When the Apocalypse Pauses for a Coming-Out Speech
How Netflix Lost the Plot in Stranger Things
Did Netflix really need the main character of their hit series Stranger Things to come out as gay in the final season?
This is not a theological question. Nor a moral one. It’s a narrative one.
How the sexual preference of a teenager who is leading the fight against a monster in the Upside Down world is relevant, I’m not sure.
Yet there we are.
And then there’s the question of timing.
Why does the main character choose to waste five minutes outing himself as a homosexual to friends, right as the world is about to end?
Wouldn't you do that at a questionable bar over a Cosmopolitan after Vecna has been vanquished?
“The world is about to be destroyed by an evil monster!”
“Sure, but before that. Quick personal update. Do ya’ll know I’m gay?
It’s an odd creative choice.
So what’s the plan then? Beat the demogorgons into submission with a rainbow flag? (That seems to be Hollywood’s plan with audiences!)
The scene is treated with all the solemnity of a lunar landing.
USA Today have called the episode - in which Will Byers tells his friends “I don’t like girls” - an “emotional climax”.
Will’s revelation - “I don’t like girls” - is delivered through trembling lips and tear-filled eyes. His friends respond in perfect ideological unison …
