STRANGER THINGS (2016) - SEASON ONE Spoiler free review
We live in a golden age of entertainment, spoiled rotten by a dizzying array of content always a click away. Whatever you’re into, there is show or movie about it. It’s just a matter of finding it. In recent memory there is one standout show that speaks to me so strongly I will recommend it to anyone without reservation or additional qualification. That show of course is Seinfeld. Stranger Things is a close second. We’re currently at the tail-end of the pandemic, a time of relatively few AAA new releases. Nostalgia runs deep at The QC both out of necessity and because we simply love nostalgic things. Stranger Things represents perhaps the finest modern example of nostalgia as an effective device for storytelling deployed without winking at us and distracting from the story. The show is utterly magical and dream-like in its ability to transport the viewer back to the simpler time of walkie-talkies and record-players. Imagine The Goonies, E.T., Stand By Me and all the 80’s and 90’s Spielbergian tropes we’ve come to know and love mixed together in a blender. That is Stranger Things. The show is suspenseful, supernatural, sweet, legitimately scary at times and the mystery at the center of the first season is wonderfully written and acted. All it takes is a quick peek at Wikipedia to know that more than a dozen cable networks turned down show creators/writers the Duffer Brothers initial pitch, demanding the show not feature child actors as the main protagonists. Thankfully for us, the Duffers stuck to their guns and vision. Stranger Things is a phenomenon and rightfully so. Later seasons suffered from ever so slightly diminishing returns as the curtain of supernatural mystery was pulled back. It's hard to capture lightning in a bottle twice and the intoxicating sense of eerie place and feelings of agitation from season one have yet to be replicated. I’d go as far as to say that season one is the best thing going on all of Netflix. Bring on season four.