Stranger Things: Netflix Series Review (SPOILERS)

So, Stranger Things happened. And it's unexplainably refreshing to watch something that's not a sequel, or a copy, or a re-boot of something that they thought we'd all forgotten about from years-gone-by. No, Stranger Things does the exact opposite in which, at first glance, it looks like your run-of-the-mill sci-fi 'is-it-aliens-or-is-it-deep-and-meaningful-monster-manifestations-of-the-human-race?' show, but after you get past the first half an hour of the first episode, you realise that's not the case. Of course I'm aware that the show's impressive 80's aesthetic (my favourite word because I'm indie trash) is an over-talked about selling point, but Stranger Things' understated grandeur goes much further than that.

                                 

     

With its impressive bill of actors, including the likes of Winona Ryder, David Harbour and less well-known (I tried thinking of a more sophisticated-sounding synonym but I guess we're stuck with that) faces like Natalie Dyer and Charlie Heaton (Yorkshire massive represent. That was the worst thing I've ever said.) Partnered with incredible set and costume design it means that, even to somebody who's not that into film or TV, this show is undeniably spectacular. 

One of my favourite things about the series is that no actor is overshadowed by another. You'd think, with a name like Ryder on the bill, she would be front and center, but even the younger actors are able to 'match up' to her in terms of compelling the audience with performances way beyond their years. Millie Bobby Brown, the young actor who plays Eleven in the series, being one of the most impressive performances I've seen in a TV show for a while, not only from a young actor, but as an actor in general. In short, the whole cast is absolutely stellar in every episode. I'm not pretending to be and expert in anything, but using words like 'stellar' always makes you sound expert-y. But then I use words like 'expert-y' and cancel out any professional impressions anybody had of me. 

I'm never one for scary stuff. I was the girl at the Halloween party who sat under her sleeping bag listening to Panic! At the Disco on full blast, while everyone else watched Silent Hill and laughed at me. But this was different, this show isn't just scary for the sake of being scary, it says something when a lil weed like me is prepared to sit through a few jump scares to watch a show. And besides, however unoredictable the plot was, timing jump scares is always predictable. Oh, she's alone by a poolside and the camera shot's left just enough room and created enough focus to accommodate a figure looming behind her? Time to mute that shit.

So yeah, I heard that they've already commissioned a second season due to the amazing reception this one's received - but they're not calling it a 'second season', they're calling it a 'sequel'. Ooh, unique, mystical, intriguing. Triple emphasis.  Anyway, I actually can't wait for the second seas- shit, I mean, sequel. What with the mystic hints at the end after the kids finish their D&D game; 'what about the lost knight, and the proud princess and the weird flowers in the cave?' E.g. The police officer guy that was taken away by the secret service or whatever, Eleven, and those cracked-open egg-things that they found in the Upside Down, meaning here's more of those Men in Black Kylothian-faced looking alien, sub-human shits wandering about somewhere. And don't get me started on Nancy choosing Steve. Bitch, really? He bought him a camera? Big fucking whoop, Jonathan saved your ass, man. What you playing at?

I'm not bitter.

(I also couldn't look at the floaty snowy-looking atmosphere in Upside Down, and not think of Winona Ryder in Edward Scissorhands like, 'it never used to snow before he left, and now it does', and they gonna find Ed at the end of that gooey-ass tunnel like;

R.