Monday, July 18, 2016

Stranger Things: If You're Not Watching This Show Right Now, You Need To


Netflix has done it again. Their consistent (albeit maybe a little bit too frequent) production of original television has achieved something remarkable again. With House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Bloodline, Narcos, Jessica Jones, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bojack Horseman, etc., Netflix is one of the few television outlets that consistently provides original, and great programming.  The best (and also maybe the worst) part about it is that all episodes are released at once so binge watching is the name of the game. Some shows are easier to binge than others, but Stranger Things is by far one of the easiest. I'm not sure how this show would've done or played on a different network, but as an 8-episode Netflix mini-series... this is one of the best options Netflix has ever put on its network.

If you haven't heard about the show yet, don't look anything up.  I'd heard bits and pieces about it.  All I really knew going into it is that Winona Ryder was the star and it was a mystery/horror type show.  And while that isn't entirely true, just going in with that bit of information is enough.  If you go into the show blind, I personally believe the experience will be that much more enriching and captivating. What the show essentially amounts to is an 80s orgy of all the best science fiction/action/adventure/horror from that era. Stranger Things is the love child of 80s Steven Spielberg movies (a lot like E.T.), The Goonies, Alien, The Thing, Stand By Me, Poltergeist, all surrounded by a very hypnotic John Carpenter soundtrack. It basically encompasses all that was good about the 80s.  If you're a fan of the art and entertainment of that decade-- this show is going to be crack to you.  If not, it's still something that has a little bit for everyone.  It'll hook you in immediately, and then, eight hours later, you'll wonder what the hell happened to your entire day/night.



Without revealing anything spoiler-y at all, the basic rundown of the show is as follows-- we begin with four nerdly little friends doing the nerdiest thing possible, especially in the 80s-- dungeons and dragons. When the ten hour game is finally called on a mom technicality, the middle schoolers all venture home. One of the friends, Will, stumbles upon a monster in the dark.  It's shadowed, it's mostly hidden, and it's scary as hell. After the monster chases Will into his house, Will disappears. The next morning, Will's mother Joyce (Ryder) goes into an all out panic trying to find her son.  She reaches out to local Sheriff Jim Hopper (David Harbour) to find her son.  Hopper is the perfect 80s Sheriff, he's tough, but sweet.  He's a drunk, but professional. He's a small town Sheriff with a past that haunts him.  It's brilliant. They set off to find Will.  Meanwhile, a young girl with a shaved head wearing a hospital gown is being chased by dark government forces who may or may not have something to do with the monster that took Will. Scientists (led by Matthew Modine) from the Hawkins National Laboratory are out to capture the young girl-- who may or may not have developed some supernatural powers of her own. She befriends the D & D boys and attempts to help them find their friend.

 

The show is engaging, suspenseful, fun, exciting, exhausting, and filled to the brim with 80s goodness. The creators, known in the credits as The Duffer Brothers, have truly shown that they are able to converge a smart 80s homage with a truly original story. I'm probably one of the biggest proponents of original material, especially in a day and age right now that lacks that originality (due to the fact that, in Hollywood, original works are a major financial risk).  But, it's shows like these that remind me in the first place why I want to be a writer. There is such a clever weaving of different ideas reimagined from the works that inspired it with something new and intriguing. The show plays out like an eight hour movie, and from what I've read from the creators, this was their intent.  This is also the reason you may want to wait until the weekend to start it because there really is no turning it off and waiting until tomorrow night. I finished it in less than 24 hours and I already want to start it over again (though not having a 9-5 job does make this a little bit easier). 


The writing is extremely clever. When dealing with sci-fi and children, there is the temptation to make everything a little bit goofier and a bit dumber, to appeal more toward children than adults. What the Duffer Brothers understand is that most of the movies in the 80s that dealt with sci-fi elements weren't really kids movies. Poltergeist may have been rated PG, but that movie still remains one of the most terrifying movies I've ever seen.  The Goonies, Stand By Me both featured kids on adventures, but dealt with some very mature themes. They weren't kids movies... they were movies with kids. Stranger Things doesn't hold anything back.  That's not to say that it's Game of Thrones violent, because it isn't.  But there is a decent amount of blood.  The kids aren't hindered in the way they speak because Netflix didn't want to get in the way of the censors-- they curse and talk about very adult subjects (like kids actually do) in their own dorky ways.  The kids are a perfect balance of smart, dorky, weak, strong, scared, and brave.  The other characters each have their own 80s tropes that, on the surface, appear predictable, yet organically grow beyond the stereotypes into something real, something believable, and something great.  Winona Ryder is perfectly cast in the show (as is everyone else) because she can play haggard, crazy-eyed, over the top, hamming it up for the camera, mom in a crisis, doing anything to find her son than anyone else from the 80s. Her acting, again on the surface, may seem like overacting and fake, but it's that delicate weaving, once again, of believablity and exaggerated 80s acting.


Everything else about the show is perfect. The little ways that Will is able to reach out to people and the clever ways they're able to talk back.  The little girl who has escaped from the Lab is fantastic and is as much the heart and soul of the show as E.T. is in E.T. The side stories with one of the boy's older sister trying her best to white-girl rebel and becoming her own cliché. The town Sheriff dealing with his own demons that oddly mirror the tragedy unfolding throughout the episodes. The creepy Government agents trying to track down everyone involved with the disappearance. The freaking monster that lives in the woods! It may be a science-fiction, Stephen King inspired television show, but it's just as suspenseful and sometimes scary as a horror movie watched in theaters.  Seriously, this show has something for everyone and for those of us who have already finished and are standing at the gates of Netflix without pitchforks and torches demanding a second season-- those of you who haven't watched it yet need to do so and join the hoard.  Because this is one of the best seasons of television I've ever seen.




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