Stranger Things: Think Like a Kid | Video Essay

Stranger Things teaches us how to think like a kid. As Season 2 hits Netflix, we can all learn how to treat life like a game, be good friends and steer clear of “adults.

Transcript provided by Youtube:

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Apart from its talent for recapturing the best of 80s pop culture, the exceptional appeal
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of Stranger Things comes from its way of looking at what is dark and scary in our world and
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beyond, and then processing this through the perspective of children.
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Will’s disappearance and the fight against the Demogorgon is the story of children first
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glimpsing the darkness of adulthood and facing this challenge head-on by filtering the big,
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bad world through their own language, games, and values.
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So, Stranger Things helps to teach its audiences how to think more like a kid again.
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It reminds us to have open minds that can see what’s going on, even if it’s truly
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strange and terrifying; to rise to the occasion by channeling the stories or games that inspire
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us; to hold our friendships dear; and to be wary of those that might dismiss the reality
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of your fears and your imagination.
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From the first moments of the show, Stranger Things thrusts the audience
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into the mindset of children.
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The beginning scene in the laboratory is traditionally horrific, full of flashing lights and eerie
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music that build our anxiety.
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It’s immediately announced to the viewer that this is a horror show.
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We then flash into safe suburbia, but the sprinkler on the boys’ house’s lawn mimics
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the music and light rhythm of the laboratory scene.
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So, while we transfer out of the horror feel into a safe-seeming location, the threat lingers,
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“Something is coming, something hungry for blood.”
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and the boys in the midst of their Dungeons and Dragons seem somehow to be aware of that
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threat (while older characters aren’t).
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“What if its the demagorgon.” “Oh God we are so screwed if it’s the demagorgon?” “It’s not the demagorgon.”
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“An army of trageldytes charge into the corner!” “Trageldytes?” “Told ya!”
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While many remember childhood as a carefree time, the early Dungeons and Dragons game
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what feels like life-or-death scenarios.
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“Oh my God Oh my god oh my god”
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One large lamp above the table, while only a few scattered fainter lamps leave great
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portions of the room in darkness.
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When the perspective shifts into these shadows, viewing the table from a source of obscurity,
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the audience gets the feeling that these four children are being stalked or watched.
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After the game, when the boys ride home at night, they seem completely exposed and unprotected,
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their small bike lights surrounded by an intimidating sea of darkness This visual foreshadows what’s
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to come, but also dramatizes the way that the boys already constantly feel threats around
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them.
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It’s this open mindset in which they haven’t yet outgrown the ability to believe in supernatural
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Later in the first episode, when Will is kidnapped by the Demogorgon,
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the boys’ prediction of peril is realized, again through this visual motif of a small
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“The demagorgon… It got me.”
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Again through this visual motif, light in darkness while the precedent in the game doesn’t
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totally save him, it prepares his mind for what’s about to happen.
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“Do you hear that? That sound?” “Boom… Boom… BOOM!”
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Rather than stare disbelievingly around him, he bravely brandishes a gun in an attempt
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to save himself.
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Will proves himself not a helpless child but rather a motivated person ready to defend
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himself.
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And in the season to follow, his group of friends prove the most capable and effective
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in the fight to bring him back, thanks to their mental fortitude and willingness to
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see the truth.
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The children use games and toys to process severe problems in simpler, more inviting
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terms.
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And the show includes us in their thought process.
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Right before the boys begin gathering forces
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to look for Will, the camera literally illustrates the turning of the tables as its focus switches
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from Will’s piece, the wizard, to the Demogorgon.
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It viscerally demonstrates that it’s the Demogorgon’s move, and game, now.
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However, despite the foreboding tone of this switch, seeing it on a board game renders
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the reality more manageable.
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Plus, in a board game, every player gets their turn.
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If it’s the Demogorgon’s now, then that means it will be the boys’ again before
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long. Eleven clears the board to explain the location of Will. The elimination of the previously known rules, resets the stakes.
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Mike: What if this is Hawkins, and this is where Will is.
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The Upside-Down.
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“Like the veil of shadows.”
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At the same time, the presence of the board and pieces gives them confidence by grounding
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them in in what they know.
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As bad as the situation may seem, the fact that Will is hiding from they’re facing
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the monster instead of the bad men almost creates better odds.
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They can mentally prepare to face this monster because they’ve faced this monster before
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in their game.
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This shows how it helps children to deal with scary concepts — and accept truly horrific
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lost in some different version of the world, so their way of processing it is to relate
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it back to something familiar.
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This shows how it helps children to deal with scary concepts — and accept truly horrific
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events — through fantasy and role-playing.
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“Why would the chief set us up? Nancy, maybe… but the chief?”
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“Lando Carithian.” “Shut up about Lando!”
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As an audience, we could learn by this example; things that sometimes seem complex and over
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our heads can be easier to deal with if we compare them to past experiences or successes.
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Comparing reality to the game also sometimes extends to treating reality as a game.
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To discuss the day’s happenings and come up with a plan of attack, the boys communicate
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over walkie-talkies.
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Therefore, the conversation becomes instantly less worrying; it’s just two boys playing
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with toys.
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The walkie-talkies resurface during first contact with Will since his disappearance.
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“If I go there will be trouble. An’ if I don’t it will be double.” “Will is that you? It’s Mike do you copy?”
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Despite the intensity of this moment – they’re listening to their very distressed friend
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trapped in a different layer of the world – the fact that contact is made through
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a toy feels like they’re just playing pretend.
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Even the way that the boys prepare to challenge the monster — Lucas
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brings his “wrist-rocket,” his fancy name for a slingshot, and Dustin brings snacks
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“Seriously?” “We need energy for our travels, for stamina.”
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— are just same matter-of-fact ways they’d get ready to play their board game.
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By reducing reality to a game, the kids feel braver, more up to the challenge, and can
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still have fun while facing terrible dangers.
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“Mike!!! I found the chocolate pudding!”
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The kids’ strong bonds with
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each other are a constant reminder of what’s most important to kids — friendship.
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“You can’t have more than one best friend.” “Says who?” ” Says logic.”
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“Well I call bull on your logic, because you’re my best friend too.”
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These kids know that human connection and treating each other decently should always
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come first, whatever struggles we face.
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This makes the audience think about whether we hold ourselves to the same standards in
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our friendships.
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After all, if these kids can hold on to what’s important while facing the Demogorgon, then
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what’s our excuse not to do the same?
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With such high value placed on friendships, the kids can resolve any argument.
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“Everything I said about you being a trader and stuff… I was wrong.”
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“I’m sorry.”
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Mike and Lucas’s interactions after their fight suggest that they’ve had disagreements
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before, but usually just a handshake and apology are enough to be friends again.
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They’re stronger together than apart.
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“Do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone path?”
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“We couldn’t agree on what path to take, so we split up the party.”
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“And those trolls took us out one by one, and it all went to shit, and we were all disabled!”
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“So we stick together, no matter what!”
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Not only will they stick together in the face of crazy danger, the kids are
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such devoted friends that they literally risk their lives to save one another, as they devote
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themselves to finding Will.
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“All I know is Will is alive…Will is alive! All we have to do is find him.”
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Stranger Things also shows the easy development of a new bond: the boys’
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friendship with Eleven.
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Mike and Eleven’s first genuine interaction is shared laughter at silly comforts,
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Making new friends is easy and natural for kids, but it’s far harder to slip immediately
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into a true friendship the older we get.
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Refreshingly, Eleven’s new friends accept the ways that she’s different and see her
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“weird” qualities as cool.
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“She’s our friend and she’s crazy!”
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They’ve also been the “weird kids” at
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school, so they are able to empathize with Eleven’s feeling like an outsider.
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“What is friend?” “Is she serious?”
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The boys can’t imagine life without each others’ friendship, and it horrifies them
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to think Eleven’s never experienced that.
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Mike emphasizes the idea of a promise to Eleven.
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“Promise?” “It means something that you can’t break ever.”
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It may seem to us fairly naïve to trust someone because they say you can, but it’s a notion
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children swear by.
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“Promise?” “Promise.”
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And it denotes a valuable quality in children to trust and respect what others say without
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the cynicism of adulthood.
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This friendship is where the kids find their greatest power, reminding the audience that
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the most important choice in life is trusting and valuing other people.
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The kids’ world is separate from the adult world, and the show establishes an interplay
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between the mundane adult world and imaginative kid world.
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While their parents are theoretically there to protect them, the adults can’t truly
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help because they are unable to understand the reality as kids see it.
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“I think we should tell your mom”
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“I second that.”
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“Who’s crazy now?”
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“How is that crazy?”
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“‘Cause we weren’t supposed to be out tonight, remember?”
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“So?”
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“So, if I tell my mom, and she tells your mom, and your mom-”
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“Oh, man.”
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“Our houses become Alcatraz.”
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“Exactly.”
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To these kids, the possibility of all their moms knowing is scarier than any life-or-death
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horror they could face.
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This is echoed later on in the episode when the boys are at school.
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The scariest part isn’t the lost girl who doesn’t really speak or actively respond
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to them — it’s the idea of Mike’s mom finding out that a girl spent the night.
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“If his mom finds out a girl slept over last night-” “He’s in deep shit right now”
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But on another level, it shows that for kids, social and parental pressures often feel more
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stressful even than the challenges that they perceive as the life-or-death.
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While most parents are a lot more aware of their kids’ activities than the adults in
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Stranger Things, “Is that Will I hear back there?” “No, no it’s just Mike.” “Wasn’t Will supposed to spend the night?”
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it’s still true that parents can’t really intervene to help their kids
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face the trials that feel to them most dramatic and difficult in their lives.
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The uncrossable barrier between the adult and child worlds lies in acknowledging truth
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— they know that their parents can’t understand and would try to reduce their interpretation
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of the world to nonsense.
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For the audience, the way the kids protect their truth from their parents reminds us
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to be wary of those people that are too closed-minded, too “adult” in that sense, to understand
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the rich layer of imagination and “stranger things” that our inner kids can still perceive.
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We should steer clear of these small-minded people who would diminish our worlds to only
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what they accept is factual and normal.
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“And you shouldn’t like things because people tell you you’re supposed to.”
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Stranger Things teaches us to be open-minded even when reality is beyond belief; to manage
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the challenges we face by treating them like a game; to remember that friendship and human
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bonds are more important than anything else; and to be wary of people who will dismiss your beliefs. In other words, think like a kid.
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“I’m a monster.” “No El, you’re not the monster, you saved me. Don’t you understand?” “You saved me.”