Stranger Things: Season 1 Review

(DISCLAIMER: THERE WILL BE SOME MINOR SPOILERS BUT NOTHING TOO MAJOR!)

In 1997, entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph created the DVD-by-mail rental service known as Netflix. After a full decade of operations, the company then established its own video streaming service in 2007, allowing customers to watch their favorite films and TV shows whenever they want. And while the video streaming service is still going strong today thanks to its vast library of distributed content, nowadays Netflix has become known for producing its own line of films and TV shows. Many of these ‘Netflix Originals’ have gone on to attract considerable critical acclaim and have also covered a wide array of genres that have been geared towards an equally wide range of audiences, from the prison-set dramedy Orange is the New Black to the numerous shows that have been produced in conjunction with Marvel Studios. And in the summer of 2016, Netflix debuted a show that has gone on to become one of their most popular projects to date, Stranger Things. Created by Matt and Ross Duffer, AKA The Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things is a supernatural sci-fi horror series that’s heavily influenced by 80’s pop culture, most notably the works of director Stephen Spielberg and author Stephen King. And thus, with the highly anticipated second season premiering this weekend, it’s time to take a look at this cultural phenomenon which does, indeed, live up to all the hype that has surrounded it.  

The year is 1983. On a quiet fall night in the town of Hawkins, Indiana, a young boy named Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) suddenly disappears under mysterious circumstances. The following day, a statewide search is initiated by Hawkins Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour), and despite the growing amount of evidence that suggests otherwise, Will’s mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) and his older brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) remain optimistic about the chances of him being found. During this difficult time, Will’s three best friends, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) also get involved in the search as well. And as the lot of them soon find out, Will is somehow trapped in an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down where he is being pursued by a vicious monster, which obviously puts more pressure on his friends and family to rescue him before it’s too late. While all this is going on, a mysterious young girl who calls herself Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) escapes from a nearby government facility. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas end up befriending her and discover that not only does she possess special telekinetic abilities, but that she may also prove to be vital to the process of rescuing Will from the Upside Down.

Now, admittedly, because I wasn’t around during the 80’s, I think it’s safe to say that I don’t have as strong of a connection to the various facets of pop culture that are referenced in this show compared to others. And yet, even with that said, you don’t have to be an 80’s kid to fully appreciate this series for all the great things that it does. Because while it’s obviously influenced by the likes of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, with a King-like supernatural premise and the kid-oriented narrative that’s often seen in Spielberg films, Stranger Things is ultimately bolstered by a highly engaging story that’s fully steeped in emotional poignancy. Oh sure, this show’s got mysterious alternate dimensions, badass telekinetic children, and terrifying demonic creatures to satisfy the science-fiction and horror crowds, but at the end of the day, this show is mainly about a young boy who goes missing as his friends and family do whatever they can to find him. This ultimately ties into one of the main things that made several of the films and stories that this series is influenced by so memorable; they inserted fantastical elements into a grounded human story, allowing us to connect to the characters even when they get into crazy scenarios. And thanks to a solid visual aesthetic and a deeply-layered plot, the Duffer Brothers manage to give us a story that feels incredibly fresh even when considering everything that’s come before it.

Sure enough, one of the best elements of this show is that you do end up being as fully invested in its wide array of well-layered main characters as much as you do with the main plot, and this applies to each of the show’s 3 age-based tiers of protagonists. Starting off with Stranger Things’ excellent batch of young protagonists, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin are quite the endearing trio and they have terrific camaraderie with each other as they band together to find their friend Will. Of the three, Mike is arguably focused on the most due to the strong bond that he develops with Eleven that even ends up spawning a sweet little bit of ‘young love’. But that doesn’t mean that Lucas and Dustin don’t get as much quality material to work with, as Lucas gets a nice character arc revolving around his initial distrust of Eleven, which ends up causing a rift in his friendship with Mike, while Dustin serves as the lovable ‘middle man’ of the group. Plus, he also gets some of the best lines of dialogue (“I'm just going to get some chocolate pudding! I'm telling you, lunch lady Phyllis hoards that s***!”). Speaking of Eleven, Millie Bobby Brown is easily the biggest standout of the entire show as the badass but tragically sympathetic telekinetic child who loves to eat Eggo waffles. Brown conveys so much despite only having around 42 lines of dialogue, which are mostly made up of one-word exclamations like ‘mouth-breather’.

Moving over to the main teenaged characters of the story, there’s Jonathan, who gets just as involved as his mother does when it comes to searching for his younger brother, and Mike’s older sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer), who ends up becoming tied to the whole ordeal when her best friend Barb (Shannon Purser; and yes, as everyone else on the internet has said, Barb is a memorable supporting character despite only appearing in about three episodes) disappears as well. The two of them eventually team up to deal with the situation, and despite that one creeper scene early on in the season when Jonathan takes pictures of Nancy and her friends while at a party (don’t worry, he improves after that…), they do share a nice chemistry that could potentially blossom into something else in future seasons. Finally, there are the two main adults of the series, Joyce Byers and Chief Jim Hopper. Admittedly, some of Joyce’s early ravings come off as being perhaps a bit too hysterical, but that does go away as the season goes on (e.g. the powerful scene in Episode 4, ‘The Body’, where she insists that Will is still alive even after a body is found). And if anything, Winona Ryder absolutely owns the role of a mother who’s fully devoted to finding her son no matter what. As for Hopper, David Harbour is great as well as the alcoholic police chief who, as we come to learn, suffered an immensely devastating personal tragedy a few years prior. Said tragedy is shown in the final episode of the season, ‘The Upside Down’, where it’s intercut perfectly with another highly emotional moment. In fact, there were a lot of great emotional moments in that episode, hence why it ended up being my favorite episode of the season.

Well, there’s not much else that I need to say about this series other than the fact that if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly encourage you to give it a watch. Like I said before, you don’t have to be an 80’s kid to fully appreciate everything that’s great about this show. With that said, though, if you are an 80’s kid, then this show delivers an excellent dose of 80’s nostalgia thanks in large part to the various bits of pop culture that it’s heavily influenced by. But at the same time, this show also delivers thanks to its strong and emotional story that’s mainly based around a down-to-earth plot of a young boy’s disappearance and the desperate search efforts made by his friends and family to find him. And this story is further elevated by a terrific ensemble cast portraying an excellent collection of likable characters that are just as well-developed as the plot. In short, it’s easy to see why this show has been such a hit amongst critics and audiences during a time where a nostalgic passion for classic films and TV shows is at an all-time high, and I look forward to seeing what happens next in the town of Hawkins, Indiana in Season 2.

Season 1 Rating: 5/5!

And that’s my review of Season 1 of Stranger Things. Thanks for following along and you can look forward to a review of Season 2 sometime in the next few weeks.