#Recap Stranger Things

So I finally watched through the entire Netflix show STRANGER THINGS.

It’s probably my favorite recent show in ages!

By now you’ve probably heard about the show or even watched it. I kept hearing a lot of good stuff from it, through friends and whatnot. So I finally started watching the first episode this past weekend. And then another one.. and another one... and another..

Wow!

I was really impressed with what this show had going for it.

It’s like the exact thing I would have wanted to come up. A series inspired by all of my favorite stuff.

The show follows a bunch of young kids looking for their missing friend who disappeared in some pretty weird circumstances one night...

And.. I don’t even want to say anything more.

From then on we’re introduced to various group of characters. The local town sheriff trying to understand the truth. The mother desperately trying to communicate with her missing child she believes isn’t dead but simply “stuck” somewhere else. A group of teens at first completely separated from the main plot.. until one of them goes missing as well and they decide to fight back whatever is causing all this.

And best of all, it takes place in the 1980s and does an amazing job at both recreating the 80s aesthetic and culture, but also taking a lot of cues from cult classic 80s movies and series.

The cast was fantastic! We really get to know all these quirky folk. There’s some great acting from the kids particularly, thankfully, since the whole show reposes on them for the most part. I particularly enjoyed Winona Ryder, she’s always been a favorite of mine since forever and despite getting crazier through the course of the show you really feel her plight to save her son. The sheriff was another favorite of mine. I wasn’t that big a fan of the older teens, but they got better by the end of the season.

And the music, THE MUSIC!! I need this score on a CD! It was great at creating mood and atmosphere. Creepy when it had to be. Taking a lot of cues from 80s tunes (loved the use of The Clash by the way!), particularly John Carpenter’s classic movie soundtracks.

Even the whole introduction title was perfect!  This is easily one of my new favorite logos! Perfect in its simplicity while very reminiscent of classic horror movies (and most notable Stephen King’s books).

Speaking of, that’s probably where the show shined the most in my eyes.

Taking a lot of familiar notes and cues and making it into its own little weird world.

This has been said countless times, but the show did great capturing that era of horror and adventure films. It definitively starts off from that Goonies/Monster Squad/Explorers synopsis. Takes a lot of influence and shots directly from classics like Jaws, Carrie and E.T. A lot of its characters’ drama from Twin Peaks for sure.

The whole “other worldly” aspect of the show definitively inspired by the likes of Silent Hill, clearly. (I would say that would aspect including the “monster” were definitively taken from there.)

It also kind of make me think of a live action version of Gravity Falls in a weird way, complete with strange government experiments, a weird portal into another world and its fair share of conspiracy theories you started building up after watching another episode!

This was probably my best surprise of the year (right up next to Deadpool).

Definitively worth a rewatch.

And with only 8 episodes, the creators of the show, the Duffer Brothers, avoided the trap of slow-pacing, long-stretched out plot and filler episodes.

Now I cannot wait for a second season, which will probably only come out in a full year. And the hype is already starting up as it was said to be closer to a “sequel” than a proper “second season”.
I cannot wait to see where this will go, what we will explore and if more surprises are waiting for us in store..