[00:00:00]
Todd: There’s no words. This show’s so good. It doesn’t need words in the theme song. It just has vibes. It’s just all vibes. And I feel like there’s a heartbeat in there. It’s like Babu B for sure, Babu for sure. Because this TV show makes your heart race, or it makes my heart race. Uh uh. My name’s Todd Adams, everybody.
Todd: And this is Cathy
Cathy: Adams
Todd: and we are here for Zen Pop Parenting. Sweetie, tell the audience what Zen Pop parenting is and then which episode this happens to be.
Cathy: Okay, so this is Zen Pop Parenting where Gen X pop culture meets real life reflection. And today we are doing Stranger Things [00:01:00] Season one. What The Upside Down teaches us about our shadow selves trauma and grief.
Cathy: So this is, this is a deep one. And I’m super excited because I think that’s rolling in the deep that comes later.
Todd: Yeah. You said it was the deep one, right? Latest. Good.
Cathy: Well, I think I have a hot take right off the bat before we even start. Do you have a hot take? It’s
hot. This is hot. Then it got this hot in Brooklyn.
It’s like Africa Hot Tarzan. Tarzan couldn’t take this kind of hot. Hello?
Todd: I love that sound bite.
Cathy: Matthew
Todd: Broderick. Right? You are coming out of the gate with a hot cake. Hot
Cathy: cake. My hot take is Stranger Things is my favorite show ever.
Todd: Wow. Yeah.
Cathy: Is this
Todd: one of those things where you say that 25 different bands are in your top 10 favorite bands?
Cathy: Well, maybe it’s right now because we just finished watching season one again, but I don’t know [00:02:00] if there is a show out there that captures all the things I love.
Todd: I’m gonna go ahead and at once, I’m gonna go ahead and, uh, try to debate you on this. Okay. Give it a go and if it’s too early, okay. But you have seen Sex in the City a bazillion times.
Todd: I know. And you have. We are rewatching, uh, stranger Things right now, and you have seen these, uh, season two episodes that we’re pre presently watching, probably two or three times. And I feel like you’ve watched Sex in the City season 2 42 times.
Cathy: Okay. Let me explain. Obviously I have other favorite shows.
Cathy: I have, you know, parks and Rec and 30 Rock and all the shows I watch and Sex in the City and friends, like all my favorite TV shows. Yes. But this is a very special, like, drama kind of Sunday night. And actually it’s not. ’cause they dropped them all at once, but it feels like, it feels like not Season five.
Cathy: Yeah. Right. That’s gonna be different. But it feels like the way Lost felt and I loved Lost, but except
Todd: for season three and four. Just kidding. It was two. Yeah, maybe it [00:03:00] was two, which there was some bad seasons.
Cathy: They didn’t know where they were going until the end. They
Todd: didn’t.
Cathy: But Stranger Things has all the pieces that I love and it’s not a perfect show.
Cathy: It’s just I enjoy it the most. I could not, I I am so happy to be rewatching all of it with you, which is
Todd: interesting ’cause you don’t usually don’t like to be scared. And this is, there’s some scary stuff. You were hiding your face last night. Dude.
Cathy: It is a hundred percent not true that I don’t like to be scared.
Cathy: I love to watch thrillers. I love to watch scary movies. I’m not saying I watch all the scenes, I cover my face. But you are like com. You’ve been married to me for 20 something years and you think I don’t like scary things. Movies
Todd: you like to watch that are scary. Uhhuh movies that you’ve seen a bunch of times.
Todd: There are a few exceptions. Like we saw Paranormal Activity, Uhhuh, um, we’ve seen a few other newer scary movies, but for the most part, like Babadook.
Cathy: Well, yeah, but there was a reason I didn’t wanna see that because it was scary. Because it was about grief. No, it was about motherhood, grief and about it had a deeper, [00:04:00] you know, meaning behind the whole thing.
Cathy: And I was in the throes of parenting and I’m like, I’m not going there. But I mean, we just watched the Conjuring the other night and that was like my pick,
Todd: didn’t we like, get bored and turn it off? No, we fell asleep.
Cathy: Oh. So let’s, uh, set the scene so we can jump into that. Go ahead and do that.
Todd: All right. We are setting this scene. I got some stuff for this category. Uh, it’s 1919. It’s 1983. Everybody. Okay. Reagan era. The Cold War Tension, um, that plays into the show itself. Um, I think about it, it’s our childhood. We grew up, I was born in 72. You were born in 71. This takes place in 83. So I was 11 and you were 12 years old.
Mm-hmm.
Todd: And one of the reasons I think you love the show, and I love the show, is because of the latchkey kid type of thing, where our parents didn’t know where the heck we were. And you get on [00:05:00] your dirt bikes. This
Cathy: time of my life, I have the most memories of like, of course I can remember high school and everything, but 12.
Cathy: I remember everything. Yep. Like all the movies, I remember what I was doing. Some of my choices weren’t great. It was a very, the music I remember the movies I was seeing, I remember what my room looked like. I had a big, uh, Ghostbusters poster on my wall. Who are you gonna call? I remember the whole thing.
Cathy: So part of that’s in there for sure.
Todd: Um, I like the idea. I just like, like the idea of riding around in the neighborhood on my bike with my buddies.
Cathy: I know, but you’re go, you’re jumping to remember when.
Todd: Um, sorry about that.
Cathy: Yeah. We gotta set the scene with Hawkins, Indiana, right? Right. It’s a Midwestern town, as Todd said in 1983.
Cathy: The town seems normal. It’s not, it seems normal on the surface, but something’s going on as far as government secrets. Something is amiss, supernatural mysteries, whatever it may be. And there’s a ton of, [00:06:00] you know, as we were just saying, eighties pop culture in there. Do you see, do you see the pieces I love?
Cathy: Mm-hmm. There is walkie talkies, dungeons and dragons, rotary phones, fluorescent lights. And there’s also, these are all the pieces that are connected to the growing unease. This is what, this is what literally setting the scene for what’s gonna happen. And this is the story in like three P or in not paragraphs, three sentences.
Cathy: You ready? Yeah. Will buyers. This is a kid in the neighborhood disappears without a trace. His friends, Mike Lucas and Dustin search for him. They encounter a mysterious girl named 11. She had escaped from a secretive government lab known as Hawkins National Laboratory, which is conducting dangerous experiments related to a dimension called the upside down.
Cathy: So that’s the premise and that, and that doesn’t even include all the other people in it, but that’s the story that they’re gonna, you know, tell Yeah. That will unfold. Yeah.
Todd: Um, should we do the remember when or is that enough of setting the scene? [00:07:00] Well,
Cathy: let’s go over everybody who’s in it, and we don’t have to get deep unless you want to.
Cathy: Why don’t I say them? And if you wanna say something back to me, go ahead. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. So let’s go over the kits. These are the, you know, basically what the story revolves around. Yeah. Uh, number one, Mike Wheeler.
Yep.
Cathy: He’s kind of the leader of the friend group, at least at this point in their lives.
Cathy: Uh, Lucas Sinclair. Yep. Um, he’s kind of, he’s really smart, um, but also very skeptical in this season. Um, def and also very mean to 11 initially, but we, there’s deep reasons why. Mm-hmm. Which is kind of, I hope we get to that. Okay. You know, as we go, because Lucas is not a mean person. Yeah. There’s something that he feels like he’s losing.
Cathy: Yeah. By allowing 11 in their group. Dustin Henderson, um, he’s funny, curious, loyal. That’s my guy. All that’s, that’s Todd’s guy. And he’s also brilliant. Like, he, he brings a lot of the awareness to this group. True. In season one. Um, then we go to Will Byers, who is a big part of episode one because he is taken.[00:08:00]
Cathy: Um, but you don’t see him for a while, right. You know, until later in the season. Um, sorry. He’s more sensitive, artistic, um, and he is, he’s a little more like, well, we’ll just say sensitive for now.
Todd: He is a sensitive young man.
Cathy: And then finally 11, who they start calling her L um, because 11 is very dehumanizing.
Cathy: Yeah. She’s been given a number and they’re like, wait, why don’t we just call you L Papa? Um, papa. So anyway, she has powers and a traumatic past.
Yes.
Cathy: Okay. So now the buyer’s family, two more people ’cause Will Byers obviously, and then Joyce Byers. Mm-hmm. And Jonathan Byers. Yep. So Joyce is his mother. She’s insanely, uh, uh, fierce and loyal and protective and just an amazing mother in so many ways.
Cathy: And then Jonathan is his brother. We’ll be talking about Joyce. Talk about Joyce. Say that. Then the other adults, uh, chief Jim Hopper, um, the police detective, or he’s the police chief. [00:09:00] And then Dr. Martin Brenner. Papa
Todd: Loud and Swain
Cathy: loud and swaying. That’s, that’s Matthew Modine. And then finally the teens, Nancy Wheeler, um, who becomes involved because her friend Barb is also taken.
Cathy: Steve Harrington, that’s her boyfriend who she’s dating. Um, he starts off really shallow, but he evolves. Um, and then, let’s see, then finally, the, the side characters, the lab agents at Hawkins lab. Mr. Clark, the boy, science teacher, Lonnie Byers, the father of, uh, Jonathan and Will. And then Ted and Karen Wheeler.
Cathy: Mike’s parents love Ted. Clueless. We’ll
Todd: be talking about Ted
Cathy: Clueless, clueless. So if you would, um, like to go into, remember when, I remember when
Todd: you couldn’t wait to love me. All right. My remember when is, uh, first of all, the, the first episode has a lot of d and d going [00:10:00] on. Sure does. I was a d and d nerd, and I say that term with pride. You sure do. I think d and d is such a I, so I played. Maybe not through high school, but into high school. So I don’t know if I played as a junior or senior, but I certainly played it as a freshman and sophomore.
Todd: And it is a creative, uh, expansive game where it’s so fun. And it’s scary because you have this character. You create a character, you roll a bunch of dice and you create a character. You get to name your character. You get to decide what type of character he is. If he’s a fighter, if he’s a cleric, he’s a magician, he’s a warrior, whatever it is.
Todd: Um, and then you like start identifying with this character. And if you make the wrong moves, your character will die. Mm. The dungeon ma you know, you roll dice to see if you’re like in a, when you’re in a battle with somebody, and if you roll a 17 or higher, then you hit them, and then, then the monster that you’re fighting or these other people you’re fighting, they, the d the dungeon master [00:11:00] rolls their own dice.
Todd: And if you do enough, uh, if you make enough bad decisions, this. Character that you created, that you built up over weeks, months, years can die. So it’s it’s, it’s high stakes. Yeah. In a weird way. It
Cathy: feels intense.
Todd: And, um, I just love Dungeons and Dragons. I, part of me wishes I still played, but I don’t know where I would fit that into my schedule.
Todd: ’cause it’s funny, there’s a line in, I think episode one or whatever, and they’re like, well, I’ve been here 10 hours. They’ve complained 10 hours. Literally that game, you know, like chess is a long game, or risk is a long game. Dungeons and Dragons is, takes years and what do they call it when they’re putting
Cathy: a campaign?
Cathy: Yeah. So what,
Todd: what does that work? So you get a module, okay. And there is a, uh, and it’s like, I dunno, four or five, six pages, small type. And the Dungeon Master reads it. And, and the Dungeon Master is one of your friends who, um. Understands the world that you’re being thrown into and, and there is [00:12:00] a goal at the end to whatever, get the treasure or defeat this monster or whatever it is, and you have to navigate your way through it.
Todd: And the Dungeon man kind of guides you and you get to make decisions, and there’s teamwork involved and it’s just so fun. You’ve never talked so extensively about something you, I mean,
Cathy: that’s great.
Todd: I just feel like the people that I live with aren’t all that interested in me talking about Dungeons and Dragons.
Cathy: Well, you’re right that nobody wants to play with you, and we all know that you used to play, but I can just tell by your demeanor that it just must have been. Doing that. I’m trying to give you a compliment. Nobody wants to play with me. Sorry. But nobody has 10 hours to play in the basement. No, because it feels like something you have to play in a basement.
Todd: It is total basement game.
Cathy: Like, like in the dark.
Todd: Yeah. And you got sheets and papers. If it, if you’re outside, it’s windy. Like it’s, it is. It is a dark basementy. Type of place.
Cathy: Well, I think that’s great and um, and I love that you used to play and, and sometimes when we’re watching [00:13:00] Dungeons and Dragons and they bring something up because, you know, really Dungeons and Dragons is used as the premise of this entire show, right?
Cathy: Like the, what the creatures are named, what the each kid brings to the situation. Know, demo Morgan,
Todd: mind Flair. What are some of the
Cathy: Well, like, will the Wise and he’s the cleric. Yeah. And just the way the boys see themselves Yeah. In the group.
Yeah.
Cathy: Or they call it the party. Yeah. Um, is that what it’s called?
Cathy: The party of the group? Yes. So they see themselves as those characters they play, and that’s what they bring to their friendship, you know, and so it’s like there’s, this is the foundation of, of the show, everything. Yeah. Totally. You know? Yeah. Um, so. Few things that I actually didn’t even say that this show Stranger Things Season one came out in 2016.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. So it was actually July 15th, 2016, a couple of weeks before my birthday. So 2016 was an interesting year. Um, I like to think about it as the year I went back to therapy. Um, it was hard because we had a tough election. [00:14:00] In November. That was heartbreaking. We had, my dad was very sick. Um, he was actually in the hospital during that election, and at the same time, two good things happened.
Cathy: Uh, number one, we had, we, stranger Things came into our lives. And number two, the Cubs. Won the World Series. So we had some good things going on. Um, and I’m just very grateful for those things because they helped sustain me.
Todd: Did we watch it when it started? I know, I, you, I think you and the girls, I think I did started it earlier than I did.
Todd: Mm-hmm. I had to kind of catch up, so Yeah. You
Cathy: actually didn’t watch season one with us. No, I don’t think I did. You, we, because we got so into it and then you were like, wait a second, I wanna watch with you guys. But you started in season two. Yeah.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: I think we gave you one of those fast-paced trailers, right?
Cathy: So you could like, catch up. So you and I then just watched it, just watched season one together. Like we literally just finished it. So, um, you know, again, why, you know, as far as remember when, part of the reason, the reason I love this show so much is it is a reflection of [00:15:00] my childhood, um, because of all of the pieces that they bring into it as far as the movies that they were watching, as far as what the Duffer Brothers, who are the producers of Stranger Things, what they, um.
Cathy: What influenced their decision making was a lot of movies that are from our lives, you know? Yeah. They’re from the eighties and so you can see it, you know, even things like, you know, the dagor is based on the thing. Yep. Um, which we’ve seen the movie, the Thing to John Carpenter’s movie and you know, in Mike’s bedroom there is a poster of the thing, like there’s a lot of overlapping, like not only do these kids love this, but the show is influenced by the filmmakers who made these other movies.
Cathy: So it’s just very, um, lot of depth to it. And, um, it’s also has, it’s about friendship. It’s a, it’s really warm, you know, like there’s a lot of love in this show for sure. Um, a lot of teamwork in this show. It’s a coming of age show, like where they’re, you know, starting to [00:16:00] see themselves differently. Yeah.
Cathy: Growing up. Um, it’s about families, it’s about strong women, it’s about good men, men who are really good and dedicated to each other. And, um, and it’s funny. Yeah, I was gonna say like how, how many shows have all of those things and plus it’s done well. Yeah. Like we can all debate season 2, 3, 4, and then five is coming.
Cathy: Um, and I like them all, but season one is incredible, no doubt. And, uh, it has all the pieces. So that’s my remember one.
Todd: All right. Very good. Let’s head on over to
sound. Do you know the human head weights eight pounds?
Todd: Favorite? Um, I know it is. Um, so I have a handful of things here, so bear with me. Yeah. You go first and then I’ll go.
Todd: First of all, uh, season one nominated for Emmys. 18 times. Wow. They won five of them, mostly for like, you know, visual stuff. Yeah. Like
Cathy: production things. I, I
Todd: don’t know if any actors or actresses won Emmy for that role. Uh, the series was originally t uh, [00:17:00] titled Montauk, which is based on a real town in Montauk, New York.
Todd: Mm-hmm. Uh, for inspiration, the Duffers referenced the font and style of Stephen King’s. Any idea?
Cathy: Uh, I think it was, was it Kujo?
Todd: Fire Starter?
Cathy: I think it was also
Todd: Cujo. Um, I think it was both. Maybe, uh, the title Stranger Things was Chosen, partly because it echoed the tone of Stephen King’s needful things.
Cathy: Okay. Was
Todd: that a, I don’t remember that book. Do you remember?
Cathy: Uh, I did not read it, but I do remember that, um, piece of trivia. And
Todd: you did, uh, talk a little bit about this, but just some of the, um, you know, they tipped their hat to certain, uh, filmmakers and books. The Duffer Brothers who made the show have cited as influence for the show.
Todd: Stephen King, Stephen Spielberg. John Carpenter was craven. Bob Zumeka, George Lucas. Um, films such as Alien and Stand by Me. I mean, there’s a bunch.
Cathy: Yeah. Actually Todd, I have all of them right here. Go ahead. So let’s go through ’em. Just so, so [00:18:00] et which it’s really obvious because the kids hiding 11, the bike riding, um, and 11 like flipping the van.
Cathy: Yep. You know, it’s kind of them instead of them going up in the air, the van flips, um, the Goonies, which I know is one of your favorite. Yep. A group of adventurous kids solving a mystery Stand by me. There’s all sorts of references. Them walking on the railroad tracks, um, together. And that comes back in season two also.
Cathy: Um, close encounters of the third kind. Um, the obsessive drawing of symbols and, you know, just like Richard Dreyfus drawing, you know, sculpting the Devil’s Tower. Remember that? Mm-hmm. Fire starter. You already mentioned that. A girl with telekinetic powers being chased by the government. Um, that was Drew Barry Moore was fire starter Carrie, um, which was, uh, nosebleeds, linked to psychic powers.
Cathy: Her nose would bleed too, just like the heavens. Really? Yeah. Oh, I didn’t that. And then also, you know, isolated female character, you know, feared because of her abilities that was carried to a nightmare on Elm Street. Um, a monster from a parallel dimension that attacks [00:19:00] from the walls and ceilings like Freddie Krueger.
Cathy: And that’s where Nancy got her name. Yeah. Because Nancy in, um, you know, uh, um, nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah. And then there’s Nancy and Stranger Things. And then we already talked about the thing, the creature design, the Dema Gogans body is, you know, that’s where it comes from. Jaws the slow reveal of the monster.
Cathy: You know what the tension is around what you don’t see. Yeah. We don’t see things for a long time. Right. Um, and then also Hopper being the small town sheriff, trying to figure it out. Poltergeist, a child pulled through another dimension in the wall. Oh. Parents trying to communicate with them. Um, aliens, the dark corridors, the monster stalking from above.
Cathy: That’s really in the Hawkins lab. Yep. Um, the shining psychic powers with the emotional toll that they take on you. Um, you know, haunted minds, all that kind of stuff. Altered States. Do you remember Altered States? I think I remember the movie box, but I don’t remember
Todd: if I’ve ever seen it.
Cathy: I think William Hurt was in it.
Cathy: I can’t remember. But Sensory Deprivation Tank is a portal to another [00:20:00] dimension that’s from that movie Scanners, remember where their head explodes. Uh,
Todd: vaguely.
Cathy: Um, telekinetic and psychic combat, you know, bleeding from the nose and head similar, and then it. The movie it Stephen King’s it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cathy: Um, kids versus Supernatural Evil. Yeah. It’s just like that. Um, so that’s a lot. It
is a lot.
Cathy: I mean, that is like, so, and then there’s more like gremlins the fog. I just didn’t wanna, and
Todd: I heard that, uh, some of it was deliberate, uh, by the Duffer Brothers and some of it was just simply unconscious. Like really?
Todd: Yeah. Like they’re like, like they weren’t, it was just part of what they experienced growing up, so they just threw it in there.
Cathy: Totally. It’s like you write what you know. Right, right. And that’s what they’ve seen and that’s what was interesting to them. But put it this way, as a viewer, again, part of the reason I love it so much is you, you feel those connections.
Cathy: A
Todd: few other things, Joyce was fashioned after Richard Dreyfuss character, Roy Neri in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Great. I’ve never seen that movie either. Is that good? It’s very good. Does
Cathy: that age well you think? Or Probably not. I remember feeling like I saw it when I [00:21:00] was really young and I feel like I was really bored until the end.
Cathy: Interesting. The end is so phenomenal. Interesting. Um, as an adult now, it would make more sense to me. I think the other thing that bothered me is the little boy is taken
bummer. Richard
Cathy: Dreyfuss. Not his little boy, but the woman’s little boy. And that really bothered me. Um, not to ruin it for people, but he’s brought back at the end, sweetie,
Todd: let’s just, you can ruin it.
Todd: It’s 40 years old. It’s fine
Cathy: for a while, but he, like I said, he makes the Devil’s Tower, which we saw in South Dakota. Mm-hmm.
Todd: Right.
Cathy: We did. Isn’t that where that is?
Todd: Um, the Duffer Brothers recognized, and you talked about Poultrygeist, um, and they said it’s about taking a very ordinary object. Yep. That people deal with every day, their television set, like in poultry, guys with Christmas lights Per Joyce.
Todd: Yes. Like, so that was a little tip to that. And then, I don’t know if we’re gonna talk about the music, but we got the Clash Toto New Order, the Bengals, foreigner Echo, and the Bunny Man, Peter Gabriel and Corey Hart. And obviously, uh, should I stay or Should I Go, is the main song for season one?
Cathy: [00:22:00] Yeah. It is The Found, again, another foundational element.
Cathy: Should I stay or should I Go? Has all these levels, not just the lyrics themselves. Should I stay or should I go? Because Bill, uh, will, is taken to the upside down and he’s trying to stay alive, but it’s also his connection to his brother. Yeah. It’s also the music that he and his brother listened to to drown out the, you know, the arguments of their parents.
Cathy: Yep. There’s a lot of depth to that. Um, and obviously it’s, you know, it helps us connect to that time period too. ’cause that’s when the song came out. I don’t know
Todd: how to pronounce. Is it? Gaton or Dustin’s? Uhhuh. Gaton. Mm-hmm. Gaton Matzo. Dustin Ha has c cto, cranial dysplasia. Mm-hmm. Uh, and it was written into his character, so I don’t think that was the plan for the Duffer Brothers, but they saw this kid and like, we gotta get this kid and let’s just write around, like write with him in mind.
Todd: Yeah. So did that. And
Cathy: he had been on Broadway. He kind of already had a career, so
Todd: yeah. That’s awesome. Mm-hmm. Uh, and then lastly, Millie Bobby Brown. I guess, how many words she said in the entire first season?
Cathy: Not a lot. Um, [00:23:00] I’m gonna say thirty two
Todd: hundred and forty six.
Cathy: That’s still, I mean, I was totally off.
Cathy: You
Todd: were a little off 30 is, we probably have said 30 in the last four seconds.
Cathy: I know that that was a bad guess. It’s just, sorry, everybody bad guess. But the reason that I say that is because all of her conversations with Mike are one word bad. Sorry I was bad. Ruined. Um, but her, she has one word.
Cathy: Conversations. Yes. You know, pretty. You know, that kinda thing. Pretty. Um, are
Todd: we ready for the next
Cathy: category? No, no, go ahead. Um, so, uh, a few things, uh, random facts that the boys in the party of, you know, of the show. They had played Dungeons and Dragons for real before filming began. Nice. So they, so the Duffer Brothers had them do a campaign together before they started filming so they could kind of get each other’s energy.
Cathy: Um, eleven’s favorite snack is Eggo Waffles, as we all know, but that was unscripted. Um, they added it after seeing how much Millie Bobby Brown loved, um, eating Eggos. [00:24:00] Yep. They brought it into the show. Um, we already know about the Demogorgon. Oh, the Upside Down had a secret name during production, they referred to it as the nether.
Cathy: Oh, okay. Before they started calling it the upside down, so it, it changed. Um. And let’s see, she Millie Bobby Brown, you know, in the show her head is shaved and she was really nervous about it. But then she watched, uh, mad Max Fury Road with Charlize, uh, Theron, and she said, okay, I’ll shave my head. Love it.
Cathy: ’cause love it. Charlise did too. Um, and then also, we kind of already said this, but just, you know, before we move on, Dungeons and Dragons in this show isn’t just the game, it’s a guide to the mystery.
Todd: Hmm.
Cathy: Like, they use it as like, you know, and that was intentional. They use the game. To figure out what to do next.
Cathy: You know, like, oh, who is this? Does she have, like, Todd and I are watching season two now, and there’s moments where they’re like, wait, does he have um, true sight? Because that comes in the, you know, they start to like figure out [00:25:00] what’s gonna happen next based on the game they play. So I think that for people like you, Todd, who are big bands, well,
Todd: I’m gonna play.
Todd: That might be fun. Well play, I’m gonna play the theme song to a Saturday morning cartoon called Dungeons Dragons. I used to love, it was one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoon songs. I’m not gonna play the whole thing, but for the nerds like me. Here you go. Okay. Eh. Oh, it’s just giving. Here we go.
Todd: It’s coming. I promise. Well,
Dungeons Dragon,
Todd: so they’re at this, um. They’re at this, uh, like state fair or something like that, and they go on this ride and it has all these Dungeons and Dragons and all that, and then they end up catapulting themselves into the world itself. Oh. They each become a character. So, um, for the other people out there who love d and d, I’m sure that they know exactly what this theme.
Todd: Never heard of it. Really Never. Mm-hmm. Here you want, because the Dungeon Master is kind of like, um, Yoda. He’s got some Yoda energy, [00:26:00] so Okay.
Fear not Ranger
Ian Magician.
Todd: And he just, he, he comes in with all these riddles the same way that, uh, Yoda does. But anyways, and he looked, he’s like a little tiny guy who just floats around. You
Cathy: know what, I don’t like that show. I already know I wouldn’t like it. And because I also didn’t like Heman and I didn’t like Shera, and I didn’t like any of those like.
Cathy: Those shows where they had swords, you know, it was different. That was not
Todd: my jam. And, and the thing about the show is they were always so close ’cause the whole idea was to get back home.
Cathy: Yeah.
Todd: And they were always so close and they’re like, this be this portal, kind of like in Stranger Things. And they can actually see the place that they, that they left as normal human beings and something just always got in the way.
Todd: Ah, they couldn’t do it. And the main drag and the main bad guy. Well, there was a, uh, I forget the name of the bad guy, but the monster was tma and it was like a seven headed [00:27:00] dragon.
Cathy: And you know what,
Todd: what
Cathy: Seven headed or Okay. ’cause there’s gonna be a three-headed dragon that’s a big part of seven Five of Stranger things.
Cathy: Oh, let me do John something that grew. Um, what was the show that was like, they were animals and they became like, they, it was the New
Todd: Zoo Review.
Cathy: No, that was funny. It was like a, like a He-Man thing. And they were like striped. I don’t
Todd: remember Zebras.
Cathy: No, those are real tiger. I don’t remember. I just know that any of those shows, I was super bummed when they started to take over my afternoon cartoons.
Cathy: Yeah. Like when I’d come home and be like this, like this is not what I wanna see. So anyway, that was just, that’s when things started to go bad for me cartoon wise. Very good. Um, okay. You ready for WTF?
Todd: Let’s, uh, let’s head on over there. Why don’t we,
boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got outta hand fast.
It jumped up a notch.
Todd: It did, didn’t it? All right. So for WTF, I got a handful [00:28:00] of things. Let me just rattle just a few off. Um,
Todd: why are you, we love Joyce. We love Joyce. Joyce
Cathy: is our girl.
Todd: Joyce is, you just want Joyce on your side and the way she smokes cigarettes and how is the bat intense? She is. Um, but just like, I wanna sit down and smoke with Joyce Byers. I’m sure you do. And she’s really good at it. And, um, just the whole, um.
Todd: The Christmas tree lights. Oh, she’s so in. She’s so in. And it’s also kind of like, what are they doing? And how does, like even in that podcast we listened to, they’re like, how does Will from the upside down know which of the letters that, because it
Cathy: doesn’t transfer. They can’t see the
Todd: transfer, they can’t see it.
Cathy: So I think from what we understand from the things we’ve read about season one is this was supposed to be an anthology, and it wasn’t supposed to be a continuation of the same story. And so they were gonna continue telling stories, the Duffer brothers, but they didn’t, they didn’t know it [00:29:00] was gonna be about all these people.
Cathy: Yeah. Over and over again. But it was so beloved that they had to keep going. And so maybe some of those things they hadn’t thought through yet, or I don’t know. I mean, I, it didn’t bo it doesn’t bother me. And the truth is, Todd, honestly, like again, I don’t wanna like ruin anything for anybody, but there’s a lot of thought that the person making those lights flicker was not Will.
Cathy: Yeah. You know, it was this creature we call Vena. That’s what I’ll stop with. Um, are we gonna try and stay, stay inside the lines of season one here? Yeah, I think so. So I shouldn’t be telling anything else? No. Okay. So there’s some conversation about that too. Yeah. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, so the
Todd: other WTF is, wait,
Cathy: can we stick on Joyce for one second?
Cathy: Oh, sure. There’s, and again, I wish we could play this scene, but I don’t, it won’t translate because there’s just too much visual. But first of all, like Todd said, Joyce is so intense and she just knows that. There’s [00:30:00] a body that’s found in the water and everyone’s like, yeah, it’s Will Byers. And she’s like, it is not my son.
Cathy: I am certain it’s not my son. I’ve been talking to him through the lights in the wall, and I am not, it’s not my son. And everyone’s like, she’s crazy. She’s losing it. And, and you know, everyone thinks that she’s just gone off the deep end. And after she is in the morgue, she’s like, Nope, that’s not my son.
Cathy: And she’s walking home like really angry. And Jonathan’s like driving alongside of her, like, mom and Todd and I were like, I, I don’t even know if it translates, but she was so mad and she’s just like, shooing him away. And I’m like, that is a mom on a mission. And it was funny.
Todd: Oh, I just did a YouTube search.
Todd: Uh, and does it come up? This one’s called J just Joyce. By losing her shit for four minutes straight, see?
Cathy: Right.
Todd: And the first like 30 seconds is her like, breaking the wall down. Remember that? So
Cathy: she goes and gets an ax, man.
Todd: So anyways, here’s.
His hair. Oh, come on Joyce. Just look around at this place. Oh, your Christmas lights.
The hell am I supposed to think? You’re such a great mom. You’re a mess. Maybe [00:31:00] I’m a mess. Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I’m outta my mind, but God help me. I will keep these lights up until the day I die. Think there’s a chance that we’ll still out there. Amen. Oh, get out.
Todd: Oh, Joyce. And that’s just one. That’s Joyce Be’s energy right there. Here. Here’s her with Hopper. Me.
I don’t make it back. Yeah. Then I’ll go. You stay hitting me. He’s my son. Hop my son. I’m going. You took my boy away from me.
Todd: Oh, that’s just one minute of the four. I love Joyce.
Cathy: So since we’re on Joyce Byers this, I don’t, I didn’t know what category to put this under WTF or random facts, but I’ll do it here.
Cathy: Another part of the reason I love this show is because they brought back some of our favorite eighties and nineties characters into this show, or actors and actresses, I should say. Winona writer hadn’t really been around. Um, she hadn’t been in much, she ran [00:32:00] into some struggles, um, a decade earlier where she was caught shop shoplifting.
Cathy: Um, it was very confusing to everybody ’cause nobody understood things like that then why someone would shoplift if they, if they were wealthy. Um, and so she kind of got, you know, thrown off of her. You know, she, she was like getting Academy Award nominations before that, and then all of a sudden she was just thrown off the path of her acting career.
Cathy: And then all of a sudden this show comes in 2016 and Winona Ry is starring in it. Not only is Winona Ryder starring in it, but Matthew Modine is starring in it. Mm-hmm. And Matthew Modine, like Todd Said’s from Vision Quest, and he is from, wasn’t he in a biking movie? I feel like he was like around, what else was Matthew Modine in?
Cathy: Uh,
Todd: just and his crazy hair holic. He just, he’s just loud and swayed, sweetie. Oh, he was in, uh, the, the, wasn’t he in the AIDS movie with El Alda? Walking?
Cathy: Oh, and the band played on. The band
Todd: Played on, yes.
Cathy: Which was one of my favorite, you know, again, another tv, you know, that was more, it wasn’t a documentary, but it was telling the story of the [00:33:00] AIDS crisis.
Cathy: And he was in that, so he was around in the eighties and nineties too, and then all of a sudden he’s back. And then as we get into other seasons, I know we’re not gonna go into their characters yet, but Sean Astin, who was in Goonies, uh, is He’s Rudy sweetie. He’s, yeah, he was, and he was Rudy and he becomes Bob and the show.
Cathy: And then, um, Paul Riser who was in, you know, Beverly Hills cop and mad about you and, um, a bunch of shows. He’s then in season two also, so they’re bringing in all these people, kind of like they did on psych.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: You know, the show Psych, um, they bring in all sorts of eighties, you know, actors and actresses.
Cathy: So. That’s really enjoyable too. So I just wanna say that about Winona Ryder, that it was just really fun to have her Oh, yeah. In this show. And she, she’s easy to
root
Todd: for.
Cathy: She’s so good.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: So, and you know, so,
Todd: so my next WTF is, uh, Steve, who I love. Yes. I certainly didn’t love him in the beginning of the show, but he all, he kind of turns around all in one episode.
Todd: And you wanna talk a little bit about why that happened?
Cathy: Yeah. From what we’ve understood about Steve’s character, um, is [00:34:00] that Joe Carey, uh, also lead singer of Joe, um, the band. He, uh. Was supposed to come in and just be kind of like a side character that is killed off. And there’s actually, there’s a scene at the end of, uh, stranger Things Season one, where, um, he comes back in with his bat and helps Jonathan and Nancy.
Cathy: And that was actually supposed to be Lonnie. Mm-hmm. That it was written for their dad. Like that was supposed to be kind of a him, their dad coming in and helping them. But they got rid of Lonnie, thank goodness. Good riddance. And they had, um, Steve have a, what do they call it? A, a hero, you know, um, they changed his character from being a villain to a hero.
Cathy: Right. Um, thank you for that. Yes. And then, um, do, and I can I just say I think it’s just because he was so well received. I mean, they had obviously taped it all already. They couldn’t get the audience, you know, feedback, but I think he was just fun to work with. The
Todd: directors just kinda liked him. They just liked him.
Todd: Yeah. Um. I have one more big, [00:35:00] uh, WTF. Okay. I assume it’s the same one that you have. Okay. What is it? Uh, do you want, do you have any of the
Cathy: I have, um, go ahead. I have a few. You go ahead. Um, I would say number one, this is just a WTF that always bothers me. The whole papa thing Brenner Papa. And again, it’s just so gross that the, and this is about not, not the creators of the show, but the actual show itself, that these children have to call this scientist papa, and he treats them like crap and causes and beyond treating them like crap.
Cathy: He makes them science experiments and they have to call him papa. Mm-hmm. It’s such a, it messes with their heads so bad and he stole these children. That’s, that’s a whole nother thing we can get into in later seasons. So Brenner is just gross. Um, the other thing that’s gross is Nancy, uh, decide Nancy Wheeler deciding to go into that tree.
That’s tough.
Cathy: She has this moment where she and Jonathan are looking around because they’re trying to figure out where the monster is and get information. And then [00:36:00] they notice that a deer has been killed and taken into this tree. And actually Jonathan doesn’t know it’s in the tree, but Nancy figures this out and decides to go into the tree, which is a portal to the upside down all by herself.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: And a, it’s gross. Yeah. ’cause it’s all slimy and gross. And B, no one would do that. You would, you wouldn’t do that.
Todd: Nancy’s trying to find Barb. That’s right. I know. And that’s my last WTF. I
Cathy: know. Was that yours? Yeah.
Todd: It’s the, I’m with Barb campaign. I mean, justice this for Barb. We just, we could do a whole podcast on it.
Todd: Um, but just in case anybody doesn’t know, um, obviously the whole show is built around Will finding will Uhhuh and then Barb. The same thing happens to Barb, yet she gets taken, nobody really cares too much about Barb. And then there was this social media backlash like, what about Barb? What about justice for Barbara?
Todd: Or whatever. And I, I found out through my research that I think the actress got nominated for an Emmy. And that was as a result of this [00:37:00] campaign? Yes. Because she, she was a fine actress, but she wasn’t. Emmy worthy special. Um, so anyways, and then there was like a backlash against the backlash, right? Like just forget about Barb.
Todd: So anyway,
Cathy: then season two, the premise of season two Nancy’s story at least, was all about Barb again. Yeah. So I think that was, again, speaking to the fans, like, oh no, we haven’t forgotten about Barb. You know, she’s still in the back of our minds. But to Todd’s point, you know, but let’s talk a little bit about WTF, the fact that Nancy, so her boyfriend Steve says, come over to my house.
Cathy: I’m having a party lame party. There were only four people there. Yeah.
Todd: Um,
Cathy: but he’s like, come over to my house and we’re gonna shotgun beers and have fun. And Nancy forces Barb to drive her there. Then makes Barb come in with her. And then when Nancy wants to go upstairs and make out with Steve, she’s like, Barb, go home.
Cathy: Yeah. So Nancy has reasons for feeling guilty. Um, she just, so you
Todd: on team Nancy or Team Barb?
Cathy: Well, I’m, I’m not, I’m, I love Nancy. I love her [00:38:00] character and she becomes such a badass. She wasn’t a
Todd: good night for Nancy. Let’s just say, oh,
Cathy: and you know, let’s say this, let’s do a little Zen parenting radio thing.
Cathy: I don’t believe in shame. Like I, you know, it’s not, I am bad, but I do believe in guilt, which is I did a bad thing. Yeah. And Nancy did a bad thing. Yeah. She should have some guilt about being like, bye Barb, go home alone, because Barb then, well, first of all, she forces Barb to shotgun a beer. Yeah. And that’s why Barb cuts her hand.
Cathy: So the reason she’s bleeding is because Nancy forced her to shotgun a beer. So there’s all these bad decisions that Nancy is forcing her to do, and then she’s like, bye Barb. Go home. Mm-hmm. So. Not a good look for Nancy.
Todd: Um, yes. So I’m glad that we are in, uh, alignment regarding justice for bar. Yeah, we are,
Cathy: we are.
Todd: Um, that’s all I have for WTF.
Cathy: Um, I think that is good.
Todd: Um, I, this is like our seventh time doing this podcast is the next thing, [00:39:00] uh, best scene or am I just making that up?
Cathy: I think it it, you put that in. They put that in. This is a new Todd thing.
Todd: I have a new sound effect for best scene. Let’s, maybe it’s really best quote.
Todd: Okay.
Hey man, you must have this thing about 50
Todd: that’s not gonna be proud of Russy. It yard. That should really be best. Quote. The audio’s not that great. So, um, I feel like we’re, I have my best scene, my favorite scene. I think it, I think we have the same one. Great. That’s cool. Yeah. So play it. Uh, why don’t, uh Oh, that’s right.
Todd: You have it in the thing. So the thing with the thing, the
Cathy: thing started at 20.
Todd: Yep. Mm-hmm.
Right.
You’ll.
Todd: What I love about this show is they don’t sanitize the way kids talk. No. Kids would [00:40:00] say that. Kids would say that they’ll kill you. Um, and they, there’s so many different examples of that, but, and I love that because it’s uh, probably one of the more dramatic moments in the first season. So
Cathy: let’s just say real quick what happens.
Cathy: Sure. Like to set up that scene that Todd just played, there’s these two bullies that have been terrorizing Mike and the other kids for a long time. And that’s just, you know, even before any of this stuff happened with the upside down, and they, there’s a, this is a point where they’re terrorizing Mike and asking him to jump off of a cliff that has already, it’s already been said by Hopper that no one could survive it.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. Okay. So, but Mike’s gonna do it because Dustin has a knife to his throat. I mean, which is so stand by me. Isn’t it Todd? Totally. Do you remember when, um, who is it? People Sutherland. Yep. You know, it’s the whole total standby me thing. But Mike is willing for his friend to jump and when he jumps 11 shows up again, they had kind of pushed her away, but she shows up, helps him fly back up, and then she [00:41:00] breaks the kid’s arm like just by going like this with her head.
Cathy: Like she just cocks her head right. And it breaks his arm and then they start running away ’cause they’re scared. And then Dustin says, you know, run away. This is our friend. Right. And she’s crazy. I know. You and I both laughed really hard. That’s
Todd: right. Um, there is, um, kind of a second favorite scene I have.
Cathy: Okay.
Todd: And it’s after Will is back in the hospital at the very end of season. Oh my God, that’s so good. And the kids are finally able to see their friend after the whole season. So they’re running into the hospital.
Be careful. Be careful. Mo eyes. Eyes don’t. Easy on you won’t believe What happened when you were gone, man, it was mental. You had a funeral. Haze was crying, and Troy peed himself. He fucked the whole fool.[00:42:00]
Todd: Will, may not be as good as we think he be. Well that
Cathy: cough is gonna result in something soon, right? Something gross,
Todd: man. That’s gross man. That’s gross. Uh, the only other favorite, favorite scene I have is, um, when L flips the van.
Cathy: I put that as a, as a WTF. Really interesting. ’cause it’s amazing. Yeah. Like that scene if you do not know that’s coming.
Cathy: Yeah. It’s so moving. Yeah. And I know that sounds weird, but the kids are racing trying to, you know, get away from all of these vans that are chasing them and they’re going right toward a van and El just flips the van and it’s so
Todd: cool. Two other honorable mentions Hopper, uh, recalling back of, uh, his experience with his daughter Sarah.
Todd: Heart wrenching the most
Cathy: heart wrenching scene
Todd: and then at the very, very end will coughing up the slug in the bathroom.
Cathy: Sweet. It’s not a slug, it’s not, his name is Dart.
Todd: According to Dustin.
Cathy: Yeah, his name is Dart. Um, [00:43:00] so I think it’s time to, uh, do zen parenting
Todd: and then we’re gonna roll in the deep
Cathy: we are.
Todd: Uh, so I’m gonna go right from here to here.
Todd: So what is deep about, let’s just restate what the title of this podcast is. I
Cathy: sure will. So the title of this podcast is, uh. Stranger Things one, season one, what The Upside Down teaches us about our shadow selves trauma and grief. Okay. So, you know, obviously we love this show just because it’s fun to watch, but part of the reason, again, one of the many pieces of why I love it so much is there’s many layers to it.
Cathy: Yeah. It means more than just what you’re seeing. You know, they’re pulling from our psyche from psychological understanding and how we relate to our more shadow selves. So again, this rolling in the deep part is about exploring the emotional depth of the show. So let’s just talk about the upside down as a shadow [00:44:00] realm.
Cathy: Yeah. Okay. So it’s not just a spooky alternate, you know, alternate dimension. It mirrors the dark, unconscious parts of ourselves in our world. Okay. So regardless of how it started, created Vena mind flair. Don’t get too lost in the minutia of who’s there. It’s supposed to be a reflection of our unconscious selves, and it represents what we repress.
Cathy: So what do we repress in life? Our fear, our trauma, our grief, our shame, and the parts that we don’t wanna see, but we can’t escape them. So this is very Zen Parenting Radio because Todd and I did so many podcasts about trauma, about grief, about shame, and how these are parts of ourselves that we have to learn how to understand, um, listen to and integrate.
Cathy: If we don’t, they become the impetus. I, I think that’s the right word of our behavior. Yeah. They become the, the pressing part of our behavior.
Todd: Well, and I, if, if, if we don’t have a relationship with those, [00:45:00] with our shadow, with our upside down, with the things that we hide, deny, or repress, if we don’t have a relationship with it and try to manage it, it’s going to manage us.
Cathy: If we don’t make the unconscious conscious
Todd: Yes.
Cathy: Then it will take over. Yeah. You know, so it’s, you know, Carl Young is the pers is the, um, therapist. He, he worked under, um, Freud. Freud. And so he, but he’s the one who at least started talking about the shadow selves and he describes it living beneath our conscious awareness.
Cathy: And if we don’t recognize it, then it, it’s like a puppeteer for us. Yeah. Like, it, it, then everything we do is based on. Our trauma or our fears or our triggers or what we’re trying to deny and everything. Um, we can’t even live in the present really, because everything we’re doing is based on our past. So a few things about Carl Young and the shadow.
Cathy: He described the shadow as the part of our psyche that holds everything. We deny so, or [00:46:00] avoid our anger, our insecurity, our fear, our selfishness. But the shadow isn’t bad. See, this is the, this is the part that people have a hard time understanding. It’s just human. Yeah. So a lot of times we, we repress those parts of ourselves or keep them unconscious because we consider those bad and we don’t want to look at it.
Cathy: We don’t want to deal with it, we just wanna push it away. But denying it makes it stronger. So like, for example, like, let me bring this into real life. Like one of the, um, you know, therapeutic options is something called EMDR. And I’ve gone, I’ve done plenty of it myself. What does the e
Todd: MDR think?
Cathy: I Motor desensitization, desensitization.
Cathy: Um. Response. Okay. EMDR, eye motor desensitization response. So EMDR. The whole process of that is taking you to a place in your mind, like something that, and there’s more to it than this. Believe me, there’s many layers. But I’m just gonna try and generally tell you a place in your mind that you’ve been unwilling to look at and [00:47:00] taking yourself to that, to that place in your mind.
Cathy: So you do have to feel. What that experience in your mind felt like. Yeah. But then you can also then start to see it through the lens of your current age. So instead of, because that, that trauma is stuck in your brain. So
Todd: when you said your mind, sorry to interrupt. Sure. No, please. Is it usually memories or could it be just a bunch of stuff that your brain is making up that you didn’t actually live through?
Cathy: No, it’s usually a trauma or an experience. And let me be really clear about the word trauma. Trauma doesn’t mean it has to be something that other people call a trauma, like a molestation or a rape, or That’s capital trauma. Yeah. That it, it basically tr a trauma in your mind or body is based on how you reacted to something.
Cathy: Two people could be in the same car accident. One person could walk away and not feel traumatized, and the other one can walk away and feel traumatized. Not because they’re weaker, but because of their inability to process it. Maybe not someone to, um, you know, talk to about [00:48:00] it. Maybe it’s their third car accident.
Cathy: And so it has more significant impact. There’s alsos of layers, why some people feel traumas and some people don’t. Well, and we all have
Todd: trauma. And my example always is if we were born naturally from our mother, and not through c-section, but just the journey to be born, the vaginal is trauma is a traumatic experience.
Todd: Mm-hmm. Like, think about it, we’re in this nice, warm, cuddly womb, and then we have to make this journey to the outside world. That’s traumatic. So we all have it.
Cathy: Exactly. And that’s a real, and then we don’t have a memory of that per se. No. But that is an experience for our bodies. Yeah. You know? Right. And, and it’s all purposeful because the tightness of it squeezes out all the, you know.
Cathy: The things we don’t need anymore. Like everything is perfect, you know, in how it works, but there’s still trauma to it. And so, you know, the goal isn’t to destroy these parts of ourselves, but to integrate these parts of ourselves to understand and accept these parts as we are. And to go back to the E MDR R, [00:49:00] when you’re doing that, not only do you bring up something that maybe you’ve been repressing, but you then start to process it like an adult so you can see it without that 8-year-old feeling.
Cathy: Because a lot of times if something happened to you when you’re 8, 9, 10, it gets stored. As an eight, nine, 10-year-old. So anytime you think about it, you feel the fear you felt when you were eight. If you can open it up and, and, and there’s other ways to do this. You don’t just have to do EMDR, you can do this through, you know, CBT or DBT and there’s lots of different ways to do it, hypnotherapy.
Cathy: But this is one way is then you can start to look at it with the eyes in of an adult integrate it and it doesn’t have the same power over you anymore. Yeah. So you still have the trauma. You’re never going, you know, I always say to the girls, anything that’s happened to you will have always happened to you.
Cathy: So you kind of have to figure out how to process it. How to talk about it and how to find a place for it. Yeah.
Where
Cathy: it becomes part of your strength and what you can learn from versus, so like, [00:50:00] just to kind of give you guys examples of how this connects to Stranger Things. Will, he feels very different.
Cathy: He’s very sensitive. We learn more about him in different, in in future seasons, but his parents have been divorced. His father is absent. There’s a lot of trauma that he has. Same with Jonathan. Um, same with, um, El Yeah. I mean there’s so much trauma there. There’s, there’s so many things, um, that each of the characters and as we go into season 2, 3, 4, 5, you meet other characters who have trauma as well.
Cathy: And so that becomes a part of what, how the upside down pulls you in. Okay. So it’s really deep.
Todd: I just asked, uh, Chet, GPT, like who are some teachers? You say Carl Young. I just said, Hey, who are some others? And, uh, just a few to mention in case anybody’s like, oh, this is interesting. Good mate. Who’s all into, he’s all about trauma, right?
Todd: Yep. Um, they mentioned Richard Rohr. Sure. It talks about the second half of life requiring, confronting the shadow and letting go of the ego. Yeah, he uses a lot of young stuff. I love Richard Rohrer. Uh, mark Nepo, [00:51:00] poet F known for emotionally resident metaphors, Aire Perel, and some guy named Michael Mead, who I think was a mythologist or something.
Todd: So anyways, it’s just throwing that out there.
Cathy: So let’s bring it back to Stranger Things. So how Stranger Things brings the shadow to life. So Will’s time and the upside down, he survives it, but the experience leaves psychological residue on him. Literally, he is literally haunted inside of his body’s proof that the shadow leaves Marks.
Cathy: Okay. So again, there’s meta layers here because there’s the trauma he had before even going in the upside down, but then there’s the trauma from being in the upside down. Yep. So, and then eleven’s trauma, her powers are tied to peer, uh, to pain and fear. She’s actually in season one, it shows how her, the whole goal of getting her to use her powers is to hurt other people.
Cathy: Yeah. Like, you know, it’s all tied to that. She embodies what happens when the shadow is exploited. Instead of cared for. And then Hopper’s Grief Hopper, um, you find out in, you know, season one that he lost a daughter, [00:52:00] that she died of cancer, and why he is the way he is now. Why he has such a hard, you know, tough exterior.
Cathy: Because when you see him in his flashbacks, he’s a warm, you know,
Todd: loving, totally different personality.
Cathy: Daved, he’s less, less
Todd: grumpy,
Cathy: less grumpy guy. Um, so he buried his pain over losing, losing his daughter in his, uh, personal, his own personal upside down. And once he confronts that, he becomes more present to what he needs to do.
Cathy: So, um, just a few things that we can learn from this. You know, I’ll, we’ve kind of said these, but I’ll just put ’em all together. I put ’em in bullets. Yeah. Avoiding the dark doesn’t protect us. Boom. It actually isolates us. Um, and then here’s a deep one. Everybody. This probably could have gone under parenting, but I’ll say it here.
Cathy: Kids pick up on the shadows that adults try to hide. Mm-hmm. So if you have pieces of you that you’ve been trying to hide your kids, I’m not saying they know what happened, but they feel that change in behavior. They feel the triggers, they, you know, they can hear in your voice when you don’t wanna discuss something.[00:53:00]
Cathy: They pick up on your shadow self.
Todd: Well, and that’s something I, we’ve I slash we’ve been saying to parents forever is I call that baggage and let’s carry our own bags and not pass our bags down to our kids. ’cause our kids are gonna pick up their own bags. They have their own from being in the world. So let’s work on ourselves so that we don’t have to let our kids unwind the stuff that we chose not to look at
Cathy: unlearn things that weren’t even theirs to begin with.
Cathy: Oh, you know, um, facing the shadow actually gives you strength. And we learn that, you know, through Nancy’s and Jonathan and, um, all the Steve and all the brave, all the Joyce and all the courage, you know? Yeah. Hopper. They’re willing to go after these things. Um, empathy helps us integrate the shadow. Um, Dustin, Mike Lucas, they accept 11.
Cathy: They don’t just help her, they help her face, you know, her fears. They, you know, they are loyal to her. Like one of my favorite scenes, another favorite quote is. Levi says she’s crying and she says to Mike, [00:54:00] I created, you know, the portal. She, and you kind of learn more about that, but she’s the one who ripped the, you know, the, the space time continuum.
Cathy: And she says, I’m the monster. And he says, you aren’t the monster. You saved me. Don’t you understand that? Like, he’s there to remind her that all that that happened with, and again, this gets really deep into the minutia of Stranger Things, but yes, that happened and she caused that. But did she, she was put in that situation.
Cathy: Yeah. She didn’t do it. Yeah, because she wanted to. Um, and bottom line is we all have an upside down, whether it’s grief, fear. The parts of ourselves that we’re afraid to talk about, admit, acknowledge we have to, to heal. We all have an upside down. We all have a shadow
Todd: self. So taking one, uh, small segue from this rolling in the deep category, and this is kind of deep, but not talking about the upside down.
Todd: It reminded me of once again, Stephen King. He did the [00:55:00] movie called Standby Me. He wrote the movie Rob Rener directed it. But um, the very last line in that, one of the very last lines in that movie, you remember what it was? He’s typing in, typing it on his computer. Are
Cathy: you talking about the 12-year-old?
Cathy: Yeah. No one has friends
Todd: like they do when they were 12. The line is this, I never had any friends later on, like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus does anyone right. And I just This by Gord La Chance. Mm-hmm. The character. And I feel like that quote totally like captures the spirit of these. Young men
Cathy: and you know, the guy who plays Gordy, his name’s Will Wheaton.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. So you wonder if maybe Will was taken. Yeah. Who knows? Or will Byers. Yeah. That’s the thing is there’s all this overlap, you know? Yeah. Um, but I agree. And that’s what I mean about when I was 12. Um, ’cause I know we’re looking through the viewpoint of boys. Yeah. But girls had that too. Of course. Like, that’s why I remember being 12 so vividly.
Cathy: Um, you know, watching these guys, I’m not like, oh, this is only a boys story. Yeah. This is, you [00:56:00] know, this is us at 12. We have memories of our friends and they became everything to us. They became our family. Um, one other thing I wanted to say in enrolling in the deep, especially right now in what’s going on in our world, is that science without ethics.
Cathy: Is dangerous. Oh, okay. So, you know, Hawkins Lab, they value data and control over human life, but they are like exposing vulnerable children in the process. Um, Dr. Brenner is a symbol of unchecked authority. He’s cold, he’s clinical, and he’s self-justifying, you know, sound familiar. And, you know, it’s, there’s complete absence of accountability, a complete absence of empathy.
Cathy: The lab causes literal and psychological damage, and they hide behind national security. Huh.
Todd: Yep.
Cathy: And it just reflects real world tensions around scientific experimentation. I believe in science. It’s not that, it’s that [00:57:00] we have to do science with some understanding of, you know, we’re affecting
Todd: you. Well as you’re, as you’re talking, this is, you know, we’re in the middle of the beginning of this, uh, ai.
Todd: Yes. And, you know, depending on who you ask some people like, it’s gonna be the end of mankind. And other people are like, oh, it won’t be that big of a deal. We just gotta manage it. But it’s, I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t even a, there wasn’t a part of me that’s like, I don’t really know how this is gonna work.
Todd: And, you know, I used to think Terminator and Terminator two or like just, you know, pieces of James Cameron’s, uh, imagination. And now I am like. Oh, interesting. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it just, I view it differently now, let’s just say that.
Cathy: Yeah. Pretty creepy. Yeah.
Todd: I try to be, um, here, here’s my example. Sorry to interrupt.
Todd: Okay. Like, sometimes like I’ll be asking Chad GPT, like, for something, for work or getting ready for the podcast, and I’ll be like, like, no, do it this way. No, do it this way. No, do it this way. And I’m thinking on the other side, like if I’m like the computer intelligence, I’d be like, slow down, Todd, what do you give me?[00:58:00]
Todd: Like, I’m just, I’m just barking orders at you. And I feel like this chat, GPT fellow that I’ve created out of this computer is like, screw you.
Cathy: I have actually said, I was looking up something I think for Stranger Things, and I actually said something like, no, yeah,
Todd: that’s
Cathy: not right. Right. That’s not what I
Todd: mean.
Todd: And my manners are being bypassed because I think it’s a robot that doesn’t have intelligence. Well,
Cathy: it’ll come back and it’ll say, oh, sorry about that. You’re right. You know, like, it, it has, it’s got, you know, it’s, it’s creepy.
Todd: It’s creepy. It’s totally creepy. And I, um, I kind of like uploaded all of my men living stuff and Todd Adams coaching stuff and then parenting stuff so it get to know me better so it can have better responses.
Todd: And it is, uh, I almost named it like, you can name your chat, GPT Oh boy. And I’m like, that’s too far. Like, I don’t want to name whatever this thing is that I’m asking for help. What if
Cathy: it’s pod 2.0?
Todd: Maybe. Who knows?
Cathy: All, all of a sudden it’ll be my multiplicity. Like [00:59:00] someone will show up. And sweetie, do you wanna do multiplicity?
Cathy: No, I don’t wanna do much. Great
Todd: movie. Great movie. Are we ready for parenting?
Cathy: Uh, one more thing. Um, 11 is a modern day chosen one. I thought this was interesting. Like the heroes from ET or Goonies or X-Men, she represents otherness, power, and vulnerability all at once. Her name, which is a number, obviously, like I said before, it’s, it totally suggests how she’s dehumanized and tell the boys, help her claim, reclaim her identity.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. So, you know, the modern day chosen one, and I’m putting that in air quotes, that’s what ET was, you know, in the Goonies it was that guy, that one guy who’s the chosen one. Is it that guy that that guy says, I’ll take you home with me.
Todd: Sloth.
Cathy: Yeah.
Todd: I don’t think sloth is the chosen one. I don’t know if there’s a chosen one in Goonies, but if it is, it’s not sloth.
Todd: Okay.
Cathy: Well anyway, she just, we’ll just stop there. Parental guidance, let’s do it.
Going to be like you. The cats, I’m assuming
Todd: I [01:00:00] have nothing for this category.
Cathy: Okay. You’ll like the things that I’ve written down, you can kind of riff with me. So I’d say parental guidance is about, you know, talking to parents about what they can take from this or what they can learn from a show like this or what it’s trying to say.
Cathy: So first of all, believe your kids. Yeah. Believe your kids. And everyone thinks Joyce is losing it. Right. But she knows her kid. She knows her kid. And she refuses to stop believing he’s alive because she, like, when she picks up the phone, she’s like, I know his breathing. Yeah. And she says to Hopper, wouldn’t you know your kids’ breathing?
Cathy: And I could totally, you know, a parent knows, you just know.
Todd: Um, I can, I can pick up on your snoring, sweetie.
Cathy: I know. I’m, I know. It wakes me up now. It wakes me up this snoring. And you have to promise me that it does stop eventually. Right? Of course. Okay. It
Todd: is intermittent throughout the night. Well, that’s because I’m waking up and going back to sleep.
Todd: No. There’s times when you’re sleeping restfully and you’re not snoring.
Cathy: Okay. [01:01:00] I need to know that that’s what you, I just told you. Okay. You need to focus on that more. I don’t like the idea that I’m snoring, but I know I am. Todd used to tell me I was, and I’m like, no. And he’s like, yeah. And then he’d try and record me, but now I wake myself up.
Todd: You’re recording yourself in your brain
Cathy: can hear it, and I can hear me like drop in. Mm-hmm. Like where I’m kind of breathing and then all of a sudden it’s like the breathing totally changed, sweetie. You just gotta go nasal strips and mouth tape. Like me. No, I am not putting something on my mouth called Hostage
Todd: tape.
Todd: No, thank you. I’m using medical tape now. It’s, it’s cheaper than hostage Tape.
Cathy: Okay. So again, Joyce’s trust in, you know, will isn’t, it’s, it’s not just about instinct, it’s about knowing him. Mm-hmm. You know, and that continues in all the other seasons. Like she understands that, you know, he needs to draw.
Cathy: Remember what we just watched the other night in season two that he can’t speak what he’s experiencing, but she’s like, he knows how to draw it. Yeah. And she know like there’s a point in season one when Hopper’s like, you know, I think Hawkins lab took Will because I saw a picture [01:02:00] in a room and um, you know, it was this drawing and she’s like, what was the drawing like?
Cathy: And he’s like, it was stick figures. She’s like, not Will. Yeah.
Because
Cathy: Will draws amazing. So you just know your kids. So, um, also another thing for Par, parental guidance stay open. Um, hopper starts the season, super cynical, closed off. Um, but when he softens and listens, he becomes a really important protector.
Cathy: Yeah. You know, listen to your kids, stay open. Um, you know, we’re not always gonna get our kids experiences right away, but we can stay curious.
Todd: A few I have is kids are just ridiculously, uh, intuitive and creative in a way that us old people are not. Totally. Um, you could be both scared and brave at the same time.
Todd: As a matter of fact, you can’t be courageous without fear go hand in hand. And there’s a lot of, uh, fear and courage that is, um, illustrated in this show.
Cathy: Exactly. And, you know, probably the, the one that causes the most humor for me, or one of them [01:03:00] that gives me a lot of humor is kids see how you show up and not what you say.
Cathy: Yeah. Mike and Nancy’s parents and baby Holly’s parents. Um, Ted and Karen Wheeler are in this show, and everyone’s like, yeah, they’re at home. They’re there for the kids. They don’t know what’s going on. So they may be saying, Hey, you know, I think Karen says a bunch of times, Nancy, you can tell me anything, Mike, I’m here for you.
Cathy: But they’re clueless. Right? And Ted is the worst. Like Ted has moments where he’s like, if there was a girl living in our basement, we would know it. And he didn’t. And Mike with a girl, he would never be with a girl. And he was Mike and Nancy doing something together. Never. And they were like, the joke is how clueless Ted and Karen are.
Todd: Uh, sweetie, I got some clips ready for, for Ted Wheeler. Okay. Because he is, there’s a part of me that is Ted Wheeler. Just so we know,
care what the chief said, Michael. So [01:04:00] me and Barbara are gonna study at our house tonight. Language. So we’re under house arrest just because Mike Spring got lost in the way home.
Wait, this is Wilson.
Todd: Steve, it’s just cut up versus
come back.
Todd: Hold on. This is my favorite part.
Okay, here have some juice. Okay. She’s about to get mad at her husband, Michael. See what happens. That is really unfair, son. We care
my no go.
I hope you’re enjoying your chicken. Ted. What did I do? What did I do? Hey, what’d I do? What’d I do?
Cathy: And then there’s also a point when they think Will is dead. And Karen’s like, I should go talk to Mike. And he’s like, no, he’ll come to us when he is ready. His friend just died. You go to your kid, he’s just a mess.
Cathy: Here comes more.
Cathy: This [01:05:00] girl.
What happened to her hair? No, absolutely not. Our son with a girl with. I mean, believe me, if he had a girl sleeping in this house, we’d know about it, wouldn’t we? This girl. What
Cathy: has she done?
God, is she Russia
Cathy: like this?
And is she Russia?
Cathy: So, you know, our kids know when we’re emotionally checked out and if we are, they’re gonna turn to other people or you know, or their peers.
Cathy: Um, and then, you know, the last thing I have is let your kids be exactly who they are. Look at the heroes of this show. You know what I mean? The heroes of the show are the kids that are supposed to be the nerds, the d and d kids, the kids who are always in the AV club. Um, the outcasts, the one the kids who are bullied and their heroes and you know, let ’em let your kids geek out over d and d and radios and science.
Cathy: And, and again, I know now it’s different ’cause it’s video games and we have to watch that ’cause we don’t want him playing too much. So it’s not that simple. Um, [01:06:00] but I think it’s just another reminder that, you know, even if you don’t understand your, your kids’ weird interests, honoring them shows your kids that you know they’re worth celebrating.
Cathy: Can I give you
Todd: 15 more seconds of Ted?
Cathy: If it’s worth it should be out there looking for
him. Honey, honey. We have to trust them. This is our government. They’re on our side.
Cathy: This is our government. They’re on our side.
Sorry. I just love Ted, Ted Wheeler. Bless your heart.
Cathy: Oh, wait, I have one more thing. Yeah.
Cathy: For parental guidance, um, pay attention. Um, you know, there’s a really big thing about body language in this show, like 11, as I was saying, the 30 words, 11 says it is actually 211 barely speaks. But her whole story, like you can, her eyes, you know, she’s a, first of all, oh my God, she Millie. Bobby Brown’s a great actress.
Cathy: Yes. But you can see where she’s at based on what she looks like. So pay attention to her body language. And you know, Mike sees her. Yeah. Like Mike doesn’t need explanations, he [01:07:00] just sees her. So kids don’t always have the words, but their behavior is communication. And when they act out, there’s usually something else going on.
Cathy: So, um, so that’s, that’s it for parenting. All right. Here we go. Nope. What did it teach us? Oh,
sorry.
Cathy: There we go.
Todd: Um, I don’t, I think I just said all mine. So,
Cathy: okay. So big life lessons. Uh, I’ll just rattle ’em off since we’ve done All these kids are smarter and braver than we think. Um, we already talked about Carl Young and the shadow and the trauma doesn’t just go away. It, it shows up unless we integrate it. Um, being different is a superpower.
Cathy: Uh, and final one, which might be a stretch, but control might seem powerful, but connection is what actually heals. Like in the end, like some of the most lovely parts of this show are when people reconnect.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: And that, and that, you know, Brenner tries to control, [01:08:00] um, 11, but when Mike meets her, or when the boys meet her and they just wanna be with her and connect with her, that’s when she becomes most powerful.
Cathy: No doubt. So now we can do cringe or classic. All right, let’s
do that.
Cathy: Why don’t we come?
Todd: Thanks.
Nobody put scared me in the corner.
Todd: Um, once again, got nothing for this category.
Cathy: Classic. I, I just feel like it’s one word or the other.
Todd: Right. For stranger thing. Correct. Yes. It’s just the ultimate classic.
Cathy: It is. I think, like I said, I think it’s, if not my favorite show, right up there in the top.
Todd: All right.
Todd: Uh, best quote. Are we doing that one?
Cathy: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, my favorite quote, I mean,
may the force be with you. May the force be with you. May the fool be with you. May the force be with you. All right. What do you got?
Cathy: Uh, we were kind of joking before we started recording ’cause mine is not a quote, it’s like a minute long, but it just, the whole thing makes me laugh and it has [01:09:00] happens to be Dustin.
Cathy: And just to set it up, they, um, 11 is trying to find will in the upside down and realizes that she can’t do it with the radio. Yep. But then she realizes that if she had a bath or if she had water, a sensory deprivation tank of some kind, she could then find will. So they have to create one and to create one, they decide to call their science teacher at 10 o’clock on a Saturday.
Cathy: And then this is the conversation, oh, I gotta get that one ready.
Todd: Yeah. Um, it is right here. Hello,
Mr. Clark. It’s Dustin. Dustin. Is everything okay? Yeah. Yeah. I just, I I have a, a science question. It’s 10 o’clock on Saturday. Why don’t we pick this up on sensory deprivation tanks, specifically how to build one sensory deprivation.
What, what is this for? Fun. Okay. Well, why don’t we talk about it Monday after school. Okay. [01:10:00] You say We should never stop being curious to always open any curiosity door we find. Justin. Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?
Cathy: Uhhuh. That’s it.
That’s so good. And
Cathy: then he starts writing down how to do it. But I just, I just love, I love the scene because Dustin’s on the phone. Everyone is behind him. Yeah. Hoping he
Todd: can extract it because there is no Google. Yes. There’s no encyclopedias that can talk about sensory tempera. They can’t go to the
Cathy: library at 10 o’clock on a Saturday.
Cathy: It’s not open. So he’s calling his teacher just the fact that, that Mr. Clark answers the phone. ’cause he’s on a date watching the thing. Yeah. Which again is another layer of having the thing with his girlfriend. But he answers the phone and then Dustin gets the information.
Todd: Um, I think I have two favorite quotes.
Todd: This is one of them.
Don’t lie. Yeah,
Todd: right sweetheart. And then the other one, which I don’t have queued up, but it is, um, hopper saying mornings are for coffee and contemplation.
Cathy: And he says it twice. Yes. Coffee and [01:11:00] contemplation. Yeah. Basically leave me alone. ’cause he’s hungover. Yes. Um, so is it, where are they now?
Cathy: Or music game?
Todd: Um. Ooh, music game. I’m getting nervous. Uh, it’s Where are they now?
Cathy: Where are you now? Where are you now that nature?
Todd: Uh, this is all you.
Cathy: So basically, I didn’t wanna go through each actor in the show because Stranger Things continues. Uh, there is season two, season three, season four, and Season five comes out.
Cathy: And instead of doing it, like dropping eight episodes or however many episodes as they’ve done in the past, they are dropping an episode on Thanksgiving, November 21st, which is Cameron’s birthday. Then they’re gonna drop the next episode on Christmas, and then they’re gonna drop the last one on New Year’s Eve.
Cathy: So they’re kind of, I think everyone gets annoyed when the Duffer brothers don’t like this, but they’re like small movies. Yeah. You know, they’re like, movies for, but he, they’re like, no, it’s just a long episode. Yeah. But whatever. [01:12:00] So instead of going through the actors, I thought Todd could just play the trailer for season five.
Cathy: I think about that night, all the time,
the night it came for you.
All of this started
everything.
We failed,[01:13:00]
but we need to be ready to.
Cathy: All right. That’s good. Yeah, it continues, but you got the gist. Yeah, it’s really powerful. I’m so excited, sweetie. So excited.
Todd: Uh, all right. Music game. All right. Music game
makes me go. All right.
Todd: So this is the category where we, uh, use something not so obvious to best describe the vibe of whatever topic or movie or TV show we happen to be talking about.
Cathy: You got
Todd: it. Is that a concise way of putting it? Yeah.
Cathy: The vibe trying as you said it. Not too obvious and, but kind of capturing everything we discussed and what the show represents.
Todd: All right. So, uh, you want me to go first? Yeah, [01:14:00] you go ahead. All right. So. Ooh.
Good. Todd. I like this one.
Want me to,
Todd: so that’s disarm the burn.
Cathy: Defend it. Um,
Todd: first of, uh, it’s weird because pumpkins are from Chicago. I’m from Chicago. When I think of pumpkins, I think of being a little kid. Uh, there’s, you know, there is a line in there that says The killer in me is a killer in you. So there’s some violence. Um, and it’s just a very childhood, um, centered song.
Todd: It actually has to do with Billy [01:15:00] and the abuse that he received as a young boy. Uh, very traumatic thing. And it’s a song that I love. So I just went with this
Cathy: and it, the, the d It’s eerie. Yeah. Yeah. It’s got like the same, it does
Todd: feel to it. So that’s, that’s what I got.
Cathy: Todd, you know what I gotta say?
Cathy: You’ve been really good at the music game. Thank you. I, I always feel like I, I can do the music game and play and hold my head high, but you’ve been really kind of crushed it. Well, usually when we’re
Todd: playing it with our friends, we’re drinking. Yeah. We’re on a time crunch. Yeah. I get time to think about it.
Todd: Yeah. Uh, what do you got there babe? So
Cathy: I have a video for you, but, and so it says, um, if, you know, if you look at the videos I sent you. Oh, it says music game.
Todd: Oh, you did? Um,
Cathy: but don’t play it yet. Okay, good. Let me explain. Good. ‘
Todd: cause I don’t have that right now, so I gotta find it.
Cathy: Are you sure?
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: But you have what I sent you, right?
Cathy: I’m gonna look
Todd: for it right now. Okay.
Cathy: As you’re talking. Okay, good. So I’m gonna set it up. So I have to say that in some ways this might be too, this is obvious. Um, but I also. [01:16:00] Found it to be really powerful because, um, I’ll, I’ll explain what it is. It’s the song Heathens by 21 Pilots, um, which is actually written for a different movie called Suicide Squad.
Cathy: So that’s what it was written for, but it’s actually kind of a personal story for the lead singer, Tyler Joseph. He wanted, he, you know, he wrote it for the fans and everything, but, and, you know, he wanted, um, the message to apply to, uh, being misunderstood or being left out of a community or left out of a clique, um, which is kind of what Suicide Squad is about.
Cathy: But it’s both an invitation, like for empathy and it has kind of an eerie sound to it. Um, and, you know, there’s a, you know, one of the quotes is it looks like you might be one of us, but why I wanted you to, why I chose it is because when 21 Pilots were playing a concert in Romania, they, um, used. The Stranger Things music.
Cathy: Oh, the theme song. [01:17:00] And combined it with Heathens. And before they started playing the song, they were putting clips of Stranger Things up. So this video, if you found it, did you it? I did. I do
have it.
Cathy: So just go ahead and play it and you’ll hear from the beginning. From the beginning, you’ll hear the crowd and then the clips, and then the song.[01:18:00]
Todd: Isn’t that good? That’s really good. You shared that with me when this came out, or years and actually those years ago.
Cathy: Yeah. Those scenes are from season four.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: Um, so I know that’s a little unfair. Yeah.
Todd: I feel like you cheated a little bit, but that’s okay.
Cathy: You know what, when else was I gonna be able to play that?
Cathy: I hear you. And so that’s the thing is, so it’s okay if you guys vote for Todd because he picked Disarm, um, by Smashing Pumpkins. But I’m like, as soon as I sit saw a music game, I’m like, I’m using 21 Pilots. Sweetie knew what she was doing. I did. So that is that All right. Do you have a, you have a quiz for me?
Okay.
Cathy: I do.[01:19:00]
Todd: I chose to go with the challenging ones ’cause the easy and the mediums were way too easy. Is it just season one? It’s just season one. Okay. Okay. Let’s see if I can do it. You’re, I know you’re not gonna be able to get it all. I, okay. Of course. I always miss, what brand of camera does Jonathan use to take photos?
Cathy: Nikon
Todd: Canon. Damn. What does Mr. Clark say is the best material to build a sensory deprivation tank? What does Mr. Clark say is the best material? Material? I, I remember he says the salt. There you go. Done. Okay. Good job. Okay. What song plays during eleven’s? Flashback when she’s in the isolation chamber? Ooh.
Cathy: Atmosphere
Todd: Elegy by new order. Oh, no. I wouldn’t remember that. What is the name of the blonde agent who works for Dr. Brenner?
Cathy: Oh, the woman?
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: Who has blood coming outta her eyes? Probably, I don’t know. Agent Connie
Todd: Frazier
Cathy: wouldn’t have got that.
Todd: What is the exact DOD campaign [01:20:00] length? The boys play at the beginning of season one.
Todd: 10 hours. Very good. What object does 11 flip over in the grocery store?
Cathy: Uh, she flips over the cart.
Todd: Shopping cart. Shopping cart? Yeah. What insult does Mike use to get Lucas to apologize? Oh boy. This is rough. Uh, insult. I don’t remember. I don’t know if this is true because it is the internet, but it says you’re just mad because you don’t have a dad.
Cathy: I don’t remember that. I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think he says that it’s, uh, but can we just for a second, ’cause we didn’t talk about that, why Lucas is mad. Sure. Um, there’s a really lovely scene where Dustin asks Mike, ’cause he wants them to make up ’cause Mike and Lucas are fighting and Dustin says, Lucas is your best friend.
Cathy: Right? Because Lucas and Mike live next door to each other and do the walkie-talkies just like in big.
Todd: Yep.
Cathy: Um, and he’s like, no, you guys are all my best friends. He’s like, no, Lucas is your best friend. He was your first best friend. And then all of a sudden this girl is in our party or in our mix and he just misses you.
Cathy: You’re paying attention to her and not him. Yeah. So Lucas really isn’t a bad kid. He just is a little [01:21:00] envious. Truth. Okay. Keep going.
Todd: Um, okay. I think there’s two or three more. Um, what state is eleven’s birth mother said to be from?
Cathy: Well, they drive to it. So it has to be Indiana, right? Very
Todd: good. Yeah, don’t overthink it.
Todd: Okay. What is the name of the dinner owner who briefly shelters? Benny Oven. Benny. Benny. You
Cathy: know who that is?
Todd: That’s Toby. Toby from This Is Us. I know. I love Toby. And then last but not least, what is Hopper’s daughter’s name? Sarah. Very good. Very good. So that’s it. You did very well on the trivia, sweetie.
Todd: Nice job. Not bad. Um,
Cathy: anything else? No closing thoughts. Just that I was really excited to do this one. Uh, if you guys haven’t watched Stranger Things, go watch it. Even if you have
rewatch
Cathy: it, rewatch it and get ready for season five. Because right now if, for those of you who have not watched you have time to get ready for season five, you know, you can watch 1, 2, 3, 4.
Cathy: And for those of you who have watched it and you’re like, I kind of remember it, rewatch it, it’s just as good. And um, and for those of you that are like super fans, [01:22:00] like Todd and I, we’re, we’re right there with you. That’s right.
You got to let me know. Should I say or should I go?
Round two. Change a little bit. And change a little bit. Pretty pleasant.
