Stranger Things

There is no reason, in terms of story, for Stranger Things to take place in the '80s. But the '80s atmosphere - the dial phones, the chain smoking, Winona Ryder - are there to clue you in on the inspiration for this movie, which is pretty much every supernatural movie from the 80s with a focus on kids. E.T., Poltergeist, that sort of thing.

The wondrous thing is how dead-on this tribute. It's not just the clothes and hair, but the style of acting, the scripting approach, the structure, all hold true to their inspiration. You've got the young nerdy kids, the horny, unsure teenagers, the monster, the mysterious one with the power, the bad science/government people, the conflicted investigator, the tearful mom.

You could argue that this entire season is simply a pastiche made up of recycled elements, and I wouldn't disagree, but it really feels less like a copy and more like something of that era, as though the writers had fallen into a coma in 1985, woke up and got to working.

While it doesn't have the high style of the Spielberg films that are a primary influence, it does have the likability. The story is consistently engaging and fun, the acting is excellent, and the movie has sufficient laughs and tears to satisfy.

Stranger Things is absolutely as good as everyone says it is. When a show is as talked about about as much as this one has been it's hard to live up to expectations. Stranger Things has not only met those expectations but has surpassed them in every way. This is the show that our Netflix on the map as far as original shows go as this was not only one of their first but their biggest. As much as I love this show it's probably time for it for end and it is. This upcoming season is going to be the last. We have literally watched this cast grow up, they were children when this show first started and now they're all in their 20's. I can't wait for this last season and going to miss it when it's gone!

I guess plenty of people have said a lot of things about all the movie and TV references this series has and how it recreates the eighties in all their faults and splendor. I will not add to that.

With the release of the second season I'd simply like to advise that both seasons are very different animals. Think of it as the difference between the original Alien movie and the Aliens sequel: Whereas the first season was more about an unknown and unseen horror and the mystery behind the backstory, the second has more in-your-face action and horror laced with character development arcs which feel nice but sometimes sidetrack the series a bit.

Consequently, a fan of the show should probably watch the second season as a separate work of fiction rather than a true continuation of the first season in tone and spirit. The writers move the story forward and we get a very good piece of entertainment but the new season has to be judged on its own merits.

EDIT: Season 3 turned out to be a huge change in tone for the series. Maybe it's really hard keeping up the mystery if much of the "world" of Stranger Things already yielded many of its secrets but the overall "feel" of the series went into a different direction. Maybe the writers simply ran out of 80' templates to rip off. Season 1 was very much inspired by supernatural horror as in "Poltergeist". Season 2 took many cues from "Creature Features" like "Gremlins" or "Aliens". Season 3 now uses elements of 80' zombie flicks and low budget gore horror with a little bit of spy comedy mixed in (and fight scenes which feel straight out of "Die Hard"). All those genres didn't really mix well in the 80' and this strange cocktail sure doesn't work today. That doesn't mean that Season 3 is bad. It simply relies on characters who were established in previous seasons which used very different 80' story elements and tropes. It's almost like seeing Darth Vader in an Indiana Jones movie. Both work on their own but not together.

Basically, Season 3 is an all too transparent attempt to plough a fresh nostalgia field but it doesn't work in the context of previous seasons.

I wasn't expecting this nostalgic TV show could be this good. In my opinion technical details in first season was not that charming but not only storyline that gets stranger, also all the technical details getting stranger.

I know first three seasons were quite the same in some ways. But the Season Four explains that situations. Not all minor things, but explains the major questions.

There is some great references to The Thing, E. T., D&D, Middle-earth and even more. That references makes ithe TV Show more exciting. Especially for geeks.

Film Editing was perfect even from the first season.

Cinematography, VFX and Sound is got better in the second season. They were a bit weak at first season.

Makeup, Costume Design, Scores, Art Direction & Set Decoration were quite good from the first season, they get a bit better along the seasons.

There were two dominating forces in the eighties that had a lasting effect on my cinematic taste for ever after and also resulted in my undying love for fantasy, sci-fi and horror stories: Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. I guess it isn't an overstatement to say "The Two Steves" probably influenced and shaped the imagination - the dreams AND the nightmares - of an entire generation.

The main factor why I loved their movies and books was that kids roughly my own age figured so prominently in many of them. King wrote 'Firestarter', 'It' and 'Stand By Me', and Spielberg either directed or produced (via his company Amblin) 'E.T.', 'The Goonies' and 'Gremlins'. Those were stories where the young protagonists encountered aliens and monsters or where they themselves had supernatural powers - or where they just went on an adventure (to find a body or a long lost treasure) with grown-ups largely out of the picture. Now if you've seen 'Stranger Things', that should sound pretty familiar, right?

Of course it does: because 'Stranger Things' deliberately pays homage to all those stories - and it does it very, very well. And it's not a rip-off, it's a love letter. The show emulates the themes and a certain style from those eighties treasures, and while it is a (for me) very welcome callback to some of the favorite stories from my youth, it's also very much its own thing. I won't give away the plot here (I guess you get a pretty good picture what it's about from what I wrote above), but I would like to mention that it's beautifully shot, the effects and generally the production values are top-notch, and the period-inspired music is fantastic. The biggest shout-out, however, has to go to the ensemble of actors, especially the kids who play the protagonists: their charming performances are the key to why the show works as well as it does.

To sum it all up: If you're an eighties kid like me, this show is a must. For everyone else, it might depend a bit more on whether you're a genre fan or not, but if you do like supernatural stories, 'Stranger Things' is a treat. I'd rate it eight stars out of ten, but with an extra star for nostalgia, that's a 9.

Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

Favorite films: IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-Known Masterpieces: imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: imdb.com/list/ls054808375/