I have risen from the dead to tell you that thereâs this guy who I went to school with who is just now watching Stranger Things for the first time ever, and I know this because I still follow him on instagram and heâs posting reviews on there. He recently posted his review of the first season and I started a conversation. I donât think Stranger Things is really his cup of tea though so our chat was pretty shallow. He was nice though and seemed like he was genuinely interested in what I was telling him. However, heâs posted his review of the second season today and amongst other things he said that Elâs story with Kali was unnecessary, and that Mikeâs attitude towards Max didnât make sense âgiven his characterization in season oneâ. So, I started another conversation, kindly telling him that âhey, I can explain to you why Mikeâs attitude towards Max makes sense if you want me toâ to which he then replied: âYeah sure. Tell me why it makes sense and then Iâll explain to you why it doesnât đâ ⌠?!?!?!?
I then asked him to tell me why exactly he doesnât think it makes sense, and Iâm still waiting for a reply, but this entire conversation made me think of a friend I have (one of the few that actually watch stranger things) who has only watched every ST season once (maybe twice) and doesnât engage with the show/characters outside of watching, who had a similar attitude towards me when we were discussing s4 a few months after it was released. Who couldâve guessed, we were talking about Mike, and sheâs an avid Mike hater (because of course she is) and tried to convince me that she knows him way better than I do and that heâs definitely homophobic.
And I honestly just love how those two provide such a stark contrast to this guy whoâs a friend of one my friends, who considers himself a Stranger Things fan and was able to talk to me about the show on a deeper level than the surface. He actually started the deepening of the conversation by expressing that âMike isnât one of my favorites, I just canât really wrap my head around him. I know thereâs this theory that heâs gay but I honestly donât believe itâ, and you know that was my cue! I told him that I was a strong supporter of that theory and I pulled out some of the evidence and he was immediately hooked! Maybe not directly convinced (to this day Iâm not sure if he is) but the way he was still mind blown by the evidence I provided showed that he knows and has a lot of appreciation for the weight of dialogue and character wardrobe and set design. Not once was he unaware of what I was referring to when I talked about certain scenes etc. while my friend who thinks Mike is homophobic has zero to no recollection of what scenes there were in the first to third season and that guy whoâs posting reviews on his story is missing two entire seasons of valuable information in making these judgements.
Anyway, Iâll post an update later on what insta-guy replies to why he thinks Mikeâs attitude towards Max in s2 doesnât make sense đŤĄ
