Watch With Me: Stranger Things 5

Warning: Spoilers

Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat aka The Jonathan Byers Reaction

I came home from school, caught up on some Olympics, and flipped this on while eating. In my line of work, I will never not be able to say I came home from school. And had an after-school snack.

Cue Theme Music

By this episode, all the main characters have caught on; we just need them to catch up with each other. Then, we can fill in the big plot details. In the meantime, I want to look at Jonathan Byers.

I say ‘look at’ very purposefully. His posture is slouched, his hair seems a bit greasy, he has acne, and they really bring out the lines under his eyes. Put him in a cluttered, small home and sprinkle in some weird looks from his high school peers.

Suddenly, we have a very clear idea in our heads what to expect from this character. We also have words we automatically associate with him- creepy, loner, awkward, weird, skeevy… Nothing positive. We may see him selflessly doing his best at home for his mother and younger brother, but that is weighted against his voyeuristic actions with his camera. He may not be a bad guy, but we don’t have to like him.

In this episode, we see a bit more of him in his conversations with Nancy, but it will take a lot to overcome our initial impression of him. That first impression, based off of our schema (think mental map) for what we associate with being creepy and odd, strongly colors our reaction to him… even though we know he means well.

How much characterization will it take for us to overlook our first impression and stick up for him as a good character?

This all relates to how we form impressions in real life. Everyone has a story and you should get to know them, never judge a book by its cover, blah bla-

Exception! Donald Trump. Feel free to judge him by his cover. Because he’s a yam. A rude, rude yam.

Episode awards

1st place: The number of compasses they found in Mike’s house

Last place: The lack of Fitbit’s to track how many steps Mike & the boys get on these long woodland walks they take every day. They’re killing the 10k.