opinion

Stranger Things: A Netflix Hit

If you haven’t already heard about it, “Stranger Things” is a new Netflix original series that has taken the world by storm.

Netflix summarizes the show with “When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.”

This horror sci-fi series has a great pace, wonderful plot and magnificent actors. There are more than a few reasons why this show should take a small piece of your time. With only eight episodes it will probably only take you a day to finish the first season.

To start, the costume, make-up and art directors did a wonderful job creating a genuine ’80s feel. On top of creating a set for the make-believe town of Hawkins, Indiana, set in 1983, they did a wonderful job with all of the supernatural scenes as well.

Being able to create something that looks as real as the supernatural scenes do in this series takes talent and a great vision and they nailed it. Along with all of the props, the music for the show was wonderfully chosen. The synth music goes extremely well with each scene and the song choices work great with the pace of the series.

Although all of the work put into the set and arts of the show are done with great precision, the cast deserves the most credit for the success of this series. The casting crew did a great job picking the main characters. Winona Ryder portrays Joyce Byers, the single mother of the missing child.

Throughout the show she portrays her role from crazy to completely sane with effortless grace. David Harbour (Jim Hopper) does a wonderful job playing the part of a dead-beat cop who fights for the right side of the battle. Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) as alpha wolf of the friend group was a bold and ultimately satisfying choice. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) and Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) are wonderful for their roles as the best friends. Each character adds their own piece to the story. But most importantly, there is Millie Bobby Brown, otherwise known as Eleven.

Eleven, or El, is already a badass name but Millie makes the character even more badass than was expected.

El is the main character in the story. Not only does she have a shaved head and super powers, making her the most interesting character by a long shot, but she loves Eggos and that makes her so relatable and appealing as a character. The fact that a 12-year-old with a British accent can play a young girl, in such a kick-ass way, with a better American accent than most Americans have is the number one reason to watch “Stranger Things.”

Trust me, you aren’t wasting your time. You won’t regret sitting in the dark for  eight hours to finish the series. You will most likely wish you had super powers and there is a good chance you will call someone a Mouth Breather because insults were much better in the ’80s.

 

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