Stranger Things

[simbob4000]

Anyone been watching this new Netflix show? Its basically a love letter to Stephen King and Amblin films, (mostly E.T.) and some other '80s and '90s genre stuff (as well as some 2000s genre stuff)...and it's got a nice synth soundtrack which at times invokes a Carpenter kind of feel. It almost feels like if Elfen Lied was a King story that Amblin ended up adapting in the '80s during prime Amblin time.

Started watching it because nothing was on tonight, ended up burning through the whole thing. This is probably the best original show I've seen on Netflix.

[Conn Seanery]

Halfway through, enjoying it so far. The teenagers are cringe-worthy tho', but I suppose that's kind of the point.

[ZionAkeda]

I can't wait to start watching this once I renew my Netflix subscription. I love ET and Rod Sterling's The Twilight Zone and I'm currently reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower books. Stranger Things looks amazing!

[simbob4000]

So is no one watching this show? I know some people have to have Netflix here, the threads on their Marvel stuff are always pretty big. Seems like a shame if no one is really watching the best show they've produced.

[RikWriter]

I binged it earlier this week. Enjoyed it very much, though I'm not certain I'd call it the best show they've produced. The only thing that bothered me was the performance by the main-character kid. There was something a little grating about his mannerisms. Other than that, I loved the way it turned a lot of clichés on their head, such as the girl NOT dumping her materialistic boyfriend for the misunderstood, brooding loner, and the boozey sheriff actually believing everything they said rather than being a doubter who won't believe till he sees it.

[tsaimelemoni]

Just started, really liking it so far

[batnbreakfast]

Stranger Things looks nice enough but Marco Polo is surprisingly good as well, if you enjoy epics with magnificent costumes and pretty landscapes (haven't seen Netflix's superheroes yet)

[tsaimelemoni]

Have not started the second season of that, yet. So many shows I'm catching up on this summer, I'll get around to it eventually lol

[Forseti]

Going to sit down with the first episode tonight.

[simbob4000]

I binged it earlier this week. Enjoyed it very much, though I'm not certain I'd call it the best show they've produced. The only thing that bothered me was the performance by the main-character kid. There was something a little grating about his mannerisms. Other than that, I loved the way it turned a lot of clichés on their head, such as the girl NOT dumping her materialistic boyfriend for the misunderstood, brooding loner, and the boozey sheriff actually believing everything they said rather than being a doubter who won't believe till he sees it.

What have they done that's better?

Stranger Things looks nice enough but Marco Polo is surprisingly good as well, if you enjoy epics with magnificent costumes and pretty landscapes (haven't seen Netflix's superheroes yet)

I liked Marco Polo, this is better. It's also far better than any of the Marvel shows on there.

[chamber-music]

I loved it. The influences, soundtrack and setting are all things I like.

Besides the obvious influences the show creators also said Alien and Silent Hill were influences.

[bloodofthegods]

Going to sit down with the first episode tonight.

I just put it on my queue last night, since I had gotten a DVD movie in from Netflix and had planned to watch that. So I think I will watch at least one episode tonight too.

[simbob4000]

I loved it. The influences, soundtrack and setting are all things I like.

Besides the obvious influences the show creators also said Alien and Silent Hill were influences.

Oh, I mean, just watching it I'd say a list of influences would be something like: E.T. The Extra-Terrestril, Elfen Lied, Akira, The Mist, It, Eerie Indiana, The Evil Dead, Alien, John Carpenter (The Thing and maybe Prince of Darkness, also that soundtrack at times), A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Tommyknockers, Silent Hill 1 & 2 (probably the first movie too), From Beyond, Firestarter, Carrie, Pumpkinhead, Poltergeist, Stand by Me, Predator, Pulp Fiction, The House of the Devil, The Guest, Under the Skin, Halloween 3, The Matrix, The Shinging.

Could see Hellraiser being an influence in so far as the thing that comes because of blood. There could be some The Fury in there, but my guess would be any influence that could be seen as coming from they they probably got from Akira and Firestarter instead. Jaws, again with the blood bit, the show even invokes a shark when talking about this at one point. Come and See, could be a reach, but the girl with her shaved head and all dirtied up in one of the episodes made me think of the main character at one point in that film. Maybe Videodrome.

[The Nuke]

Loving it. Have 2 episodes left and I hate nothing that's all I've got. I think the casting is spot on, especially for the kids, who for all intents carry the thing. The plotting is good enough, the main story we've seen many times, but the Duffer Brothers at least know the cliches that can fall into and try to do something fresh with them. Teen stuff is pretty much as cliche as it gets, but again the performances of the characters are good enough to get you through it.

Monster is probably the cheesiest thing about the show.

Still, all in all, a very pleasant surprise and definitely a must watch. There have been many attempts at trying to duplicate a Spielberg type story from newer generation Directors, and the Brothers seem to be one of the few to get it spot on.

Eleven should definitely go down as one of the best TV characters of the year.


Show won't make the Emmy's obviously, but I foresee quite a few nominations for the Globes and next year Emmy's.

Only question is, if they do another season...what do you do? Haven't finished yet, but it seems this story will be told when it's over. For me, I could just enjoy 8 episodes of the kids playing Dungeons and Dragons.

EDIT: the only true major flaw I see is that the show makes Lewis a prick for way to long. In a movie it wouldn't have come off that strong, but not over most of 8 hours. The reason for it makes sense, and I'm sure we've all been like that at some point for the same reason.

[simbob4000]

Loving it. Have 2 episodes left and I hate nothing that's all I've got. I think the casting is spot on, especially for the kids, who for all intents carry the thing. The plotting is good enough, the main story we've seen many times, but the Duffer Brothers at least know the cliches that can fall into and try to do something fresh with them. Teen stuff is pretty much as cliche as it gets, but again the performances of the characters are good enough to get you through it.

Monster is probably the cheesiest thing about the show.

Still, all in all, a very pleasant surprise and definitely a must watch. There have been many attempts at trying to duplicate a Spielberg type story from newer generation Directors, and the Brothers seem to be one of the few to get it spot on.

Eleven should definitely go down as one of the best TV characters of the year.


Show won't make the Emmy's obviously, but I foresee quite a few nominations for the Globes and next year Emmy's.

Only question is, if they do another season...what do you do? Haven't finished yet, but it seems this story will be told when it's over. For me, I could just enjoy 8 episodes of the kids playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Since the Stephen King influence is so big, I'd guess they just keep the town, maybe some of the characters, and just tell a different story.