Stranger Things S2

A red letter “N” unfolds onto a spectrum of colors.

Liv thinks that the 1980s are the best place to be in the entire world. Liv played hockey as a kid and teenager and has a lot of hockey gear lying around. She was a goalie so she has a lot of pads and guards. Hockey is serious business, there is violence involved sometimes. Liv played so many games of hockey and now there are black voids where some of her teeth should be.

Right now Liv is being irresponsible, she is disregarding plans. If you pause it you can see that she is feeling uneasy. Liv has been off her meds for three weeks and she is starting to notice it. When she wakes up her body is tense and shaky, she feels like she has dipped her fingers in ice water one by one.

When Liv is at home, she works three days a week at the video store. She usually runs out of things to do four hours into her shift and starts to think about the next episode. Liv goes into the employee bathroom and pulls a Morgellon’s filament out of the skin on the back of her arm. She smooths her shirt out with her hands.

Audio description: Liv drums her fingers on the palm of her other hand, quickly, one by one. It creates a calming rhythm. There is nothing outside of the place she lives, her driveway is dangerously long. The tape deck in her car is busted. Liv hums something like a sad version of “Heroes” by David Bowie. Liv: “I have no way to access pain. The world is just a little worse now.”

A subtle but noticeable shift in Liv’s facial expression as the song changes.

In this episode Liv has to drive a long way down weird roads with no sidewalks. There are cracks everywhere, and potholes that need to be filled, and sometimes there are stretches that are well-maintained, with chain restaurants and sidewalks and vestigial cross signals. She is confused by the cloverleaf interchanges and briefly forgets which side of her car the gas tank is on. She rolls her window down and lets the muggy night air in.

She plays with a stuffed penguin toy she keeps in the passenger seat. The penguin’s name is “Soap” because the tag had been mostly cut off and that is the only word left. She pulls into a rest stop and sees a blonde-haired woman being escorted out of a black SUV. She looks like Jodie Foster. Liv parks at the end of the lot and takes medicine to make her sleep. Later she uses the bathroom and fixes her hair, she smokes a cigarette at herself into the mirror. She likes the way the smoke coils out of her mouth and into the air around it. This will be featured less in future seasons.

Liv unscrewing a lightbulb to find a bug. Liv: “they’ve been recording the entire time.”

Cut to: the cashier says “close it” and chews a toothpick. She realizes that her mouth has been hanging open. Life isn’t much more than this, but she can’t help but think that moments like these are transgressive. Later in her drive, as it is slowly getting dark, Liv sees a pile of animal bones on the side of the road, which is disturbing but psychedelic.

Liv has excellent tracking skills. She knows where somebody is just by smelling them or from hearing them snap a twig in the woods from hundreds of meters away. Liv uses the metric system. She finds it charming to count in unfamiliar intervals. At this point the imagery becomes violent and shocking.

Liv running across the scope of a sniper rifle. Liv jumping into the steam of a pool at night. Liv smoking her first crack pipe. Liv tattooing her name onto herself.

Liv does not do her own stunts. When a stunt is too technically complicated or dangerous for a stuntman to be used, the CGI looks stilted and poor. Dark video looks blocky and messy because there is less differentiation between the pixels. Liv is used to seeing herself on a monitor, used to seeing her face look cold. It is important to aestheticize your imperfections, to fold them into your sense of self.

Liv thinks that truth is easy to find. Liv looks at the camera. There are people chronicling her life, following up on tips, spreading pins onto maps and tracing the pins with red yarn. That’s how these things always go. There are headlights around her in the street, she pictures them circling her, surrounding her, trapping her in light.

Liv pumping the action on a shotgun. Liv opening the door to a “strange red room.” Liv: it’s just sometimes people don’t really say what they’re really thinking.

End of episode.

____
Bernard Cohen lives in New York City where he co-edits Charm School.