This is pretty much pop, a culture podcast, a collection of spunky kids set to take on evil forces while growing emotionally. Today we're discussing Stranger Things, the Netflix Duffer Brothers science fiction series at beginning of 2016, and just wrapped up its fifth and final season.

I'm Mark Lintemeyer, glad that this show has increased awareness of people like me

who have the rare condition where my various triangular lips open to reveal

row upon roll of shark-like teeth.

I'm Al Baker, and that thing you thought was a plot?

It was just a tunnel from one plot to another.

I'm Sarah Lynn Breck, and I love the message that no matter how nerdy and scared you are, you can do anything you want as long as you have superpowers and your mommy is there to help you. This is Lawrence Ware. I'm coming from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and I can tell I'm going to be the only person who defends this show. I think you're wrong about that. I think I'm making about here that all of us at least thought that the first season was really nice. Mm-hmm. Let's scratch some nostalgic. Okay,

Al is maybe, Al, start us in a... No, no, no. Okay. For how many of us around this table was the first season of Stranger Things, like, made for you? Because I feel like the first season of Stranger Things, I was one of the people for whom it was made. Like, I have 80s nostalgia. I'm a 90s kid, which means I grew up with the shadow of 80s nostalgia hanging over me. All of my favorite media from the 90s was made by

like Gen X creators who were suffering from 80s nostalgia themselves. So I recognize the

huge amount that was going on in stranger things and it felt great. And obviously I'm obviously,

but I'm also a huge D&D nerd. So that element of the first series was also great.

And it was also a really well-made and innovative piece of TV. It put Netflix on the map.

And my memory is that it was the first time since Game of Thrones that there was some kind of

speculative fiction, sci-fi fantasy monoculture. And it really put Netflix on the map.

It was a huge deal. And I felt like it was made for me. So I really, really loved that first series. Agreed. The rest of the show, I think ebbs and flows, I think maybe it would be interesting to see where we think the ebbs are and the flows are. The last season I thought was a bit, I didn't like it at all really.

I thought it stuck the landing in a very kind of clumsy way.

But, you know, I... flows are. The last season I thought was a bit I didn't like it at all really. I thought it stuck

the landing in a very kind of clumsy way. But, you know, I watched it all the way through. I didn't

hate any particular season of it. It's a pretty good achievement. And that first season remains

astonishingly good TV. Lawrence, you want to state the pro right up that you seem to be the most

in favor of the whole thing, but go ahead.

I mean, it's just a really good television show. The first season is legitimately great. I would

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