Stranger things

Year of release : 2016

Run time : 47min- 54min / 8 episodes

Genre : Horror / Sci Fi / Mystery / Drama / Mini Series

Cast : Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Matthew Modine

Season 1

 

 

The year is 1983,in the fictional town of Hawkins,Indiana ,situated near the Hawkins National Laboratory which deals in experimenting with the paranormal and supernatural.

The human experimentation facility opens a portal between our world and an alternate dimension called the Upside Down.

On the night the portal opens, Will Byers rides his bike home,after playing his favorite game with his best friends. On his way home,trying to win a race with his friend, he takes a shortcut through the restricted area of Hawkins National Lab US Department of Energy,and meets something.

He runs home scared, locking himself in, but whatever is chasing him can open the locked door with the power of the mind,and he runs in the shed,trying to get the shotgun.

Just when he waits for the door to open,the light burns bright,and.. he disappears.

In the morning,his mother realizes he's missing,and calls the family of the boy he spent the evening at.

The police start looking for him,but they think he's out with a girl.

A girl with a shaved head,dressed in hospital attire finds a diner,and steals food. The cook catches her,and seeing the state she's in,gives her clothes, food,and calls child services.

The child services arrive,just that,it's not really child's services,and they k!ll the cook,trying to get the girl,who runs away from them just before they get to her.

So,it's fair to say,the girl escaped the experimentation facility the night the monster got out,taking Will to his reality,being a human test subject with psychic abilities.

 

 

In episode 2 -

The boys find the girl in the forest on a rainy night,while looking for their friend,and take her to Mike's place. Mike gives her a place to stay underneath his table in the basement,so his parents won't find her.

Will's mother thinks Will is calling her from wherever he is,just that,whenever this happens, the phone is burnt!

Mike seems to get attached to the girl, as he skips school the next day to stay home with her.

Mike's sister,Nancy, is in love with one of the popular boys in school,and she accepts to go to his place while he's hosting a party when his parents are out of town. Her friend who goes with her,goes missing while waiting by his pool.

 

Episode 3 -

 

Will's mother thinks Will is talking to her through the lights in her house. Her oldest son thinks she's going crazy.

Will's friends decide to do their own research.

Nancy is worried about her friend who's gone missing.

Eleven has flashbacks from the time she was a human test subject.

Episode 4 -

The police found Will's body in a lake,but nobody is allowed to get close to the body, not the doctor who's supposed to do the autopsy,not the mother,not even the sheriff.

Sheriff Hopper starts thinking there's something fishy going on with the Department of Energy and they are not who they say they are.

Joyce,Will's mother, doesn't think that's Will,as she thinks Will talks to her through the wall and electricity.

Episode 5 -

 

Sheriff Hopper breaks into the "Department of Energy",and wakes up in his home. He turns it upside down trying to find listening devices.

Joyce hammered down the wall of her house trying to get to her son who seemed trapped in the wall.

Her ex husband comes,and she forgets about everything,until she learns about his true intentions.

Nancy and Will's brother band together to find Barb and Will.

The boys look for Will on their own, but their compasses take them to the place Eleven was imprisoned, so she tries to stop it.

Episode 6 -

Nancy has the amazing idea of entering a tree's hollow,and she ends up on the other side, in the Upside Down. She and Jonathan go back to her place after he rescues her.

Her boyfriend decides to pay her a visit,climbing the window,and sees them together.

Talking to Joyce,Hopper realizes the kid he thought to be Will,might be a missing child,a woman reported the government took from her to do experiments on,after she left their MK Ultra programme.

Mike is upset Eleven left them after they called her a traitor. He and the boys decide to go look for her.

 

 

Episode 7 -

 

Lucas separated from the boys,and looking for Will on his own,the compass leads him to the "Department of Energy",where he sees people driving towards them. He warns the boys about them coming for Eleven.

Failing to catch Eleven,the government agents go Mike's house, lie to his parents about Eleven,and look through their house,taking the kids' things.

Jonathan ends up in police custody as he beat up Nancy's boyfriend,for his friends wrote demeaning things about her on a cinema's marquee.

Hopper and Joyce, Nancy and Jonathan, end up working together,and they find out the government is after the boys and Eleven. They contact them through their comms,and Hopper goes after them.

 

Episode 8 -

Joyce and Hopper are caught by the government agency disguised as the Department of Energy.

Hopper makes a deal with them,he gives them Eleven, they let them enter the portal to the Upside Down,to find Will.

The kids wait for them, and the government agency arrive at school .Eleven k1lls a bunch of them with her mind.

 

Nancy and Jonathan go to his place,and turn his house into a trap for a wild animal. They cut their hands and wait for it to arrive,and just then,Steve comes to apologize to Jonathan. They try to make him leave to save his life, and he almost leaves, but turns around and saves their lives.

I loved how this season was put together,the symbiosis between the visual and the audio.

I personally think that's how the series should have ended,as Eleven is shown as wasting a lot of energy whenever she uses her powers,growing weaker, but in the other seasons, it's treated like nothing, so she has nose bleeds when she uses her powers,no big deal,nothing ever happens to her.

The series seem to be inspired by the 1980's movies made by Steven Spielberg, Wes Craven and movies inspired by the writings of Stephen King.

Apparently the series are based on the Montauk Project,which was an air force station in Long Island.

The soundtrack is good and is laced with '80's music. The Clash's 'Should I stay or should I go', permeates the season,as it's Will's favorite song. The only new song they play is Moby's 'When it's cold I want to die' which I love.

The actors were great, Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown are the best in my opinion.

 

The visual effects were good up until the last episode,when we can tell the creature is CGI.

A few years ago,I watched the first three seasons, and I only liked the first one. They introduce a lot of characters, so there's more people to care for, and their stories,their drama,and I just don't have the patience.

I won't be re-watching the other seasons.

Stranger Things is a Netflix show and can be found on their platform.

Rating : It's so money!