A Look at Stranger Things

This week, after hearing all kinds of good things about it, I finally watched Stranger Things.  If you haven't heard about it, don't worry, it's only the biggest series this summer.  Two episodes each day for four days.  Let me cut to the quick: there's a lot of good and some not so good in this series.

The Good:

One thing entertainment is supposed to do is hook you, leave you wanting more. Or in the case of a series, leaving you wanting to continue watching.  This had it in spades.  A lot of it had to do with the mystery.  Just what the heck is going on?  Then, once you pretty much know where it's going, the characters and the story are good enough to keep you coming back. 

Another thing entertainment is supposed to do is keep you thinking about it after you've finished.  Again, yes.  A couple of days after I finished it, I'm still thinking about it, still reading about it, still watching videos about it on Youtube, I even went back to watch the beginning of the first episode to see the introduction of the characters for a second time.  I'm not obsessed, but it did leave me thinking about it and wanting more.

The characters are pretty good and memorable as well.  Part of this is the writing, a lot of it is the actors.  In fact, I would say in general the child actors were better than the adults.  In recent memory, I can only think of Super 8 as a story with better children actors.

There was just enough comedy sprinkled in to make me laugh at times.  There were two things in particular that worked for me.  One was the interplay between the kids when they weren't yelling at each other, just being friends.  Especially when they're being nerds (remember kids, in the 80s nerds were not cool!) and quoting Lord of the Rings (Mirkwood) and Star Wars (Lando!).  Probably my favorite quote I won't get right but it was something like "going against that with a wrist rocket is like R2D2 fighting Darth Vader."  That really made me laugh.  Then there were the deputies reactions to the bully.  "She can...make you piss yourself."  "What?!?!"

Then there's the 80s nostalgia.  They pretty much hit on everything.  It felt like the 80s, and I especially loved the "vintage" look titles.

  But this is where the good starts to blend with the not so good.  There's a fine line between paying homage to a time, and relying on/depending on period clichés.  This came very close to crossing that line.

Another era, related to the last, that comes verges on transitioning to bad is the myriad of homages.  Again, some are good, too many are too many, and it's close.  I get that they were going for a Spielberg/Goonies/Stephen King feel, and they definitely got there, but it bordered on completely unoriginal and hackneyed.  At one point, (MILD SPOILER) when they're on the bikes riding away from the vans, I was waiting for the E.T. music to cue up.  But overall, it's ok.

The Bad:

One problem with these kind of horror shows is they can become to formulaic.  There were a couple of times when it fell into that trap.  There were a few too many times when I knew exactly what was going to happen because that's what happens.  It was especially apparent at the end of episodes, when you could tell they were about to wrap up but then had to throw in a mini cliffhanger to make you want to watch more.  Guess what: by the end of the second episode, I'm in.  You don't need to "shock" me for me to come back.  Never mind the end of the seventh.

Then there's the ending of the series.  I really don't know why horror feels like they have to have an open ending like that.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually would have preferred if they ended the series, no cliffhangers, and then had a second series that was completely different.  No continuing story.  No continuing characters.  Like an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone or I guess American Horror Story  (I've never watched it so I'm just guessing there) where each series is independent.  The only common thread being some kind of weird supernatural/science fictiony mystery.

The monster/the upside down.  The concept in the end is not terrible, just at times it wasn't scary enough.  The monster itself wasn't that interesting.  By the end of the series I knew the main characters were going to make it.  I knew they wouldn't kill any of the kids.  I knew Wynona Rider and the sheriff were going to make it.  So while I was still interested in seeing what would happen, it wasn't as edge-of-your-seat as it could have been with higher stakes.

SO

In the end, it does what it's supposed to do.  It's entertaining, interesting, keeps you hooked, and makes you think about it.  But it's not perfect.  It relies just a tad too much on 80s nostalgia.  It sticks a little too close to horror genre clichés.  But I am definitely excited about a second season.

B+