TV Review - Netflix's Stranger Things, Season 1

The world is turning upside down.

Stranger Things is a 2016-present television series created by Matt and Ross Duffer, produced by 21 Laps Entertainment and Monkey Massacre Productions, and distributed by Netflix. The first season stars Millie Bobby Brown and Winona Ryder. It was nominated for eighteen Primetime Emmys and won two.

"Friends don't lie." - Eleven

Plot

When young Will Byers goes missing, his three friends, his mother, and the police chief of the small town of Hawkins search for him. Along the way, they discover sinister government secrets, terrifying monsters, and a mysterious girl who may know where Will is.

The Sweet

The first season of Stranger Things is one of the great seasons of TV ever made.

The thing that got everyone hooked immediately is this delicate, beautiful balance that the Duffer Brothers were able to strike in the tone. Stranger Things is meant to be a blend of classic Steve Spielberg / Amblin films of the 80s such as E.T. and The Goonies with the supernatural horror of Stephen King. Although it seems like E.T. and It couldn't be farther apart from each other in terms of genre and tone, there is actually something really similar with the way that Spielberg and King blend the fantastical and the human. In King's case, he uses horror, and in Spielberg's case, he uses child-like wonder and sci-fi and fantasy. Either way, Stranger Things is able to capture the best aspects of those two legendary Steves, and it makes for one of the best tones of a TV show I've ever watched. Spielberg is my favorite director and King is my favorite author, so it makes sense that I would love something that is the perfect marriage of those two.

The show also manages to really utilize the 80s as both an interesting setting for the show and a way to subvert expectations. Of course, season one has overt homages to E.T. and Alien and Stand by Me, which is all tons of fun. 80s music and technology is sprinkled all throughout it. But the Duffer Brothers made the genius move of setting up a lot of our characters to follow the tropes and cliches of the 80s and then subverting those tropes. The best examples are with Jim Hopper and Steve Harrington. Hopper is initially introduced as the checked-out police officer who is hooked on alcohol and drugs and doesn't pay attention to the obvious danger that is presented to him. However, as we move throughout the season, we start to understand that he is a really good cop who has just been beat down by life and sees finding Will as an opportunity for redemption. Likewise, Steve is set up as the douchey jock boyfriend who we all hate. It even goes so far as to have him act like a jerk towards Nancy and Jonathan...but then our expectations of him are subverted when he shows his true, good-hearted nature and joins them to fight against the Demogorgon. This is what makes Stranger Things special. It's just truly masterful writing to use the audience's knowledge of these tropes and turn them on their head to make powerful, compelling characters.

And you cannot talk about the first season of Stranger Things without talking about our central group. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and, to start off, Will, are lovable from that first Dungeons & Dragons game. Writers often struggle when writing kids, because most writers are not kids and have no idea of how kids actually talk. The Duffer Brothers do, however, and the way they write these kids is just so endearing and funny. I love their dynamic with the four of them and then I love the way their dynamic changes when Eleven joins them. They are interacting with a girl for the first real time, and they are clearly unsure how to handle it. It's just so much fun watching them be kids and act like middle schoolers, especially when that dynamic disappears a little bit in later seasons.

This first season also really hits some heavy emotional beats. It is impressive how many moments make me cry here. Inherently, the story of the first season is stressful and sad, so it may hit even harder, but it can be so emotional and so heart-breaking at so many points throughout. Once you move into the finale, it is just emotional punch after emotional punch. The amount of tear-jerking moments just displays how well the Duffers get you invested in these characters and this story. You barely spend any time with Will himself, but you need him to be found because you see how much those around him care about him and want to find him.

One of the best things about Stranger Things has always been the acting, and we get three of the strongest performances in this season. I've seen some criticisms of Winona Ryder in season one, and I just do not understand that. I think her manic, crazy Joyce performance in this first season feels very real and very sad. She is able to really convey desperation and grief in a way that is authentic and upsetting. I absolutely adore her this season. David Harbour is one of our other standouts this season. The more you learn about Hopper, the more devastating his performance becomes. In the beginning, you can see that he is just tired of life and doesn't really care about anything or anyone, but as he gets further into this investigation, you see the life start to come back in him, even if it's sad. He feels like the opposite of Winona Ryder: all of his acting and trauma is hidden in subtle looks and actions and line deliveries. Hopper is one of my favorite TV characters, and a major reason that is David Harbour's incredible portrayal.

But, of course, the main standout of this season is none other than Eleven herself: Millie Bobby Brown. It is hard to get a good 12-year-old actor. There are actors who grew up to be good actors who weren't great when they were 12. Millie Bobby Brown's performance in season one of Stranger Things is some of the best child acting you will ever see. Eleven has, like, twenty lines throughout the course of the season, and they are usually one or two words. Millie is able to convey so much of her character through body language and facial expressions, and it is stunning. She can be sympathetic, she can be endearing, she can be funny without meaning to be, and she can be super menacing. All of those different layers come from this beautiful, jaw-dropping performance that she gives. I am always in awe of her whenever I watch this season. The fact that Shannon Purser, who plays frickin' Barb, was nominated for an Emmy and Millie Bobby Brown was not is complete insanity to me.

I also love how self-contained this season is. Many people have said that Stranger Things should've ended after the first season, and, while I harshly disagree with that, I think I can understand why they say that. Tonally and story-wise, season one feels isolated from the rest of the show. It is this small story about a boy who goes missing and a government conspiracy at the center of it. The Duffers really choose to focus on that and the emotions and mystery that would come along with it. They don't bother with setting up future seasons or this larger world of the Upside Down, because they know that the mystery of Will Byers's disappearance is what audiences want to see, not this exposition dump of world-building that they could've gone with. As much as I love the entire show, I don't think the other seasons have matched the first season, simply because this self-contained mystery is so compelling and so emotional.

Finally, I absolutely love the production design of the entire show. The Duffers really nail the 80s setting with the technology and the suburbs and the bikes...everything just feels very authentic. The characters all have very 80s costumes and hairstyles, and I just think that is one of the extra steps that this show takes to make it feel like its really set in a time and place. I also love the production design of the Upside Down and the supernatural set pieces that we get. It's so Alien-esc with its gooeyness and slime-like quality, and I absolutely love it. Although Stranger Things definitely uses CGI, you can tell that there are practical sets and practical props here, and that just elevates the entire show to another level.

The Sour

The only slight negative I have on this season is Barb. I know, I know. I do feel like the "Justice for Barb" thing is real, because her character feels like such an after-thought. They use her as a plot device to get Nancy involved in the story, but it's strange when Will goes missing and the entire season is focused on that...but Barb also goes missing and no one seems to really care. It is the only thing that I do not love about this season. I wish the Duffers would've either found a different way to get Nancy involved in the action or found a better, more compelling arc for Barb's disappearance and death.

But that's it. As I said earlier, this is one of the great seasons of TV ever.

Final Thoughts and Score

The first season of Stranger Things is what got everyone hooked on the show, and it's easy to understand why. This season has so much heart, horror, emotion, and a perfect dash of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, making it just absolutely incredible.

I am going Sweet here. Age range is 13+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Stranger Things"

Fun Factor: 10/10

Acting: 10/10

Story: 9.5/10

Characters: 10/10

Quality: 10/10

Created by Matt and Ross Duffer

Rated TV-14 for moderate violence and action, frightening themes and images, language, thematic elements

Premiered on July 15, 2016

Episode runtime: 50 minutes

Millie Bobby Brown as Jane Ives / Eleven

Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers

David Harbour as Jim Hopper

Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler

Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair

Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson

Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler

Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers

Joe Keery as Steve Harrington

Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler

Matthew Modine as Dr. Martin Brenner

Noah Schnapp as Will Byers

Joe Chrest as Ted Wheeler

Shannon Purser as Barbara Holland

Ross Partridge as Lonnie Byers

Rob Morgan as Officer Calvin Powell

John Paul Reynolds as Officer Phil Callahan

Randy Havens as Scott Clarke

Catherine Dyer as Connie Frazier

Aimee Mullins as Terry Ives

Amy Seimetz as Becky Ives

Peyton Wich as Troy

Chris Sullivan as Benny Hammond

Chester Rushing as Tommy H.

Chelsea Talmadge as Carol

Elle Graham as Sara Hopper