[Like most of my
fellow humans, I spent a good bit of the late summer obsessed with Netflix’s Stranger Things. So this week I’ll
AmericanStudy a handful of topics linked to the
Duffer Brothers’ nostalgic thriller, leading up to a Guest Post from an
expert on supernatural cultural texts!]
StrangerStudying
the show’s three badass female leads (with apologies to a fourth, the much-beloved
and –lamented Barb).
1)
Eleven: Without question
the show’s breakout character and star is Eleven, the telepathically powered
runaway girl played with a perfect combination of creepy dissonance and
youthful hesitancy by British actress Millie Bobby Brown. While
Eleven certainly has her 80s antecedents, including Stephen King’s Firestarter and the girl from Poltergeist, I would argue that she
represents, especially in her evolving relationship with the show’s young male
protagonists, a unique blend of “other” and “average kid”—a combination that
makes (SEMI-SPOILER ALERT) her ultimate, crucial acts of courage and heroism
that much more striking and moving. Indeed, making Eleven into a protagonist
and hero as much as an outsider or threat distinguishes Stranger Things from many of the boy-centered texts about which I
wrote in yesterday’s post.
2)
Joyce Byers: Critical
and fan opinions seem a bit more split on 80s star Winona Ryder’s comeback
turn as the grieving and desperate mother to missing young Will Byers. I agree
with critiques that Ryder’s performance is a bit over-the-top at times,
although I imagine that virtually no reactions or behavior would be truly
out-of-bounds for a parent who has not only lost her young son, but suspects
that he remains somewhere close and yet frustratingly out of reach. Moreover,
while Ryder’s histrionics might draw the most attention, the truth is that in
many of her scenes she is not only emoting but also and most importantly taking
action, and that by the season’s end she’s proven entirely right about what is
happening to and with her son. Which is to say, in her crucial partnership with
David Harbour’s
pitch-perfect Sheriff Hopper, Joyce is truly the lead investigator.
3)
Nancy Wheeler: Both
Eleven and Joyce are unique and compelling leads, but for this viewer it’s
Natalia Dyer’s teenage Nancy who represents the show’s most innovative female
character. On the surface, Nancy seems to be drawn very fully from John Hughes
romantic comedies—the shy pretty girl who is torn between the asshole bad boy
and the sweet but awkward outcast. Yet while that love triangle does persist
until the season’s final moments, the truth is that Nancy also kicks as much monstrous butt
as any character on the show—and significantly more than either of those love
interest men. I’ll have more to say in tomorrow’s post about how Stranger Things utilizes but also
revises nostalgia for 80s pop culture, but certainly the character of Nancy falls
more in the latter category, and reflects a show that’s aware of the gendered
limitations of many of its influences and determined to move beyond them.
Last
StrangerStudying tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other responses to the show?
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