Preface/Premise

• So if you guys haven’t heard by now, Stranger Things is a show that just dropped on Netflix.
• And basically it takes place in 1983 and feels like Stephen King meets E.T. or Super 8 with more government secrets.
• It follows this group of kids who are trying to solve a mystery, meanwhile there’s a lot of shady government stuff going on in a nearby lab.
• It’s SUPER hard not to ruin this show, but I’m gonna do my best, and the short version of this review is: WATCH IT.
• It’s only 8 Episodes, it’s on Netflix right now, have fun!

Review

• So the main cast of this show is a group of kids.
• The main kid’s name is Mike and he’s one of the three best parts of this show.
• He’s a good friend, but he has to deal with his other friends stupidity sometimes. He tries to act mature, but really can’t be an adult since he’s just a kid.
• I related to him, he was a great lead for the show, he isn’t annoying. Hopefully you’re sold on him!
• Then there’s his two interchangeable friends who both are fine for the show. Mike needs some friends, these two kids are there, awesome.
• But what’s great is that the three of them work together so well and they’re just super witty and kinda jerks sometimes, which I like.
• They reminded me of the kids from 80s movies, like a solid group of friends who you believe are friends.
• Then there’s a girl who kinda comes into their group named Elle who’s a very mysterious character and has some ties to the secret government lab.
• She was my second of three favorite parts of the show.
• Seeing Elle grow and develop with these other characters is awesome, especially her relationship with Mike.
• My other favorite thing besides Mike and Elle is the Sheriff.
• There’s a sheriff in this show who’s trying to solve the mystery and he was my single favorite part of this show.
• He reminded me of Sheriff Romero from Bates Motel meets Han Solo.
• He’s kinda reluctant to do his job, but he cares about his job a lot.
• And by the end of the season, his backstory straight-up has you in tears.
• There’s tons of other characters in the show, almost all of whom are great.
• Mike’s sister is good, her boyfriend is good, even the bullies are effective bullies.
• The only character that I didn’t like was Winona Ryder’s character.
• She’s directly linked to the mystery of the show, and she’s emotionally troubled by it, but the whole time I felt like she was kinda over-acting.
• I like Winona Ryder, I think she’s a good actress, but I felt like the trauma faced by her character wasn’t explored as well as some other characters facing hardships in movies or shows.

• But characters aside, there’s TONS of other stuff to love in this show as well.
• I’ve been mentioning the mystery.
• I loved that this show was able to create an intriguing, entertaining mystery and keep it running throughout all 8 Episodes.
• I also love that the season is only 8 Episodes!
• They bring closure before any episodes feel useless, and every single minute feels important to making this show end well.
• And “ending well”?
• I always complain about “the second half wasn’t as great as the first half” but in this show, it got better and more bizarre as it went along.
• And truly, as the show got more bizarre, it still made sense.
• It was kinda funny, they introduced monsters and stuff from the start of the first episode. And when they did that, I thought, “man, there’s a really cool sci-fi concept that they could experiment with in Season 2 if this monster thing works out.”
• By the end of Season 1, THAT concept was brought in and a main element of the story.
• Now I have no idea where Season 2 could go!
• But they leave it open enough for a Season 2…
• In terms of negatives, the only other thing I can think of is that it’s a very TV-14 show and it maybe could’ve gone a little darker, a little more grim, but it was still plenty dark and plenty grim for the show it wanted to be.
• I liked almost all of the characters, the sheriff, Mike and Elle were the standouts.
• The mystery was great, the show progresses really well.
• You guys should definitely check out Stranger Things if you haven’t already, like I said it’s only 8 Episodes.
• And I’m gonna give it an A–.

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But guys, those are just MY thoughts on Stranger Things. Be sure to leave yours in the comments down below! You guys can follow me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/JohnMHayeck) or Subscribe to me on YouTube where I do new Movie Reviews every week (http://www.youtube.com/MyMovieThoughts). Comment on this post, share it around with some friends. I’m John Hayeck, and as always, thank you guys so much for reading.