With its lovable characters, well-written plot, and reflection on popular 80’s movies, Netflix’s original hit series, Stranger Things, has people across the globe binge watching all eight episodes. The show debuted on July 15th and didn’t attract a lot of attention in the beginning of this past summer.
However as more people started to watch the show here and there, their recommendations through different forms of media led the show to become a worldwide phenomenon with a large fan base.
Stranger Things is set in a small town in Indiana during 1983, where a twelve year-old boy, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), goes missing. The show focuses on Will’s family, friends, and the town’s detective going on separate journeys to look for him and uncover the truth.
“I am truly obsessed with the show and cannot stop watching,” senior Julia Sherman said. “ I think the directors and producers do a great job at balancing all four story lines without any of them getting boring or neglected compared to others.”
The show depicts four separate story lines between the casts who are all on a central quest to find Will. The first and most notable is the journey of Will’s friends, which include Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb
McLaughlin), who encompass the atypical friend group from the 1980s, quite similar to The Goonies. While looking for Will in the in the woods, his friends stumble upon a young girl with a shaved head who goes by the name Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and she eventually helps the boys look for Will with her telekinetic powers.
However, Eleven is on the run from a government laboratory, where she was tested and used for her powers to assist in secret operations, which ties into the second plot line. From there the story derives into the other journeys of Will’s mother, Joyce (Winona Ryder) who receives assistance from Chief Hopper (David Harbor) and Will’s older brother, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and his attempt to defeat a mysterious monster that has been rumored to be seen around town.
Jonathan receives help to hunt the monster from Mike’s older sister, Nancy (Natalia Dyer). The monster becomes an even bigger threat when it kidnaps one of the local teenagers and Nancy’s best friend Barb (Shannon Purser) which leads the kids to believe that the same could have happened to Will.
“Stranger Things was such an amazing show because you got to see the strength of characters who aren’t usually portrayed as strong (children, teenagers, women), except for the character of Barb who optimized the helpless, self-conscious, nerdy sidekick and lacked any character developed or meaningful contribution to the show as a whole,” senior Abigail Brafman said.
The show has received a lot of buzz in the media not only for its well-constructed plot but also for its adorable cast especially for the young actors who play Will’s friends. Their interviews, competitions on talk show and pranks have captivated audiences into obsessing over them as well as the show. The cast’s most memorable stint is when Brown, Matarazzo, and McLaughlin performed Bruno Mars’s popular single “Uptown Funk” at the Emmys.
Netflix can add another original series to their list of shows that have been widely successful, however Stranger Things beats them all by adding a nostalgic element for viewers that many haven’t seen since 1983.
