Five Reasons ‘Stranger Things’ Worked, and One Big tanong 

Stranger Things” has pulled off an increasingly rare feat. In an age in which TV is saturated with what often feels like too much TV, it’s become a true word-of-mouth hit.

Of course, “hit” might not be the right word: Netflix, of course, does not release viewership figures. But there’s no denying that “Stranger Things,” which had a relatively low profile at its release, has gotten a lot of buzz. Positive reviews probably helped, but anecdotally speaking, people are doing a very old-fashioned thing: They’re telling their friends that this spooky drama is something special. It’s been fun to watch the show’s fanbase grow, quietly but relentlessly.

So I’d like to revise my review a little. When I first wrote about “Stranger Things,” I’d only seen four episodes, and now that I’ve seen all eight, my assessment is even more positive. There’s a decent chance it could end up on one of my year-end Best of TV lists.

When I filed my original review, I was somewhat measured in my praise. Though I thought the show was generally strong, some of those early episodes made me wonder if it would suffer from the kind of meandering Streaming Drift that so often afflicts not just Netflix, Amazon and Hulu shows but a number of cable dramas. Just because an episode of TV

Also given how many dramas with supernatural elements have failed to capitalize on them effectively, I was worried about how “Stranger Things” would wrap up its first season. I wish I had a dollar for every promising otherworldly-tinged drama that let me down in recent years; I could buy my own network. All in all, there was a lot of potential in “Stranger Things,” but it occasionally offered reminders that it is the first TV series from brothers Matt and Ross Duffer. I’d hoped it wouldn’t fumble its most promising elements and conclude the tale in sloppy and unsatisfying ways.

Apologies if you hate the phrase “stuck the landing,” but in the final episodes of its debut season, “Stranger Things” did just that. If you find yourself getting a little choked up when a Spielberg-inspired project hits the home stretch, it has paid the right kind of homage to the master. Some thoughts on why the drama worked so well follow (and most of them aren’t spoiler-y). 

Reason 1: The ending worked — and the rest mostly worked — thanks to the show’s emotional foundations.

This isn’t a show that gets under our skin just because its monsters are creepy and its world-building is solid. “Stranger Things” sticks with viewers, I think, because it uses horror and sci-fi conventions to paint pictures of people and relationships in the midst of believable crises.

Classic fare from Stephen King and Steven Spielberg (among others) quickly and effectively get us to care about ordinary people who are worried about fraying relationships and who go through hard — and sometimes joyful — emotional breakthroughs. “Stand By Me” and “E.T.” are classics because the bonds of trust among those characters were not just relatable but expertly and compassionately explored. When the characters were sad or angry, it was impossible not to understand why, and feel their pain (or their excitement).

A lot has been written about the constant pop-culture homages in “Stranger Things,” but the reason the show didn’t feel too derivative is because it had learned the most important lesson of all: It tried to create a mood of accessible empathy in almost every scene. The characters weren’t just curious about the mysteries in their town, they were curious about

In the wrap-up to “Stranger Things,” people who’d feared they were growing apart — parents and children, siblings, friends — learned that their bonds had actually been reinforced by their tribulations. Even the teen-movie villain with the hilariously puffy hair got to have a somewhat redemptive arc. 

If nothing else, “Stranger Things” is proof that streaming services and cable networks should be taking far more chances on quality science-fiction, fantasy and horror fare. There are a few of those shows that are doing good work, but there aren’t enough of them, not by a long shot.

These kinds of stories do need dramatic crescendoes and big reveals, of course. But too many dramas have over-emphasized those elements, or overly complicated mythologies that nobody cares about because the people in jeopardy are bland ciphers. The Duffer Brothers talked to

about how a lack of money, to some degree, drove their visual conception of the show’s “Upside Down” scenes, but, as has been the case for so many classic genre series, a tight budget is less of a limitation if the creators’ imaginations are used well. 

Originality is always something to be prized, of course, but “Stranger Things” shows that you don’t necessarily have to reinvent the genre wheel in order to come up with meaningful stories that win over viewers (see also Syfy’s “Killjoys”). And it’s not that TV isn’t making some frisky forays, but too many science-fiction, fantasy and horror TV series fall apart all too quickly. Just one example: “Orphan Black” could have been so much bigger had it not become way too convoluted in its second season and beyond.

Eight episodes was better for this story than the typical 10, 12, 13 or (heaven forbid) 22. I’m not dissing shows that have 22 episodes (I’d watch 44 episodes of “Jane the Virgin” every year, if the cast and crew could crank out that many). But a serialized story premised on supernatural events can only run so long before it starts repeating itself and destroying its own momentum. (I wonder what “Fringe” might have been had it only run for 10 episodes each season — it might have found its voice much sooner.)

Millie Bobby Brown is about to be cast in a lot of projects. With a very small number of lines, Brown gave an indelible performance as Eleven; the ways she subtly yet movingly conveyed fear, sadness, doubt, love and a yearning for connection will stay with me for a long time. She reminds me of Mia Wasikowska, Jodie Foster and, yes, Winona Ryder. Like them, at an early age, Brown has the kind of presence that some actors take a lifetime to acquire. El was basically on her own, and “Stranger Things” and Brown showed admirable restraint in how it depicted that heartbreaking loneliness, as well as her sweet desire for friendship.

I don’t want to discount the four other young actors who were very good in “Stranger Things.” [

] Noah Schnapp wasn’t in “Stranger Things” much, but his quiet innocence was winning. Finn Wolfhard carried a lot of the core plot very ably, and his scenes of budding romance with Eleven were very sweet. Gaten Matarazzo was awesome as Dustin, the gang’s voice of reason. Caleb McLaughlin was terrific as Lucas, the group’s skeptic, and he won my heart forever when he shouted “Eat sh*t!” at the scary guys in government vans. Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery and Natalia Dyer gave a lot of nuance to high-school characters who could have been one-dimensional. I was sad that Barb bit the dust, not just because she was charming but because the actress, Shannon Purser, looked exactly like I did in 1983, right down to the huge glasses.

From episode one, Winona Ryder had to depict different kinds of fear, terror, confusion and anger, and she found new ways into those emotions in almost every scene, while still creating a character whose personality and arc made sense over time. I especially loved the scene in which she went into her workplace, bought all those Christmas lights and asked for an advance on her pay. Her boss resisted, and Ryder’s Joyce quickly cycled through desperation, anger, assertiveness and quiet despair. It was a small moment, but it perfectly displayed her quicksilver intensity.

David Harbour gave the whole series a necessary grounding as Jim Hopper, the sheriff who united the various plot threads as the season progressed, but he was far more than just an expositional character. Harbour has been doing good work in TV for years, but this was the kind of part that had the potential to lift him beyond the arena of workaday character actors, and he took that potential and ran with it. The storyline involving his dead daughter could have been overly sentimental, but it was moving, thanks to the gravity and intelligence Harbour gave the character. 

Matthew Modine didn’t get a ton of screen time as the creep Dr. Martin Brenner, but I bet if the show returns to Hawkins, viewers will learn a lot more about him. He did such a fine job of underplaying his character that he left me wondering if there’s more to Dr. Brenner than meets the eye. 

The big question: Should “Stranger Things” get a second season set in Hawkins, Indiana?

That leads me to my biggest question about “Stranger Things”: Should it get a second season? It hasn’t been renewed yet, but I wonder if I really want it to return to this particular story. A key moment in the eighth episode — when Hopper and Joyce find Will — could have served as “Stranger Things’” farewell moment. What if the screen had just faded to black after that scene?

Part of me wishes the show had dropped the mic at that point, and demonstrated that, even though it relied on references from the pop-culture past, it was willing to embrace the future by leaning on the flexibility that is becoming the hallmark of the Peak TV era. No show has to go 100 episodes to be considered a success. Couldn’t eight be enough?

That said, I won’t exactly be upset if there’s more “Stranger Things” on the way next year (and the Duffer brothers have told Variety about some of their ideas for a second season). But what if “Stranger Things” pursued the anthology model and left Hawkins, Indiana and told a new tale in season two?

It’s an idea worth mulling, but the greedy side of me wants to see more of the interplay between Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Matthew Modine and Milly Bobby Brown and the rest of the show’s stellar cast. The truth is out there — and they might yet stumble across it. 

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An overall excellent TV series that brought elements of ‘The Goonies’ and 8mm and of course Carrie together in one great show.

Winona Ryder’s ‘overacting’ did scratch the blackboard but lets be honest here, she is an experienced actress and was told to act that way by the director who is the one to blame and not her. Hopefully, he will dial her down a little next season.

Stranger Things ended on a hook for a sequel and to have one is a complete no-brainer. There are questions that need answers, mysteries to be solved. Eleven’s story above all needs to be fully revealed.

We need to know she survived. It would be a tragedy and a disgrace for this wonderfully interesting character to have died. For her to exit like this permanently would send out the wrong signals. It is already accepted that there is no hope for survivable LGBTQ representation on TV and this would suggest there is no hope for abused and mistreated children either.

Eleven deserves all the things that the three boys take for granted, acceptance, friendship and love of either her real parent or an adopted one and also to continue to experience the awakening sweet ‘romance’ between her and Mike. She can then go onwards on new adventures with the Gang to save the Town and the world from whatever future terrors await. There is UNLIMITED scope to reveal other abilities of Eleven as the series progresses.

This MUST be a Long-Haul TV series and we are going to enjoy watching the characters change and grow up as we did at Hogwarts.

This a rare opportunity that doesn’t appear often and Netflix and the Duffer Brothers should grab it with all hands as they have not only a ‘Creative Blank Check’ but a licence to Print Money!

One of the fun things about this show was that it reminded me just how bad an actress Winona Ryder always was. Her terrible performance took me back to her bad ones from the past and fit the mood perfectly.

I love shows that end with unanswered questions. Who were the guys that picked up Hopper and what deal did they strike? What condition was Will left in? A girl named 11 implies there were 10 predecessors. I don’t think future seasons should return to Indiana and I think the only surviving character should be Hopper. The beauty of this show was the element of ordinary people. Hopper wasn’t a super cop just a an ordinary broken down local. These kids weren’t tremendous athletes or popular just regular nerdy teenagers. This was a tale of ordinary people coming together to do extraordianry things. I would like to see season 2 begin with a similar incident as in Hawkins with Hopper being asked to consult and reluctantly getting involved only because there’s a little girl involved which tugs at his heart strings. Pepper in the threat that the federal government is always watching Hopper because he agreed to not meddle in their affairs anymore and I think you a compelling story that connects enough to season 1 without needing to revisit other existing characters.

Orphan Black I feel does an excellent job in streamlining it’s story. Approaching the final season, the mythology is not collapsing on itself. It’s not like the end of List’s penultimate, wherein you get this feeling that one season cannot satisfy all the loose ends the writers set up.

Orphan Black, through the second and midway through the third season, did appear to teeter. The stories were not well connected, but they we’re pivotal in establishing the rather compelling plot lines from 3×06 onward. Certain actors (Ari Millen) were pushed past their limits during this time. And the writers spent a lot if time setting up for the end game.

But within Clone Club it is widely considered that season 4 is the best season, if not slightly overshadowed by the series debut. Most mysteries are resolved, with just enough questions and tension to usher in a satisfying climax. With season 5 being the final season I have 100% faith that Orphan Black will be not only satisfying to the random, but regarded in the top tier of scifi conspiracy TV

Stranger Things was the best Stephen King adaption I’ve ever seen! ;)

I’ve only just started watching the show, and the one thing that hit me early on was how it reminded me of reading Koontz and King back in the late 80s/early 90s as a teenager. I for one find the nostalgia one of the most enjoyable aspects of this show.

The technique is closed, meaning the few directly connected to the safety system is

It is incredibly important in the present crime filled society to ensure your own home

has adequate protection against thieves and burglars. Cctv xunbao Liability often hinges on regardless of if the

It can readily become really tough with regard to picking a to pay for ones business.

And should the potential perpetrators hate something, it can be uncertainty.

Anyone who wants them to leave Hawkins, Indiana **just because** most shows wouldn’t, is a moron. Give me one non-emotional reason why, if they do a Season 2, it should be set elsewhere.

Honestly…. evil government organization… again?!? Don’t you guys have ANY other trope to fall back to?!????? Also the anime trope of children are the only ones that get it?!? Jeez!!! How many tired cliches can you fit in a single first episode?!?

Totally agree that they should leave Indiana! I think they should possibly keep the actors but move to another era. It is one of the most well done performances I’ve seen from children in all of my life. Netflix has produced some amazing shows and this is at the top of the list. However, I wouldn’t be sad if they didn’t renew it.

My only complaint was how none of the characters thought to hold a memorial service for the brave hero who saved the entire town. Instead, she was cast aside only to be remembered by two characters, and more like a dog who’d passed rather than a real person. I’m really disturbed by this lack of honor. She was dehumanized during her life only to remain dehumanized after her heroic death.

That being said, as someone who grew up in this era I thoroughly enjoyed this series. The Duffer Brother’s representation of this time was perfectly captured. And in contrast to many viewers, I thought Winona Rider’s performance delivered exactly what the script called for.

Nobody knows the sorrrrow ive seeeeen, nobody knows the troublllle.

They certainly seem to have left it open with the possibility that Will now has powers, similar to El’s.

Correction: Winona’s character goes to her work to purchase a phone when she asks for an advance.

I am not exactly a huge fan of Winona Ryder, but I think all the hate being directed towards her is unfair. I’m sure all of you critics have your own image of how her character could have gone or acted or what-not. I watched the show out of curiosity and I was pleasantly surprised… and very much drawn in! I thought Ms. Ryder gave her everything in that performance. I thought it was believable. If the director thought that she was overacting in some scenes, he should have done something about it. But no, everything turned out the way I expected a mother would have acted when her child goes missing! I would have gone ballistic. Overdramatic? Perhaps! I felt her frustration and desperation, even her unyielding and somehow unsure feelings of hope and determination that she will find her child. But you or I will never know how it truly feels until it happens to us personally. Also, kudos to the set and props director. I truly felt like I was back in the 80s! I cringed at the wardrobe, not because they were awful, but because I wore those at some point in my life and I had asked myself several times, “What was I thinking?”. LOL! Anyway, the show was great! I Netflix binged and I was extremely pleased!

I agree with you! Winona Ryder was very good and so was Molly Brown! The show was the best I’ve seen in a long time😊❤️

Great show and nice review. My only issue (and most won’t know or care about the connection) is the change in setting and title.

This show was originally titled and set in Montauk, NY because of the Montauk Project. I’m only on the 2nd episode and it already borrows heavily from the Montauk Project mythos.

I read somewhere else that the original setting WS Montauk because the brothers loved Jaws which was set on Martha’s Vineyard / Amity Island and they wanted a similar feel. This is BS; it was set in Montauk because of that conspiracy. Even one of the brothers had the famous Montauk tower as his FB background.

If anything; these changes mean someone didn’t want the focus on Montauk.

wow this article is really bad. where do you find the writers?

I hate to disagree but I think Ms Ryder seriously over acted the part and the show as a whole would have been much better had she dialed it down.

“The characters weren’t just curious about the mysteries in their town, they were curious about each other, and the process of discovery in both realms intertwined nicely.” Fantastic point. This is a fantastic example of “setting as a character”. Will’s disappearance effectively disrupts a town that until that moment had peaceful and tight-knit.*

*Little nuggets of world building I loved in the first episode: Hopper at his desk with Joyce, giving her the “nothing bad ever happens here” spiel.

i almost feel it was given a second shot when will went into the bathroom and the black thing came out and room changed…almost like wait a minute is there more to this story?

I’ve seen 1.5 episodes. Am I to expect it to get less boring?

I’m not sure if you read the review… Yes! Just let it play if it’s not sticking to your ribs yet. It will.

I speak as a person who has gone “eh…” at multiple shows that turned out to be crowd-pleasers once they got their footing, which is why I can’t be snarky about this question at all. Sometimes it takes a few, but trust me, give the show a chance and you’ll be glad.

Excellent review and I agree on all points but one. Much as I love Winona Ryder, and she being the main reason I tuned in, I really was not impressed with her acting at all. She was too overly animated, and her go to expression for every emotion she needed to convey was to widen her eyes and yell. She wasn’t able to convey the utter desperation one would feel in her situation, because I was taken out of the story and noticing her acting too much. She didn’t deter me from loving this series, and I’m about to watch it a second time. I wish her the best and if she has any other projects in the future I’ll be there to support her, I just hope she can act better than she did here. I want the old Winona back.

This story worked very well in large part due to the era they chose. 1983 was an era of technological naivete — before cell phones, before internet, before kids were forbidden from playing outside. We ate dinner at home, biked around with friends until dark, played at the junkyard, and paid attention to our neighbors. If bad things happened, it was just a tragedy. The idea of suing and laying blame for every little thing was still uncommon. This era allows stories to take shape, allows characters to have normal human reactions, and allows a 21st century audience to be less jaded and more understanding of those reactions.

Carolyn, I couldn’t agree more. I hope to see more of Stranger Things. At first I thought they would go the route of American Horror Story, with another completely different strange story. I hope they build off this story line.

Yeah, have we learned nothing from “True Detective”? I say vote “no” on anthology!!

Sequels are always a bad idea when the original became a cultural myth (for that reason Spielberg never wanted to do a sequel of “E.T.”) and “Stranger Things” it’s the cultural (cinematographic) phenomenon of this summer.

I think a new anthology story (in the vein of “Amazing Stories” (from Amblin, btw) or “Twilight Zone” could be the best choice.

Agreed, and it fit the bill tribute-wise. But I feel they probably won’t go that way, given the Will reveal and the unanswered questions about Eleven. I won’t panic but it would definitely work the way you suggested. Still I doubt we’ll be disappointed.

It was okay popcorn fare but I just don’t see all the extraordinary attributes that Ms. Ryan or other critics have gushed over. That being said, the cast was very solid but I wish the children were portrayed a little closer to children and not given adult-like reasoning, Einstein-like scientific intellect and Sherlock Holmes-like sleuthing skills. Stranger Things is not even remotely like E.T, which really captured innocence of childhood beautifully. Other the El (11), none of the children were particularly interesting or worthy of my caring about. While the adult scientists in E.T. were initially portrayed as menacing and evil as viewed through a child’s eye, they were ultimately a lot more redeemable than the murderous scientific group in Stranger Things. I’m still not clear what those evil researchers were attempting to accomplish and why they were willing to kill to keep their research secret. It was a muddled story that left a lot of backstory out. The plot felt mostly like lots of borrowed bits and pieces from other horror films. I probably sound too nitpicky to some about Stranger Things but I too wouldn’t object to a second season, either. And similar to what Ms Ryan offered up, maybe a new (anthology) story would be a better choice than returning to the original story.

I don’t know, “Jaques” (ha); I remarked to my husband that perhaps the kids’ D&D knowledge had enabled them to learn the skills of adult-adjacent teamwork that allowed for a more grown up narrative vs., say, teamwork learned on a baseball team. I honestly thought the kids were kids, but had a dynamic that let them sleuth and fight on their own terms. They were sharp, but to me, not so sharp as to be unbelievable. I’m not sure what others think, but I’d say you and I are possibly divided on either side of the sand on this! ;)

Excellent review! Stranger Things is the first show in along time that got me wanting to see more! Really well written and the actors were fantastic, especially Eleven! Had to spread the word about this show to my family and friends!! Netflix has a huge hit and so does the Duffer Brothres!! Thanks for great TV☺️

Whoops, Marianne. Thanks to my iPad my comment went to you, so I’ll have to repost this and look like a dip. :D

“The truth is out there”. FOX should give the Duffers the next season of X-Files and get rid of Carter.

Hopefully they’d do a direct continuation of Season 7, just ignoring 8, 9 and 10.