Confessions of a Literary Addict

There may be some minor spoilers in this, as I’m just chatting about having watched the show and what I liked about it (there are also GIFs and screenshots), so proceed with caution. Thanks!

So, yeah, after weeks (months? how long has it been out exactly?) of hearing about how great Stranger Things was, I decided to finally buckle down and watch the show to see what all the hype was about. And, I ended up really enjoying it!

Some things I really, really liked about it:

• The setting

1980s? Brilliant! No internet, no cell phones, it was a perfect way to set up the disappearance of a kid and the following search for him, along with all the creepy things that came along with it. The fact no one outside the town got involved despite how crazy some things seemed to be getting really made sense in an era where a landline (or a walkie-talkie) was the best communication between parties. I also really enjoyed the tactics all parties had to use in order to go about their mission due to the fact they didn’t have access to the internet.

• The creatures

Okay, admittedly, I was pretty freaked out by what was intended to scare you, but it wasn’t terrible. However, the design was pretty damn cool, and the you-know-what-place where it all hailed from was also such an absolutely cool take on the idea that I was pretty disappointed it didn’t reappear more in the eight episodes. Season two, maybe?

• The characters

With the exception of the ones you were obviously supposed to hate, I loved the cast of characters that we were given for this. Watching some of them change as the story went on was probably my favorite part, because you start off thinking one thing about them and it turns out you were wrong, and maybe it wasn’t in a good way, but it shows the nature of everything going on and how it effects the character’s … character. I probably could have thought of a better word there, but I’m supposed to be sleeping right now, so thesaurus be damned.

Some other things I really enjoyed were the way scenes were portrayed, The Duff Brothers knew what they were doing. I particularly liked the Christmas light part, because that really was brilliant thinking on Joyce’s part.

There’s a lot more I’d like to say on it, but I would really rather not stick in massive spoilers just in case, so I think I’ll leave it here. Definitely hoping for a second season! Especially with the way it ended … yikes.