by Joseph Carlson
Stranger Things uses nostalgia as a plot device. I know it sounds weird, but the show, which takes place in the eighties in the middle of America, uses scenes from movies we are all familiar with. E.T., Aliens, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, and some atmosphere from Stephen King, it's all there in one way or another. Down to the fact that the three young friends in the show play Dungeons and Dragons.
This may sound like a negative but really it's not. The movies I mentioned above were about an adventure, discovery and this very much play into the themes of Stranger Things. At it's heart the show tells a really good story with great characters and just enough information to make me really interested in them.
One of the overall things which I think really help the show is that the first season is only eight episode long. It has the time it needs to tell the story that it wants to and doesn't waste your time with unnecessary fluff. I know, sometimes I watch a show and it seems that some episodes seem long or out of place or totally unnecessary. This doesn't happen with Stranger Things. It takes the right of amount of time and then it's over. To talk too much about the plot would really ruin the surprise, but if you think of the movies like E.T. and Close Encounters you have a very good place to start a frame of reference.
The cast is great. Winona Ryder is probably the biggest headliner, but the rest Millie Brown as Eleven, David Harbour as Chief Hopper, and Mathew Modine as Dr. Martin Brenner are all great. They all play off each other well as most likely you will be yelling at your screen because you either love them or hate them so much.
The child actors are great too, and feel like real friends, which helps drive their motivations as one of them goes missing. They all have to come together to find their friend and although this is a short serial show on Netflix all the children feel genuine. It's a perfect complement to the rest of the cast.
The creators of the show, The Duffer Brothers, have said they have more in store for season 2 as long as Netflix picks it up. Let's hope so. I can't wait to go back.
Stranger Things season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.