'I’m just going to believe that was the name of half the girls in the background in every season,” the poster told Newsweek.
A Generation X woman and avid fan of Stranger Things has pointed out the one thing the hit Netflix series gets wrong about growing up in 1980s America. The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is upon us, with the first batch of four episodes arriving on Netflix back on Wednesday, November 27.
Since then, the show has dominated discussion on social media. Much of that is down to the sheer number of people tuning in. Figures published by Netflix show those first four episodes generated 59.6 million views over the first five days following their arrival. That is more than double the 22 million views the first batch of episodes from season four generated. While the main focus of debate has been around how the show will end or who might make an unexpected return, there have been some amusing and incisive takes among fans on social media. One such example came courtesy of Jennifer Hill, from Vancouver, Canada, who took to Threads, posting under the handle @jenhill, to point out the “only thing Stranger Things got wrong” about its depiction of life in 1980s America. A strategic communicator who works for the City of Vancouver and has over two decades of experience in complex issues around communication, community and culture, Hill has been a big fan of Stranger Things from the start. “I’ve loved the series since the first episode,” Hill told Newsweek. “It immediately felt like a love letter to Gen X. I was born in 1974, and everything about it felt so familiar. Each episode feels a bit like flipping through an old family photo album.” Hill’s formative years came in the 1980s and, watching the show, she felt all the old memories from that time come flooding back. “The 1980s was a wild time”; she said, “being out on our bikes all day and night, untethered to our homes or parents; problem-solving our issues on our own; wearing whatever hand-me-downs our parents found at Zellers or Sears. The colors and fabrics feel perfect. The kids’ early-season outfits were right out of my brother’s closet.” Yet, while Hill said she thinks Stranger Things creators, the Duffer Brothers, have done a “fantastic” job of capturing the nostalgia of the time in a way that appeals to young and old audiences alike, some elements of that period have gone a little overlooked. “Of course, the 80s had so much cultural zeitgeist that no single show could capture all of it; kids going missing and their faces on milk cartons; the Cold War; the constant low-grade fear of nuclear attack; the bizarre supermarket tabloids. That anxiety was baked into the decade,” Hill said. “If anything, because the Duffers grew up in that era as boys, and a little later in the 80s and into the 90s, the show leans into that experience. Some of the nuances of being a girl in the 80s get missed.” That was what led Hill to take to Threads with a hot take that drew widespread agreement and knowing laughs. “The ONLY thing that Stranger Things got wrong was there needed to be at least 2 characters named Jennifer,” Hill wrote. “It’s not authentically the 1980s if there’s not a Jenn K, Jennifer M, Jenny B, Jen G, and Jennifer L all in the same Biology class.” A clip of young actors from the show “Stranger Things” is seen. Hill’s post earned close to 4,000 likes and drew more than 400 comments. “My class had 274 graduates in 1989. We had 7 Jennifers, 7 Amys, 5 Kims, 5 Michelles, and 3 Lisas. Also 12 Roberts, 9 Michaels, 5 Jeffs, 4 Tims, 3 Jasons, and 3 Todds. Surprisingly fewer Heathers and Kevins than expected,” one user commented. “My wife had several classes with several Jennifers. Her name is also Jennifer. She was born in ’74,” another wrote, with a third commenting: “Literally—my sister Jennifer had a group of friends in high school. It was Jennifer, Jenny, Jenn, Jen and Amy. I’m just going to believe that was the name of half the girls in the background in every season.” Hill stands by her assertion about the lack of Jennifers on the show. “There should be Jennifers everywhere,” she said. “In my small-town school, there were about a dozen of us. We all had qualifiers: Jenny O, Jenny L, Jennifer M, Jen H. It was endless. At the mall, the key chains and pencils with names on them were always sold out for Jennifer. Never once did I get one.” The data does back her assertion up. According to Social Security Number statistics, the most-reliable metric for names, Jennifer was the second-most-popular girl’s name throughout the entirety of the 1980s; 440,916 women were given that name across the decade. It was a close second to Jessica and some way ahead of Amanda in third. Hill said the post came to her as a “late-night epiphany” while watching the new episodes. “Threads has become a place wh...
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