STRANGER THINGS: Everything But the Final Episode - Spoiler Free!

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So welcome everybody almost a happy new year. We're almost there We're about a day away from New Year's Eve and I thought I'd record this little special episode Um, it's just me. I hope you enjoy that. There's nobody else If you enjoy the sound of my voice, I know you all like Dallas's voice better. He's he's got a better He was a voice actor for a little while. He's got a better voice. I sound like halfway to Kermit the Frog It's not it's not the best voice um So i'm sure That's gonna be a bit of a loss But Delos hasn't been watching the whole of a TV series the way I have in the month of December. So he can't talk about this and I can and he's traveling. It's the holidays. He busy. He's not available. um Even if he could dial in from from the East Coast. And I don't think we tried that once before. And his family has the worst and even worse internet than he has here in LA. So it's kind of not even worth it. So yeah, you just got me to deal with today and the sound room a beautiful halfway to the Kermit the Frog voice. Let's do this. Are you not entertained? Yes sir! We'll have a real good time! He's Dave and I'm Dallas and this is Ventertainment. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. This is entertainment, the wine and entertainment pairing podcast. Welcome back to another wine entertainment pairing for your vintertainment. This is of course the podcast where we pair wine with entertainment. It's as simple as that. We always know what we like or dislike, but we rarely know why. So what better way to learn about that my friends than by comparing different wines to different types of entertainment and compare and contrast how they both hit us and affect us the way that they do. As always, I'm Dave. an ex film and TV creative executive ex Sundancer and currently your W set level three certified one professional and I am flying solo today because Dallas is traveling and he busy and unlike me he did not watch all of Stranger Things in the past few weeks. So yeah, I got it in my mind at the beginning of December when I saw those final episodes are going to be dropping all throughout and kind of spaced out throughout December. I never binge anything. So yeah, full disclosure, I've never been. a show ever period like it I've literally never done it. um So I knew this would be as close to quote unquote, binging something watching five seasons of what are roughly eight episodes per season in a whole month like that is binging to me. That's a crazy fast pace. Now that said, I rarely watched more than one episode a night when I was going through all of this because I did a couple of times I would watch like I never made a past two episodes. a night. think the closest, the most bingey I got was two and a half episodes one night that I did. this is again, for me, this was wild. I've never done this before. I hate binging. I hate seeing something that fast. Taking something in that fast. I was talking to another uh fellow film person, Ellis Sutton. He's on he's on Substack the way we're on Substack as well. And we were meeting up when we were helping out a friend at their at their film shoot. independent film shoot and we were we were extras on set and we were at one point sitting and chatting and I was telling him how even for movies like my preference and it has been this way for a long time so this is not a streaming era byproduct like for me personally I've always never liked sitting through an entire movie in one sitting and I know that's blasphemy but I prefer taking things in in small chunks and then walking away letting it kind of settle, letting it percolate, letting it, uh yeah, just kind of sleeping on it and digesting and then coming back and taking the next thing. So whenever a movie hits kind of end of act one, and you get that sort of scene that ends and you're like, oh, that's a good pause point. Now I will pause it and I will come back the next night and watch act two. uh Most movies are kind of two sittings. Some of them are three or four sittings, depends on how long they are. Every once in a while, I will sit through an entire movie in one sitting, even at home. I don't need a theater to do it. And I get very squirmy in theaters. I'm not used to it. I haven't been used to it for a long time. There are times I just want a moment. Just let me go to the bath, pause it go to the bathroom and think about things for a little bit and then come back and finish the movie. So I was telling Ellis Sutton uh that I think this is a byproduct of me growing up on comic books because I was a huge comic book reader as a kid, like voracious comic book reader as a kid. And that is something that forces you to take things in these monthly installments, where I mean, far worse than TV, where it's like every day, one a day or one a week, it's once a month. And they're not big installments. They're like 22-ish pages, usually. And comics being a drawn, illustrated medium, like often not that much happens in a single issue. And so you would sometimes track what is really a story that you could read in a collected trade paperback form in probably sometimes like 30 minutes, you would read it over the course of six months, a half a year to read that story to take that all in. And I think that really just colored my whole everything, my whole being with how I took an entertainment and how I took a narrative storytelling. And then, of course, books, I was a big book reader after comics. And those are chapters. So you always have those nice little cutoff points like it's all one story. But you aren't meant to read the book in one sitting, Harry Potter fans. You're not meant to read the book in one sitting. So, you know, you're supposed to space it out a little bit. And I love that. I always want to when I finish a chapter, even if I'm going to continue into a second chapter that day, I tend to pause, go to something else for a little while, then come back and read the next chapter. It's just my brain is completely wired in this way at this point. So. binge watching when the streaming era hit was so alien to me, I simply could not do it. And I never have. And this is as close as it's gotten. This was what we're talking about eight times five seasons. So eight episodes each, two of them were nine episodes. So this is eight times five, that's 4042. So 42 episodes in roughly 31 ish days. So I had to quote unquote binge a little bit. in that I couldn't just watch one episode a day religiously and I didn't watch an episode every single day religiously so I definitely had to take in two episodes a day sometimes. A lot of the times I would do this weird thing because my brain is like this. I would do one and a half episodes. I'd do one episode, I'd start the next one, let the title sequence hit, go a little ways into the episode and once I was like, okay, there's 30 minutes left to this episode, now I'll pick it up tomorrow and pause it there, then pick up just the 30 minutes and then a full episode after that. and maybe start a little bit of the next one, but then I know it's weird, but I want to start the next episode and then pause it and then leave. I just I have to cut things off in the middle of the fucking narrative. like I don't um it's probably a bit of a I don't want to call it a sickness or an illness or anything that negative, um but it's definitely. a codification of my brain, like this is how it processes information and wants to process information now, because I've just been doing it this way for so long. So anyway, I don't binge. What about you? How often do you binge? ah How many things have you binged in your life? Is it common practice for you? And what do you think of this practice of needing digestible bits of wanting digestible bits and giving yourself that time to go away, sleep on it, sit on it? You know, do Go work out, come back, do some work, come back, and then read the next bit or watch the next bit, even with something like a feature film. Because remember, a feature film, they don't make that thing in one day. I understand that it's like, yeah, but you're meant to sit and just watch it in one go. But I'm like, the whole time they were making that film, they were making it, they wrote it piecemeal, they were making it piecemeal. It took months to years, mean, years always to make the film in general. And then of course, even the filming of it takes weeks to months. Then the editing. is always multiple edits, multiple rounds of this. And yes, you're trying to make it flow as one coherent thing. But I sometimes feel like we've given too much credence, too much reverence to fast consumption. And even sitting and watching a movie in one sitting, that is a fast consumption. I know it's with the positive slant on that. is to watch a movie, you're giving it your focus, your your undivided attention from beginning to end, you know, phones down screens down, even if you're home alone, and just give it that your undivided attention. But honestly, I think it's better to give it time to not consume something that took so long to make just and you're done. And yes, you can go back and revisit it, you can watch it multiple times. But I feel like especially the first time maybe the second time you watch it, you're like, okay, now I know roughly what I'm what I'm getting what I'm getting into what's going to happen. Now let's watch it in one sitting and see what happens that way. But the very first time take it in chunks. It's better. It's better, folks. It's better. Anyways, argue with me. ah Would you think that's better? Do you think it's not? What are the pros and cons of that one undivided, uh uninterrupted narrative, just the movie in one go? versus allowing yourself to see it in pieces the same way the filmmakers did when they were making this for almost the entire time. They were making it, they didn't see it in one go until they were like, and now the edit is we think it's done, or we have another version of the edit that we think is done. Now let's try watching it in one go. But everything leading up to that was not watching was not taking in this, this work in one go. That is weirdly something only the audience is meant to do when nobody else did leading up to that moment. Okay, leading up to the finished product. Okay, on that note, yes, we are going to be talking about stranger things today. But before we get started, please be sure to follow and subscribe if you want to hear more wine and movie pairings sometimes like today wine and TV pairings, sometimes even music books and comics, though mostly movies. Subscribing helps this podcast grow and so keeps us chained to our studio pumping out more episodes. And our favorite thing for you to do recommend this podcast to a friend or family member, anyone you think who will like deep dives into movies and wine and how best to pair them together. And look, don't just follow this podcast. Also follow us and interact with us on Substack. Just head to entertainment studios.com. entertainment studios.com where you will find all our podcast episodes broken down by subject matter. articles on wine and entertainment, bonus pairings and be a part of Wine Stack and Film Stack, two of the fastest growing movements in online writing and community. If you are here for the wine or film side of things, you absolutely must follow the wine and film stack communities on Substack or you are seriously missing out. And lastly, we want to recommend that you try wine and movie pairing on your own at home, solo or with friends and family. Pick a movie, then consider its tone, style, subject matter and overall aesthetic. Maybe some of its history, if you want to thematically uh attach it to the history of the film and the people who made it. What are the adjectives you'd use to describe the movie? And then what kind of wine would you use the same adjectives for? It's also fun to try a pairing simply because you want to and see if the pairing, you know, you have a wine and you're like, I want to watch this movie and I just have this wine handy. I wonder how well they go together. Give it a shot and see does the pairing succeed or and or fail and why. Do the two go well together? Do they clash or do nothing whatsoever for the other? Failed pairings are half the fun and help you determine what works, what doesn't and why. And if you'd like to, if you'd like us to customize a wine and movie pairing for you, you can become a paid subscriber on our sub stack. Once you are DM us, tell us a movie or a wine and we'll give you recommendations for what might pair well and why. We've been doing this for years now and want to help you experience the deep satisfaction a successful pairing offers for yourself. Hi height. Here we go guys. Stranger Things. This is going to be a spoiler free episode. I'm not going to give away any details about the plot. I'm just going to talk a little bit about what each season meant to me. I watched them for the first time this month in December 2025. Never saw the show before. um And I've watched everything but the final episode which drops drops tomorrow doesn't drop today. um So I will see that I'm going to watch it New Year's Eve as the grand finale but I do not know how it all ends so I cannot even give away that spoiler but I'm going to make sure that this is a spoiler free episode overall if you've never seen stranger things this will give away nothing but give you an idea of what each season does and then of course the best kind of wines to pair with each season as you go. I got to try this out in real time as I went. So I definitely have a good handle on what works well for each season and why. So Stranger Things Season 1. This is this was a surprisingly tight, coherent almost. It was almost miniseries esque in how well it introduced us to a cast of characters. The retro suburb of America, American suburb of the 80s. with strange occurrences and mysteries peppered with teen drama. And it tied it all together in a bow by the end. Season one, if you want to walk away after season one, you can pretty happily. You know, they tack on this little denouement at the very, end, like one last little like minute or two. You basically the credits should roll and then they're like, but wait. And then they show you something that's like, ah, ha to be continued. Sure, you can, but you don't have to like this season wraps up. So this was pretty typical for TV shows when it's season one and you really don't know if you're going to have more seasons to come. You hope for it. ah But you also want to make sure you give your audience like a nice place to to bow out if you have to like maybe the audience doesn't want to bow out, but you have to bow out because they're not going to fund the season two. And so it's like, OK, we left you with it to be continued, but it was a pretty honestly kind of weak ish to be continued like it's not something you have to come back for uh and so much wrapped up in season one that you really could be satisfied with just season one. So if you've never tried Stranger Things before, try season one. If it's not going to grip you. I mean, the other seasons do more do additional things, but it is the flavor by and large of the entire series. So season one doesn't grip you by the end of season one. It's not going to get a lot better for you You probably don't want to continue after that point and you will get a story that's pretty satisfying in and of itself just in season one so The kids you know in this uh they are perfectly cast I love how they cast this show a lot of them were kids for when season one hit you know Obviously, they're very young. I did not know them from anywhere else uh So this was a very pleasant surprise to see a cast of kids that had this much chemistry together I mean, this has a very Stephen King, very it kind of feel to it, very stand by me kind of feel to it. And it works gangbusters. I mean, they the the Duffer Brothers, they definitely got the vibe correct on this for this sort of paperback 80s horror, Stephen King like horror. And as a mini series like we didn't really have many series this well done back in the 80s. I don't think. uh So this was this is something else. I'm glad this was made in the modern era when they could do it so well on Netflix. Kids are perfectly cast. This is, you know, themes of American upper middle class suburbia that was used. I think the theme of this season one is really how like suburbia in America, especially in the 80s, was Cold War era. This was Reagan era, Reaganomics and all that fun stuff. So it was kind of like how upper middle class suburbia was used as a blanket against. the horrors of the world for Americans and how those horrors were allowed to exist and thrive right under our noses, often at our own expense or our kids own expense. That theme, I think cuts through clear as a bell. There's also a theme of community and family, how much stronger we are together versus alone. A lot of the characters in any given time, like when they try to go it alone, they sink into certain depths of despair. They can only get so far and it's only when they come together. even when they're not quite enemies, enemies, but you know, they're they're antagonists of each other, their rivals or things of that nature. But when they come together, that's when things get better. That's when they start to achieve things. Obviously, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, ah they're incredible. Momentous comeback for Ryder, ah who facial ticks and kind of aggressively stomps around as this this small statured tornado of motherhood in the show. And the series brought Harbor to my attention. I don't know how well he was known before this series. I don't think he was too terribly much, but I could be wrong about that. um He has this uncommon mix of macho charisma with also the sort of sensitive emotional backbone that always emerges just as you think his machismo is set to aggravate you, is set to go too far. And then that sensitive side kind of comes out. So they balance that really well with him. And I think the unsung MVP of this season is Cara Blowno as Mrs. Wheeler, the mostly oblivious mother to our core kiddos, who in many ways is the audiences, the kids are the audiences POV. And I think I actually I think ah I'm sorry, I said that wrong. I think she's the audience POV. The mother is the audience's POV because we're watching the show. And yes, the kids are the protagonist there. We're rooting for them. But we haven't been through anything that they're going through in this show. So she's the one where she's removed from the horrors and the heroics, just like we are, but wants to be there for everyone. She's rooting for her kids as well. She doesn't know what's happening to them, but she wants to be there. They won't really talk to her, but she wants them to talk to her, yet has no natural way to do so. So she's rebuffed by her children again and again, wanting to pull them back from the brink, away from the terrible things. And then, you know, near the finale. of season one in a perfectly encapsulating scene. She rages against quote unquote the man, right? The authorities that have come and she senses deep down knows ah that they want nothing good for her or her children or community. She can tell they're the bad guys in this thing. Her mama bear protectiveness comes out and she is fierce in this scene. And yet when given calm, clear reasons to comply, by Matthew Modine, one of the main bads of season one. When given those calm, clear directions of reasons to comply, when given hope that everything can go back to the way it was in this very rationally spoken way, even though he's not really giving her real content in that, he's just saying, don't worry. If you trust us, this is why, and we can go back to your suburban umbrella. to your American upper middle class suburban umbrella that protects you from everything. The safety of that in her middle class nuclear family bliss, she sheds one final tear and she grabs at it. She grabs at that. Let's go back to normal even after that mother bear protectiveness rages out. Given the villains, she gives the villains what they need. ah This is America, right? When given that reassurance in calm, clear instructions, even though A part of us knows better. know it. We know that's not right. We know these people don't have our best interests in heart. We know this could be bad for everyone, but it's the hope of that essentially American dream. And so we give them what they need to go on with the horrors that they've been doing already. The hope of safety through structure, authority and conformity. Yep. That is that is the primary theme of season one. And yeah, Carbono is Mrs. Wheeler. She doesn't have too much screen time, but when she's on, I feel like she is she is the core. She is the MVP of this season. The thread that most people don't notice is really cohering everything together. So, yeah, stranger things. At least season one, this is about what happens when different types of people come from different corners of a single community. They come together to embrace the strange, the strange ers like uh L11 played by Millie Bobby Brown. um, the weird ones, the different ones who sometimes come with psychic powers and refuse to quietly comply for the sake of normalcy. The world was far stranger, more diverse and yes, dangerous than we ever imagined back in the hair gel eighties. All right, yeah, season one. Great start. I loved it. Let's see what season two brings the wine pairing for season one a surprisingly this was a surprisingly somber. first season, there's more darkness than light, more brooding than, know, Stranger Things now has this reputation for being that kind of hair gel day glow 80s. That comes a little bit later in the in future seasons. This season one not really there yet. This was actually more of the dull drab 80s. It was kind of an earlier 80s to want to say it takes place in 1982 is where it starts. And I think by season five, we're in 87. So I think it is like five years that it goes for one year per season. um So this is a season for I think based on that whole mood and vibe, the darker, the somber, the horrors. This is your earthy Italian red, know, vino nobile di Montepulciano. That's a good one. Rosso di Montalcino. That's another one. So not Brunello di Montalcino. You can do that as well, but that's expensive. Do the Rosso di Montalcino. That's your affordable version of Brunello di Montalcino. uh Vino nobile di Montepulciano. That is a town. It's Sangiovese, but it's really, really good Sangiovese. It's wonderful. It's earthy. It's delicious. It's affordable. um Montepulciano is also a grape. So you can get like Montepulciano d'Alba. It's very confusing, but don't do that. Get the Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. That is the better one, the earthier one, the more complex one. I think you do need that complexity. Don't just go for fruitiness on this one. You can also do a Sagrentino Montefalco. You can do an Allianico from Torassi. look for a nice earthy Italian red, not Chianti. Chianti is not earthy enough at all. Some people might disagree with me on that, but I Chianti is way too smooth, way too nondescript. Do not do that. Go for something bigger and a bit more layered and complex and interesting, not something as smooth as Chianti. And I think you're in the right ballpark. And then if you want to do a white, if you're not a red drinker, do something like a Riesling, a dry Riesling because you need that complexity. You need those layers. I think that acidity will be great in something like a Riesling, the minerality that comes with that, that little petroleum under note that often comes with that, especially if it's a German Riesling. So German dry Riesling, if you can find it. If you're on the East coast, if you're in New York or something like that, hey, yeah, go for a finger likes Riesling dry. Those tend to be wonderful as well. And I think that's what you need. Something complex enough, but also in something a little brooding, a little dark, some kind of undertone to it like petroleum and Riesling or like the earthiness in most Italian reds. Alright, season two. Like the best of sequels? Yeah, this one bigger, louder, more horrific, more cast, more budget, more effects, more monsters, bigger monsters, more brooding, more melodrama, but also more action. The mythology gets deeper. the characters become multi-dimensional and less one note. Well, somehow, honestly, also leaning into the one note quirks of each character, there is a way to do that. There's a way to do both. And I think this season does it beautifully. This whole show actually does this pretty well. It does it pretty beautifully. There's a way in which you give your characters more dimensions. show, you let them do more. You let them have more moments, more interactions with different types of characters. show that they're more multifaceted than you have them be in the first season than you had shown previously. But at the same time, each character is a bit of an archetype in the show. You have that one note quality to them, and they do lean into those archetypes time and time again, because you each character has that sort of archetypal purpose and place in the show. But then they also let them be more from time to time, just enough that you get more depth while leaning into that one note that keeps everything simple and very straightforward and very easy to watch. The show really does a great job balancing those two things. And they introduced Mad Max, um which is uh Sadie Sink. Sadie Sink, am I remembering the actress's name right? I think so, Sadie Sink. Mad Max is introduced as the second female child actor alongside Eleven, Millie Bobby Brown. That was a great decision to introduce one more girl to the group. Gives an extra young romance angle to explore. And her brother, Billy, also becomes a major new character, adding an extra dynamic to the mix. And he's very much the bad boy of the 80s. He's got the hair. Where's the wife beater uh works out in that same way that was Josh Brolin in the Goonies. You know, the older brother is always like working out in that way. They're slick with sweat and still not still not like, you know. People who work out nowadays were such a gym culture now, were even more ripped and muscular than anybody was. Most people were in the 80s, barring, say, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger and like the bodybuilders of that era. ah Basic actors were never that ripped. ah But at the same time, he's got that exact look where he's just as muscular as most people were in the 80s, which is muscular enough for most people. He's great. ah And then he's got that bad boy edge to him. um You know, the thing I like to also about the second season, the government now, ah they were the bad guys in season one. The government is not just a one note evil entity that they were in season one. But now Paul Reiser, the guy you get for bigger and better sequels, Hala Aliens, he takes over as the figurehead for Matthew Modine. He's now the figurehead and he's simultaneously one of our he's on our protagonist side while also not quite being on their side. Secrets are being kept from them. But we learn that Paul Reiser's character is actually, he's not as nefarious as the previous head of the operation, Papa Matthew Modine. The rift on the upside down is still open, we learn in season two, but they're trying to contain it, not explore it. So, and as the season goes on, you find out like where Paul Reiser's character really stands amongst all these characters, it's complicated. And I like that it started to add that extra dimension where he's like, Okay, okay, okay. They might not have your best interest in heart, at least not all the time. But it's not as simple as just they bad, they the man they bad, right? um Sip of water is the problem with going solo. All right. So and it all ends in marvelous over the top fashion this second season. This is the only season to run nine episodes instead of eight alongside season four, but season one, three and believe it or not, five, only eight episodes. That surprised me the season five, the grant. Usually when you get to the finale, the finale, finale. of the whole show like they need all this extra runway. So it's like it's extra episodes and every episode is extra long. That wound up being season four. We're to talk about that when we get season four. But so like Aliens, like Terminator two and all the great sequels of the past, this one season two, it's longer, bigger, badder, more explosive. And man, man, this season delivers the goods with a heartbreaking finale that in many ways you can once again walk away from, though less so than season one. ah Now we are really building more of a mythology, more of a continuation, but this one is still pretty like it caps it off. You could still walk away pretty happily after season two. The MVP of this season is unquestionably Sean Astin, who just he lights up every scene with his seemingly authentic G-Wiz energy in this show. I hope he's like this in real life. He has this intelligence, this ability to think on his feet. As well, he's wonderful. uh Very unexpected casting choice, very unexpected character to suddenly land in this. His romance with Nona Ryder's Joyce is Chef's Kiss. Paul Reiser gets an honorable mention as well, as I've already mentioned about him before, as the much more interesting and complicated head of the government operations in this town. So season two, this is more fun. This is more bombastic. It's serious, but not as brooding as season one. really, this one, the characters are getting more dimensional, they're there, you're getting more melodrama, which I liked versus just more of the understated drama drama. So this one's gonna be more of your acidic red, something a bit lighter, a bit more zippy, a bit brighter, this is gonna be like your your Grenache based reds, your coat to drones, or if you're not getting it from the ron, if you're getting it from California or elsewhere in the States or Australia or South Africa, or blah, blah, it's gonna be a GSM blend. which is Grenache Syrahme or Vedra. That's your usual rhone blend, usually Grenache is leading. And that is often a highly acidic red grape, making a nicely highly acidic red wine. So yeah, your Cote de Rhone or GSM blends. Or, you know, again, with white New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, that's going to be nice, bright, zippy, crisp, acidic, or like a French aligoté. Do a French aligoté. That one is also, I think this one you need less complexity. in the wine than you did in season one, you don't need quite as many layers, but you need the zippiness, some fruitiness, yes, but not too much fruitiness. It needs to be more quaffable, more drinkable. um You might go through, especially with nine episodes on this one, you might go through quite a number of these bottles. There are some wonderfully affordable Coturones and GSM blends out there that I would highly recommend that definitely affordable New Zealand savvy bees. Alligatte is a little pricier. Usually for a good Alligatte, you're going to be like $25 to $35 per bottle. So maybe try one of those. But any blend of those wines, I think would be amazing for season two. All right, season three. If season one was Rocky, you know, a little more somber, a little more a little more brooding. And season two was Rocky two, bit more bombastic, a bit more now there's a true victory coming in at the end. Season three. Yeah, it's Rocky three. This is 80s. are now, you know, this was a bit off putting at first when I started season three, to be honest. um Season three, I believe there was a one year gap between season one and season two in its release and there was a two year gap in season three. They took a little more time for it. And I liked the drabber color palette of the previous seasons, which were far more Stephen King-y, but The kids themselves are entering deeper into the 80s. Now we're into like 85 or something of 84, 85, I think in the timeline. And so everything in this town goes deep into the 80s. Everything looks now characters are sporting 80s hair. They are 80s clothes. And the main setting is, of course, a mall. And this is day glow 80s, baby. The whole color palette in this in this series shifted up. into high high gear of neon colors and bright 80s everything. um You have a Kate Bush soundtrack. uh no, no, no, no, the Kate Bush soundtrack season four, sorry. uh But you start, it's a very 80s soundtrack nevertheless. They introduced Maya Hawke as Robin, and she's gonna be the MVP of season three by far. She was a character that when first introduced, I didn't know who Maya Hawke was. um So when she first, I thought, okay, this is gonna be a very side character. And as the episodes go on, she becomes more more entrenched and turns out to be a character that goes forward in the series as well. And again, another dimension to everything that was just absolutely brilliant as as this season went on. This this series is very much about two things really the embarrassment of post high school jobber life for those kids who have graduated high school from the first two seasons. Now they're kind of starting their young adult life but still in Hawkins still in this this small hometown. um Themes of the push pull of modernity. You've got the mall that's coming up. You've got moving beyond childish relationships and dynamics finding out what survives when you start growing older and change as people. um Billy Maxis, 80 sinks Maxis brother, Mad Max's brother and Cara Buono as Mrs. Wheeler again now. She was the MVP of season one. She got almost nothing to do in season two. I was a little bummed by that. And she's back in season three. She gets a lot to do in season three because Billy and Mrs. Wheeler, they start to have a potentially will they won't they flirtation that goes on throughout the season. That was a lot of fun. There's a fun subplot with the entirety of the 80s suburban mom cougars kind of uh preening their best at the local pool where Billy is the lifeguard and like that was classic. That was fantastic. That was perfect. You have a brand new main villain, the mind flayer, who was introduced a little bit in season two as a sort of the shadow, this idea, but it wasn't very wasn't truly present present. It was just this larger than life beast from the other world. Now the mind flayer. uh not to give too much away, but the mind flayer is the more a more present end boss in season three. And it's it's pretty, you know, they have the budget for it by then. By season three, they were given that there's an entire subplot of Russians. This was again, the 80s. This was the Cold War time. Russians are always the bad guys. um So the Russians start to come into play here in small town Hawkins. And there's an amazing subplot with them and just a massive finale episode that again allows characters to be both multi dimensional while also leaning into their one notes. um This one this one's candy colored, right? This one's just over the top candy colored. It's starting to this this season took me a couple of episodes to really dig as much as I dug the first two, but I absolutely did by the end of season three. And but this is going to be like your Bujelay. You know, this is your fruity, fruity, fruity wine. This is going to be your Valpolicella Classico, something light in body, just easy drinking. This is 80s all the way, baby. Maybe a California Pinot Noir. Maybe and this is where you could maybe do your Chianti Classico if you want to go Italian, like just that simple, easy drinking. This is also middle of the 80s. This is where like the the fiasco. straw basket kiyantes were super popular in America. So hey, get yourself a kiyante classical and really feel that mall of America vibe. That's where you drink your straw basket kiyante classicals. Don't go buy a straw basket kiyante classical Trader Joe's has those these days. They're still they're still as bad as they've ever been just buy a real kiyante classical that that'd be best. All right, season four. The Rocky four of the series or the john wick chapter four. This one is so big. So over the top, so massive in scope that it is ludicrous. Once again, nine episodes in length and most running 1.5 hours, one episode running one hour and 45 minutes and the fucking finale running an insane 2.5 hours long. That episode alone is almost the length of John Wick Chapter 4. Just the finale. And this is nine episodes again. So this is the creative team spending as much money as they can. Sometimes it seems like they're doing it just to do it, to be honest. uh Half the season takes place in Russia. like the last, season three had a Russians in Hawkins subplot. Now, half the season just takes place in Russia, while another half takes place in Hawkins and another half in a California town, or another third in the California town. So it's split between these three very disparate locations. um where half of our, California town comes into play because half of our kids have relocated and are trying to integrate into a new town. have left Hawkins. uh There was a three year gap between season three and four, thanks to the pandemic. So the kids have aged the most between seasons. This takes a little bit of an adjustment when you first see it, especially if you're watching this all like very straight through like I did in one month. But more, this is a season that takes its sweet ass time in establishing why it's happening at all. The core storyline of a cursed house and a cursed family seems bafflingly arbitrary. It's not even connected to anything else really, or doesn't seem to be. And it's sort of they're like, well, it has to do a little bit with the upside down that other dimension thing. But you're like, wait, we're just starting a whole new story. Like, this is the second to last season. And this is just going to go off into some arbitrary uh direction. The Russian subplot is it has to do with a major character. But it doesn't seem to tie into anything per se really. It This this season took the longest for me to understand why the I was watching it. And all I could tell is that everything in this in this season is overkill in terms of scope and purpose. And through it all money is plainly being burned on the screen to craft everything. But why? This is so the rocky floor not only with the Russian angle, but it's also it's just as big it's bombastic like everything is dialed to 11. And yet you're still just watching it like, okay, but seasons one through three were all of a piece like they were you are following a largely one storyline just just moving from one act to the next. And this one just stops everything and does something completely new seemingly. um That said, I will say this season four pays off big time. Just keep watching it. Nothing is as arbitrary as it seems. And eventually it all ties back to the previous seasons, all the mini dangling threads that we hadn't yet covered and then sets up the series for its final fifth season. And the way it ties back to the other seasons like this has all been the same story, just like seasons one, two and three were. But man, it takes a while to get like a while. Just keep watching. It's great. It's great. And the payoff when it when it pays off, you're like, OK, I bought I'm in. I'm all in. That was amazing. um So I really, season four might be my favorite season. And I gotta tell you, I must have made it through four or five episodes thinking it was gonna be the worst season of the entire show. ah And then when it all comes together, I was like, nope, awesome. I love everything. I love absolutely everything I've seen now. um So your mileage may vary, but that's what I say. This is also, this is the everything in the kitchen sink. season, right? So it starts small, but widen scope, and it introduces Joseph Quinn as this Eddie Munson, a truly memorable performance, I think. And I have to say this one hit me personally, Eddie Munson's character. ah So when I entered high school, and was a freshman, a similar thing to the Hellfire Club, in my case, it was the Juggling Club, nowhere near as cool as the Hellfire Club. But it was the Juggling Club. It was run by these two senior guys. who wore trench coats and had cool hair and played guitar and to a freshman's eyes were just fucking cool as shit and everything you wanted to be as a relatively geeky boy teen. And the trench coat thing, guys, this was before all the school shootings. So this predates all of it. So it wasn't even a thought that crossed my mind at the time. ah They were great jugglers too, as well as great guitarists. taught us how to juggle, kept us disciplined the same way Eddie does with the Hellfire Club. And, you know, they were not beloved by the actual popular kids in school, just like Eddie Munson. And when these two seniors graduated, we continued their legacy with the Juggling Club our whole four years there. Me and my circle of friends, we met through this club, um Hellfire Club in Stranger Things, the Juggling Club in my real world high school. So that whole setup and dynamic with Eddie Munson and the Hellfire Club and all that fun stuff, that just really spoke to me. I was like, holy shit. someone else had this exact same experience in high school and wrote about it. Look at this. And that was my experience to a T as a freshman and having those like older senior mentors that just wind up, you know, and it's funny. Like we didn't go on a stranger things adventure. So it ended, you know, they just graduated and fucked off and we were left behind. They never came back. And but nevertheless, they always meant something because of that odd mentorship and the way they were like, you, motherfuckers, you're you're continuing our legacy. We're taking you under our wing. We're going to spend all the time. And again, they weren't actually popular. So this is why they were like, yeah, young kids come over here and we'll we'll mentor you. um But it was yeah, it's a really cool dynamic. And I can see why the characters in Stranger Things, like they really do latch on one of them in particular, really Dustin. He really latches on to Eddie as a mentor. And it's something that continues into season five as well and throughout season four. But yeah, Eddie Munson, he's the MVP of season four for sure. um Great new addition. And the dynamic is something that I personally responded to, obviously. And season four, this is going to all be about themes. It's themes of idolatry. It's themes of keeping secrets, honesty versus deflecting. what you're actually feeling. All the relationships are really struggling by season four because people are not being upfront. They're not being super honest with each other. And it's not about cheating on people or anything like that, but just being honest about how you're feeling, about how this relationship is going, about not wanting to deal with these feelings. And so you just keep putting the other person off. this is all about season four is about the stories we tell ourselves, stories we tell ourselves about our relationships, stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. stories we tell ourselves about our towns, about how we're doing, how our families are doing. And the fact that all these relationships are our self-love, our love of others, our love of our settings, our towns, our hometowns, our new towns, they're hard. All these relationships are hard and it takes a lot of work. And that's what this season is about. Some characters that you thought wouldn't return do return in this season and relationships with them. Very hard, very difficult, very complicated. And yeah, this season, this fucking season, it really took everything up to another level. And I highly, I highly, highly recommend it. I think this is my favorite season, even though I have yet to finish that final episode of season five. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the best season. Again, the money burned while I was watching this season. I was like, why guys? my god, stop spending that's much money. And I feel like half these scenes aren't even necessary. No, they're necessary. They're all it's all really necessary. So yeah, season four, season four is quite it's a lot of time commitment in terms of hours of minutes watched. But it's well worth it. So this is the intense dessert wine season, I think you need to sip something slowly to make it through these epic length episodes. Sherry. Port, Madeira, Vermouth, Amaro would be great. Those aromatic wines, steeped in botanicals, something like Amaro, which is gonna be bittersweet, Vermouth, which is gonna be bittersweet. Those would be great. I loved sipping on those. I sip some white tawny port. I tried some mid-sweet sherry. I tried sweet Vermouth and sweet Amaro, which is both kind of bittersweet, because they're steeped in those botanicals, which gives it a little bitter edge to it. All of them were perfect. You could do a salturn or an ice wine or a straw wine or something like that. But honestly, those are high. Those are bright acidity and easier drinking for a dessert wine. That high acidity doesn't make make them not taste as sweet. Then they don't seem as sweet. They don't seem as heavy. And I think that you might drink those a little too fast. And there might be a little too buoyant for these episodes, which are which are very heavy in theme and drama and horror. So, yeah, keep it. Keep it heavy. keep it heavy, keep it bold, keep it big. And find your sweet level almost all of these ones can come at different levels of like medium sweet to heavy sweet. I like medium sweet, generally speaking. But you do you. Alright, season five, let's bring it on home. This is the Rocky Balboa of the series. There is no Rocky five of the series, who would ever make a Rocky five series? My god. That said, I actually actually like Rocky five. I am in the minority on that I am aware of that. but I quite like Rocky V. I think it's a great anticlimax to the whole thing. It's like, what happens after fame? What happens after celebrity? What happens after you saved the world? You ended the Cold War in a boxing ring single-handedly and you're celebrated by all, but you're also a physical specimen, a boxer, like it fades. And I love Rocky V for just being this like, yeah, you go out with a whimper, not a bang. And I still think that that. movie works really, really well as that anti climax. It's not a great movie, but it works really well, I think. And, you know, same director as the original Rocky, I think things just got. I know Sylvester Stallone wanted to kill the character of Rocky in Rocky five did not want to come back again. And he's like, let's just kill him off. And then they changed that at the last minute. The studio got cold feet. They didn't want to do that. So they gave it a different ending, which is really anti climactic and doesn't work. But that said, I appreciate Rocky five so much more than most people. But this is not that this is Rocky Balboa, which is the better fitting coda to the series. And I as much as I like Rocky five, Rocky Balboa, so much better as a movie and as a coda to the whole thing. And this is where season five kind of surprises. It's surprisingly smaller than season four. I was wondering where the show could go from after season four, after how much season four the everything in the kitchen thing. sync thing that it did, the sheer amount of budget that season took, and turns out they go inward. They go back to Hawkins as a single location. This is our cast wrapping things up, finishing up, tying up loose ends. A few new revelations are at hand in a few ways. The scope is still kind of big, but this is a more intimate season, more personal, and it's a coda to season four. more than anything, uh more than a finale, the way Rocky Balboa was a coda for that character, helping us tie up those loose ends and allow us to leave these characters in this story with no real regrets or unfinished business. As such, the episodes are once again, moderate in length. looking at like one to one point, you know, one hour, 15 minutes ish kind of a thing and only eight episodes in grand total. I've only seen seven. I have no idea how long the the grand finale is gonna be that drops tomorrow. hasn't even shown up yet. So maybe that final episode is gonna be three hours long. I have no idea. But so far, the seven episodes they've dropped so far, all moderate in length. I've been very pleasantly surprised. And uh this is shaping up to be a very fine sendoff. Mildly anti-climactic, which I kind of appreciate actually. Just like I did with Rocky five, but it's treating these characters with respect unlike Rocky five allowing them to grow yet further You know relationships both survive and don't survive uh as they always do when you're this young and themes here are of letting go of maturing of moving on while remaining close and loving with those who have been close and loving with you in the past even if you have to move on Don't burn bridges. Don't, you know, don't salt the earth behind you. This is these people were they were meaningful to you. Things don't have to end badly if you don't want it to end badly. Taking responsibility when you're the only one who can and seeing things through to the end. This is, yeah, season five. As far as I can tell, not having watched that final episode, but it's only one more episode. So I'm pretty sure I'm pretty safe in this assurance. This is your sparkling red wine. sparkling red wine all the way. Treat it like New Year's, because it'll be New Year's Eve when it drops. Even if you're watching this later, treat it like New Year's, but go beyond champagne and Prosecco. Champagne and Prosecco. They're very, they're very good. They're delicious, but go beyond them. Get something dark and full like lambroosco, a dry lambroosco. You can get a sweet one or a semi sweet one if you want to if that's your jam. Rio Nidi, that's your jam. We tasted Rio Nidi for the first time not too long ago and it's actually pretty good. It's very light, but it's very good. Very inoffensive, but very good. um And so like Lambrusco, maybe a sparkling Shiraz from Australia. That's a big red sparkling you can find out there. Or sparkling Turiga Nacional from Portugal, which is, which is, I now know I care. I represent one of them in my day job as a Portuguese, a wine sales rep for a Portuguese wine distributor. So Yeah, sparkling tree and that's now from Portugal, but Lambrusco is going to be the one that most of you can find go with that. Brachetto de Aki is another one in Italian. Very, very sweet. Very low alcohol 5.5 % but a red sparkler. That could be nice. But I say go for darker go for that deep purple, earthy like that's what season five needs. This is about growing up. This is about maturity and that's what you want with this. So all right. Those are the wine pairings for seasons one through five of Stranger Things. And that's my take on seasons one through five of Stranger Things. You know, I didn't give an MVP for season five. I gave it to all the others, but not this one. Hmm. I didn't think about that. You know, I think the MVP for season five. could be one of two characters. forget the character's name, but it's the one, uh Maya Hawk, her character is dating someone. And it could be that character because kind of like the mom in season one, she's RPOV or like, this is insane what is going on. Maybe it could be her, but I actually, actually think it might be Dustin in this one. I think Dustin just, this is the season where rather than being the voice of reason and being the nerdy one who's always getting people out of a jam. This is his moment to fall apart and come back together and find himself and evolve in ways he's never had to never forced to evolve before. And as a coda, the one character that was impervious to having to evolve finally has to emotionally, uh mentally, like as a character, as a person evolve. And so, yeah, you know what? I'm giving it to that. Dustin is the MVP. of season five. All right, folks, thanks so much for listening to this very special solo episode. hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed my rambling and my Kermit the Froggy voice. And don't forget to check us out on Substack. Don't forget that. even beyond becoming a even beyond what I said before about you can become a paid subscriber paid subscribers and you'll be able to ask us for movie and wine pairing advice. That's five dollars a month if you want to become a paid subscriber. But you can also become a produce er. Get it, get it. by for $75 a year, one payment of $75 per year, you become a producer. And that not only gets you everything that you get as a normal paid subscriber, but you also get to commission your own episode of this podcast, tell us which movie you'd like us to cover and pair wines with. And you also get a shout out every single episode. So here's a shout out for our first three producers. Kate Ruschel of survives on wine.substack.com. Kate Ruschel is also a Portuguese wine expert. I just sling the stuff on the streets of LA. She's an expert on the Portuguese wine category. And she makes these beautiful visual tasting notes for wine on her substacks survives on wine.substack.com. Also Paul Kalamkyarian of Wine Talks with Paul K. He's an OG wine podcaster. His podcast is eons beyond ours. So if you like this one, you're gonna love his. Check out Wine Talks with Paul K. And Jessica Mayson, Jessica Mayson, who has already commissioned her episode that was Dead Male during the Halloween season, a really great indie horror film that came out this year, this past year, if you're listening to this in 2026. And go check out the Dead Male episode. And Jessica Mayson can be found on monsteroftheweek.substack.com. She is a graphic novelist and novelist extraordinaire. She does horror stories and sci fi. And she's great. She has a sub stack where she does a new story of a new monster every single week. Monster of the week dot sub stack dot com. That's Jessica Mason. All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening. We will be back shortly soon. We're still in kind of the holiday season. Maybe I'll be back solo. Maybe I'll be back with Dallas in a couple of weeks. But we will be back with another one in entertainment pairing for your entertainment. Go watch Stranger Things. If you have been watching Stranger Things, let me know. Let us know what you think of the final episode when it drops. and maybe give some of these wine pairings a try and let us know what you think about those as well. Ciao everybody. Happy New Year. Here's to a better 2026 for all of us than 2025. Rock to mine Should old acquaintance be Forgotten days of old lengths For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, We'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. And here's a hand, my trusty friend And here's a hand of thine We'll take a cup of kindness yet For auld lang syne For auld for all and learn's nine. We'll take a cup of kindness dear for all and learn's nine. Far away I will take a cup of kindness dear for all Please.