Ep 11 - Stranger Things 4: Elevated Horror and Perfect Mormon Representation

You might have guessed from the title, but we loved Stranger Things season 4. Not only did we get a nearly perfect representation of the reality of a large LDS family, but the show gave us some things to think about. Not that it was perfect: we talk about how many Latter-day Saints were hesitant to watch with the increased horror level, and the morality of horror as a genre in general. It's one of our longest episodes, but we promise the conversation will be worth your time.

https://youtu.be/fmFopV9eZ68

Our Ratings: Content: Telestial (but progressing) Artistic Merit: 3 popcorn balls Gospel Connections: 3 apricots

Best Books:

Liz - Overdue podcast

Carl - The Expanse book series & Amazon Prime series

Nathaniel - In Another World I Must Defeat the Demon King & In Another World I Must Train My Dungeon by Miles English

Barrett - Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey Through Story by John Yorke

Links:

Elevated horror movies:

It Follows

The Babbadook

"The Problem of Evil in Fiction" by Orson Scott Card (also available as part of his book A Storyteller in Zion)

The quote from CS Lewis comes from his essay "On Science Fiction"

"Breaking down all the horror references in Stranger Things season 4"

"Why new music can't compete with old music"

"Stranger Things' Duffer brothers reveal they have already retconned past episodes of the show"

Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells discuss how audiences have influenced their work in "Death of the Author— Ep. 62 of Intentionally Blank"

Babylon 5

Nathaniel's meme:

Further Reading on Stranger Things and Mormons:

"‘Stranger Things’ sees Mormons as ‘super-religious white people’" - article by Jana Riess after season 3

"What Stranger Things Gets Right and Wrong about Mormons and Utah" - YouTube video analyzing episode 6

"Stranger People" - Times & Seasons post about how Stranger Things could have done so much more with Suzie because 1980s Mormons are always ready to fight demons

Find Us:

Barrett - burgindie.com; Cryo is available through many streaming outlets

Nathaniel - nathanielgivens.com; Twitter: @NathanielGivens

Carl - Twitter: @CarlCranney

Liz - lizbusby.com

Video episode edited by Liz Busby; audio episode edited by Carl Cranney

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