Welcome to Day Late Reviews, where contributors from LRM Online review things they should have watched a long time ago but didn’t. For one reason or another, they missed out on some of the greatest things in geek and pop culture and are now repenting by giving their take on beloved movies, games, and shows. This series will see the contributors answer three questions: why they didn’t see it when it first hit, what they thought of it, and how other people’s opinions and spoilers affected their viewing. There will be spoilers!
Hello, my name is Kyle and I just watched Stranger Things. I know what your thinking. “This dude sucks at life,” and knowing what I know now, I did suck at life. In my defense though, maybe, I blame a close friend of mine from turning me off to the show. He described it as X-Files with nostalgia, and I was never a big X-Files fan. I know, I know, more groaning. But I had a deep fear of greyling aliens thanks to the film Fire in the Sky and never found myself interested in many of the non-alien stories told in the show. So, it’s his fault it took me so long to watch it. However, I was convinced by fellow contributors Nick Doll and Seth McDonald to give the show a go. So my wife and I sat down and began to watch the show…
Being a kid in the 80s and early 90s, with parents that were coming of age in the 80s themselves, I have a soft spot for that decade. This show always looked good from a nostalgia point of view, but the idea of watching kids go exploring for eight hours and an X-Files style mystery wasn’t appealing. I loved stuff like Little Monsters, Moster Squad, and The Goonies but this was billed as very serious. All in all, I skipped it. Damn, that was a mistake.
The first season of Stranger Things had the difficult task of setting up a world that would last multiple seasons, develope characters with a complete arc with room to grow, and tell a self-contained story that didn’t rely on a second season. Check, check, and check! This show hooked me from the first episode with poor Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) being taken into the Upside Down and kept me wanting more until Eleven disappears with the Demogorgon.
The show expertly tells the story of a group of young friends searching for a lost teammate (Will Byers) and welcoming a strange young girl (Eleven) with powers that may hold the key to saving Will. There’s a creepy polluted and slimy version of our world called the Upside Down and it is home to a creature the young kids call a Demogorgon, the name of a creature from Dungeons & Dragons. All while there’s a massive government coverup going on involving the Upsidedown and Eleven.
The older kids do great too. Mike’s older sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) is caught in a love triangle of sorts with Will’s brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and a popular boy named Steve (Joe Keery). The growing relationship between Nancy and Jonathan is fun to watch and you feel bad for him when Steve proves himself to be a hero too and gets the girl at the end. Jonathan is a very tragic character who has to deal with the loss of his brother, trying to keep his mother sane, and trying to kill the Demogorgon.
The only weak actor in this show is Winona Ryder. She isn’t horrible, but her crazy feels very forced at times. When she’s hysterical I don’t buy it, but when she’s quiet and her suffering is more internalized she does better. Her interactions with other adults all feel off unless she’s yelling at her boss to give her stuff and not ask questions.
I knew a lot about the story going in thanks to having read about it and been part of conversations here at LRM Online but none of this kept me from enjoying the show. I had no idea what to expect in the Upside Down and was left wondering what would happen next after every episode. My buddy that described this as X-Files-ish was very wrong, in my opinion. The mystery wasn’t that deep but the characters reactions to the events made up for it. The show is very dependent on your attachment to these kids and the writers do a great job making that happen. Considering what I was expecting the show to be, I was very happy to be very wrong. I was also mad I hadn’t seen this earlier. Then again watching the first two seasons so recently means my wait for Season 3 is shorter.
The show delivers on every note for its first season and keeps you wanting more. It does scratch that 80s kids adventure film itch while delivering a much more mature experience. This is the result of people that loved the films I grew up on making a show of their own. I give Stranger Things Season 1 an A+.
What did you think of the first season? What do you suggest for future Day Late reviews? Let us know in the comments below!
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