blows this out of the loving water. It has none of the wit or humor. Yeah I'm not feeling it. I like Freaks and Geeks and love My So-Called Life and this feels like... well, the trailer's use of "Linger" really tells you everything you need to know about the show's tone. Where MSCL wrestled with the inherent problems of 90s culture - such as "Why is Evan Dando, a pale anemic junkie, so goddamn hot?!" or "is bisexuality a choice? Can it be?" - this show seems content to take the decade at face value, which, woof. I never really got the complaints about Stranger Things being "80s for 80s sake" but this show definitely struck me as "90s for 90s sake". It is no better - and no worse, really - than Reality Bites or Empire Records, so if you dig those, you'll dig this. Welcome to the winter of our discontent. For my bunghole.
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Feb 17, 2018 08:32
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super sweet best pal posted:Why wasn't there much 80s nostalgia? Seems like we went from 70s nostalgia in the 90s to 90s nostalgia starting in the late 2000s and 80s didn't get as much nostalgia revisitation. ........is this a joke this has to be a joke, right
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Feb 17, 2018 08:53
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Hey if that person somehow managed to avoid ever getting dragged to an 80s night don't burst their bubble
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Feb 17, 2018 10:05
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super sweet best pal posted:Why wasn't there much 80s nostalgia? Seems like we went from 70s nostalgia in the 90s to 90s nostalgia starting in the late 2000s and 80s didn't get as much nostalgia revisitation. Technically, Freaks and Geeks IS 80's nostalgia. Halt and Catch Fire, The Americans are also shows set in the 80's.
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Feb 17, 2018 18:30
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super sweet best pal posted:Why wasn't there much 80s nostalgia? Seems like we went from 70s nostalgia in the 90s to 90s nostalgia starting in the late 2000s and 80s didn't get as much nostalgia revisitation. We've had remakes of stuff like RoboCop and Ghostbusters and Fright Night and 21 Jump Street and Nightmare on Elm Street and Dirty Dancing and God knows what else and one of the most popular shows on Netflix is straight '80s nostalgia porn. 
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Feb 17, 2018 18:46
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In my lifetime I’ve seen like a hundred times more 80s nostalgia than I have any other decade. I guess the 60s would be second but I see 80s nostalgia way way way more.
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Feb 17, 2018 19:16
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I like the quick and fast pop culture references - that see through phone everyone had, silencing the tamagotchi without over explaining it, mst3k being on etc. The soundtrack is also pretty good, I’ll forever love Nada Surf’s Popular. Descendents still better be busted out though.
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Feb 19, 2018 05:47
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super sweet best pal posted:Why wasn't there much 80s nostalgia? Seems like we went from 70s nostalgia in the 90s to 90s nostalgia starting in the late 2000s and 80s didn't get as much nostalgia revisitation. I hope you've just awoken from a coma because otherwise I think you may be blind as well as deaf. Watched this all on Saturday, it was good, not in the least because of the music. I really liked how Kate called out whatshisface on being a selfish jerk all the time repeatedly because that never happens.
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Feb 19, 2018 15:28
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I just finished it last night. It was pretty good IMO. The comparisons to Freaks and Geeks isn't really fair. It's nostalgic for the 80's but in an idyllic glossy way. Freaks and Geeks had some of the realism of the time so you see how things sucked back then too. This eventually had way too convenient plot elements. Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared just "felt" more like looking into a window of my past. This was cheap in comparison.
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Feb 19, 2018 16:02
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precision posted:Yeah I'm not feeling it. I'm not really feeling it either. I have to say that I have only watched 2 episodes, and it was on Friday after I had been drinking so I decided that listening to 90's music was a better use of my time, and then I fell asleep on the floor playing with the cats. Escobarbarian posted:In my lifetime I’ve seen like a hundred times more 80s nostalgia than I have any other decade. I guess the 60s would be second but I see 80s nostalgia way way way more. I remember in high school there was 80's nostalgia in 1994+. The 80's is one of those decades where people (boomers) missed it immediately.
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Feb 19, 2018 16:09
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My favorite part is how every episode ends on a downer because Everything Sucks. I was 2 years behind these kids growing up and I was friends with older kids so I fell into that in-between group where I had peers but also people I looked up to and emulated because I was a dumb 13 year old who desperately wanted to be cool.
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Feb 19, 2018 21:52
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Being a HS Freshman in 1996 myself, I am really into this. I am having a nostalgia rush.
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Feb 22, 2018 04:40
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I enjoyed the show, it really hit my nostalgia button since I graduated high school in ‘97, but I have to say I wasn’t really feeling Tyler or McQuaid. They both skewed a bit too hammy, a bit too caricaturish for the rest of the show.
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Feb 26, 2018 02:21
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