“A love letter to the supernatural classics of the 80’s, Stranger Things is the story of a young boy who vanishes into thin air. As friends, family and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one very strange little girl.”
Coming July 15.
Not a huge fan of the big government conspiracy angle (or kinda close encounters-ish) but still looks well made.
— Alan
Winona Ryder…
She’ll steal the show.
Thank you, everybody! Ill be here all week. Dont forget to try the veal and as always please tip your waiter!
This is out now. I watched the first episode and am enjoying it so far. I feel like they’re doing a great job of mimicking the feel of the era’s productions. We’ll see if it holds up through the end of the season.
The Spielberg/King/Carpenter mimicry is a little too upfront and self-conscious for this to be great, but so far (through episode 2) the central mystery is interesting enough to keep me going.
Winona Ryder is pretty awful. It’s making me wonder if she was always this bad an actress and I just didn’t notice. Matthew Modine is aging perfectly into “white-haired sinister guy”, though.
I’m enjoying it. Whoever the actress playing Nancy is, she’s terrific. And damn. How reliable is Cara Buono at this point in her career? She should be in more stuff.
What I really like so far at least is that the show is managing to avoid some of the pitfalls of Super 8. Which, whew.
Also, not sure it was deliberate or intentional, but holy shit the Carl Theodor Dreyer homage in the way El is framed so often. Did that make that poor little girl sit and watch The Passion of Joan of Arc on a loop for a month? Either way, it’s unsettling, but I’m OK with being unsettled.
Watched the first few episodes last night. Really enjoying it so far, even if the antagonists and eeeeeeeevil are a little pat. The execution is really, really spot on.
Ryder’s issue is I think more the writing than her acting.
A friend told me this is filling the hole left by Fringe for him. Would any Fringe watchers here agree with that?
I adore Fringe, and enjoy this so far, but it isn’t really the same itch for me. Fringe was rarely out-and-out King-style suspense/horror, which is pretty common in Stranger Things. Honestly it feels most like Twin Peaks to me, though it’s not surreal like Lynch’s masterpiece.
I keep seeing a young Emmy Rossum in the gal playing Nancy. I’m a big Buono fan, she’s become something of a “that girl” I feel like, moreso in TV. She really should be in more things. She plays a pretty fun character in later seasons of Person of Interest. The gal has some range.
The music in this show is fantastic. I mean sure there’s a ton of great stuff to chose for actual music (although did they say it was 1983? The Bangles didn’t cover Hazy Shade of Winter until 1986, not that I am complaining) but the scoring is just amazing. It’s a blend of Carpenter and what 2am in the dead of night in the early 80s should sound like. It’s haunting and otherworldly.
Unsettling is a good way to describe the proceedings.
The first time I ever saw Cara Buono in something, she was playing a 17 year old starting to date college graduate Chris Eigeman in Kicking and Screaming.
This is the MOM from Stranger Things, y’all. She’s so good in stuff!
No you must be thinking of super 8. This show actually feels alot more in depth than anything JJ has done, even Fringe and Lost. I’m only half way through and i LOVE this show so far. It DOES draw alot from the 80s but what the hell, what hasnt the past few years. Plus including DnD in the opening, cmon that rocks.
And though Winona is a bit hammy, she still looks pretty good!
Also the soundtrack sounds alot like Halt and Catch Fire ANOTHER late 70s/80s homage.
[quote=“mtkafka, post:13, topic:78687, full:true”]
No you must be thinking of super 8. This show actually feels alot more in depth than anything JJ has done, even Fringe and Lost.[/quote]
I don’t think I am, since I’ve never seen any of those things you listed.
This show is directly quoting many things from 80s SF/horror/nerd culture…some are more subtle*, some less so**, but the allusions to other, better entertainments from the 70s/80s are constant and mostly unmissable. I’m sure very soon someone will put up a canonical list of Things That “Stranger Things” Quotes From on Reddit, and I’ll be interested to see what I missed.
Don’t get me wrong, skilled pastiche can be a good time, and I am enjoying this despite being partially distracted the whole time by the Spot The Reference game the Duffer Brothers are playing. I don’t think this ends up bringing much beyond it’s considerable list of childhood fandoms to the table but it’s a pleasurable way to pass a few hours of a weekend.
(Bonus points for not just taking the hits off of Low-Life and Ocean Rain, but going for deeper cuts.)
* During the scene when Winona sees her son in the wall, there’s a clunking sound coming from the wall. Winona runs outside to see where the sound is coming from and we have a shot of her from down the length of the porch, overlooking a porch swing…that was pretty good.
** Walking down railroad tracks looking for their friend, though they do subvert that a little with The Body having already been found. Winona’s Richard Dreyfus turn with the lights and busting a hole in her house. The monster’s entire Alien-ish presence. The whole main mystery is basically The Talisman and Firestarter with some Poltergeist added.
Just finished episode 5 and my wife and I Iove it. She also mentioned getting a Twin Peaks vibe. Very suspenseful and greatly executed. One of the best things Netflix has produced so far. I wish there was a soundtrack available, great music.
Doesn’t have the score though.
The score is the best part though. :(
Thanks for this. I was referring to the score, should have been clearer. Sadly that is nowhere to be found.
Finished it. So damn good in all the right ways. It really makes me itch for a season 2.
Also, how nerdy am I that in the Millennium Falcon scene, I immediately recognized that it wasn’t an original Kenner Millennium Falcon because the rear engine area was the newer light-up plastic one and not the original that just had a sticker?
I’m on episode 3, and i like this a lot.