Sci-fi/horror retro throwback series Stranger Things is peppered with nostalgic references to the 1980s, but there are a few moments where the writers clearly could have done more research. Here are 6 times on Stranger Things where it was clear the producers thought that liquids didn’t exist in the ‘80s.
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When Eddie asked The Hellfire Club if anyone wanted a glass of powder to drink at their Dungeons and Dragons game.
Role playing games were huge with nerdy teenagers in the ‘80s, so it makes perfect sense that the Duffer brothers made the Stranger Things kids’ D&D group a big part of the story. While most of the details of these scenes are spot-on, anyone who was actually around in the ‘80s would know that pen-and-paper gamers drank soft drinks like Mountain Dew and Jolt, not tall glasses of flour and baking powder as shown on Stranger Things. Um, sorry guys, but liquids were totally around in the ‘80s. What on earth convinced you they weren’t?
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When Angela was bullying Eleven at the roller rink and said, “I’d spit on you if saliva existed.”
Anyone who grew up in the ‘80s can remember how prevalent bullying was back then, and the producers did a great job of capturing the helplessness that comes with being tormented by your peers in this scene. What they didn’t do a great job of is fact checking the existence of liquids, which have been around for billions of years, and not only since the ‘90s as the producers apparently believe. This seen makes it clear that it’s Stranger Things canon that saliva didn’t exist in 80’s, which is, quite frankly, completely inaccurate.
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When Yuri the peanut butter smuggler asked Murray if peanut butter is considered a liquid and Murray replied, “No. And what’s a liquid?”
Technically, peanut butter is oil and solids, not a liquid, but it’s clear that the show’s writers included this scene in order to plainly state this fact as if they were worried viewers might call out the show for including a liquid and they wanted to get out ahead of any claims of historical inaccuracy. Of course, no one would have actually done that, since liquids did, in fact, exist in the ‘80s, and no one is disputing that outside of apparently everyone involved in the production of Stranger Things.
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When Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie reached the Watergate in Lover’s Lake to enter the Upside Down by paddling a boat 500 yards over dry land.
Sure, Watergate has the word “water” right there in its name, and sure, Lover’s Lake is a lake, but the producers of Stranger Things still insisted on showing these four climb into a paddleboat and spend a grueling 13 hours paddling over dry land to reach the gate in the middle of the dry lakebed to enter the Upside Down. Why on earth did they do this?
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When Argyle built Eleven a makeshift sensory deprivation tank out of a pizza dough freezer filled with nothing.
Typically, sensory deprivation tanks are filled with salt water to allow their users to float, but when Eleven needed an emergency sensory deprivation tank to use to piggyback and save the world and Argyle simply removed the pizza dough from a freezer and said, “Here. If only there was some sort of slippery, wet type of matter that you could float in, but it hasn’t been invented yet,” it was obvious that the makers of the show believed he couldn’t fill it with water because liquids didn’t exist in 1980’s. It’s a pretty glaring anachronism in an otherwise great show.
