Stranger Things 5
Genuinely meaning this- without any hyperbole- the TV show Stranger Things is beyond words. What's beyond words is that the show doesn't just capture the feeling of having friends; when you're watching, you're actually having friends. The friendship between the viewer and the characters is equal to a real-world friendship. The verisimilitude between the screen and the show's world isn't an appearance of truth; it is truth. For a TV show to be so meaningful that it forms a connection beyond verisimilitude is magic beyond words, as it's more genuine than the real world.
Stranger Things' friendship isn't a shallow one where people become friends because they're the same age, attend the same school/college, live near each other, or for another circumstantial reason. In a sense, organizations or social structures push people to become friends with specific others. Stranger Things is a real friendship, as when you're watching it, you're with it. Through your bond with the characters, you're feeling life's indescribable feelings.
The work connects so deeply, without using chemicals or reminders that it's a real-world event, making you feel stressed or care about the characters. If a work of art is so powerful that it can make you care about its characters even more than some people you've known longer than in the real world, it isn't.
The characters experience the indescribable feeling when something in life has ended or is soon to end. This indescribable feeling is connected to a multitude of complex thoughts and other feelings, though not able to pick a word that defines it. It's not captured in a word or phrase, but from recalling memories, past experiences, or imagining experiences that were never had.
The series finale's epilogue shares how real friends handle farewells. They're not crying, but they feel a heart-sinking loss. The sinking begins at the moment of saying goodbye, with the friends believing what's happening isn't a bad thing. Their quietness toward it isn't because they had a bad friendship or one that ended badly. This heart-sinking moment is a reminder of how potent the series has always been. The entire show makes you believe powerfully that the characters are real friends who care deeply for each other. This powerful moment equals reality: when something ends, you start questioning everything and feel a firm sense of nothingness.
When the finale ends, the same heart-sinking state the characters have is shared with the viewer. They're not crying, or even close to it, even though they were crying at other moments throughout the series. This thesis is for the complete series: when the characters are sad, the audience is sad.
The theme of friendship is conveyed through the characters' friendship and their time together. It has them interacting and seeing it together, and how their circumstances push them into positions that they don't directly target. It's not an escape from real life so much as a new real life where people can empathize with those they've never met.
At the end of the final season's episode, "Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz," the characters Max and Holly, trapped in a terrain inside the villain's mind, must part ways to return to the physical world. The scene begins with an arrangement of "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush; however, instead of using drumbeats during the drumbeat section, it uses piano keys. The piano plays as Max tells Holly to find her own way back by finding something special to herself, something that makes her feel safe, strong, hopeful, and connected. It's something powerful and meaningful that you can feel in your heart. When Holly settles on her special thing, a figurine from her brother, the song reaches its synth movement, but instead with bowed string instruments. Elementary school-aged Holly doesn't understand purposefulness, and how her figurine has it. Max asks Holly why she always carries the figurine. Holly replies because her brother told her that whenever she's scared, she can just "become" the figurine, but she keeps trying, and it never works. As Holly's reply is spoken, the arrangement begins using choral vocals. Holly tells Max that she could only stand still as her mother was attacked, and later when Max was attacked, saying "there's nothing heroic about her." Max replies, "There's nothing you could do in those moments, Holly." Max tells her she's smart and bravely faces danger, and how her figurine _ this. The two hug, part ways, and the scene concludes with Max and Holly both running to the portal to the physical world, all as the song plays. As the vocals hum, the viewer feels the emotional and psychological experiences of another human being.
This is another way Stranger Things is a real friend, because it's real. It's one of the most intense experiences watching a movie or TV show. When the previous episode, "Chapter Five: Shock Jock", ends, the viewer is so engrossed in the story that they experience the same sensations as the characters in those moments. The parts of the show where Max almost dies as her EKG flatlines, Will dropping down after tapping into Vecna's mind, watching Steve and Dustin fight in the Upside Down rainbow room, and most of all, seeing Dustin desperately try to reach Nancy and Jonathan, calling them not to shoot at the shield generator, as Nancy herself even unsure, putting her finger on the trigger, bullet loaded, and ready to shoot the gun at the shield generator. These parts build sensations of panic, terror, excitement, stress, and anxiety that burn in the viewer, proving that Stranger Things really is having friends.
If a work of art is so powerful that it can make you care about its characters even more than some people you've known longer than in the real world, it isn't. It's not an escape from real life so much as a new real life where you can empathize with people you've never met. From just these parts, the show brings out feelings; this verisimilitude is powerful, as the emotions are sometimes more potent than in the real world. Since the characters are your friends, you feel for them at their most stressful and most terrifying. You know the characters like they're actually your friends, so watching them in these moments of stress. The work connects so deeply, without using chemicals or reminders that it's a real-world event, making you feel stressed or care about the characters.
