Steampunk Granny's Review of Stranger Things

                                                               

Netflix has captivated the attention of many sci-fi fans with its debut of Stranger Things, a series produced by the Duffer brothers that seems to mirror a bit of Spielberg’s and Stephen King’s storytelling magic and the end result is a series that proves you can have fun while being scared stiff.

Stranger Things

Created by Ross and Matt Duffer and produced by Shawn Levy, the series stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarzzo, and Matthew Modine. The series, which takes place in the early 1980’s in the small town of Hawkins Indiana starts with an accident happening at a high security research center and a young boy disappearing. What do these two incidents have to do with each other?
                                                             

Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and his friends Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) are playing Dungeons and Dragons over Mike’s (Finn Wolfhard) house. When Will and Dustin leave to ride their bikes home, trouble begins and Will vanishes without a trace.

The police are called in and at first it is assumed that the boy either ran away or was taken by his father. David Harbour plays Jim Hopper a big city cop who seems a bit out of place in a small town. Hopper’s laid back handling of the initial report fools you into thinking he’s not a good cop, but that’s where you’re wrong. When a second child disappears, Hopper uses every resource available to him to find out what the connection is between the abductions and the research center.
                                                                 

Winona Ryder plays the single parent of two boys who works long hours to have enough money just to keep a roof over their heads. I think Winona is awesome in the role of a mother who is frantic to find her youngest son while the world around her collapses.
                                                                 

A search party is formed and people search the nearby woods including Will’s three friends, who have sneaked out of their homes to find their friend. During a thunderstorm, they come across a young girl who goes by the named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). She is running away from some very bad people.

Conclusion

The story revolves around the boys and the mysterious girl who can move things with her mind. Who are the dangerous people who are searching for her? Where is Will Byers and who is the creature who took him?
 

This is all I’m willing to reveal and it’s up to you to find out more. You can see this fabulous series on Netflix. It is addictive and, you’ll find yourself watching one episode after another. I’m hooked on the show and you will be too.

Episode Fifty-six of Lilith's Escape

                                                                        

Rita and a few of the older boys had somehow managed to get on to the steel beam that ran across the train tracks. They threw what they had into the mob. It wasn’t enough to kill all the zombies, but it helped by giving the resistance fighters time to regroup.

                                                                                                                               

Lilith was still fighting the zombies on the other side of the chain fence and didn’t look like she needed any back up, so Edward and the others were left to take down the handful that hadn’t burned to a crisp from the Molotov cocktails.

When the last zombie was put down, Lilith joined the group. As she wiped her sword clean, she asked, “How many did we lose?”

“One,” Tzaddik replied and then pointed to a female soldier. “I put her out of her misery.”

                                                                 

Edward looked to where Tzaddik had pointed and saw that the soldier had been shot in the head. “Are you sure that she was infected?” There were no visible wounds.

Tzaddik glared at Edward and then walked over to the woman’s corpse and flipped her onto her stomach. The back of her tee-shirt in shreds, Edward saw that a chunk of flesh was missing from the midsection of her back.

                                                                     

“We need to patch-up up the entrance, make sure that the barricade holds in case of another attack.”

“Your enemy knows where you are,” Edward said to Lilith.

“Maybe not, Bradley replied.

                                                                        

Episode Fifty of Lilith's Escape

 

                                                             

“You’ll see in the documents that I handed you, that Captain Brandish is a widower, with no surviving family for you to worry about. He’s in charge of overseeing several of the prisons behind enemy lines and he has a reputation for his brutal treatment of prisoners,” Rita told Edward.

                                                                         

“So…he was a monster and deserved to die, but he also had friends. What’s the cover story on how I…Captain Brandish managed to escape?” Edward asked. Lilith this whole time had remained seated and silent, which was fine with Edward. He didn’t want to divert his attention away from the facts that needed to be memorized.

“That’s where Scouter comes in. When he delivered your meal to your cell, you attacked him with a weapon that you put together. You used him as a shield to escape.” Rita then pulled open a map of Philadelphia. “This was once a Naval Base but now it’s a prison for people who fight against the power of the Illuminati.”

                                                                         

Edward studied the map, but it felt odd to be looking at a base that was operational back in his time, but here and now, was a place of torture and death. “Rita, how am I to find your husband and Lazarus? This isn’t a small complex.”

“With this,” she replied and handed him a small ear piece.

                                                                            

“How does it work?” Edward asked as Rita positioned it in his ear. “Ouch, don’t push so hard,” Edward exclaimed, thinking that Rita was pushing it past his eardrum.

“It has to go in far enough not to be seen. It will pick up  signals from the implants on Roger and my husband as soon as you’re near to their location.”

                                                                         

“What’s your husband’s name?” Roger asked.

“His name is Tom and you better bring him back to me.”

                                                                         

“It was foolish to allow yourself to become pregnant in this time of evil,” Lilith said in a smug tone from the other side of the room.

                                                                                    

Edward had forgotten that she was there, she had been so quiet. “Haven’t you also made bad choices?” Edward asked. When Lilith didn’t reply, he returned his attention to the soldier in front of him. “I’ll do my best to bring them all home.”
                                                                       

Episode Forty-six of Lilith's Escape

                                                                    

Edward looked at the photo in the passport. It was the man that Lilith just recently sucked the life from. “So, how am I to get past their guards?” he asked Tzaddik.

“By using the dead man’s identity, you pretend that Scouter is your prisoner and make your way into the main headquarters in Philadelphia,”

“I look nothing like this man. I won’t fool anyone,” Edward countered.

Tzaddik pushed his chair back and stood up. “We can change your features, but we need to get you up to date on the man’s personal information.”

                                                                   

Edward closed the passports and threw them, the money and map on the cot. “If you’re talking plastic surgery, I won’t be ready by tomorrow.” He watched as Lilith gathered the tossed items from the bed and brought them to Tzaddik. Her nudity apparently embarrassed no one but Edward.

“Let me have a moment with him,” Lilith said to the others. It took Rita a few minutes to push her swollen body from the bed and then she and Tzaddik, left the room. “Come, sit on the chair,” Lilith instructed him.

                                                                   

“Why must I drink your blood?” he asked as he took his seat and she knelt before him.

She had ignored his question, but in her hand was a dagger, which had appeared from thin air. She jabbed the point of the dagger into her finger, and as her blood flowed, she repeated the process on Edward. “Drink,” she commanded and pushed her finger into his mouth. When he began to drink, she placed his finger into her mouth.

                                                                        

Edward drank deeply, wanting more and more of her life force, even though Lilith struggled to pull her finger from his mouth. He grabbed hold of her, pulled her into his lap and forcibly held her finger to his mouth. She used her free hand to push him away, but to no avail.

                                                                                                                     

                                                 The blood lust had taken hold of Edward.

Part Twenty-eight of Lilith's Escape

                                                               

Edward headed back to the castle and when he had reached the garage, he eased off the bike and walked towards the car.

“I didn’t think you would come back,” she said, as she climbed out of the car.

“The spell you’ve cast over me is too strong.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her with a longing that he had never felt before. She would be the death of him, of this he was certain.

                                                          

                                                                            

“The spell is of your own making, but I’m happy that you came back,” she whispered after he had released her. “I’m sworn to another, but I find myself having feelings for you, Edward. Feelings that I have had to ignore for so very long…”

                                                                          

His second kiss was more demanding and even as his tongue forced her mouth open, even though she felt fragile in his embrace, he had seen firsthand how easily she would be able to kill him. He didn’t care. When he finally released her, he glanced at the body in the car. “What do you plan to do with him?”

“Take him from the car and place him on the grass over there,” she instructed.

 “There’s hardly any weight to him,” Edward commented as he threw the body over his shoulder and followed Lilith to the area she had picked.

                                                                     

“Leave him here.”

“I’ll get a shovel,” he replied as he rubbed his hands onto his pants. The smell of rot rose from the body that now lay before him on the ground.

“No, there is no need for that,” she answered.

“Well, we can’t just leave him out in the open,” he countered.

“You'll need to be brave,” she replied before looking upwards into the night sky. The moon’s glow was temporarily blocked by a dark cloud,

                                                         

but as Edward followed her gaze, he realized the cloud was moving towards them. He began to instinctively back away, reaching out to grasp her wrist, but she called out a warning, “Don’t turn your back or he’ll attack you.”

                                                                                 

Edward watched as the dark cloud took shape, his mind not processing what he was seeing. “This is impossible,” he said as the creature landed and moved towards Lilith.

                                                                        

Funniest Movie I've ever seen

                                                                       

Okay so my sister Lucy and I were up early today because we had plans to ride and eat lunch on the Wine Train. While having our first cup of coffee before getting dressed, Lucy was flipping through the T.V. channels looking for something interesting.  She paused on the Encore station and a movie had just begun. It was called “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra”.

                                                                

This has to be one of the funniest movies ever about space aliens interacting with humans. Larry Blamire is the writer, director and also plays one of the main characters.

                                                                
Basically from what we could surmise, aliens land on earth to search for a piece of meteor rock containing atmospherium.

                                                                           

The aliens are funny as hell and so are the humans

                                                                           
 and don’t even ask me to explain the skeleton in the title, I would fail the task.

                                                            
This is a spoof on B movies, but it’s one of the best that I have seen in a long time.  So if you have nothing to do one night, pull up this movie and watch it.  Oh and did I mention that there is also a mutant monster in this film?

                                                                    
I've included a trailer for your enjoymet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe9Fs10IIk0

P.S. The film is even funnier after having a few glasses of wine on the Napa Wine Train.

Part Twenty-Two of Lilith's Escape

                                                                          

Edward checked her pulse, thankfully, it was strong and so was her breathing. Relieved that she was still alive, he carried Lilith to the bed and gently laid her down on top of the thick coverlet. He turned her over to check on her wound as was surprised to see that it was almost healed.

                                                                                                                     

“Well, I guess there are some advantages to being immortal,” he said to the unconscious woman. She needed to continue her healing, so Edward decided to let her rest while he inspected the room with the hope of finding out where he was.

                                                                         

After walking around and searching behind every drape, he was troubled by the fact that there were no doors to be found.

                                                           
The only way in or out of this massive room was the large balcony. Resigned to the possibility that he was trapped here until Lilith recovered, he stepped onto the open balcony.

                                                                          

They were high up in the mountains, but he could see the pinpoints of light popping up here and there as night moved in to cover the valley below, which meant there was a town nearby. Something about the location of the town made him suspect that they might be in the Bavarian Alps of Germany. He had visited the town of Oberammergau a few years ago as part of an assignment, and the geographical location of the town seemed to confirm this.

                                                           
 It was getting colder as the evening approached, but luckily there was wood for a fire in the fireplace, unfortunately there was nothing to light the fire.

                                                                            

He was hungry, cold and trapped in a tower, but there was a pleasant way to keep warm. He went back to the bed and pulled down the covers. After covering Lilith with the heavy blankets, he climbed in and wrapped his arms around her.

                                                                    

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do when you awake,” he whispered into her ear, but there was no response. “I don’t think we need to worry about anyone attacking us up here,” he added and then nuzzled his face against her neck. She smelled like cotton candy and he was hungry, but after a few moments, he was fast asleep.

He never heard or saw the winged creature that stood on the balcony and watched them as they both slept through the night.

                                                           

Part Eighteen of Lilith's Escape

                                                               

                                                     

“I don’t know when the apocalypse is to begin and I would like to keep it that way,” James replied after downing his drink. When Edward didn’t respond, James added, “No matter what comes along, I’m already a sitting duck.”

                                                

“Give yourself a little credit, James. You’re still dangerous enough to kill a few men even though you’re stuck in that chair,” Edward replied.

“You know me well and yes, I would go down fighting.”

                                             

The two of them sat there sipping their drinks, each lost in their own thoughts until Edward said, “Lawrence Levi is missing and it isn’t just me looking for him,” Edward then told his ex-partner the events of the past two days.

                                                

“Well the fact that these men tried to kill you might mean that Levi is still alive and you’re getting close to finding him,” James suggested.

“There was a lot of blood on his rug, so he might be badly injured. I need to find him before he dies and I need to contact our little lady,” Edward replied.

Edward stood up to leave and James followed him to the door. “Don’t make it so long between visits, I miss our talks,” James said as Edward pulled open the apartment door.

“I’ll try to visit more often after this case.”

James had moved his wheelchair back so that Edward could close the door, but before it was completely closed, Edward asked “When you needed to contact her, how did you do this?”

                                                       

“I had to place a red sheet of paper in the window. Very strange and very mysterious this little lady is, but if I wasn’t stuck in this chair…she’s beautiful enough to make you ache.” James needn’t expand on his meaning because Edward had already felt the effects that she had on a man’s libido.

                                                     

Edward took a taxi back to his apartment and after he took care of his cat, he searched for some paper. He found a small gift bag shoved in the back of his coat closet.

                                                        

The red gift bag held an unopened birthday gift from a co-worker at MI6. Taking out the leather gloves, he folded the bag and placed it in the window.

                                                           

                                                               

His head was pounding and his shoulder hurt like the dickens so he headed to bed with the hopes of a good night’s rest.  He was mistaken.