Season 3 of Stranger Things has been out and if you haven’t watched it yet, it’s time you put your D&D campaign aside and plop yourself down in front of your tele. With the season having broken Netflix records over the July 4th weekend, we assure you that it’s now impossible to hold off on spoilers.

Created by The Duffer Brothers (Ross and Matt Duffer), the show is a fun love letter to classic horror flicks of the 80s, with references and impeccable thought strewn all over the place. An essential binge-watch, even if you don’t know Stephen King’s universe by heart or can’t remember scenes from Aliens.

Here’s a list of fun, strange things about Stranger Things that will give you something fun to talk about with friends, even if you haven’t watched season 3.

Don’t worry, there are NO season 3 SPOILERS here!

1. Doing it Before 'Ready Player One'

The vision that The Duffer Brothers had for Stranger Things was defined by the question, “What if Spielberg made a Stephen King movie?” Everything is falling into place now.

2. Stranger Fiction, Stranger Truth

There are people who firmly believe in the reality of Stranger Things. Some of what Eleven is put through in the laboratory corresponds with the said occurrences of The Montauk Project, which has been conspired to be the United States government preparing for psychological warfare by experimenting with reality-bending elements on Children. Stranger Things was initially named ‘Montauk’.

3. Spotify the Difference

When you listen to Stranger Things’ theme song on Spotify, the time bar turns into a flashlight pointing at the album cover page, which would have turned into the Upside Down.

4. Ryding Gently Down Streaming

Winona Ryder apparently hadn’t the slightest clue what streaming was and had never starred in a series meant for streaming before The Duffer Brothers asked her to play Joyce in the series.

5. Dungeons & Demogorgons

The Demogorgon that we’re introduced to in season one is actually deemed the most powerful baddie in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons’ first edition. Alignment: Chaotic evil.

6.  Salty, much?

In the sensory deprivation water scene, Millie Brown (Eleven) is actually floating, with the support of twelve hundred pounds of epsom salt.

7. What a Scream!

The Wheelers’ home is also the same house that was used in Scream: The TV Series. It was Maggie Duval’s childhood home.

8. Protecting a World that Hates and Fears Her!

In the first episode, Will wins a comic from Dustin and asks for X-Men #134. In this comic, Jean Grey the psychic unleashes the Dark Phoenix for the first time! Extreme internal easter egg much?

(Art by Lance Schibi)

9. The Love for the Craft

The Call of Cthulhu author H.P. Lovecraft is honored with the acronym for Hawkins Power and Light, HPL. It was a cover name for the governmental agency that kept the gateway to another dimension a secret.

10. An Unaffordable Risk

Joyce’s 1976 Ford Pinto is a rare sight, even in the show’s time setting. In 1978, a Ford Pinto was caught in a fiery accident that killed three teenage girls. In a lawsuit that followed, Ford won.

Now that you're armed with this trivia, you're prepared to face the true monster we all fear: having to wait another year before season 4!

Header image source.