TV Review: Stranger Things
Updated: May 28, 2019
Even with Netflix reporting a loss in subscriber sign up’s recently, they still manage to provide top notch programming! Netflix knocks it out of the park again with a new show that premiered on July 15th called, Stranger Things. I saw the promo on Saturday and within minutes I began the binge watching of this 8 episode series.
The show revolves a group of young boys( Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin) who are living an average life which included playing dungeon & dragons and riding their bikes in neighborhood. The show is set in the 1980’s in a small town in Indiana. Out of the group there is a young boy named Will Byers who was riding home one night who suddenly went missing. In quite an unexplained way. Days of searching went by and he was unable to be located. At the same time that Will went missing, a young girl wearing only a hospital gown appears and she becomes the key to the entire story. As time progresses she meets up with the group of boys who are looking Will and they quickly learn her deep and dark secret. She has powerful telekinetic powers and “bad men” as described are combing this small town looking for her. She later takes on the named 11(as it is tattooed on her arm) but is called “Ellie” by the boys.
As the boys and Ellie continue their search to look for Will while hiding from the “Bad Men,” there is a dark and evil creature stalking the streets of this small town that is slowly taking and killing more people but without a trace. As each episode progresses, we learn a little bit more of this creature but it doesn’t fully give away why/how it exists. Is it a government experiment gone wrong? Is it Alien? Is it from an alternate dimension?
Besides the boys and 11, this film only had 2 main characters with a ton of supporting cast that really made this an excellent watch. This film perfectly depicts the utter insanity a parent would go through if their child went missing. Winona Ryder(Will’s Mother, Joyce) provides a masterful performance as single mother completely tormented by the disappearance of her son. Also as the episodes progress she falls further down the rabbit hole per se and spends the better part of the season trying to get the townsfolk believing that a creature took her son and that he was not dead. Winona is joined by David Harbour(Sheriff Hopper) who is not known for his roles as much as Winona but he is definitely familiar due to his past work. He plays a burnt out Sheriff who never really coped with the death of his daughter(cancer). As the episodes went on, he slowly started piecing together the puzzle that this creature exists the more dangerous it got for his character.
Now back to 11. I strongly suggesting not playing with your phone or have any distraction while watching this show. She does many small things that gives away the amount of power that she truly possess but it can be easily missed if you are not 100% paying attention. This show in my opinion, feels like a Stephen King Novel crossed over with an episode of the X-Files. So much suspense and so much left unexplained. It leaves you wanting for more and trust me, after that ending, more is coming.