IANOWT & Stranger Things
Since Shawn Levy has worked on both projects and I’ve been rewatching ianowt recently I’ve been finding a lot of parallels between the two shows. I think it’s interesting that Sydney has such strong parallels to both El and Will.
For starters, both her and El are young teen girls struggling with super powers and don’t really have a lot of guidance, and they both tend to lose control of their emotions quickly. The scene where Sydney makes Brads nose bleed reminds me a lot of when El made Max fall of her skateboard - both of them being fueled by their jealousy & discomfort. Sydney throwing the bowling balls towards Stanley sort of reminds me of El training her powers with Kali. Sydney making Brads head explode also reminds me of El hitting Angela with the roller skate - they were both being publicly humiliated for not being ‘normal’ in front of two of the people they were closest to and they let their emotions get the best of them.
Sydney and Will’s similarities are less about their personalities and actions and more about the situations that they’re in. They are both social outcasts who had to deal with trauma at a young age and they are also both closeted homosexuals who are in love with their best friends. They both have to watch their best friend get into a relationship with someone and they both feel like they’re being pushed to the side (Sydney less so though). Also the scene where Brad outs Sydney and Stanley tries to defend her reminds me of Mike defending Will after Troy called him a fairy during the school assembly in S1, which brings me to my next point.
Mike is a mix of Dina and Stanley based on the purposes he serves for El & Will’s characters. Mike is the Dina to Will’s Sydney, but he’s the Stanley to El’s Sydney. When Dina gets into her relationship with Brad, it only makes Sydney feel more outcasted and Sydney feels the need to ‘be normal’ like Dina (i.e. getting into a relationship with a guy, losing her virginity, going to prom, etc.). When Mike gets into his relationship with El, it also isolates Will in a similar way (Will dancing at the snow ball with a girl) however Will himself doesn’t really conform in the way that Sydney does, which leads to some pushback from Mike (the S3 argument). However it is Sydney’s confrontation of her feelings for Dina - and the belief that they’re unrequited - that lead Sydney into have her outburst in the woods. Will’s confrontation with Mike also leads to an extremely similar outburst in the woods as well (there are even some similar visual aspects - the fact that it’s set at night during a storm/rain).
Meanwhile, Stanley offers support for Sydney as she tries to figure out her powers and finds solace in her - because they’re both outcasts. He looks through comic books to figure out how to help her and he views her as this sort of super hero figure. Mike offers support while she’s hiding from the lab and finds solace in her as well because they’re both outcasts. He constantly compares her to comic book superheroes and sees her as one as well. I think it’s super interesting that both Syd & Stanley and Mike & El jump into a sort of romantic relationship so soon after becoming friends. I think part of it is that they want to fit in and act like society expects them to, but for the most part what they’re feeling is platonic.
I think it also says something that Mike and Will’s relationship mirrors the one that starts out platonic and ends as romantic while Mike & El’s relationship mirrors one that starts romantic and ends up platonic.