History Series / StrangerThings

** An inversion of the ''Film/{{ET}}'' flying-bike shot, where rather than make the bikes fly, [[spoiler:Eleven just launches a van over them instead]].

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* OutdatedOutfit: Scenes set in the early 1980s often show some characters dressed in clothing that was more in fashion during the 1970s, from plaid skirts to longer skirts to collared blouses. In one episode, there is a girl with EightiesHair, yet wears a long skirt. This is partly due to those characters simply dressing in outdated fashions and partly because some communities, such as small towns in the Midwest, were slower to adopt new fashion trends.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: By Season 3, the machinations of the Upside Down and Hawkins Lab (and the Soviets) have taken the lives of 16-year-old Barb Holland, 18-year-old Billy, and at least one child (who was flayed) and all have left behind grieving parents (except maybe [[AbusiveParents Neil]]) who will never know the exact causes of the deaths.

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* AlmostDeadGuy: In Season 4, 'Unknown Hero Agent Man' is shot by soldiers at the Byers' California home, and he survives his wound long enough to pass his pen to Mike, which he assumes is to write the number for NINA with, crucial to finding Eleven's location. [[spoiler: After his death,]] it is revealed that this pen doesn't work, and actually contains a slip of paper with the number for NINA, which they then call.

* LoveTriangle: Season 2 has three:
** The Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy triangle from Season 1 continues with [[spoiler:Nancy and Jonathan getting together while Steve accepts it]].
** Joyce is dating Bob but still having tension with Hopper. [[spoiler:It ends with Bob dying to protect Joyce, Hopper, Mike, and Will. Joyce is mourning Bob as Hopper helps her grieve.]]
** When Max moves in, both Dustin and Lucas get crushes on her. [[spoiler:Max chooses Lucas, and Dustin accepts.]]

** Bob is constantly shown to be a wholesome and boring guy in comparison to our edgier, hipper adolescents. Immediately after Jonathon says that Music/KennyRogers sucks, Bob comes in to proclaim that he ''loves'' Kenny Rogers. Later, we see the Byers household watch ''Film/MrMom''. Bob is laughing uproariously while the rest of the family looks bored.

* DarkReprise: "When It's Cold I'd Like To Die" by Moby plays at the end of Season 1 as Joyce and Hopper find Will in the Upside Down seemingly already dead, but manage to resuscitate him. The song makes a return at the end of Season 4, once again over a scene of characters cradling their dying loved ones, but this time [[spoiler: the dying characters don't make it--Eddie bleeds out in Dustin's arms and Max dies from internal injuries as Lucas holds her. While El is able to telekinetically restart Max's heart, it doesn't truly bring Max back, and she ends the season comatose and possibly braindead.]]

** Bullying and casual homophobia, two things which are greatly looked down upon today, are generally treated as commonplace here. [[spoiler:Robin]] is revealed to be a closeted homosexual who is very conflicted about coming out to Steve. His understated reaction is borderline PoliticallyCorrectHistory, but by that time he's already seen such extreme stuff that this is nothing by comparison.

** Nancy and Jonathan buying gasoline, bear traps, nails, sledgehammers, and revolver ammunition doesn't get much more than a weird look from the hardware store clerk, and Nancy can even get away with snarking ([[CassandraTruth or not]]) about going "monster hunting" with it all. Post-UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}, he'd most likely jump to the conclusion that they were planning to [[AxesAtSchool terrorize their school]]. Nancy's comment would make it a one-way trip to juvi hall!

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:A literal PyrrhicVictory, but one no less. Vecna/Henry despite being weakened significantly by the fiery attack the heroes incite him to achieves his goal of taking four victims—though Max is NotQuiteDead—and connecting the portals to open the huge gateway in Hawkins so that he ''can'' attack once strong enough again to do so]].
* BatmanInMyBasement: Played straight as an arrow. Mike hides Eleven in a BlanketFort built in the basement of his house both because TheyWouldCutYouUp and because he thinks she can help them find Will. Impressively, he manages to hide this from his parents for nearly a week. [[spoiler:Ted and Karen only find out because when the Lab tracks Eleven to the Wheelers' house, Brenner just opts to tell them Eleven is dangerous to Mike after he realizes they don't know anything.]]

* BickeringCouplePeacefulCouple: Mike and Eleven have their issues, but they're far less volatile than Max and Lucas.

* ThirdLineSomeWaiting: The second season juggles the Joyce/Will lab plot, the Nancy/Jonathan conspiracy plot, and the Dustin/Lucas Dart plot, but takes some time every episode to showcase Eleven's [[spoiler:solo departure and adventure of self-discovery through her mother and Kali]]. All of these converge again by the finale.

* BadBoss: Brenner is spectacularly indifferent to the fates of HNL employees killed or injured by Eleven.

* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Jim Hopper's behavior in the early episodes of Season 3 might be the least justified instance in the history of the trope, for two reasons: first, Mike Wheeler is not at all the kind of boy who would put his own desires ahead of his girlfriend's wellbeing, and second, ''any'' boy who tries to pressure Jane Hopper into doing something outside her comfort zone and won't take no for an answer is liable to find himself [[MindOverMatter hurled across the room]]. After the compassion Hopper showed for both adolescents during their reunion scene in Season 2 (ensuring that whatever anger Mike felt over the revelation that El had heard him calling her and not answered was directed at himself, not at El), this borders on {{Flanderization}} of his character; the Hopper portrayed in "The Gate" should have understood how badly coercing Mike into lying to her would hurt El.

* BadBoss: Brenner is spectacularly indifferent to the fates of HNL employees killed or injured by Eleven.

** A subtle one: in the scene where Dustin compares the Upside Down to the "Vale of Shadows," the edge of a page of sheet music can be seen under the page he's reading. The Vale of Shadows pages were created for the show, not taken from any real D&D product, but the song comes from the first adventure module in the AD&D Dragonlance campaign, ''DL1: Dragons of Despair.'' That module was published in March 1984, several months after the events of Season 1.