Media Blog Project 2 (Binge-Watching)

Description

Netflix
Artwork for Season 1 of "Stranger Things"

The most common place people go for all their binge watching needs is entertainment giant Netflix. It has shows and movies from all different kinds of genres and they are all ready to be streamed at the touch of a button. A few months ago I was hounded and told by all my circles of friends that I needed to watch the Netflix original series Stranger Things as soon as possible because it is "fantastic." I dislike being told what I should do for fun in my free time so shoved it aside. Then I got this binge-watching assignment for class, and I said what the hell? I'll give it a shot. Let me just preface the rest of this post by saying, my friends were absolutely right and this show is not difficult to binge watch at all. I sat myself down on a Friday night after work and planned to watch a couple episodes of the show, then I looked at the time and it was 6 a.m. and I had finished the whole series.

Stranger things is a science fiction horror web series that was created, written, directed and co-executive produced by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer. Starring Winona Rider The show takes place in the fictional town of Hawkins Indiana in the 1980s. The first few episodes center on the mysterious disappearance of a young boy and how his absence affects his friends, family and local police as they attempt to track him down. The show also introduces a mysterious young girl with psychic powers simply known as "Eleven" and uncovers a conspiracy that will change the town forever.

Ross Duffer (Left) Matt Duffer (Right)
Creators of Stranger Things

The creators of the show, the Duffer Brothers got their start writing and directing the movie "Hidden" (2015). M.Night Shyamalan read the script for the film and hired the two on to write and direct episodes for Fox's drama series Wayward Pines. The two later pitched their idea for Stranger Things to producer Dan Cohen who brought the idea to Shawn Levy. With Levy's production company 21 Laps on board, Netflix quickly picked the show up and the series has enjoyed widespread success. It is scheduled for a second season later this year.  




Analysis

The show is described as a nostalgic nod to 1980s sci-fi/horror classics and pays homage to "E.T.," "Poltergeist" and the novels of Stephen King. It reminded me a lot of the fairly recent J.J. Abrams movie "Super 8." It very much feels inspired by Speilberg and Stephen King. There were parts in it that also reminded me a lot of survival horror video game franchise Silent Hill and it also had a pinch of a Twin Peaks vibe to it as well. The show is primarily filmed on location in Jackson Georgia.

 I wouldn't say there is a show out now that is entirely like Stranger Things, there are some shows that attract the same audience. Black Mirror comes to mind, it has a sci-fi, mystery, horror hybrid going for it, same with shows like the X-Files, whose reruns were just recently picked up by Netflix. Stranger things separates itself because it truly captures the 80s sci-fi feel it sets out to evoke. The characters in the show dress like they are in the 80s, they listen to the music that was popular during the 80s, they use the same technology that was used in the 80s, it looks very much like a sci-fi film from the 1980s got converted into a TV show. It's pretty impressive how they pull it off.  Though it isn't completely original, it is unique because there aren't any shows on television now that capture that form of nostalgia. 

The show is so bingeable because it is perfectly paced and well written. Each episode has a payoff that makes you want to come back for more in the next episode. It really benefitted from being a series as well, having to condense all the information being explained into a movie would have been a true shame. The show feels as long as it needs to be, everything that happens in it happens for a reason, with no extra side material thrown on. 

Interpretation

Millie Bobby Brown as
"Eleven" Stealing Several
Boxes of Eggo Waffles

At first glance, Stranger Things, much like the movies and TV shows from the 80s that the show is trying to emulate, falls victim to a lot of character archetypes. The nerdy lovable heroes, the jock and bully stereotypes, the introverted loner, the typical teenage high school girl, etc. However, the show's stakes force the characters to become more than just archetypes. They are able to achieve depth and have some pretty powerful character building moments that I won't spoil here. 

The show also has a fair share of product placement. The most notable is Eleven's obsession with Eggos. Which has become so well known that before I even watched the show I knew about Eleven's connection with Eggo Waffles. Another instance of product placement happens when Eleven crushes a coke can with her mind. The creators of the show were at least creative when putting product placement into the show.

Evaluation

Like I said before the show is well written, it has great pacing, memorable characters and always leaves you wanting more once the episode is over. It is not completely perfect though. My most major criticism of the show is that while it does emulate the 80s feel really well, the show can sometimes struggle to have its own identity. All of the elements in the show can feel like a mish mash of different inspirations. There were several times where I thought to myself something along the lines of "Oh, that's exactly like... from..." One specific scene (SPOILERS) even caused me to physically roll my eyes. The explanation of a plot device stole elements straight from scenes of Sci-Fi films "Event Horizon" (1997) & "Interstellar" (2015). Another minor complaint I have is later on in the season a character that one of the major characters is motivated to find is just sort of forgotten about and glossed over. It's weird because earlier in the season there is an attempt to build up to a pay off but the character is never brought up again. These don't take that much away from the final product of the show as the story is still pretty engaging and the cast works so well together that you can usually look past the short-comings. That being said, it was a bit distracting from time to time. 

Poster for Season 1 of Stranger Things

Critics have showered this show with praise. Stranger things Usually achieves somewhere around an 8/10 to a 9/10 on major review sites. Eric Goldman at IGN called the series "Great" stating, "Stranger Things is an easy recommendation, offering viewers an atmospheric and endearing series that is a nostalgic throwback without feeling like a simple copy." Emily Nussbaum of the New Yorker said, "This is astoundingly efficient storytelling, eight hours that pass in a blink, with even minor characters getting sharp dialogue, dark humor, or moments of pathos."

The show to me demonstrates how great Netflix's original content has become. It has become a widespread phenomenon that appeals to a wide range of people who love sci-fi and horror. Netflix has demonstrated it's wise approach to how it picks out it's original content and Stranger Things trumps most of the dramas on TV right now. It shows just how far streaming networks like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have come and how they can compete on the same level as major TV networks like HBO & Showtime.

Engagement

This show has achieved a following incredibly quick. Virtually everyone in my life has watched this show and follow the cast's various social media accounts. I thought the show was solid but not really something to obsess over. People absolutely love this show though and the the best example of this was when people completely lost their minds on social media when the Season 2 trailer dropped for Super Bowl LI. 

I was so enveloped in the game that I don't really recall seeing the ad. However one of my friends cited the trailer as their favorite part of Super Bowl Sunday. Nevermind one of the most exciting finishes to a game in NFL history, a two minute teaser trailer was their favorite part of the Super Bowl.

Conclusion

Overall the show accomplishes what it sets out to do, it successfully pays homage to the 1980s Sci-Fi films it was inspired by while creating a fun, mysterious, and engaging story on its own that has you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. I personally can't wait to see what the Duffer Brothers come up with for season 2. It is a testament to how far Netflix has come as an entertainment company and Stranger Things is yet another quality original series that the company can add to it's vast library of content. Lord knows I will be watching Season 2 as soon as it drops later this year on Halloween.

Week 8 Media Blog Forum

Topic 1

I have read several of the books on the Banned/Challenged list, these include:

Cover Art for "Fahrenheit 451"

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Solid book about the dangers of censorship, ironically was censored for a time by parents and school board members that found it full of "vulgarity." 
1984 by George Orwell
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Great book and Hugo Award winner as well. Apparently it was banned for a period of time in a school district because a parent complained that it had "pornographic material" in it. Despite the fact that the book has no references to sex. Strange.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn & The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angalou

Some objections to these books seem reasonable. For example Maya Angalou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings goes into detail about when she was raped as a child. Although this book is powerful and really well written, you can understand why parents wouldn't want there child reading such explicit content. That being said, I still consider it a must read for anyone.

Cover Art for
 "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

I read books like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Of Mice & Men, etc for school. So I find it interesting that they ended up on a list for banned or challenged books. Fahrenheit 451 especially, considering the book is a cautionary tale about censorship. No one found it ironic that they were censoring a book about censoring books?

A lot of the books I have at home are science fiction novels by Hugo Award winners. One of my favorite authors is Philip K. Dick who wrote one of my favorite books "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" The central theme of the novel is empathy towards others.  It challenges our understanding of others and asks the question of what constitutes something as a living thing. It also heavily inspired the 1982 film "Blade Runner" starring Harrison Ford.





Topic 2

The two magazines I found on flipster were Playstation Magazine and World Soccer.

Playstation Magazine had articles about new consoles, people behind gaming, new games coming out, several reviews of games, etc. The ads also primarily reflected this as most of the advertisements were for new games or for new consoles. The articles are pretty short and the magazine as a whole is pretty small as well, however you can use the zoom feature if you need to.

Cover of Super Bowl LI
edition of ESPN Magazine

World Soccer had articles on virtually on every league in the world from premiere and la liga all the way to MLS it had articles that covered matches, tournaments and all the latest in the world of soccer. The ads were mostly for soccer memorabilia such as jerseys, sweatshirts, and t-shirts. The articles are fairly long but the magazine was also small.

I looked through a recent issue of ESPN the Magazine on my break at Fred Meyer.

There were only slight differences between going through a print and online magazine. Obviously the print was much bigger on the physical magazine. The biggest difference I found was that it was much easier to flip through the online magazine. The ESPN magazine would occasionally not fully cooperate with me and I would flip through multiple pages at a time due to my ham-handedness. So flipping through an online magazine was a bit easier for me, and using it on the phone was alright as well. I don't really read magazines though so the comparison is sort of wasted on me.

Week 7 Media Blog Forum A

Foreign Film

Theatrical Release Poster
for Max Manus

I recently watched a foreign film with my grandmother called Max Manus: Man of War. It is a 2008 Norwegian biographical war movie about Norwegian World War II resistance fighter, Max Manus. The film chronicles his life as a soldier in the Winter War against the Soviet Union, but mostly focuses on his involvement in WWII in Nazi occupied Norway where he acted as a saboteur. The film is also based on Max Manus's books Det vil helst gå godt (It Should Turn Out Well) and Det blir alvor (It Gets Serious). The film was directed by Norwegian directors Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg.

My grandmother was only a child when the Nazi's invaded her home country of Norway. She had a hard time watching this movie but deemed it important to remember her country's history. Telling me that this film shows just what it means to be Norwegian. So I came into the movie with high expectations, and for an exclusively Norwegian produced film, it absolutely delivered. 

The cinematography is solid, the opening scene where Manus and a group of Finnish soldiers fight off a Soviet attack in the snow is brilliant filming for a war movie. The acting is also pretty good, it's difficult to judge line delivery since I don't speak Norwegian, but the emotion is definitely there. The actor that plays Max Manus actually won an Amanda Award for best actor. The Amanda Awards are given out at the Norwegian international film festival. So overall the film stacks up with solid cinematography, good sound mixing, and a good cast that really brings this story justice. The one complaint from critics was that it seemed "too traditional," I felt that going a more traditional route for such an impactful story was a wise decision. It didn't try to be too over the top or flashy, the film knew what it was trying to get across and did it.

This was a solid movie about the horrors of war and a tale about a man who would stop at nothing to liberate the land that he loves. I enjoyed watching this film because of my heritage, it made me proud to be a Norwegian. It also provided another look at a completely different front of World War II. As an American most of the war movies I'm used to focus on the pacific theatre and the western front of the WWII, this one focused on a saboteur group in Oslo Norway. It was really interesting to see another point of view of the World's largest conflict.

My grandmother lived through a lot, I can't imagine living under occupation by an enemy force. I can't imagine having barely enough food to survive and constantly living in fear for my friend's and family's lives. The closing scene where they held a parade for the liberation of Norway and the end of the war made my grandma a bit emotional. She was there on that day, she reminisced about that time when she saw the king ride down the main street of Oslo as he waved at the now liberated people. She said she never felt so hopeful in her life. It gave me chills just talking about it with her. 

That conversation also gave me an obvious yet overlooked revelation about movies like these. These aren't just action movies that hope to entertain an audience, these aren't just pieces of film that tell a compelling story. This really happened, to real people. This movie exemplified the sacrifice people yearning to break free will go through to be free. It was a great movie that gave me a perspective that a Hollywood film hasn't given me for a while.

Week 6 Media Blog Forum

Topic 1

I'd say someone who has gone too far in their freedom of speech is white nationalist and Alt-Right representative Richard B. Spencer. His ideas are centered around essentially making the U.S. completely white, stating multiple times that there is "no place" for other ethnicities in our country.

Video: Richard B Spencer talks to Al Jazeera

While there is a multitude of examples of him spouting off his controversial rhetoric, one of his more recent tirades saw him hail Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, as the "Aryan Avatar." This came after Tom Brady led an improbable comeback against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. Spencer said Brady's Superbowl LI win was a "win for the white race."

I'm a New England Patriots fan and I have been watching Tom Brady since I was five years old and this just made me sick. Brady dedicated this performance to his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. Tears flew down Brady's face when he got a chance to embrace his mother at the end of the game, it was a huge moment for him and his family. To have that undermined by a white supremacist, internet troll spouting this nonsense is beyond disappointing.

This was an absolutely sickening display and ultimately is what the alt-right attempts to do. They try to rile people up to spread their message and earn free publicity because of statements like the one's he made about Tom Brady. They are able to market there ideas for virtually no money and are able to reach a huge audience, and though most people don't agree with alt-right ideas, there are people out there that do. These ideas and radical statements about white supremacy are reaching such a broad audience because of the nature of the comments, that they end up reaching there target audience with ease.

It's tough to combat a structure like this. I find it important to silence people like this, to make those ideas disappear. You can't remove their first amendment rights and you can't just not react to racist statements like the ones Spencer made about the Super Bowl. However, as individuals we need to understand that a lot of people online may be trying to get a rise out of others. Trying to argue with a person that wants you to argue automatically chalks up a win for that other person. Turning the other cheek, can sometimes take away the power of radical statements that are brought on by people like Spencer.

Topic 2

The Media is under a lot of scrutiny from the Right these days thanks to the current administration's stance against journalists in the U.S. I personally believe that the media can be a bit biased in it's coverage and I would even go as far as to say that it is a large reason why Trump was elected in the first place.

 I look at the current climate in this country and to me the biggest area of division in this country is rural vs. urban communities. Even more so then, race, religion, or gender. During the recession a few years ago people in urban areas who lost their jobs recovered by finding lower level jobs at places like grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. They would do this out of necessity until the economy picked up again. People from rural areas, however, had nothing to fall back on. So when they lost their jobs at places like farms and mills they had to either move to a new town to find work or live with no job. While cities have mostly recovered from the recession, a lot of rural areas are still recovering from that difficult economic time. You don't see many news stories concerned with thoughts on how to fix those things. Due to this, people from rural areas tend to feel under-represented and ignored in today's political climate and feel like their voices aren't being heard.

Unfortunately, someone like Donald Trump found a way to paint himself as someone who would stand up for these everymen. Whether he will actually do this remains to be seen. People from these rural areas began to support Trump and because of his rhetoric these people became painted by the media as racist, misogynist, white nationalists that don't care about people that aren't white, straight, or christian. This created a dichotomy where people from cities felt there way of life was threatened by people in rural areas and vice versa.


While I definitely don't support Trump and his ideas for the country, people that support him really get a bad wrap. Sure there are some of his supporters that are legitimate racists, but I would consider them a minority. A lot of Trump's supporters are just people that want to see their communities repaired. They simply want their voices heard, they're tired of being misrepresented, tired of working hard and feeling like they aren't seeing any return. The media paints Trump supporters as an amorphous white blob of racism and fascism, this is because the media is largely uninformed and not looking at the big picture. 

So while I mostly disagree with a lot of what the Right has to say I can still see why people from those rural areas feel upset and under represented. In the SPJ code of ethics under 'Seek the Truth and Report it' it says "Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless." I look at a lot of headlines today and the rural opinions always seem to be swept under the rug. Not really giving a voice to the voiceless, eh? 

I had no idea the trouble many of the rural areas faced until I read articles like this one by Harvest Media. I want to challenge the media to do what they are supposed to do and represent the people. That way, we don't get narcissistic, fear mongering, xenophobic, billionaires representing them and dividing this country even further.