I watching Stranger Things on my own when it was coming out, but my kids were too young at the time. Then when my oldest hit 13 or so I showed it to him (I think only 3 seasons were out). We watching seasons 4 and 5 together (he's almost 17 now), and last year my youngest expressed an interest. He's been the more sensitive one so I held off showing it to him. But we got up through season 3 when season 5 finished and I had planned on waiting to finish it with him since the violence goes up a lot in season 4. But last month he insisted that he wanted to finish it. So the kind father that I am I watched the episodes again first to refresh my memory and document stuff I thought would upset him (I mostly got everything). I'm still honestly amazed at how gruesome season 4 goes with all the bones snapping and eyes gouging out. But thankfully season 5 goes back to "normal". And we just finished episode 4 (The Sorcerer).
It's been interesting watching the back half seasons of the show twice over the last 6 months or so. My initial season 4 experience was years ago, so season 5's pacing felt off when I first watched it as it was released. But watching the entire run of the show in parallel to that, and going from season 4 right into season 5 feels so much better than when I only had a vague memory of season 4's events. Plus it's been fun to watch it with both kids separately. The older son is plugged into the discourse, and of course started to agree with the complaints (the final season made me cry multiple times so I don't even care about the haters). But my youngest has just been enjoying the hell out of it. And it's making my cry all over again!
I had been meaning to watch Stranger Things for a long time, until suddenly my 15 year old son got interested and gave me a reason to watch it. We're going through all the seasons now and we're loving it. I particularly like Robin who was added in S3, though S4 episodes are very long!
We did a grand rewatch of the entire Stranger Things series last year, leading up to S5, and introduced my oldest to it for the first time (she was 13 at the time). She's not a horror fan but really enjoyed it, especially enjoyed having it be a weekly family thing on Saturday nights (took us like 6 months to get through!).
I never would have thought to have our 5-year old join us, though! I think the first two seasons would probably be okay as more creature features, but the flesh stuff in S3 and all the Vecna nightmare stuff in S4 seems pretty dang scary for younger kids. But kids are all built different!
We also live near Dallas and did the Netflix House thing with the Stranger Things immersive experience, which was pretty spiffy, party haunted house part escape room (all drawn from S4 specifically). They also had an actual mini-escape room in the arcade area, only a single room but really fun, made to look like Mike's basement. Overall I was really impressed with it.
We just finished Season 5 as a family (16 yr old and 12 yr old) and really loved it. Good family bonding time, lots of tears during the last episode. My 16 yr old did the same on youtube and knew everything about the series before we even started. My youngest could handle the later seasons, but all the Vecna stuff did get legit as scary as anything in a rated R horror movie. We've also been listening to a lot of Djo (Joe Keery/Steve's band) and enjoying it. Will have to check out the soundtrack, thanks for the tip on that!
I do not think my 9yo is spoiling the show to protect herself from feeling sad, but I *do* think that it's working that way. She knows what's coming and can tell her sister what's coming if she's worried about who might/might not survive. I personally find it highly annoying but I'm trying to not get in the way of dictating how my kids should or shouldn't enjoy the show.
Very cool! Curious, do you all plan on watching the later seasons, too? We have kids of similar ages (about to be 9 and 7) and I've thought about watching the first couple of seasons, but have worried that some of the violence in the later seasons might be too much or too scary? (Obviously, everyone needs to figure out their own boundaries for these things—and we tend to be pretty permissive overall—but just curious to know how you are thinking about that.)
We tend to be pretty permissive, in the sense that "if you think you can handle this, you can handle this." We'll have to see if that holds up when we're watching the later seasons? I genuinely don't know. My five-year-old walked in on a particularly nasty Vecna scene in the final season and had a nightmare over it, so I'm not sure!!!
I watching Stranger Things on my own when it was coming out, but my kids were too young at the time. Then when my oldest hit 13 or so I showed it to him (I think only 3 seasons were out). We watching seasons 4 and 5 together (he's almost 17 now), and last year my youngest expressed an interest. He's been the more sensitive one so I held off showing it to him. But we got up through season 3 when season 5 finished and I had planned on waiting to finish it with him since the violence goes up a lot in season 4. But last month he insisted that he wanted to finish it. So the kind father that I am I watched the episodes again first to refresh my memory and document stuff I thought would upset him (I mostly got everything). I'm still honestly amazed at how gruesome season 4 goes with all the bones snapping and eyes gouging out. But thankfully season 5 goes back to "normal". And we just finished episode 4 (The Sorcerer).
It's been interesting watching the back half seasons of the show twice over the last 6 months or so. My initial season 4 experience was years ago, so season 5's pacing felt off when I first watched it as it was released. But watching the entire run of the show in parallel to that, and going from season 4 right into season 5 feels so much better than when I only had a vague memory of season 4's events. Plus it's been fun to watch it with both kids separately. The older son is plugged into the discourse, and of course started to agree with the complaints (the final season made me cry multiple times so I don't even care about the haters). But my youngest has just been enjoying the hell out of it. And it's making my cry all over again!
I had been meaning to watch Stranger Things for a long time, until suddenly my 15 year old son got interested and gave me a reason to watch it. We're going through all the seasons now and we're loving it. I particularly like Robin who was added in S3, though S4 episodes are very long!
It's funny revisiting it with the kids. Last night, we finally watched the dreaded "spin-off" episode where El tracks down one of her siblings.
We did a grand rewatch of the entire Stranger Things series last year, leading up to S5, and introduced my oldest to it for the first time (she was 13 at the time). She's not a horror fan but really enjoyed it, especially enjoyed having it be a weekly family thing on Saturday nights (took us like 6 months to get through!).
I never would have thought to have our 5-year old join us, though! I think the first two seasons would probably be okay as more creature features, but the flesh stuff in S3 and all the Vecna nightmare stuff in S4 seems pretty dang scary for younger kids. But kids are all built different!
We also live near Dallas and did the Netflix House thing with the Stranger Things immersive experience, which was pretty spiffy, party haunted house part escape room (all drawn from S4 specifically). They also had an actual mini-escape room in the arcade area, only a single room but really fun, made to look like Mike's basement. Overall I was really impressed with it.
We were not confident the 5yo would stick with it, but remarkably, she has. Even up to and including the gruesome death at the end of season two.
We just finished Season 5 as a family (16 yr old and 12 yr old) and really loved it. Good family bonding time, lots of tears during the last episode. My 16 yr old did the same on youtube and knew everything about the series before we even started. My youngest could handle the later seasons, but all the Vecna stuff did get legit as scary as anything in a rated R horror movie. We've also been listening to a lot of Djo (Joe Keery/Steve's band) and enjoying it. Will have to check out the soundtrack, thanks for the tip on that!
I do not think my 9yo is spoiling the show to protect herself from feeling sad, but I *do* think that it's working that way. She knows what's coming and can tell her sister what's coming if she's worried about who might/might not survive. I personally find it highly annoying but I'm trying to not get in the way of dictating how my kids should or shouldn't enjoy the show.
Very cool! Curious, do you all plan on watching the later seasons, too? We have kids of similar ages (about to be 9 and 7) and I've thought about watching the first couple of seasons, but have worried that some of the violence in the later seasons might be too much or too scary? (Obviously, everyone needs to figure out their own boundaries for these things—and we tend to be pretty permissive overall—but just curious to know how you are thinking about that.)
We tend to be pretty permissive, in the sense that "if you think you can handle this, you can handle this." We'll have to see if that holds up when we're watching the later seasons? I genuinely don't know. My five-year-old walked in on a particularly nasty Vecna scene in the final season and had a nightmare over it, so I'm not sure!!!
Makes sense! (Also, curious to read that future piece on Nex Playground and similar options, sounds interesting)