Does something about that strike you as unusual?
It’s a fictional show.
It has fictional characters.
It has fictional dialog.
It has fictional settings.
I watched Stranger Things S01 a while back - superb series, and one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen - period. It obviously helps that I’m an '80’s kid, and have fond memories of that era. Here’s a review I wrote up:
I was amazed at how well The Duffer Bros. made this not only look like an '80’s show, but also made it have the vibe/tone of an '80’s series as well. If I hadn’t known better, I would honestly have thought I was watching a recently-unearthed & long-lost series from that period:
No elaborate editing cuts, etc. like you saw in the '90’s - on films/TV shows.
Amazing '80’s new wave soundtrack - just off the top of my head, I remember hearing: Modern English, Joy Division, Duran Duran, and many other great artists/songs from that era.
The synthesizer music - only in '80’s TV series/movies would you have heard a soundtrack like this (maybe early '90’s as well).
The effects were not obvious in your face CGI, but more subtle - i.e., similar to effects you would have seen in an '80’s series/movie back in the day.
Cool details like The Dark Crystal, Evil Dead, The Thing '82, and Jaws posters; the Star Wars toys (Millenium Falcon), the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons, etc.
Re: the story, very compelling as well. It seemed like a combination of The Goonies, E.T., Labyrinth, and it also brought to mind the '80’s Twilight Zone & Amazing Stories TV series.
The main “monster” (that wasn’t seen that much until the finale) was great, as was the “alternate universe” with the snow, etc.
Eleven was an amazing character! Very impressive acting here; the actress never said much, but conveyed a lot of emotion/feeling through her expressions & body language, etc.
It was also a nice touch to have Winona Ryder & Matthew Modine as stars in the series, since they were well known '80’s teen icons back in the day.
S02:
Stranger Things S02 was incredible. I found this slightly superior to S01, and I felt S01 was fantastic. Amazing creature effects, strong themes of friendship/self-sacrifice, etc. were great to see in this season.
I was amused by the little sister playing with the He-man toys; also very funny was the condescending/mocking tone she took with her older brother (Lucas) - LOL
One of the many “homages” I noticed in this season was in Episode 7; this was the one where Eleven hooked up (temporarily) with the group of criminal misfits/outcasts, headed by Kali, the other girl who had telepathic powers. These characters/sequence were obviously “inspired” by the 1984 punk rock/cult classic film, Suburbia (directed by Penelope Spheeris). There was one particular scene where the group was walking out of the warehouse in slight slow-mo that was pulled right out of the film. I also got a 1980’s “X-men” vibe from the episode; Kali & some of the other characters reminded me of the '80’s “punk rock” Storm and the Morlocks from the '80’s comic series.
My daughter is part way into season 2 and told my husband and I she thought we’d like it. The 3 of us sat down last night and watched the first two episodes of the first season. We really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to episode 3 tonight.
Last night we watched the 1988 Anime Akira, and there are some clear influences there. Numbered children with psychokinetic powers, evil scientific experimentation, children crossing into another universe. The writers have acknowledged the influence, but it was interesting to see.
Stranger Things is a rip-off of too many things to count, and yet something unique at the same time. Pretty cool.
Is anyone going to spend July 4 binge watching Stranger Things season 3 like I am? Really looking forward to it.
Yes! I’ll probably watch at least the first two or three episodes tomorrow, and the rest as quickly as I can. If they drop early enough after midnight tonight I may start then.
It’s a distinct possibility
Don’t know if I’ll be able to fit all of them in but I will be sitting in front of my computer with a plate of ribs, some beer and cole slaw tomorrow.
Very excited to start watching Season 3 tomorrow. I liked Season 2 well enough, but the first season is the standard of excellence.
Me too. Not sure when exactly after midnight they will drop, but I may be watching in the wee hours if it works out!
I agree!
We are going to watch the first few episodes of season 3 tonight, we’ve been looking forward to it since season 2 ended.
My wife and I watched the first two S3 episodes tonight and had a great time. This show is just fun.
I want to warn my fellow SDMBers about the season 1 DVD set. At the start, there are two previews of other Netflix shows. Netflix used the scurrilous trick of not allowing these to be skipped over or fast forwarded thru- you MUST watch them.
That’s bad enough and enough reason to never buy anything from netflix.
But worse is that one of them is the preview for Season2 of Stranger Things, which of course totally and completely ruins and spoils Season 1.
and of course my usual rant about too much smoking…
My wife and I did it all in one shot, with occasional meal/laundry breaks. Still kind of in the afterglow, but I thought that after an amiable but rather sluggish pair of opening episodes, it picked up nicely and did a much better job than season two of keeping a bunch of different plots in play and interesting. The finale I thought was much more satisfying than last season’s. The cast were all their usual terrific selves; I thought David Harbour was borderline playing a parody of Hopper at first, but he settled down as it went on.
One thing I was very glad to see:
El losing her powers at the end. I’m very glad they avoided another “El solves the story by holding out her arms and screaming” ending, plus I think it’s an interesting avenue to explore: who is this girl as a person, separated from the extraordinary things she can do?
As for what I didn’t like:
I get that this is ultimately a fun-time show that doesn’t want to seriously bring anyone down. But to kill Hopper off on screen, and then very heavily imply he survived, felt very cheap to me. Especially given his closing voiceover about bravely growing up and accepting change. The show will play at making that kind of change but doesn’t have the nerve to follow through. Disappointing.