Stranger Things Season 1 TV Reivew

Stranger Things (2016-)
Season 1 (2016)

Created by: Matt Duffer , Ross Duffer
Starring:  Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhar, Millie Bobby Brown
Rating: --/TV-MA 

Plot: 
This Netflix original is set in 1983 where a mother tries to find her son after he disappears mysteriously in the small town of Hawkins.

Verdict
The Duffer brothers have created an amazing series. It juggles multiple story lines and paces them just right for maximum intrigue and excitement. We've seen the individual ideas before, but it's combined perfectly so that it feels unique and fun. It has hints of Super 8 (2011), Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) & The Goonies (1985), with The X-files (1993-2002). It feels like an eight hour movie and that's a compliment. It's so well made. The acting and directing is great. The score is superb, with the synth sounds fitting the time period exactly. The only bad thing is that it ends. It's great from start to finish. I hope there is a second season and I want it to be an anthology.
Watch it.

Review
This is my spoiler free review, the episode walk through is at the bottom of the page. Don't worry, you won't accidentally see a spoiler if you cautiously scroll down.

Did I mention composers Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein do a great job? The score is amazing. I sat through the title credits every time just to listen to the main theme.
This will be Netflix's next big hit. It could be an awesome anthology. Even the title Stranger Things sounds like an anthology title. As much as I enjoyed this season's story and characters I want a new plot line. The story is complete and doesn't end on a cliff hanger, though it does provide a teaser. Like any good pulp novel, and many The X-files episodes, there is always a teaser. I don't think it indicated we'll continue this story. Continuing would rob the show of the atmosphere it so deftly creates.

The production values and cinematography are movie level. It creates a great atmosphere. While the '80s style is prevalent it's never overpowering. The attention to detail is impressive.

The story centers on Will Byers who disappears mysteriously. In the first few minutes, we know there is a monster involved. No one else in the show, other than the government scientists, believe that except for his mom who just seems crazy. Slowly different characters begin to realize something is amiss. You know they need to meet, and them coming together drives the story.
Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are Will's friends. They stumble upon someone that knows what happened to Will. Will's mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) is certain he's still alive, despite the lack of proof.
Will's brother teams up with Mike's sister Nancy to hunt the monster.

The first couple of episodes were great. While some Netflix show's tend to flop half way through, this doesn't. It just gets more intense as we get to the conclusion. The mood and atmosphere is unlike anything on Netflix. Netflix needed a solid sci-fi offering and this is it.

It's hard to single out a best episode. All of them are good and build upon the previous. I really like the ending. It's fitting.

Below is my episode by episode walk through.

SPOILER WARNING!! SPOILER WARNING!! SPOILER WARNING!! SPOILER WARNING!! SPOILER WARNING!! SPOILER WARNING!! SPOILER WARNING!! SPOILER WARNING!!

Chapter 1 -  The Vanishing of Will Byers

Will Byers desperately needs to phone a friend.

I love the '80s setting. The first shot is a scientist at an energy facility running from an unseen monster. I didn't expect to see a monster in the first couple of minutes, I thought it would remain a mystery for a few episodes. It feels very much like Super 8, and this is creepy from the jump. Will Byers just vanishes into thin air while biking home from his friend's house late at night.
The lab is part of a government conspiracy. There is a pulsing organism on the wall and a girl has escaped from this same lab. The girl is found at a diner by the owner, but she doesn't speak. He thinks she is a boy due to her shaved head. We soon realize she is telekinetic when she stops a squeaky fan from spinning, though no one else sees this happen.
The sheriff also lost a daughter. I wondered if the escaped kid from the lab would end up being the sheriff's daughter. Multiple times the show referenced the small town setting and how everyone knows each other. It was a contrived idea, and that is not how it plays out.
The government is monitoring phone calls trying to track the kid. The diner owner who finds the escaped kid is shot and killed by a government agent posing as a social worker. The escaped kid takes down two agents and flees. The show is bonkers in the best possible way.

Chapter 2 - The Weirdo on Maple Street
Upon escaping the diner, the girl is found by Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. The girl speaks, but she only knows a few words. Her name is Eleven, the same number tattooed onto her arm. Millie Bobby Brown is the actor that plays Eleven and does a great job. The directors get great performances from everyone.
Somehow Eleven knows Will. Eleven was imprisoned in the lab by Brenner (Matthew Modine). He's the main villain.
Bennie the diner owner has his death staged like a suicide. Sheriff Hopper thinks the girl might be Will based on patron descriptions.

Eleven flexing her brain and slamming doors.

Eleven only knows a few words, but she seemed to have full speech when she entered the lab in the flash back.
The boys decide to tell Mike's mom about Eleven, but in a great moment she slams the door telepathically. The boys realize she in essence has super powers.

Joyce, grief stricken at home, sees a wall in her house distort. Something seems to be reaching for her through the wall. Could it be Will? Or is it the monster? Electrical disturbances seem to follow the monster and Will.

This episode has a side plot with Mike's sister Nancy. She is ascending to cool kid status and leaving her uncool best friend, Barbara behind. A lot of time is spent on Nancy and I wasn't sure why. It would make more sense to focus on Mike's friends since they seem integral to the plot. By the end of the episode we realize why the show spent so much time with Nancy. Nancy and Barbara go to a house party. Barbara wants to leave, but waits for Nancy. A drop of blood from Barbara's hand drops into the pool. The lights flicker and the monster snatchers her.

Chapter 3 - Holly, Jolly
We've seen the monster, and it's frightening. Where did it transport Barbara and how? Barbara seems to be in a bizarro world. She's at the same pool, but it's drained of water, covered in grime, and there's a monster nearby.
We've got this organism growing on a wall in the government lab and a bipedal organism that doesn't seem to have a face.What's the connection? It will be a few episodes until we found out.

It's not that Joyce loves Christmas,

Joyce thinks she can talk to Will through lights. She seems crazy, but at least she realizes that.
Sheriff Hopper talks his way into the energy lab and is shown a tape of the night Will disappeared but realizes the lab is lying.
It rained that night and the tape was precipitation free.
Hopper would typically be a company man or wanting to close the case quickly in a show like this, but Hopper is a skeptic. He checks into Brenner and discovers that he was part of MK Ultra. MK Ultra was an actual government program that attempted to develop mind control abilities in subjects.

Eleven is powerful. You don't need a can crusher when you have her.

Eleven is powerful, but exerting that power exhausts her and causes her nose to bleed. Brenner attempted to harness her powers to kill cats. You know the implication is that he wants her to kill people.

Will is indeed communicating through the Christmas lights Joyce has strung up. Will is an alternate dimension. He's in the living room, but not in the same dimension as Joyce. What is that creature, and how does it all relate?
In an unexpected turn, Will's body is found in the lake. It can't be him, can it? Somehow it coincides with the monster breaking through the wall of Joyce's house.

Chapter 4 - The Body

The three amigos - Dustin, Lucas, Mike.

Joyce sounds crazy of course, but she did see the monster in her house. She gets the ax, ready if it comes back.
Mike lashes out at Eleven. It's grief, but you still feel bad for Eleven. This show deftly provides the view point for distraught parents and kids too. The loss of a loved one is a major theme. Everybody feels that through varying degrees and circumstances.

Will is alive. Eleven used her powers so that Mike could hear him on the radio. The boys want to get Eleven to the schools more powerful ham radio. Even the small moments, this show does them well. All of the boys work together to get Eleven into the costume. The visuals and music create a great moment. It's reinforced that Mike likes Eleven.

Joyce doesn't believe that Will's body was found. She knows she sounds crazy. Sheriff Hopper is beginning to believe her as the local medical examiner was sent home so that the state could perform an autopsy.
Hopper talks to the deputy that first found the body. Hopper knows he is lying but doesn't get far with words. He uses his fists to loosen the deputy's jaw.

Back at the energy lab, the scientists put a guy into the growing thing on the wall. Is that a portal to the dimension the monster inhabits? The guy jumps in the portal, but doesn't make it back out.

Jonathon and Nancy develop a photo that depicts the monster.

Hopper breaks into the morgue to determine if the body is real. In an intense moment he cuts open the body to find that it is rubber and full of stuffing. The body is a fake. Hopper is going to break into the energy lab.

Chapter 5 - The Flea and the Acrobat

Enter the void.

Hopper breaks into the lab, though it's a bit improbably as we know they have cameras. Someone will see him, and they do. He stumbles across Eleven's cell, though he doesn't know that yet. He's found by security and wakes up in his trailer. He tears his house apart looking for a monitoring device and finds it.

Jonathon and Nancy team up to hunt down the monster.They buy supplies from the hardware store like bear traps and bullets.

Barbara is gone but the lab moves her car to the bus station so it appears she ran away.

The boys use their compasses to follow the magnetic distortion of the portal. Eleven uses her powers to misdirect them, pitting them against her. She's trying to save them, but they don' like the ruse.

Did Eleven open the rift and let the monster in? Brenner is using her to track people. She enters a void during tracking.

Mike and Lucas fight over whether Eleven is actively sabotaging them. Eleven pulls Lucas off of Mike telepathically, knocking him unconscious. Lucas is mad and leaves, Eleven runs off.

The story telling is juggling all of these people that together could make a difference, but they don't know that the other knows anything. Each is afraid to tell anyone for fear of being called crazy.

Why is it when people in this show hear or see something frightening that they go towards it? Come on!
Jonathon and Nancy track the monster in the woods.Nancy finds a portal in the woods and crawls in. She crossed the void! Will she get out? This portal could be a big deal. This is how the monster gets out, but now she is in danger.

Chapter 6 - The Monster
Why didn't Nancy go back to the portal she entered? Is she just scared?
She gets out, but the portal closes up. Does the monster make new openings or just find them?
Steve, Nancy's boyfriend, sees Jonathon and Nancy in her room. He's mad.

Hoppper tells Joyce what he saw in the lab. Hopper realizes he's been chasing after Will, but following Eleven.

Hopper tracks down Terry, a woman who's child went missing. Terry was part of  MK Ultra experiments with LSD. Terry's sister says she miscarried and that 'Jane' was never born. Eleven has to be Jane.

Mike and Dustin look for Eleven, while Lucas follows his compass to the portal.
What a turnaround for Nancy. When this began I wondered why she was in every episode, but she's had quite the character development. She went from trying to fit into the cool kids to hanging out with outcast Jonathon to find her friend.

Jonathon punches Steve when Steve denigrates his mother and brother. It's about time those jerks got punched. It's also time Jonathon stood up for himself.

Don't mess with Eleven.

Two bully's that torment Mike, want him to jump into the quarry. The same jump Hopper said would kill a person a few episodes ago. It's that or the bully stabs Dustin. They are mad that Eleven caused one of them to urinate his pants in episode four.
Eleven saves the day. You knew she would but it's still a great moment. The framing, music, and acting are all amazing as Eleven stops Mike from falling and moves him back to land.

In a flashback, Brenner wants Eleven to confront the monster. Somehow she enters a void world when she mentally tracks people. It's pitch black with a thin layer of water on the ground. I don't know how that relates to bizarro world or how they connect.  When she touches the monster she opens the portal in the lab.

The Duffer brothers get Spielberg level performances out of the kids. I can't wait to see what they do next.
You know all the characters will come together, the show is slowly bringing them to one point. Jonathon is at the police station after the fight, and you know he is going to run into Hopper. They are both chasing the same thing.

Chapter 7 - The Bathtub

Brenner and the government are onto the boys and Eleven. They use electrical vans as cover, converging on Mike's house. Lucas warns them over the radio, and the boys escape on their bikes when Eleven flips a van end over end to stop the chase. What a crazy moment. This show is so well made it's insane.

The government searches Mike's house. This is a conspiracy of epic proportions.
Hopper knows Brenner  is after Mike and the girl.  Have I mentioned the sheer awesomeness of the score? I love this show. It has so many great characters. Now that Hopper has teamed up with Nancy and Jonathon, they find the boys. Everybody is together and it's taken the intensity to an unimaginable level.

They create a sensory deprivation chamber  in the school gym so Eleven can contact Barbara and Will. Eleven enters a void, but the monster is in an upside down world. Is she in a void between the normal world and upside down world?
The monster did kill Barbara. We assumed, now it's been confirmed. Will has been hiding which is why he's alive, but he's weak. Eleven can talk fluently in the void.

Hopper and Joyce break into the lab grounds and get caught.

Jonathon and Nancy prepare to kill the monster, planting traps in his house.

Chapter 8 - The Upside Down

Hopper makes  a deal with Brenner. They won't ever talk about the lab. Then Hopper and Joyce go through the portal.
Jonathon and Nancy try to lure the monster to Will's house by cutting their hands. It's taking a while, but when Steve shows up you know the monster will arrive soon.

Hopper finds something that looks like an egg in the upside down world. Is there more than one monster?
Steve, Jonathon, and Nancy team up to take down the monster. The gun doesn't do much, but a spiked baseball bat does. The monster gets caught in a bear trap and Jonathon sets it on fire. Why did Jonathon put out the fire? Let that thing burn.

Hopper and Joyce approach the house from the upside down world. They see blood and deduce the monster is injured. They track it through the bizarro world.
The government tracks the kids to the school A monster appears at the gym to take out the armed men as the kids escape, but it looks okay. It ultimately seems to be the same monster. There is only one from what we see.

I wondered if this would end with Eleven sacrificing herself. As she's fighting the monster, Hopper and Joyce try to revive Will. It's a redemptive moment for both of them. Combine that with Eleven dispatching the monster at her own expense and you get an absolutely stunning moment from an amazing season of television.
This is how you write a season. I want season two. I loved this season and the characters, but season two needs to be a new story. Make this an anthology.

We get a nice one month later scene. Everything looks back to normal. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Mike are playing Dungeons and Dragons, just like they were to open the season. Hopper leaves food and Eggo waffles in a box in the woods. Eleven likes waffles, so this is proof Eleven is still alive. She disappeared to stop Brenner from searching for her. She would only put people in danger by sticking around. With the monster gone does she inhabit bizarro world?

It seemed like everything was wrapped up for a new story, and we don't need to come back to this one but wait. Will coughs up a worm looking thing. He has a link to the upside down world still or a larvae of the monster inside him. I hope it's a teaser and not a clue of what will happen next season. Again, I want an anthology.
This was an eight hour long movie and I love it. This is one of Netflix's best shows and a great show period.