STRANGER THINGS: Totally 80s, Totally Trippy, Totally Fun
There’s so many television shows out there worth binge watching that you have to forgive me for not getting to Stranger Things until this spring. It was on my Netflix list for a while now and once I started watching I got totally hooked.
Stranger Things is set in the middle American middle class town of Hawkins, Indiana in November of 1983. It starts at a secret facility run by the U.S. Department of Energy where something has recently gone wrong – very wrong.
A frightened scientist is running for his life down the hallways as the lights flicker eerily overhead. He reaches the elevator and what he believes to be safety, but that’s not the case. There’s a monster waiting for him.
Cut to the middle class Wheeler house where four junior high aged boys – Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair, and Dustin Henderson are immersed in a game of Dungeons and Dragons in the basement.
But leave it to Mike’s mom to break up the game and send the other three boys home since it’s Sunday and a school night. Unfortunately, the monster from the Department of Energy lab wasn’t contained. It’s on the loose in the woods and it’s Will Byers’ great misfortune to encounter it.
Will disappears, sending his mother and brother on a frantic search for him, Hopper the Hawkins’ police chief on a reluctant one, and Will’s friends convinced that they are the ones that will be able to find Will and rescue him from whatever trouble he’s fallen into.
It’s the perfect set up of plenty of the movies I grew up on and loved in the 80s. E.T. and The Goonies come to mind plenty. That’s not surprising as the Duffer Brothers who created the show were influenced by Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Stephen King.
There’s a great sense of mystery, supernatural chills, and downright frights in Stranger Things. Specifically the show isn’t afraid to show the monster which was a nice change of pace. By doing so it was an homage to the 80s while also keeping up with the current sensibilities of their audience.
Part of the fun of Stranger Things is having the superior position of the audience. You realize that the supernatural elements that seem crazy to the characters, really are happening even if they don’t.
There’s also relief and a joy when certain characters come to finally believe that something supernatural is at play, especially when they are standing far to close to the mysterious danger.
The show is effective and extremely well told. At the end of Episode 3 I found myself crying for the fate of one of the characters. Yes they’d hooked me in that fast. Either that or I’m too sensitive. I’m going to go with drawn into the story and hooked.
During a later episode I caught myself getting up to lock my front door. This was done subconsciously. I realized as I was turning the lock that as encounters with the monster had intensified.
I laughed at how my internal self-protective mechanisms prodded me to do so. Even with that self-realization, it didn’t stop me from locking the door.
That’s a sign of some pretty awesome story telling right there.
If you haven’t watched Stranger Things, I obviously recommend that you do so. It’s only 8 episodes and you catch watch it fast. Each chapter unfolds as a chapter of a book.
Additionally, were only one season of this show released, the story would be complete as it stands. Fortunately a second season of is being released Halloween of this year.
‘ll definitely be ready to binge Stranger Things come this fall. Hopefully you will be too.
