Stranger Things 2016

Okay, so we know this was a good show at one point. I loved season 1, and the second and third one was okay too.
This 4th season was just pure crap.
Story was not so well written, it was cliché, you knew at the first sight how this will turn out - if not, you live under a rock.
Apart from the story, the dramaturgy was boring as hell. We spent way too much time on useless things, on brooding, on lamenting, it was really painful to watch.
Apart from... okay, so the story was lame, the dramaturgy was boring, but it could have been saved, but the editing and cutting was crap as hell - I can't comprehend why you had to cut at every peak point of a scene, why couldn't you just let it play out - feelings were lost in this editing, emotions didn't impact as they should have. What I mean is that we should have been focusing on the big fight with Max and El, but we had to jump to Hopper once in a while, just to see him run.
I think this 4th season's biggest mistake was that it wanted to grasp way too much than it could handle. We followed too many characters, and sadly most of them just weren't as interesting to watch them as it should be in a tv show. It was boring as hell.
So I think this is way overhyped - just because it has all of the 80's songs, this shouldn't be looked upon as a great show. It's fair and okay if you enjoy it, I enjoyed some parts too, but to say that this is a good show is like stating that you don't consume any entertainment, and your standards are waaaaay below the avarage.
Of course you can disagree with me, but try to convince me.

Most times I don't find the intense need to write a review for shows I like, but I just finished season 1 (the only one so far) of Stranger Things and I think this might be one of the best Netflix series till date. It's right up with the class and finesse of House of Cards, Master of None, Beasts of No Nation, BoJack Horseman, and Bloodline. I cannot recommend Stranger Things enough. The narrative blends science-fiction, fantasy, and drama perfectly with no holes in the pretext of the plotline. Often times, I am disturbed by leeway taken in fantasy stories where the plot leaves behind glaring questions that must be answered within the story arc. But not this series. In fact, Stranger Things incorporates major references to theoretical physics accurately. However, what truly enchanted me about this series is the phenomenal acting performances by the lead cast; especially the kids. These kids reminded me of the outstanding performance by the children in season 3 of The Wire. I recommend this show to everyone with an interest in good storytelling, cinematography, music, and performance. We are truly living in the golden age of television. What a time to be alive.

Stranger Things is a show that's more 80s than a cassette tape, more sci-fi than a Star Wars marathon, and more fun than a game of Pac-Man. It's like a time machine that takes you back to the days of big hair, neon lights, and Walkmans.

The show follows a group of kids in the 80s who are on a mission to save their friend from a supernatural world. Along the way, they face monsters, government agents, and a whole lot of Eggo waffles. It's like a cross between Stand by Me and The X-Files, with a dash of Goonies thrown in for good measure.

The show is a nostalgic trip of awesomeness, with more 80s references than a John Hughes movie. It's got more suspense than a Hitchcock film, more heart than a Care Bears episode, and more scares than a Stephen King novel. The writing is sharp, the acting is superb, and the story is as thrilling as a rollercoaster.

Overall, Stranger Things is a show that's as fun as a game of Twister, as exciting as a first kiss, and as creepy as a haunted house. It's a great example of how to do a genre mashup right, and it's definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of the 80s or just want to be entertained. So, if you're looking for a show that's both funny and nostalgic, then Stranger Things is the perfect pick!

It took some time for me to start watching this Netflix series. Actually, it took years, as I did not have a Netflix account and I wasn’t interested. Only last year, at a birthday party, when we were playing Stranger Things’ Monopoly, I got interested. Then, on Halloween, I decided to start watching. And I loved it!
Stranger Things is a series about a group of four 12-year-old boys who live in Hawkins, Indiana, in the 80’s. One Autumn evening, one of the boys, Will Byers, goes missing and his friends, mother, brother and the chief of the police try to find him. At the same time, some strange events happen in the town, in the electric facility, all connected to a little innocent girl.
With Stranger Things, some thoughts came to my mind. Firstly, the importance of fellowship. If it wasn’t for his friends, Will would be gone forever. Also, if it wasn’t for Joyce being a friend of Hopper, the chief of police, she would have been considered a lunatic. We see the importance of friendship throughout the entire series.
Also, it is amazing how Stranger Things celebrate “Being different is good”. The main group is a group of nerds and each of them is different from the other, being Will the quietest, Dustin the funniest, Mike the leader, and Lucas the sarcastic one. They are bullied at school. However, they don’t want to change. If they changed, they wouldn’t have saved the world, literally, so many times.
My favourite thing about this series is really the power of being a nerd. Being one myself, it warms my heart seeing how loving Lord of the Rings and books ends up by being something so good and heroic.
Well, now let’s wait for another season.

The first season really did have something special going for it. The Duffer Brothers weaved a tight-knit, supernatural tale with a realistic feel that gave the narrative believability, The writing for the younger cast was near homage to Spielberg's "The Goonies", which wrapped everything up in a nice feel good blanket of nostalgia. It wasn't the best supernatural story ever written, but it didn't have to be and the amazing soundtrack scored by Dixon and Stein gave the season a palpable sense of identity.

And then season two happens. And the lack of creative writing begins to show. We have the ham-fisted plot concerning an isolated Eleven. A runaway Demagorgan that Dustin feels the need to hide from everybody, for some reason. An extremely awkward romance that somehow includes a roid-induced brother that really should have been cut from the final product. And to top it all off, we get several not so subtle hints that Mike's mom has the hots for Billy. The acting talent is there (and not there in some cases, although I was very pleased with Sean Astin's work as Bob Newby) and the soundtrack continues to impress, but the mystery was gone in place of a thriller that makes me feel like the writers had just finished watching CW's "Supernatural" for the first time.

The only thing supernatural going on here is this shows continued popularity, and I feel there will be a number of disappointed fans come the release of season three.

Right about now, your friends and family are probably bothering you about how you NEED to watch this show and how amazing they find it. Trust them, just this once. That's also what happened to me, I came into it pretty skeptically because I am pretty picky with what I like but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. Stranger Things is excellent, it's essentially Twin Peaks Lite and I don't mean that in a bad way. Just that it covers extremely similar material but Stranger Things is more accessible and less dense. You can down it really quick and pick up another where you sort of have to take sips with Twin Peaks. It's pace is really fast, major events happen in every episode and they are really well structured in terms of discovering something more that leads to the next event right away. The music is extremely simple with the sort of droning tones but there's no problem with that since it is honestly one of the more effective ways to accent what they show you. The visuals are incredible and it is surprisingly consistent throughout with high quality scene after high quality scene. The acting was respectable, the kids are kids so you can't expect any more than what they gave, they did what they were supposed to do. The adults were pretty solid, but ironically the best acting came from the teenage kids who ended up being the most interesting part of the story by the end.

If nobody has told you the basic gist of the story, it revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a child and his family/friend's journey to find out what happened as well as the appearance of a strange orphan and a monster that are somehow connected. Don't let anyone tell you any more than that. It adds to your involvement in the show if you discover the truth along with the characters.

Now there are some drawbacks to it having such a fast pace. The plot is very focused but it's also very narrow, there are auxiliary characters that pop in once in a while but they aren't really built up at all and they just seem like they're there to make the main characters do something or talk about something. The world doesn't feel as alive as some other shows, but that is also partly due to it just being one season so far so they will improve on this as the show continues, I'm sure. The central motivations for the "bad guys" also seems pretty thin at the moment since we didn't really see much of them.

Still, Stranger Things is probably the second best show of this year, right behind The Man in the High Castle. If you like supernatural mystery stories it is worth the watch for sure.

I kept hearing people talk about how great this show is. Going in I wasn't sure if it was going to be the Orange is the New Black type where people all seem to love it even though, honestly it is just sorta good. Well thank God, this show is fantastic.

Right out of the gate, this series shows how to make a modern movie/TV show that nails an 80s vibe. This isn't an over the top 80s style for a joke or anything. Sometimes I feel like we do that with stuff too often. "Look at this cassette tape, how weird!" No, here it just makes you feel like you're in that time and it is normal. It makes me feel like I'm watching a great film from right before I was born.

But that is just one element. All the characters in this have great season arcs. Sure you do that with the primary cast, but then there are sideline people like Steven. I thought we'd go down a stereotype plot for him, yet his personal change made me really happy. Romance movie stuff isn't repeated.

8 episodes is a great idea. Basically, it lets you make a nice long story that doesn't ever tread water. Sometimes you have a 13 episode story. Other times 20. Other times 4. Whatever length does the job of spreading a nice, thick story over the viewers brains is what is right. We're in a time now where this is possible thanks to Netflix/Amazon/HBO.

Oh, I almost forgot, there is a pretty awesome sci-fi horror plot here too. I feel like you always getting something each episode to progress along, but still have something to wait for. At the end of the season I liked what I had learned and certainly understood the way things worked. No, you don't get every last detail, but I think it is good to leave a bit open for your own thoughts and ideas.

And who knows what we'll get next season.

Stranger Things is okay I guess.

The soundtrack is more cheesy "80's futuristic synth" like in Blood Dragon so it doesn't feel particularly natural or well researched but should be good enough to dupe chumps like us who didn't actually grow up in the 80's right?

That aside, a good story is driven by characters - not the other way around. The dialogue is well written, and the child actors are impressive enough to suspended my disbelief into not hating children for a while - but everyone is influenced by events out of their control so they might as well be blank canvases after 80 minutes (2 episodes). Which character are we supposed to care about the most? The toothless kid I guess, since the black kid is there to drive tension, the mother is there to cry lots, and the missing kid - well, he's missing from the start so we don't know much about him.

The closest series I can compare it to is Lost. It's got mystery and unanswered questions that are probably placeholders to get more seasons of depreciating quality - although thankfully Stranger Things stands alone just fine with one season. I don't really need more.

For an actually impressive character driven story instead you should still watch Fargo (season 1).

If you want something "retro" and "mysterious" then Donnie Darko, and Eerie Indiana spring to mind.

8/10 (good but not as "amazing" as the masses on social media claimed it to be).

Wow...well there are many great things say about this show, in general it will appeal to anyone into supernatural/mistery/sci-fi stories in urban settings. But, if you have a soft spot for 80s movies with kids instead you will literally go crazy over "Stranger Things". The setting and mood manage to canvey all those classics from ET to Goonies, but with darker tones like Stand By Me and recent movies like Super 8.
Everything in the production is ultra-80s from bikes, Dungeon & Dragons, a ton of Star Wars reference, pre-BMX bicycles, clothes, etc...you name it and you'll find it! plus the soundtrack feels like John Carpenter meets Daft Punk. The cast is extremely good especially the kids, though Winona Ryder and David Harbour
I will keep everything spoiler free here, though even if the story is interesting and well paced, the real strenght of the show remain the characters development...they made a really great work doing all the right things, hinting sometime but avoiding the common places or certain cliches that in challenging situations in fiction make kids look like mini-adults, if you get what I mean. The dialogues are smart, even in the most dramatic turns when things start to feel like a bit cheesy the tone is always somehow balanced.
In the end, like many of 80s classic I have mentioned at the beginning, "Stranger Things" surely is a sci-fi show but most of all is a buddy story.
I know is "Rated R" or something but still it manage to get somewhere halfway..is doesn't get too dark to really cut off younger audiences and is never too childish to annoy adults.
I appreciated even that the didn't oustretch the story and kept everything in a 8 episode arc. This is going straight between my all time favorite TV show list.