So this show was pretty great, eh? I mean, there are certainly a few bits that I would have liked to have seen improved; namely it’s over-use of computer effects. The show tries really hard to bring on an 80’s sci-fi thriller feel, and yet by the very end of the season they’re trying to use as many digital effects as possible, rather than practical effects. They even make an ironic reference to one of my favorite movies of all time, The Thing, and talk in detail about how it’s effects were accomplished. All practical.

Television has been so good to us for awhile now, and I’m starting to feel pretty spoiled by it. Especially when you consider that I don’t even pay for my own Netflix account anymore. I used to a bunch of years back, but my account got some really strange glitches and even the Netflix support team tried fixing it for a couple weeks. To no avail. They suggested I get another email address and start an entirely new account…

No thanks. I’m good. What a headache that was.

Then my mom and I set up a second user on her account, and since then I’ve had access once again. Only over the past year or two has Netflix really come into it’s own with original content. I gave House of Cards a try, and by the middle of the second season I realized that it’s just too political for my tastes. Fantastic show, but not really for me in the end.

Daredevil was beyond anything I thought it was going to be. I’m not a huge superhero movie fan, and even less of a Marvel fan overall, but I was genuinely interested in the fates of those characters because I was able to watch a story unfold over something like 10 hours. I thoroughly enjoy a few Marvel movies here and there, but movies like Winter Soldier don’t come around all that often.

Maybe that’s a good thing though? It’s a nice surprise when I go into watching a movie that I kinda expect to be trash, and I come away having the opposite reaction. Winter Soldier is still one of my favorite movies, ever.

Generally I find it difficult to care about much of what’s happening on screen when it’s just a two hour superhero movie. Visual effects are fun, though. But most of these types of movies are pretty forgettable and don’t leave a lasting impression on me. Marvel’s Thor movies are fun, but do I ever think that he’s in peril? Of course not.

Speaking of Thor…

That’s why the opening to 2009’s Star Trek affects me so much. Who are any of these characters? Even the one character we feel semi-attached to, Big Daddy Kirk, gets killed within the first 15 minutes. It’s heartbreaking. I’ve seen that movie something like 8 or 9 times now and I tear up every single time. I’m struggling to think of another movie that does that for me, let alone in the opening moments. Maybe it’s solely the Michael Giacchino soundtrack!

Television on the other hand (see how I brought that back around? lol) I can watch characters potentially for years and years. Learning about them, and their motives, over 100+ episodes. Of course I understand that everyone else can see things quite differently than I do. I’m sure a lot of people are able to resonate with an on-screen character a lot more often than I do, within just a two hour film. That’s fine. I’m not sure why I can’t. Most movie characters just bore me, to be frank. Or perhaps it’s more likely that I just can’t relate to the average Joe’s on-screen.

It’s very likely some television characters will bore me as well. I didn’t get all that much about Lost until I got into the second season and met someone who would become one of my favorite characters ever, Desmond Hume; The man that’s been living in the secret island hatch for three years. And I’ll still never forget the moment the show became an obsession for me a little more than a season later;

“We have to go back, Kate. We have to go back!”

Back to Stranger Things though…

Today, I found out who does the soundtrack for the show – A band called “SURVIVE”. I found them on Spotify, and it’s quite stunning to listen to. This is exactly the type of stuff I love to listen to when I’m doing anything creative. It stirs the mind and each of these tracks bring me to an entirely different place. Some of these are creepy, some are mysterious, others specifically remind me of some of my favorite scenes from Stranger Things.