Stranger Things (2016) hit it off with America's entertainment community. The first season takes advantage of our current nostalgia fix with lots of 80's themed stuff. We live in a time where record players are common to find among young adult homes so this show came at a perfect time. I have just rewatched this first season and second (see at bottom) in anticipation of season 3! Read here, and spoilers may follow.
I always enjoy looking at a film's cast, and this has relatively unknown people with some exceptions. One of those is Winona Ryder who is in a myriad of films including earning best actress Oscar nominations for two movies. Stranger Things Season One earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Next, David Harbour as Chief Jim Hopper has been in many movies before but never in the spotlight really. His character has some emotional baggage with the death of his little girl, and this accounts for his anger issues. He really earns the praise his character has received. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, psionic powered girl, is an awesome character.
Most actresses would have relied on the powers aspect for them to stay interesting. However, she puts in a lot of effort to have emotions beyond this and does it successfully. Also, they portrayed increasing powers strategically. She is not a Mary Sue that can do everything immediately including perfect telekinesis and telepathy. She has to work at it with motivation. Our D&D party members (yes I play some too) or the kids are introduced and people loved them.
Will (Noah Schnapp) is gone for most of the season, but he did well in what we saw. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) are all great, but I think Dustin has stolen much of the spotlight. He seems to be the one that people like the most with his classic hat and front teeth missing. Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), and Steve (Joe Keery) all are good too. The teenagers here have their own troubles that end up converging.
The story and concept draw inspiration from the movie J.J. Abram's Super 8 (review here) that came out five years earlier. I'd be shocked if they had not. Both take place in the '80s with a creature not from this world. The story is great with compelling writing, directing, acting, cinematography and more. For me, the production design really helps separate it from the pack. There is no point where I don't think it is not in the 1980s. Everything they do keeps the charade going. No one makes a pop culture reference or some modern joke that a majority of scriptwriters would stumble and do.
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