STRANGER THINGS: Season 1: The Flea and the Acrobat

Name: STRANGER THINGS: Season 1: The Flea and the Acrobat
Item: STRANGER THINGS: Season 1: The Flea and the Acrobat
Author: Steph Manthe

Season 1 Episode 5

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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Content:

CONTENT: (BB, C, O, LL, V, A, D, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview as all the main protagonists battle the evil that continues to attack them, plus some redemptive metaphors for Heaven and Hell and some occult elements where girl possesses telekinetic powers that allow her to control things and people, but they’re never used in an evil or sadistic manner;

Foul Language:

Six obscenities and seven profanities (including a couple strong profanities using Jesus), plus a few vulgarities;

Violence:

Light violence includes character knocks out a security guard to access information, man in stabbed in the neck with a sedation needle, and two characters find a deer that has been hit or attacked in the woods and is injured and bleeding;

Sex:

No sexual content;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

Two characters have a drink to calm their nerves;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

A few main characters smoke cigarettes; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

A few images could be disturbing to younger viewers.

Episodes: Season Overview

Number	Date	Title	Content
1.1	7/15/2016	The Vanishing of Will Byers	-2
1.2	7/15/2016	The Weirdo on Maple Street	-2
1.3	7/15/2016	Holly, Jolly	-2
1.4	7/15/2016	The Body	-1
1.5	7/15/2016	The Flea and the Acrobat	-2
1.6	7/15/2016	The Monster	-2
1.7	7/15/2016	The Bathtub	-1
1.8	7/15/2016	The Upside Down	-2

More Detail:

In this episode, the boys they need to transport to another dimension to find their friend, Will. They call the dimension the “upside down” and search for a portal to take them there. Meanwhile, Nancy and Will’s brother, Jonathan, are on their own search for the creature that was in the photograph with Barb. The main police officer who’s been investigating Will’s disappearance wakes up mysteriously in his house to find that the lighting in his living room has been re-wired. Figuring this out, he turns to Joyce to tell her she was right all along about her suspicions. During the search for the strange creature, Nancy and Jonathan discover a tree that could lead to another world.

“The Flea and the Acrobat” moves the story of STRANGER THINGS forward with some interesting developments. It’s also one of the tenser episodes, as the characters get closer to finding what creature capture Will. The episodes also become more moral, as characters start acting more selfless and heroic. In this episode, we start seeing some of the allegorical redemptive allusions to Heaven and Hell, or at the very least, a spiritual dimension as the characters learn about “The Upside Down”. It has less objectionable content, but there are a few more obscenities and profanities than in the previous episode. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.

Watch STRANGER THINGS: Season 1: The Flea and the Acrobat →

Quality:

- Content: -2