Apparently, some successes can actually be planned. The two new streaming series “Stranger Things” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” have more than lived up to expectations. The ’80s teen horror series starring Millie Bobby Brown went straight to number one on Netflix’s hit list, as did the Disney sequel Star Wars starring Ewan McGregor.
Stranger Things is Netflix’s “biggest English-language series premiere,” eclipsing even Bridgerton, according to Reed Hastings’ streaming service. And “Obi-Wan Kenobi” is the “most watched global premiere of a Disney original series,” according to the competitor.
Netflix can once again claim a very special kind of track record. In the wake of “Stranger Things,” the 1985 Kate Bush song “Running Up That Hill” was catapulted to the top of the streaming charts.
The track topped Wednesday’s top tracks on Apple’s iTunes service — a remarkable phenomenon, even though the song dropped two spots the day after. So far, this has only happened in this form with the remix of the Italian partisan song “Bella Ciao”, which became the summer hit of 2018 thanks to the Spanish Netflix series “Money Heist”.
The song “Running Up The Hill” by British pop singer Kate Bush has a very special meaning in the new season of “Stranger Things” – especially for Elfie’s companion Max. Spoiler alert: In the fourth episode, Max gets into deadly troubles Danger. Vecnas, the incarnation of evil, wants to pull her to the other side. But Dustin remembers a recent tip on how to save her.
This is where Kate Bush’s music comes in. While her song, which won an MTV Video Music Award, isn’t about the eternal battle of good versus evil, the theme of the song is also of timeless relevance. It describes the apparently unsolvable dilemma in the relationships between women and men, as they unintentionally hurt each other in dramatic ways over and over again – “unconsciously I tear you apart / Ooh, it thunders in our hearts,” the song says.
Kate Bush’s solution lies in the refrain: “And if only I could / I would make a deal with God / and make him switch places / run up this road / run up this hill”. The “deal with God”, that is, putting yourself in the other person’s position, is probably something that very few people succeed in doing. But at least he saves Max’s life in “Stranger Things”.
Initially, Netflix has only released the first seven episodes of the fourth and penultimate season of “Stranger Things”. The two final episodes of the current season will follow on July 1st. So far, three episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are available, with three more being made available to Disney subscribers on a weekly basis on Wednesdays.
