Stranger Things: Season One (2016) Review & Season 2 (2017) First
Impressions
I saw the trailer for Stranger
Things—a Netflix series purported to be an amalgamation of Steven Spielberg
films and Stephen King novels—when it was first released, months before the
series came out. The concept intrigued me, along with its overall resemblance
to the film Super 8 (another
nostalgic Spielberg-esque story). I watched all eight episodes within the first
week of it coming out. At first, no one else knew what the show was. Then, it
started gaining recognition when reviewers began highly praising it, and in the
months that followed, it grew a surprisingly large following.
Not to sound like a hipster, but I liked Stranger Things before it was cool to
like Stranger Things.
The plot, without spoiling too much, begins when a young
boy, Will, inexplicably vanishes from a small town, and his friends go looking
for him, but they find a mysterious girl with telekinetic abilities in the
woods. One of the kids, Mike, lets the girl live in his basement. He names her
Eleven, and doesn’t tell his parents or sister. This is essentially the main
plot, but all of the other storylines are connected by the disappearance of
Will.
Mike’s sister, Nancy, is part of a different plot thread,
which starts out like a typical 80’s teen movie, then evolves into a mix of an 80’s
monster movie and slasher movie, when her and Will’s older brother, Jonathan,
start tracking a creature in the woods. Then there’s Will’s mother, Joyce, who
is somehow able to talk to Will through Christmas lights in her house, and there’s
police chief Jim Hopper, also trying to find Will, because of something that
happened with his own child many years earlier, and you have the mysterious
goings-on at Hawkins Laboratory, and all of these things are happening
simultaneously. There’s lots of stuff going on. It’s difficult to do it
justice.
Why am I reviewing this show today? Why not on Modern
Monday? Because 1) I needed some time to watch season two so I could address it
(it just came out Friday, if you didn’t already know) and 2) it is deeply entrenched in the 80’s. There is
no hint of modernity here, except maybe the few glimpses of the badly designed
cgi monster. Everything else, though, is as retro as you can get.
The simple version is, I like
this series. I don’t love it, like
some people do, but I enjoyed it enough the first time to watch it all again,
and I actually liked it more the second time. One of the biggest detractors of
the show is the lack of originality. All of the concepts have been done before,
namely in Steven Spielberg films like E.T.
and Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
and Stephen King novels/films, like IT and
Firestarter. But it doesn’t stop
there. It bears similarities to A
Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien,
and even modern TV shows like Fringe.
A ton of articles and videos have been dedicated to the ways
Stranger Things was influenced by other
films and TV shows. While I wouldn’t really cite the remixing of many concepts
and ideas as a major negative, it is one of the reasons I don’t love the show.
I found it quite predictable at times because of this, but that may not be the
case for someone less entrenched in the genre films of the 80’s.
The biggest appeal of the show is definitely the characters. There are three different age groups
(kids, teens, and adults) and all of them deal with the strangeness in
different ways, but all of them are relatable. What I find funny is the most
well-known actors in the show, Winona Ryder as Joyce and Matthew Modine as Dr.
Brenner, give some of the weaker performances, while newcomers like Finn
Wolfhard as Mike and Millie Bobbie Brown as Eleven are the standouts.
Stranger Things is
like an eight hour movie directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Stephen
King made in the mid-80’s that was never released until now, and that is the
biggest compliment I can give it. Though it bears resemblance to the movies and
TV shows of the masterminds I just mentioned, the characters are all
interesting and well-developed, and it has heart.
The way season one leaves off is satisfying, but doesn’t
wrap up everything. However, I liked the way the first season ended, and
actually hoped it wouldn’t be picked
up for a second season, because it functions so well on its own, a second
season could risk tainting the experience of season one, and would have a lot
to live up to. But, people loved the show, so of course there had to be more.
And now, here are my brief initial thoughts on Stranger Things 2…
First off, I love that they treated it like a movie sequel
instead of merely a second season. This is actually called Stranger Things 2. I don’t know what the critical or fan responses
have been like so far, but brace yourselves, I’m about to compare this series
to Star Wars. When the original Star Wars first came out, no one knew to
be excited about it. When The Empire
Strikes Back came out, everyone was on the hype train. It’s the same thing
with Stranger Things, and just like Star Wars Episode IV and Episode V,
I think it will be debated among fans whether the first Stranger Things was better or the second was better. For me, it’s
too soon to tell.
I really liked Stranger
Things 2. It’s bigger, bolder, and scarier than before, definitely leaning more
toward horror. There were a couple moments that genuinely shocked me. The first
two episodes I thought were okay (I really liked the Halloween setting) but
then it kicks into gear in episode three—and, for the most part, doesn’t let up
until the end. There are still the three distinct age groups (kids, teens,
adults), but their storylines are more interwoven this time, which made for
some interesting new dynamics. However, not all of the characters had that much
to do, and at times, it felt a little scattered with so many different things
happening all at once.
I didn’t really think any one character stole the show in
the first season, but for me, Dustin is the huge standout this time. All of the
new characters made great additions, especially the young girl Max and her
older brother Billy. The character I was most disappointed in, unfortunately, was
fan-favourite Eleven. Millie Bobbi Brown gave an excellent performance, but I
felt the writing didn’t do her character the justice she deserved. There was
also a lot of general fan service throughout, some of which I thought was fun
and worked, but some of it felt extremely unnecessary and almost distracting.
I can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed by the storyline
once again. Though it was less predictable overall, I didn’t like the decision
to have it set a year later. Some of the things from season one were brushed over
too easily, or not addressed in a satisfying way. It also hits a lot of the
same beats as Stranger Things 1 and
re-uses similar story elements, but some of the re-used elements are actually
improved from before.
In the end, I did enjoy Stranger
Things 2, despite some of the qualms I had. The Duffer Brothers (series
creators) said they wanted it to be like a James Cameron sequel, meaning like Aliens or Terminator 2 (there are many references to both of those films,
some subtle, others blatant), and I think they succeeded. All kinds of 70’s and
80’s genre films are referenced, just like with the first installment, but the
story feels a bit more original this time, even though it’s still just a remix
of things I’ve seen before. It once again comes down to the characters and the
heart, and I’m glad to say both are intact and enjoyable, just as before.
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