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I binged the first 3 seasons back in 2019 and LOVED IT but for some reason i never returned to the show. I watched every episode once, and then three years later, i picked up where i left off for season 4 without a rewatch or refresher or anything lol So to get in the Halloween spirit this month I've been revisiting my favourite spooky/horror movies and shows and decided to go back and do all of Stranger Things from beginning to the end of 4.
In college I wrote my senior thesis on underlying queer themes in 1940s Hollywood films. Rewatching this show with post-season 4 hindsight felt exactly like that. There was so much to decipher and decode, and, even though i truly love this show, i just want to thank the Fear Street trilogy and Paper Girls for tackling similar themes and being more upfront (and hopeful) about their queer content. So here are my thoughts:
SEASON 1
-"it was a seven" – will had a crush on mike from the fucking beginning. The look on his face, the fact that he felt compelled to tell Mike the truth even when it wouldn't serve anyone and their other friends told him not to– this is a soft baby crush. And i remembered it wrong. i thought it developed around season 3, after they bonded thru his possession in 2... but it was always there. From the first moments of our introduction to these boys.
-ACTUALLY!!! i'm gonna go on record here and say this show should have been called "Queer Shit" cuz in rewatching this, i'm convinced the demogorgon specifically targeted Will becuz he was starting to realize his crush on mike in that moment. because, having seen all 4 seasons play out now, i'm pretty sure that the Upside Down is a metaphor for being in the closet.
i think it's about the trauma of homophobia contributing to forcing you to stay in the closet. the secrecy. the isolation. the way everything feels weird and not quite right. upside down, if you will. a darker, creepier version of what everyone else sees as normal. i think that was always the intention with this show and they were planting the seeds about Will as a character since the beginning.
becuz consider who else gets claimed by the Upside Down.. Barb: a coded lesbian, and then later, Billy: a textbook case of "hurt people hurt people" and i'm pretty sure he was coded as a self-hating queer whose father is literally scaring him straight. to say nothing of Vecna/Henry Creel himself, who i think was DEFINITELY queer-coded. I think season 4 explores him targeting more general trauma but his primary focus was fellow queers because the Upside Down is a metaphor for being in the closet.
-right from the fucking beginning bruh.. right from the FUCKING BEGINNING. people complained that we were imagining things and that will is not queer, we just want him to be. my dude. Joyce explaining to Hopper that her son going missing is probably not him just ditching school, that something is FUCKING WRONG becuz he is already a target for bullies. even his father bullied him. HIS OWN FATHER CALLED HIM A F*G liiiike.. i am so stressed out. Joyce said "he's not like you or me, he's not like.. most. he's a sensitive kid" homie this is such a metaphor i cannot breathe.
-2nd episode.. i know this was not the show's intention, because the two characters who do this are sympathetic and helpful (Benny in the diner and Mike) but the first time Eleven speaks after being rescued, both times, is to say "no".. and both times the person she says it to says in a playfully teasing manner "oh so you CAN speak" which idk feels triggering. feels like something an abuser says when you try to fight them off or set boundaries. i know it's also playful and it's only meant to be in this context.. but when i consider how traumatized Eleven clearly is, and how much was done to her against her will, i feel like this has a weird vibe. And i also think it's significant and telling that the first thing Eleven musters up to say is "no"
-oh and the whole thing about "Privacy" and introducing the concept of privacy to Eleven, she needs to have it explained to her and that's a sign that she has been abused. At the very least, she has been denied the basic rights of privacy... but also, on the other hand, introducing the keeping the door slightly open thing sets up the "3 inches" thing which plays such a huge role in season 3
-"you don't want my mom to get help?"
listen. the way Eleven already knows that anyone who helps her is in danger. the way she already knows that bad things happen to people when she trusts them. Specifically that adults cannot help her. like the trauma survivor-ness of this whole thing hits so hard.
-SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO
Choosing this song as the theme song of the Will and Jonathan relationship... first of all the song itself. like. should Will stay in the closet or should he come out? so there's that. but secondly, hammered home with this conversation between him and Jonathan in the flashback. Jonathan is listing off bands and musicians that are not really mainstream for the time, but the queer kid alternatives. Joy Division. Bowie. The Smiths. in this conversation when he tells Will he shouldn't like things just because he's "supposed to" liiiiike.. This is obviously about more than the music. It’s about how Jonathan can see that his brother is “different”and needs this kind of reassurance that it’s okay for him to be.
-"friends tell each other things.. things that parents don't know"
This is a crucial point in the case of abusive parents, and in not trusting authority figures based on past experiences with them. And it reinforces the concept of found family. Queer relationships and family structures are built on this very practice, so the fact that the party practices this as well is very telling.
-interesting how jonathan is the weird kid but he's not queer. he's the one who encourages Will to challenge the norms and embrace his own interests regardless of what the mainstream expects. he's the loner. he's into photography (art). He is bullied by his peers. but he's not queer...
-the intercutting of Nancy and Steve having sex with the scene of Barb fighting for her life to resist the pull of the Upside Down... this is 1000% a metaphor for a closeted sapphic teen feeling isolated and burying herself deeper in the closet when her really close girl friend starts pulling away from her to be in a straight relationship. you can't convince me otherwise.
-the framing of dr brenner in the Hawkins lab, trying to keep the portal to the Upside Down contained, this is a metaphor for conversion camps and conversion therapy and thinking that homosexuality is contagious. Relates very strongly to the AIDS crisis in the 80s, when this show takes place. Also relates back to how, when he discovered that Henry Creel was different, he started collecting other kids who were "different" and experimenting on them..
-knowing what we know now about Vecna and music.... hearing Will singing Should I Stay Or Should I Go to himself over the walkie while he's in the Upside Down feels significant.
-another thing about AIDS in the 80s, the imagery of State officials in hazmat suits coming in to handle Will's autopsy
-on the misogyny front, Nancy has sex one time and, despite her excellent grades and perfect girl image, no one listens to her when she tries to warn people that something is wrong and Barb is missing. She is now a deviant for defying the social expectation of maintaining her virginity until marriage.
-nancy first steps foot in the Upside Down after turning Steve down and then venting to Jonathan about how she doesn't think her parents ever loved each other, how they just got married and started their nuclear family out of routine/expectation. and then Jonathan accuses her of following in her mother's footsteps: doing the same safe and boring shit. if the Upside Down is a metaphor for being in the closet, this is the perfect time for Nancy to investigate it for herself... aka search her feelings, explore hidden trauma, question her sexuality, challenge the expectations she is living up to and the impact that has on her recognizing her true self
-"sometimes your total obliviousness just blows my mind" ..dustin to mike and if that isn't the mike fucking wheeler theme song and exactly what everyone was complaining about in season 4 with the Will coming out scene in the van. it's literally just consistent.
-here's the thing about Lucas and Eleven's friendship and why i think it's my favourite-- he started out with a healthy dose of skepticism at first, like anyone with common sense would, but once he learned the truth about what was going on, he apologized of his own accord. not like mike coming to shake lucas's hand becuz he drew first blood but being insincere and pushed to do it by dustin the whole time. he did it on his own. and eleven repeating "friends don't lie" to him when he apologized for thinking she was a traitor is her way of saying she always saw him as a friend and she would never do that. and it's so pure and sweet. and there's a reason why the Eleven/Max shippers and the Lucas/Max shippers have no beef with one another. we all live in a utopia becuz we know that Max has two hands and her heart is big enough for both Lucas and Eleven and these are friends, not rivals.
-joyce telling jonathan "this is not yours to fix alone" that is literally the central thesis of this fucking show
-i feel like it's significant that Eleven is constantly misgendered and mistaken for a boy this entire fucking season.. And how people call her "El" for short, which is masculine in spanish
-also worth pointing out that, even though Mike's basement is the main hangout spot for the party, Castle Byers is a secret safe space.
-as another "weird/different" kid, Eleven is able to reach out to Will in the sensory deprivation tank at the school and also the final showdown. both of these scenes take place at the school… which feels like a commentary on what school means, how being around your peers can help you find community and make connections with people who can save your life and become your family, but it’s also a place where you are not necessarily safe and the adults cannot protect you if they don't have your best interests at heart, where you are forced to confront your traumas head on and are especially vulnerable to social ridicule if you don’t fit the mold..
-the trauma of mike and lucas and dustin having to watch Eleven get ripped away from them in front of their eyes (and in a classroom)
-the way that Will coughs up that PTSD slug from the Upside Down on christmas in secret.. and returns to the family like everything is fine... like a metaphor for how when you're queer and in the closet you put on a brave/happy face around the holidays for your family but inside you're holding in this shame and hidden truth. and then it flashes the Upside Down quickly while Will is alone in the bathroom. it's just so rich in symbolism, him secretly still being in the Upside Down (in the closet) deep down but appearing to be happy and safe and fine.