Source: Wikipedia
Alright, let’s start at the top, shall we? I’m pretty picky when it comes to entertainment consumption. Things tend to stick with me, to the point where I remember details of a plot for years after I’ve finished watching or reading something. This is frustrating when a book becomes my favorite because re-reading is pointless for about 10 years. It’s worse when it comes to TV and film, however. I saw The Birds when I was about eleven years old and it still gives me nightmares 14 years later. In general, I don’t like horror because of this. That being said, I really enjoy 80’s movies. So it was fairly difficult for me to decide whether or not Stranger Things was something I wanted to put into my head.
My brother watched it when it first came out and then proceeded to make the rst of my family watch it. At the time I was helping to plan two separate friends’ weddings and was living with one of them part-time to facilitate this process. Because of my living situation, my family was already on episode three when I figured out they were watching it, and at the time I didn’t want to miss anything if I was going to actually commit to it. Which brings us to how I ended up watching it.
The music was cool. That’s really all I could hear from my bedroom besides various characters screaming ‘Will!’ and ‘Barb!’ over and over again, so I didn’t have much to go on besides the music and the recommendation of my family.
I think I started watching it in January? It was well after the weddings were over, and after NaNoWriMo too, so I think it was January. The first episode was half creepy, half boring. I loved that they played Dungeons and Dragons (greatest game ever!), but nothing had really happened, and I had no sense of the world so I had no idea where the story could possibly be going. Fast forward another month and I had watched episodes two and three, and I was becoming seriously bored. I thought this was supposed to be scary? Nothing was happening to propel the story forward, and Winona Ryder was getting really good at playing a crazy lady. I was about ready to give up.
Then, near the end of April, my brother asked if I had finished it yet. I told him my feelings and he insisted that I watch episode four. We watched it together. I was still bored. He kept telling me “some episodes are slower, some are faster.” I didn’t believe him.
Finally, I went back to it at the end of May because I hate leaving things unfinished and I had other series I wanted to watch. I turned on episode five, and WOW! What a difference! In fact, the entire second half of the season moved at lightning speed compared to the first half. It honestly felt like watching an entirely different show. Characters developed! The plot moved along at a semi-reasonable pace! We got a good look at the monster!
Overall, I enjoyed it. It’s 80’s nostalgia wasn’t overpowering, but the setting was believable. The plot was well constructed in the last four episodes. We got clear answers to our burning Mike and El questions, and Lucas finally turned back into a normal human being. We got some backstory on Chief Hopper (though no hints as to what he’s currently up to), and Nancy turned into a pretty cool character.
Now the bad news: Besides the first four episodes being more boring than watching paint dry, the actual ending killed me. I should probably warn you that I finished watching the finale about… 27.5 minutes ago at the time of writing this, so these impressions are piping hot and fresh, but come on, Steve? And what about the egg? And the stupid homage to Stephen King’s IT with that last bathroom scene? And I WANT EL BACK!!!
Plenty of it was cliche “Don’t open the door!” moments, and, I’m sorry, but can the library please not be the most dangerous place in everything? It’s just too obvious. (See every video game featuring a library. The ‘library’ level is the most difficult. Or it’s the lair of the evil beast. Always.) And I know these people have never dealt with *****SPOILER***** Infectious aliens personally before, but COME ON, this is the 80’s, the movie Alien had already been released! They’re all obsessed with Sci-fi and Fantasy and no one thinks to do an X-ray to see if anything else is inside of him? I mean, it’s not like you pulled a four-foot-monster-larva out of him or anything. *****END SPOILER*****
Will I be watching Season #2? Yes. Will I be angry if it ends anything like this one did? YES.
HHC Rating: 3.75 Stars.
One last burning question: How does their science teacher know so much? I smell a conspiracy.