But not this time. This time, it was about us. And yes, sorry Boomers — not everything revolves around you. The Wonder Years hearkened back to your childhoods. This recalled ours.
Regardless of which season — One through Five; it was, it felt as if a teleport without error spell was cast and bam, there we were once again. The 1980s all over again.
It’s about a place and time. A feeling, however fleeting, of our childhoods before we got overwhelmed with life. That’s not to say other generations didn’t experience childhood, rather, the one depicted here was ours.
Despite not being Gen Xers themselves, the Duffer Brothers tapped into the zeitgeist of Gen X memory and did it well. As I noted previously, I'm likely not alone in this: Stranger Things very much represented our formative years — or at least a very good approximation of them.
- The dawn of the personal computer age
- BMX bikes
- The end-stage of the Cold War
- No cell phones, no internet — and freedom almost no generation before or since has had
Playing D&D in wood-paneled basements? Campaigns that seemingly lasted forever? The anticipation of going on adventures with your friends?
The feel.
But layered over all of this was simply not knowing how fleeting it would be. All too soon, life would change: obligations, jobs, cars, driver’s licenses… girls.
And D&D would recede.
A Quick Note on D&D and Generation Jones
Now, it can be argued that D&D was experienced by Generation Jones (aka the later Boomers), especially when you look at the age cohort of those who created the game. But that’s not the point.
For a certain segment of us in Gen X, it was smack dab in the middle of our adolescence.
I’m a perfect example: born right at the halfway point.
And I suspect, like a lot of us, I never gave that look back much thought — until Stranger Things came along.
In hindsight, it’s easy to see why.
As Xers, we’ve never been a generation that has really been pursued.
This Isn’t About Attention. It’s About Recognition.
So in a sense, this isn't about attention: it’s about being pleasantly surprised, maybe even shocked, that media was aimed directly at us.
Sure, call it dangling key-chains, memory berries, or whatever.
Whatever it was though? It worked.
And as I noted in a previous post, the thing that's landing the hardest?
It’s the finality of goodbye... again.
It was a return, yes; but a fleeting one.
While it’s true the show lasted for nine years, it’s only 34 episodes in total.
Some might say not enough.
Some will say it should’ve ended after Season One.
I’m not here to argue that.
What I don’t think anyone will argue is the effect. Forget the controversies or the actors themselves and simply ask:
“Can you see yourself here again, in the 1980s?”
I think if anyone is honest with themselves, the only answer is: yes.
The Double Goodbye
With the close of the series, we say goodbye to Hawkins, Eleven, and the party.
But at the same time? We say goodbye again to that piece of childhood we never expected to feel so vividly.
And that’s likely why it’s hitting so hard.
It dropped on New Year’s.
Out with the old, in with the new.
And doubly so for my daughter and I. Every holiday we watch all six movies of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In our yearly re-watch, we only have Return of the King left, the most emotional of the six (I mean, Sam, c'mon!") and it hits directly in the feels.
And perhaps that’s why this one’s hitting unexpectedly hard too.
Maybe,just maybe, under our Gen X exterior is something besides nostalgic.
Something that is not so stereo-typically “us” in these moments.
Just don’t tell anyone. We won’t admit to it.
The Grey Havens
So as a door opened… and then closed again…
I'm left simply with one saying I’ve heard and used myself:
“Don’t cry that it’s over, smile that it happened.”
Sure, it’ll linger like something melancholy. But like Frodo and Gandalf saying goodbye at the Grey Havens…So it is with Stranger Things.
Until we meet again.
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