MovieChat Forums > Stranger Things (2016) Discussion > Now that the actors are over 18

Now that the actors are over 18


They should really add a school shower scene with Eleven and Max. Full frontal.

After all, nudity was a big part of the 80s horror and this show is emulating the 80s.

It would really generate a buzz and kick up viewer numbers.

You can even have the guys peeking at them through a hole in the wall Porky’s style.

Good clean fun.

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Make that Mike and Will.

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I said they want to increase viewers, not drive them away in a disgusted rage.

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Gotta get the LGBQT, audience.

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I thought most viewers were women and gay guys tbh

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The is no LGBQT audience. That’s why woke films and shows keep failing.

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Why is the Last of Us breaking HBO records: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/episode-four-of-hbos-the-last-of-us-had-the-highest-viewing-figures-yet/

Why is Euphoria highly successful: https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/euphoria-season-2-finale-ratings-1235192015/

Why did Sex Education do really well: https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a25939758/netflix-you-sex-education-bird-box-viewing-figures/

Why did Heartstopper do really well: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/04/28/netflixs-heartstopper-is-its-highest-scoring-critic-and-audience-hit-in-ages/?sh=79c1e9ab33b6

Why is Ginny & Georgia amongst one of Netflixs most successful shows: https://deadline.com/2023/12/netflix-viewership-ginny-georgia-female-young-adult-interest-1235680015/#:~:text=Ginny%20%26%20Georgia%20was%20actually%20the,between%20Seasons%201%20and%202.

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The LGBQT aspects of those shows are minuscule at best. They’re almost an after thought.

Take them away and they don’t affect the shows at all. Except the shows will get better.

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>The LGBQT aspects of those shows are minuscule at best. They’re almost an after thought.

Heartstopper is literally a gay romance story. What the fuck are you talking about?

TLOU female lead is lesbian. There was two notable LGBT episodes in the first season.

Sex Education is full of LGBT people. So is Euphoria.

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TLOU female lead is lesbian. There was two notable LGBT episodes in the first season.


If you are trying to argue that the female co-lead being a lesbian was a significant reason for the show's success, then you're not being honest. You can make the argument that including "some" alphabet content won't necessarily hurt a show's popularity but there simply is not enough broad appeal to ever suggest that it's significantly contributing to the success of a popular media with significantly broader appeal, like TLOU & Euphoria. It's good for signal boosting on social media but will always be limited & niche in terms of viewership.

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>If you are trying to argue that the female co-lead being a lesbian was a significant reason for the show's success, then you're not being honest.

I didn't say it was. I said that it didn't put people off.

>You can make the argument that including "some" alphabet content won't necessarily hurt a show's popularity but there simply is not enough broad appeal to ever suggest that it's significantly contributing to the success of a popular media with significantly broader appeal, like TLOU & Euphoria.

Care to explain Heartstopper?

Or Young Royals? Or Euphoria? Euphoria is full of LGBT characters, so I believe.

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Never heard of the two you mentioned, so I can't comment on the measure of how successful or unsuccessful those things are in terms of significant viewership numbers. Also, it's important to note that the bar is much lower for streaming media than it is for traditional television & film in terms of requiring an immediate return on investment in the way of box office/viewership ratings. So streaming networks can oftentimes get away with just doing what they want. There's a reason why alphabet content is very rarely a prominent feature in mainstream films, outside of Hollywood's subsidized, token Oscar bait every year. Euphoria is a drama with broad appeal to young adult audiences, especially young women. Another example of something being successful in spite of whatever bits of alphabet agenda gets peppered in throughout the series, rather than because of it.

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>Never heard of Heartstopper or Young Royals, so I can't comment on the measure of how successful or unsuccessful those things are in terms of significant viewership numbers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/04/28/netflixs-heartstopper-is-its-highest-scoring-critic-and-audience-hit-in-ages/?sh=79c1e9ab33b6

Gave links if you scroll up.

>Euphoria is a drama with broad appeal to young adult audiences, especially young women. Another example of something being successful in spite of whatever bits of alphabet agenda gets peppered in throughout the series, rather than because of it.

Yet its LGBT content doesn't hurt it. Why is this? Why didn't people stop watching The Last of Us after Episode 3?

Then there's other content like Killing Eve, RuPaul’s Drag Race, I May Destroy You, Pose

and going all the way back to Will & Grace, Angels in America, Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk

Also, no Boy Love (young teen gay romance) is a genre that wins awards and is mainstream in Thailand and the Phillipines. It is not remotely a solely western thing. Then there's the Japanese Yaoi genre.

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"Gave links if you scroll up."

My adblocker doesn't like that website so you can give me the cliff notes. Are those Netflix shows? What's the raw data? Like I said, the threshold for determining something to be a relative "success" is much lower & much more vague on streaming platforms and I've never even come close to hearing about those shows(movies?). Even on streaming platforms however, if something is truly popular it's going to be something you hear a lot of people talking about. I've never seen one episode of Stranger Things but I've been keenly aware of its popularity since it first came out.

"Yet its LGBT content doesn't hurt it. Why is this? Why didn't people stop watching The Last of Us after Episode 3?"

Because as I already explained, it had a much broader appeal (and pre established fanbase) beyond the relatively small amount of time dedicated to alphabet themes. Again, something that was successful in spite of the alphabet stuff, not because of it. I never said that any show/movie where a gay character shows up is going to hurt ratings so i don't know why you keep arguing that point. Alphabet content simply doesn't help viewership to any significant degree with something that's meant to have broad appeal. Too much focus on it can and will hurt your bottom line, but too little never will.

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>My adblocker doesn't like that website so you can give me the cliff notes. Are those Netflix shows? What's the raw data? Like I said, the threshold for determining something to be a relative "success" is much lower & much more vague on streaming platforms. Even on streaming platforms however, if something is truly popular it's going to be something you hear a lot of people talking about. I've never seen one episode of Stranger Things but I've been keenly aware of its popularity since it first came out.

"The debut season of Heartstopper, an LGBTQ-based romance story between two high school boys, has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, a rarity for Netflix scripted series these days, but also a 98% audience score with over 1800 reviews in. That’s deeply impressive given the context of where we usually see those numbers (fan favorite Marvel series on Disney Plus, for instance, might have a 92-94% audience score)."

"Season 2 of “Heartstopper” soared to second place on the Netflix Top 10 during the July 31-Aug. 6 viewing window as fans jumped to reunite with Nick and Charlie. After premiering on the service on Aug. 3, the new installment recorded 6.1 million total views."

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/heartstopper-season-2-lincoln-lawyer-netflix-1235691026/

It's a short show, so the numbers are more notable than if Stranger Things got them.

>Because as I already explained, it had a much broader appeal (and pre established fanbase) beyond the relatively small amount of time dedicated to alphabet themes.

Two episodes were devoted to them.

>Alphabet content simply doesn't help viewership to any significant degree with something that's meant to have broad appeal. Too much focus on it can and will hurt your bottom line, but too little never will.

It didn't ever say that it "helps" but multiple users here suggest it always hurt it, and there's no evidence for this.

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Critics always give alphabet themed projects praise. It's pretty much the law of cinematic journalism now. 'Bros' was a major flop but still got very positive critical reception. Since I never heard the shows you mentioned, I'm guessing it wasn't high profile enough for "haters" to negative review bomb so what we get are largely review bombs from a thousand or so people & their sock accounts invested in alphabet media, giving it perfect user scores. Are those debut numbers significantly higher or lower than the average frontpage Netflix release? Were these sustained views or examples of viewers briefly checking it out (since it's on the front page) before largely moving on? Lot of different variables

"It didn't ever say that it "helps" but multiple users here suggest it always hurt it, and there's no evidence for this."

People saying that "any" small amount of alphabet content will hurt a show/movie's box office/sustained viewership then they are not correct. Anyone claiming that alphabet content will significantly help a show/movie's box office/sustained viewership. is also lying.

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>Critics always give alphabet themed projects praise. It's pretty much the law of cinematic journalism now. 'Bros' was a major flop but still got very positive critical reception.

Heartstopper also got great user ratings. Check it out on IMDB. Bros did not.

There are plenty of shows, many I mentioned to you that are on IMDB with high ratings. They aren't small shows. Why is this?

>I'm guessing it wasn't high profile enough for "haters" to negative review bomb so what we get are largely review bombs from a thousand or so people & their sock accounts invested in alphabet media, giving it perfect user scores. Are those debut numbers significantly higher or lower than the average frontpage Netflix release? Were these sustained views or examples of viewers briefly checking it out (since it's on the front page) before largely moving on? Lot of different variables

https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/heartstopper-viewing-figures-445293/

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"Heartstopper also got great user ratings. Check it out on IMDB. Bros did not."

Even the most mediocre TV series have always had grossly inflated IMDB ratings compared to films. Also, alphabet websites singing the show's praises (because of course they are) isn't exactly compelling.

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>Even the most mediocre TV series have always had grossly inflated IMDB ratings compared to films.

TV ratings are higher on IMDB, but no, lots of shows language in the 5 - 7 range on IMDB, which is not that great.

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LMAO...THAT WAS TOTAL BULLSHIT.

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How about a season where they all go to camp as counselors at Camp Crystal Lake. There they run into Jason Voorhees who finishes them off one by one. A ratings blockbuster for sure. Stranger Things meet Friday the 13th.

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Nah. Eleven would rip Jason apart in the first five minutes.

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PORN BRAIN.

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It’s okay. Embrace it.

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I get where you are coming from but since it's the final season and the writers are ending it on their own terms, they don't need to try to make the final season hit big or use gimmicks to boost the commercial success. It will do what it will do and it doesn't matter in the end since the show is ending anyway, and the spin-off was already picked up.

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A spin off was announced in 2022 but nothing since. We don’t even know what it’s about.

All we do know is the Duffer Brothers won’t be directly involved. They want to find someone else to manage it.

That means Netflix will no doubt bring in some inexperienced (i.e. cheap) diverse hire to check some boxes.

Also, whether the spin off goes forward will depend on how successful the last season of ST is (whenever it finally airs).

So let’s get Eleven and Max out of those clothes and into a shower to help it out.

And speaking of checking boxes, maybe toss in some lesbian action.

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They have that lesbian character. Tina Turner's daughter (or some other random female celebrity)? The nepo baby.

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You mean Uma Thurman s daughter? She’s one of their best characters.

Yet she sadly never had lesbian sex or took a shower.

And I was talking about Eleven and Max hooking up in the shower.

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