Stranger Things (2016)

Season 1

Director: The Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy
Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard
Episodes: 8

Synopsis:
The disappearance of a local boy exposes secret government experiments and a supernatural threat.

Impressions:
I had this recommended to me around the time of its original release and I'd meant to check it out, but the opportunity kept escaping me. Then I heard that things weren't going so well in subsequent seasons until Season 4 managed to turn things around. It took a fresh recommendation from my niece to finally prompt me to dive right in. Imagine mixing The Goonies, ET, Alien, and The X-Files and you get a good idea of the vibe. I know there are a lot of people who have grown tired of 80s nostalgia baiting, but as an 80s kid myself, I have a lot of fondness for an era and I thought they did a pretty good job of recreating it. With child characters comprising a major portion of the cast, the performances of the child actors would make or break the show and I'm happy to say that they're quite good. There's nice layering with the principal cast and characters that would normally be little more than cardboard cutouts in a lot shows are fairly well-rounded. There's a good sense of pacing revealing things about both the characters and the plot, showing some rather expert crafting of the narrative. The practical effects are quite good and for the budget, the CG is pretty solid as well. It's an all-around excellent package that I would gladly recommend adding to your collection.

Rating:
Own It