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Seasons(5) / Episodes(35)
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Reviews (12)
Season 1 – 100% – The instantly omnipresent love that swarms me the day after it airs, and tries to convince me that a powerful series for everyone has appeared after a few episodes have passed, has been getting on my nerves in recent years. So when this carousel started with Stranger Things, I properly shook my head at it. But this series is saving it by being truly for everyone. It has tension, a mysterious creature, a group of friends led by the wonderfully quippy Dustin, the perfect Eleven, a love triangle, and parental love portrayed by Winona Ryder. She is the one who receives the most criticism from viewers, which I can't understand from my own perspective considering her phenomenal performance, but people rarely welcome genuine and real emotions. The eight episodes are just right to get under your skin, solve the basic chain of mysteries, and leave the viewer begging for more adventures. Season 2 – 100% – Those whom I liked, I now adoringly worship; those whom I hesitated about have moved into the first group. From Lucas to Will, from Joyce to Eleven, and with Dustin and surprisingly, even the new king Steve at the forefront of it all. Stranger Things confirms that it is not a seasonal affair, and although most characters continue their expected development and we shouldn't expect any shocking twists, the second season is exactly what I didn't even dare to dream of. A perfect mix of romance, tension, horror, and a complete range of emotions. The enthusiasm of Matt and Ross Duffer and the fiery chemistry of all the actors involved are impressively evident in the result. After watching it for the second time, I definitively consider the second season one of the best things I have ever seen. Season 3 – 90% – After the nervous tension on multiple fronts, it is evident that the Duffer brothers wanted to add humor, which fully corresponds to the mentality of '80s sequels. However, they added a lot of it, so they cannot reach the emotional level of the previous season (which, after a two-year break and being forgotten by the wide audience, logically reached immense heights). Just as the frenzied relationship madness that pushes it to the edge can please many with its hormonal storm or various pranks between teenagers, refreshing as it may be for some, it can also be so annoying that one may not want to wait for another mysterious ride. The same applies to Hopper, who transitions from eternal laid-backness to an irritated ball of nerves – an unexpected change, but perfectly irresistible in David Harbour's portrayal. In the suspenseful moods, however, it is the most magnificent period with many unbelievably disgusting moments (which, however, you can't take your eyes off), with instantly iconic (re)unions, and so many goosebumps-inducing scenes that there perhaps wasn't an episode where I didn't find my jaw dropping to the ground at least once. I have a slight reservation due to minor genre disarray (romance, Russians, slime, family trauma), which this time stick a bit worse and will be tested upon an inevitable rewatch. P.S.: The wait for Millie Bobby Brown to finally receive some genuinely intended awards is starting to get a bit long. Season 4 – 90% – I'm not surprised by how drastically the series is growing in scale, number of characters, or budget, but I am shocked by how the whole world is still tuned to it. This is no longer an intimate horror, nor is it a children's adventure or a modest story from Stephen King's famous drawer. This is a seasonal blockbuster that is waited for months and years to be talked about, paraphrased, and criticized for a long time. And yet the world nods almost contentedly and religiously awaits the next episodes. And I'm with it, because although the concept is sometimes turned almost upside down, the essence remains the same. Irresistible characters, precise actors, a vibrating soundtrack, countless touching moments, and a period atmosphere where realities are not thrown at the viewer as bait, but actively involve them in the story. Stranger Things is one of those rare achievements that can evoke the feeling that these are my memories, even though my own childhood and adolescence had nothing in common with what is depicted.
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A time machine for pure retro bliss. All sources of inspiration have been listed, all nostalgic tears have been shed. What in my eyes keeps the speedometer far beyond a hundred even in the second half, when the lively board game is in full swing and definitely shakes off all the air of mystery, is the child casting from the realm behind the mirror. Millie Bobby Brown acts with her eyes in a way that actresses a decade older get Oscars for. Eighteen years later, I got an adaptation of "Half-Life" without knowing it beforehand. And now I'm off to finish reading King's "It" so I can have a pop culture combo without compromise.
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A chilling retro of the Spielberg-King school. Abrams has competition... An excellently graded horror drama actually written by Stephen King (and who can’t recognize echoes from It or Talisman?) and is still original in its approach. The serial form allows for sufficient character development and building up tension. The Upside Down and things connected with him is the terrifying place and, together with Eleven, perform some great things. Great effects, even though the flashing finale is unbearable for epileptics, it made the hair all over my body stand on end. Everybody is great in acting terms, just Winona overacts rather. I look forward to what the next season offers. Season Two: Typically, season two offers more of everything, everything is bigger and everything happens faster. Pairing up of characters sets of in unexpected directions, but the discovery of the world inside out still takes place only very gradually. Jane is put off onto the sidelines so that some sort of danger that wouldn’t matter could arise, but the whole storyline with searching for her sister just holds back the action. Otherwise again it’s a great watch in Stephen King style.
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Nostalgic Things... Authentic 80s King style (children's level) Carpenter style (horror level) Spielberg movie (adult level) par excellence, in other words Super 8 done absolutely right. It can't be more retro. You will recognize (among countless others) for example Stand by Me, E.T., Poltergeist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Cocoon, Nightmare from Elm Street, Peanuts, The Monster Squad (simply put, the production of Amblin at the time) and... And not surprisingly, even if everything in it (like really everything, a s mall town, an unbelieving self-grown sheriff, a high school, etc.) is purely overseas 80s, so it doesn't seem like a nostalgic copy, a parody of itself or in any way contrived (namely there are two allusions per every minute of the running time), on the contrary, it stand firmly on its feet. In other words, this one doesn’t pretend to be 80s. IT IS 80s in terms of visuals, Carpenter's-tangerinedream musical undertones, mood and generally by atmosphere. And by far the best part is that all of the above is just a foundation for a graduated, mysterious, captivatingly disturbing and deliberately insight into a intentionally second-rate cliché story, which is also enhanced by acting performances, including those of children (after all, you can see on their cast how much it is faithful at the time, none of the children is nice or cute), and everything is dependent on their performance (what such Millie Brown can play only using her eyes, her much experienced, awarded and older colleagues can only envy her, because in spite of everything it is mainly and above all a children's (but not childish) expedition for adventure. If the 80s shaped you, so using the words of Charlie Sheen... What's not to love? | S1: 5/5 | S2: 5/5 | S3: 5/5 |
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Just as Tarantino does not limit himself to mere quoting, but distils the essences of marginal genres and creates extreme pastiches, the Duffer brothers take an identical approach to eighties horror movies, teen flicks and children's adventures in order to mould a perfect fantastical story that allows viewers to feel the wonder of childhood, the anxieties of adolescence and the fears of parenthood, all at the same time.
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Photo © Netflix / Curtis Baker
