It wasn't until S3 that they had Russians be actual villains on the show. That is a Red Dawn scenario where they create a secret base in small town USA and allow the monster big bad to find a way back into our world.
However the show does begin with the US government experimenting on children, separating children from their parents, mass surveillance, and murdering civilians to protect their intelligence assets. Not to spoil S4 but let's just say the US government steps it up a little bit in terms of doing bad things.
The show isn't really attempting to make a statement. It has anti-Soviet stuff because it's the 80s and Cold War. It has anti-CIA stuff because government experimentation is part of the premise. It's not doing either of these to make a broader statement about either topic. It's purely aesthetic. The show has no real political content.
Here's how little political content the show has, it completely ignores racial dynamics in rural Indiana during the 1980s. We have black characters saying and doing things they would never say or do during that time because Netflix wants a diverse cast. They want the diverse cast but don't want to bog down the show by exploring those racial dynamics. They will explore cartoonish Red Scare shit and Satanic Panic stuff, but not the race stuff. I mean ignoring the race stuff is being political, but it's also an example of how the show tries to ignore meaningful political content. I think at one point the show had black parents saying the cops need to question their kid more. This is 1986 rural Indiana. What a silly thing. Not only that but it was a white parent who piped up and said "You want cops to arrest our kids?" to the black parent.
Of course it's still a political thing but they're just regurgitating political things from the 80s without any real thought. It is aesthetic in that communism isn't going to be hurt by Stranger Things being anti-communist. It's aesthetic in that they're just copying something they don't understand because it was the cultural moment of the time. You can make a knock-off of Rocky III without personally and individually being anti-communist. I'm not defending the show. Watch it or don't, it doesn't really matter. I pirated it, I don't pay for Netflix. But I don't think it's dangerous propaganda that's going to hold back socialism from happening. It's definitely an ignorant show though and the writers should try harder.
The one character’s older brother is a violent bigot but then he gets reformed as a hot lifeguard the next season so they can do the MILF arc
It’s very much a whitewashing of the 80’s both literally and figuratively. I don’t think we should expect complete historical accuracy in all depictions of race across all media. I do wish that if they weren’t gonna touch on racism that they should have entirely not touched on it rather than kinda sorta touched on it.
How does Lucas feel about his girlfriend’s older brother physically threatening him because of his race and then just kind of not addressing him? We’ll never know. And that’s a big part of why it oughta be all or nothing. And preferably with someone who actually knows what the fuck they’re talking about
Then there is the gay stuff. Like hey we want gay characters because the people watching might be gay but let's not talk about the AIDS epidemic and societal attitudes towards LGBTQ people or anything. It's just a quirky personality trait that our main characters are all okay with. Just enough friction to have the gay characters there so the show has identity but no real criticism or exploration of the time. It's a very vapid show.
I didn't say make it about the AIDS epidemic. When I said "talk about" I don't mean the characters literally stop and have a conversation about it. I just mean the writers can put little stuff in. Mad Men is a good example of a show that does period cultural attitudes in a non-hamfisted way. If you want to point out that Mad Men is a high-class prestige drama and not some capeshit sci-fi schlock like ST, then consider Umbrella Academy S2. It's also made by Netflix and they did a whole plot about time travel where a black character goes back to the 60s. She joins a Civil Rights movement. They didn't avoid it.
Saying the CIA/US government bad was what Regan ran on - hating ALL governments is a thing.
The difference is that in America - there are good people in the government sometimes, while in Russia - everyone is inherently stupid and evil.
Season 4 has done NOTHING to subvert the EVIL RUSSIANS narrative.
It's propaganda in that everything cultural in the US is propaganda. It's not propaganda in that the CIA paid people to write a show shitting on communism. They don't have to do that, it's already part of the cultural milieu. It just bleeds in whether it's intentional or not. Especially when it's a bunch of progressive professionals trying to have a corporate career while aping cultural moments from the 80s.
I'm not very good at communicating what I'm trying to say, but I'm not saying that the show isn't saying political things. It's just that they're saying unexamined political things in order to get to their goal which is 80s nostalgia. I'm not saying it's just an aesthetic so everyone here must agree to like it and that it's good. I don't think the writers are sitting at NF HQ rubbing their hands together over a plot to make communism look bad. It's crass, it's naive, it's ignorant of history. Which is why it's making money for Netflix. Because those things create inoffensive (to most people) entertainment and allows companies to avoid controversy. The goal of making money off the show has more to do with why it's anti-communist than specific ideological goals of the writers or Netflix executives.
At least they finally put a tamper on the smoking. I was starting to think Big Tobacco has been funding some of these period shows just to up smoking in the popular culture again.
It wasn't until S3 that they had Russians be actual villains on the show. That is a Red Dawn scenario where they create a secret base in small town USA and allow the monster big bad to find a way back into our world.
However the show does begin with the US government experimenting on children, separating children from their parents, mass surveillance, and murdering civilians to protect their intelligence assets. Not to spoil S4 but let's just say the US government steps it up a little bit in terms of doing bad things.
The show isn't really attempting to make a statement. It has anti-Soviet stuff because it's the 80s and Cold War. It has anti-CIA stuff because government experimentation is part of the premise. It's not doing either of these to make a broader statement about either topic. It's purely aesthetic. The show has no real political content.
Here's how little political content the show has, it completely ignores racial dynamics in rural Indiana during the 1980s. We have black characters saying and doing things they would never say or do during that time because Netflix wants a diverse cast. They want the diverse cast but don't want to bog down the show by exploring those racial dynamics. They will explore cartoonish Red Scare shit and Satanic Panic stuff, but not the race stuff. I mean ignoring the race stuff is being political, but it's also an example of how the show tries to ignore meaningful political content. I think at one point the show had black parents saying the cops need to question their kid more. This is 1986 rural Indiana. What a silly thing. Not only that but it was a white parent who piped up and said "You want cops to arrest our kids?" to the black parent.
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Of course it's still a political thing but they're just regurgitating political things from the 80s without any real thought. It is aesthetic in that communism isn't going to be hurt by Stranger Things being anti-communist. It's aesthetic in that they're just copying something they don't understand because it was the cultural moment of the time. You can make a knock-off of Rocky III without personally and individually being anti-communist. I'm not defending the show. Watch it or don't, it doesn't really matter. I pirated it, I don't pay for Netflix. But I don't think it's dangerous propaganda that's going to hold back socialism from happening. It's definitely an ignorant show though and the writers should try harder.
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You can hate it on it for that.
The one character’s older brother is a violent bigot but then he gets reformed as a hot lifeguard the next season so they can do the MILF arc
It’s very much a whitewashing of the 80’s both literally and figuratively. I don’t think we should expect complete historical accuracy in all depictions of race across all media. I do wish that if they weren’t gonna touch on racism that they should have entirely not touched on it rather than kinda sorta touched on it.
How does Lucas feel about his girlfriend’s older brother physically threatening him because of his race and then just kind of not addressing him? We’ll never know. And that’s a big part of why it oughta be all or nothing. And preferably with someone who actually knows what the fuck they’re talking about
Then there is the gay stuff. Like hey we want gay characters because the people watching might be gay but let's not talk about the AIDS epidemic and societal attitudes towards LGBTQ people or anything. It's just a quirky personality trait that our main characters are all okay with. Just enough friction to have the gay characters there so the show has identity but no real criticism or exploration of the time. It's a very vapid show.
Making Strangers Things about the AIDS epidemic would not make sense at all. Its a small town setting, how in the world would they ham fist it in?
I didn't say make it about the AIDS epidemic. When I said "talk about" I don't mean the characters literally stop and have a conversation about it. I just mean the writers can put little stuff in. Mad Men is a good example of a show that does period cultural attitudes in a non-hamfisted way. If you want to point out that Mad Men is a high-class prestige drama and not some capeshit sci-fi schlock like ST, then consider Umbrella Academy S2. It's also made by Netflix and they did a whole plot about time travel where a black character goes back to the 60s. She joins a Civil Rights movement. They didn't avoid it.
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Saying the CIA/US government bad was what Regan ran on - hating ALL governments is a thing. The difference is that in America - there are good people in the government sometimes, while in Russia - everyone is inherently stupid and evil.
Season 4 has done NOTHING to subvert the EVIL RUSSIANS narrative.
"it's just an aesthetic" is an easy way to sugarcoat anything with a propaganda function.
It's propaganda in that everything cultural in the US is propaganda. It's not propaganda in that the CIA paid people to write a show shitting on communism. They don't have to do that, it's already part of the cultural milieu. It just bleeds in whether it's intentional or not. Especially when it's a bunch of progressive professionals trying to have a corporate career while aping cultural moments from the 80s.
I'm not very good at communicating what I'm trying to say, but I'm not saying that the show isn't saying political things. It's just that they're saying unexamined political things in order to get to their goal which is 80s nostalgia. I'm not saying it's just an aesthetic so everyone here must agree to like it and that it's good. I don't think the writers are sitting at NF HQ rubbing their hands together over a plot to make communism look bad. It's crass, it's naive, it's ignorant of history. Which is why it's making money for Netflix. Because those things create inoffensive (to most people) entertainment and allows companies to avoid controversy. The goal of making money off the show has more to do with why it's anti-communist than specific ideological goals of the writers or Netflix executives.
At least they finally put a tamper on the smoking. I was starting to think Big Tobacco has been funding some of these period shows just to up smoking in the popular culture again.