A Visual Spectacular Mish-Mash Of Spielberg and King!?

It is quite a weird thing to say that Netflix, the quintessential streaming service now above the likes of Hulu and Amazon Prime, in this day and age, is really the place to go to now when it comes to simply sitting down, and watching a reasonably high-quality show. While there can be an argument made for traditional T.V. still offering us the things that fill our viewing pleasure, it can’t be denied that Netflix is a resource that extinguishes the need to go the cinemas, or to watch something on BBC or ITV. One of the bigger reasons into why Netflix specifically, combats our need of not potentially going to the cinemas or watching something normally on T.V., is because of their focus in distributing a vast array of original shows/films that cover and span the genre-specific graph. Whether you’re looking for a scare,in the form of Scream T.V. series, a laugh, with the likes Orange is the New Black/Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt, or an action packed Superhero series that is worth watching with Daredevil/Jessica Jones, Netflix, undoubtedly, has everything and anything you wish to pleasure yourself with. This statement is made true, even further, with their brand-new visual and self-referential mystery, Stranger Things; a Netflix original that delivers wistfulness and familiarity and moulds its cinematic approach, in replicating formal tropes of Steven Spielberg, with its contextual premise, in embodying supernatural/horrific that you might find in works done by Stephen King and John Carpenter. While there can be an argument made to cynically suggest that the Duffer Brothers use too many 80’s film/T.V. references for show that relies upon style/visuality over substance, Stranger Things is a show which honours its source material, whilst telling a unique and compelling story which leaves you wanting more…

Embracing and combining all that is well-known and remembered from films of the 80’s, Stranger Things is set within the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, where on the 6th of November 1983, young Will Byers mysteriously vanishes. All learning upon his disappearance, Will’s mother Joyce, Police Chief Jim Hopper and Will’s friends, Mike, Lucas and Dustin, go and search for Will, which results in every character finding something completely new and different from one another. While Joyce becomes frantic over the supernatural elements that keep on occurring in the Byers house-hold and Hopper investigating Hawkins Laboratory and the ‘experiments’ performed there, Will’s friends, who go and look for Will, stumble upon a psychokinetic girl named Eleven who not only knows the whereabouts of Will, but is the key in discovering the sinister government agency that resides within Hawkins Laboratory, and the mysterious entity that lurks below…

While the obvious starting point in reviewing/analysing Stranger Things would be to dissect how the Duffer Brothers, the makers of this show, purposefully mould together tropes of Steven King’s writings and Steven Spielberg’s filmic approaches of the 80’s to create a unique hybrid production, of which they clearly like which I will shortly discuss, It’s important to firstly go through the structure and aesthetics the show displays since their is a clear formula that the Duffer Brothers utilise. As it is the norm of nearly every televised show, the opening credits/intro, in my opinion, is a good way for an audience member to know whether or not they’ll be enticed by what they see on the screen and Stranger Things delivers it’s homage 80’s style within it’s own intro. With it’s VHS grain and the way in which the lettering (similarly texted in the same way in which you would see from an early King novel) of the title meshing together and presents itself with the mysterious John Carpenter/synth musical tone in the background, Stranger Things’ opening is something that you can’t ignore or skip and sets the tone of mystery and unease and catalytically confirms this reflected look of a favoured lauded time-period. This whiff of ambiguity, from the intro, carries over to the start of each of the 8 episodes, in which we are usually greeted to a wide establishing shot of the starry sky; imbuing this further sense of mysticism whilst conveying to us that a supernatural or a sci-fi occurrence is ever present within the context of the series. Naturally, being that there is a large cast covering this engaging story of a young boy mysteriously diapering, what you’ll see within the episodes, and one of the better things that I enjoyed of the show, is how we see the multiple story-lines unfold and eventually connect with one another. Ranging from Will’s best-friends interacting with the bewildered Eleven, Hopper investigating Hawkins Laboratory in terms of what exactly they’re doing and Joyce insistent on her son being alive with strange interactions happening all around her, all these separate story-arcs, as well as Will’s brothers interacting with the socially-complicated sister of Mike’s sister, Nancy, do evidently weave amongst themselves as the series goes on which was something that worked well, with an arguably story that can be picked at. Obviously, having seen the series twice and just at looking at the way this show was helmed, the Duffer brothers are huge admirers of this ‘off-the-wall’ 80’s source material because everything, from the way in which the mini-plot elements, sharing similar visual analogies to Spielberg, as well contextually referencing King’s book of FireStarter, to the way in which Stranger Things is shot and edited, with the implementation of subtle match-cuts, consistent use of track-in shots and use of mirrors to metaphorically reflect a character’s emotion, very much in accordance with what Spielberg has done, it’s clear that the makers engorge themselves with these texts that visually and contextually focus on the abnormal. In the long-run however, we all know that style and a visual premise can get you all so far in regards to emotional investment and for a show like this which pay’s good attention to fine visual detail, it has to have a simplistic substance to make us actually engage, care and watch more episodes of the show, and it definitely delivers. The main hook of the show is, of course, the disappearance of Will Byers and what this catalytic point creates, are events of flashback’s of specific characters, Will’s mum and brother, that reflect on their happy moments with Will. Saying this, it’s easy to assume then, that the production value throughout does maintain itself within the 8 episodes, and doesn’t just halt its own exposition within the first couple of chapters. While it never really hindered my viewing experience completely, one issue that I can understand people getting bothered by, are the homages to 80’s film and book source materials. There is a fine line between taking a rather recognisable filmic/book reference and using it to amplify your own unique feature series, and using these references to re-create the source materials that you already know and love; showing no originality. It does have to be said that there are moments within Stranger Things that are identical to other things. A good example of this would be the show’s contextual similarities with E.T.; 3 kids hiding someone in their basement that has weird powers, similar to E.T. with 3 kids hiding an alien that has weird powers. There’s a scene where the central trio of kids are on their bicycles and their fleeing from the government, much like in E.T. While I am nit-picking, it is easy to just point out and say ‘well, that moment looks exactly like such-and-such’. Regardless, Stranger Things still exceeds in creating a high-production that is unique and delves more into its sci-fi and supernatural elements more than other previous and similar entries.

Undoubtedly, the best aspect to take away from Stranger Things, are the central performances of Winona Ryder, who plays Will’s mother, Joyce, David Harbour who plays as Chief Hopper, and especially, the three performances of Will’s friends, Mike, Lucas and Dustin. One of the main reasons into why the performances of the central characters were a joy to watch, was because of how rounded they were as individuals and in a group. Each character has their own moment; whether it is a sad one, like we see with Mike near the end of the series (I’m not going to spoil anything!), or a happy/funny moment, like we see a lot of the time with the character of Dustin making funny yet realistic child remarks. The central trio of Mike, Lucas and Dustin, out of all the characters, I feel are the more likeable individuals since they are given dialogue set-pieces that sound natural. One of the biggest downfalls in regards to child performances for both film and T.V. is that adults are writing this dialogue and it’s sometimes hard for these sophisticated writers, who are writing something that is complex and mysterious, to put themselves in the same body/mind-frame of a child and write dialogue in relation to what young kid would actually say. While it is no-where near identical to the high-production value  and all-round mysticism that Stranger Things offers to the screen, one T.V. show in the past that I liked for their management and way they handled the dialogue is the BBC sitcom Outnumbered. Most of the dialogue set-ups that you see from the frantic kids in Outnumbered are improvised and does actually pay-off being rather funny and random with the funny quips that we see of that show. Even though I highly doubt that the writers of Stranger Things told the child actors to come up with something for the many scenarios that they were involved in, there is this consistency of the three boys, especially, that maintain this level of not only being geekish, in liking science and mentioning The Hobbit and LOTR a couple of times, but also swearing and using fowl language like a child would do. This idea of implementing natural dialogue articulations are carried over to Will Byers’s older brother, Jonathan played by Charlie Heaton. He did a very good job of portraying this teenager that is more or less a loner; a reserved individual who is looked down upon by other characters and he finds himself constantly having to explain himself to other people for his actions. David Harbour as Police Chief Hopper was one of the more complex characters in terms of his gradual development. While it may seem from the very start that Hopper is a character that has no worries in the world, his development of being obsessed with the investigation of Will Byers and Hawkins Laboratory opens up this downward spiral of sadness and obsession. The best performance and by far, the most intriguing of all the characters that we do see, Millie Bobby Brown’s portrayal as Eleven; a young girl with a shaved head who appears in front of Mike, Lucas and Dustin and doesn’t say much who clearly has a damaged past. For a young girl who plays a role that doesn’t really have too much to say throughout the 8 episodes that we have on demand, Brown does a professional job in portraying to us a character that is seeded with complexity. While she may be this ‘powerful’ being that can find and solve the mystery of Will Byers, we do have a lot of sympathy for her; being that she was experimented on and is alien to normal life when she is brought back to the Wheeler house-hold. There was never a scene where she broke out of her character and there was never a moment where where I felt like she wasn’t being completely real. She was by far the most intersting and most compelling character in the series.

Before I delve into my conclusion and wrap everything up, I do want to quickly mention the music that was used in Stranger Things as it did complement what we see on screen. As I said before about the intro of this show, the synth style of music produced by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein throughout the episodes add to this familiarity that many cling on to. It simply suited to constructs of the show and is a soundtrack that I would never get bored of listening to. Coupled with this electronic music, are songs featured by the likes of The Clash (Should I stay or should I go), Joy Division (‘Atmosphere’) and Peter Gabriel’s song of ‘Heroes’ which I particularly liked and fitted well with it’s a placement within the show and goes to show how much sound and music can amplify the weight and feeling of a scene. 

Despite their being this argument of the Duffer Brothers employing too much of 80’s source material, from the likes of Spielberg and King, that’s heavily featured within the show causing many to doubt it’s originality and uniqueness, Stranger Things is not only one of the prime Netflix series to watch in this say and age, establishing this perception of Netflix dominating the T.V. space, it is a show that has a unique and in-depth supernatural adventure that honours the references that they use, rather than tarnishing them. With the combination of fine camera work, credited music and performances that were solid and consistent throughout, Stranger Things tops the list as being one of the better supernatural and mysterious shows to watch today. For myself, it reminded me, very much, of the times when I would stay up late to watch 80’s films like ‘Alien’; where I would be intrigued and spooked at the same time. I haven’t felt like this since watching Stranger Things and I’m sure, everyone will be anticipating it’s 2nd season release, for there are questions to be answered…

With everything wrapped up, it’s time for me to conclude. As always everyone, thank you for reading my latest review and I hope you’ve enjoyed the read. If anyone as an opinion on this series or on my review, please feel free to drop a comment down below. After all, this was my first review of a T.V. series of such, I hope I did alright! haha. Next week I should be continuing on with my Harry Potter film review series with ‘The Goblet of Fire’. Anywho, until then, I want to again thank you for coming to read my latest review and I should be seeing you all next week! Have a nice day and weekend!! Adieu!! 🙂

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Alex Rabbitte