TV Show// Stranger Things

If you haven’t watched Stranger Things you are missing out. This is a fact.

I recently finished the first season [exclusive to Netflix] and it’s easily one of the best original TV shows of the last few years.

The fact that so many people who have watched it have raved about it despite it being very heavily laced with both sci-fi and fantasy says a lot. TV shows in this category are hardly ever the mainstream headliner and it makes me really happy to see something so creepy and quirky get the props it deserves.

The story revolves around a young boy, Will, who disappears and his friends and family start to look for him.

Basic, yes, and the plot to a million of these Swedish imports that are clogging up the airwaves at the moment.

What’s great is what the writer/directors, the Duffer Brothers, have done to make it fresh; take from all of those 80’s creepy alien/horror movies to spin the central plot around the now rarely seen heart-wrenching friendships. The fresh part; the young boys/best buds have to keep a million secrets from adults who might try to take away their new buzz-cut friend, Eleven; a mysterious monosyllable girl with super powers.

The great hook is that the adults, similarly, are on their own quest of enlightenment which runs alongside the kid’s cloak and dagger-D’n’D-RPG-turned real life drama. With the great acting and the spooky as hell music that rises and falls with the ever building tension it’s hard not to get hooked.

Look out for cheeky little nods to the genre, too. Little references [whether literally stated or just finger-gunned to in passing] to The Thing, E.T, Pretty in Pink, The Goonies, and Close Encounters of the Third kind are nice to see. There’s also an underlying Twin Peaks grain which I love and I can’t help but wonder what Mulder and Scully would make of the town… a fun cross over, maybe? Jeez, that would be fantastic. [OK, I’m putting my Geek away now].

Have you watched it? Are you watching it? Will you watch it? Let me know!

Sam