Part of the fun of watching a show starring a bunch of kids is seeing how much they change, year over year. We check in once a year to find out that, for example, holy shit, Bran Stark has magically morphed into all of the Beatles at once!
The same has been true of the Stranger Things kids. Flashbacks in this season to to last season show them almost startlingly smaller and more doe-eyed. The above clip from Netflix’s post-show series Beyond Stranger Things forces the gang to relive their audition tapes, presumably from the ancient year 2015, all while cackling with delight. You can see the early strands of charisma that they’d slowly develop on the show, though. Also: Holy shit, Millie Bobby Brown really, really went for it on her tape. That almost feels like a clip from a much darker show, which we will presumably get to enjoy once the series has run out of steam and Netflix grittily reboots it as Strangest Things.