Video one
Features
1) Irony: opposite things happen that you expect to happen
2) Parody or homage: Paying respects to a genre, style, person or product (homage), making fun of a genre, style, person or product (parody).
3) Bricolage: sampling and using older media products in your work.
4) Intertextual reference: When there is a subtle or very direct reference to another media product.
5) Fragmented narrative: The narrative is not beginning, middle to end. It is fragmented and cross cuts between scenes.
6) Self reflexivity: The people or characters are aware they're in a media product (talking to the audience).
7) Common themes: what if, the future, human existence.
8) Loss of reality: Less realism, more artificial. Lack of verisimilitude (lack of realism).
Video two
Baudrillard is about reality vs artificial.
He feels we used to make realistic media but now we have left that behind and the media products being made today are more artificial.
Simulacra = artificial copies.
Simulacrum is singular, simulacra is plural
He feels we are surrounded but simulacra of media products.
Simulacra becomes so hard to tell apart = hyperreality.
A simulacrum is a copy of something with very little link to reality.
Audiences often prefer simulacra to reality.
Linking the theory to Stranger Things.
To start with, Stranger Things is clearly a simulacrum. It is full of unrealistic, artificial creatures and characters. The most realistic thing is Dustin, Will, Mike and Lucas' friendship. In that time, kids of their age would want to go out and meet eachother and go on a bike ride. However, this hint of realism is over towered by the unrealistic powers of Eleven, the creature known as the demogorgon, the upside down world, etc.
In relations to the features of a post modern media product, there isn't much irony or self reflexivity as we all expect Will to be found in season one which he is and the characters themselves are not aware they are part of a media product. However, this piece does also include a few features such as homage, loss of reality and bricolage. You can clearly see they are respecting the style of the 1980s throughout episode one as everyone is dressed like they would in them times, and the style of Mike's house (especially his TV) pays homage to this. This leads into the bricolage as they use many older media products in this work to further create that 1980s effect. However, because of all this realism, with the creatures and powers, becomes even more loss of realism when they're introduced. Moving away from the typical 80s media products and into things that are completely unrealistic means that it is harder for people to relate, however, people will also find this very intriguing.
