Stranger
Things Season 1 Review
As many of
you guys know, Stranger Things is very popular within our society, and it all begins
in a small town of Hawkins.
This review
of season 1 will have spoilers so please, if you haven’t watched it and want
to, take the time to do so now, if you choose to read on regardless of my
warning, please don’t flame me for spoilers.
You have
been warned!
The review begins under the masterfully placed page break
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The story
centers on a group of boys, Will, Mike, Lucas and Dustin. Perhaps the reason this
show is so popular with our group is because we can identify with a group of
nerdy, D&D playing boys with issues being socially awkward.
Of this
group of boys, the story focuses on Will, more specifically, his disappearance.
After looking in the woods for their friend, the boys stumble across a girl
with a shaved head and wearing a hospital gown. Mike allows the girl to stay in
his basement and they learned that her name is Eleven and she has psychokinetic
abilities.
Whilst this
is happening, Will’s mother, Joyce, starts experiencing supernatural events in
her home, which she is certain is Will communicating with her. This comes to a
climax towards the end of the series and leads to one of the most iconic images
from the entire series, of a wall with fairy lights and letters written on that
Joyce tries getting Will to use to communicate with her.
Another important
character of the series is Jim Hopper, the police chief of the town, who, when
looking for Will comes across a piece of Eleven’s hospital gown which was ripped,
and he soon becomes interested in the national lab where she escaped from.
Through the
season there is a mysterious monster, the same that took Will, appearing in
many places, even resulting in another girl, Barb, being taken ultimately
dying. Joyce encounters the monster several times when she is attempting to
communicate with her son who is in ‘the upside down’, as named by the boys. Nancy,
Mike’s sister and Barb’s friend, also sees the monster when she is out in the
woods looking for Barb.
Soon it is revealed
that a body is discovered by the quarry in town that most people assume to be
Will’s however Eleven disagrees and manipulates radios using her powers to
allow the boys to be able to hear Will’s voice from where he was taken in the upside
down. Throughout the season Eleven experiences painful flashbacks that suggest
that more nefarious things were happening in the national lab than the
employees would have you think. This climaxes in a flashback of Eleven being
placed in a sensory deprivation tank where she accidentally opens the gate to
the upside down.
The series
culminates with Eleven and the boys being trapped in a classroom with the monster
where she sacrifices herself to save the boys, much to Mike’s displeasure. Will
is recovered and is hospitalized. The last episode in the series takes place a
month later and we see it end with Will coughing up a slug like creature and has
a momentary flashback to upside down.
This season
easily opens up for season 2 to begin and follow a storyline, concerning Will
and his contact with the upside down. Throughout the season there are recurring
themes of romance, friendship, loyalty and family.
In my
opinion, which I know you all hold very highly, I enjoyed this season and
looked forward to what season 2 could offer.
Check in next
week where I will write a review of season 2!
any images used in this post do not belong to me, title image sourced from http://kyfast.net/making-and-breaking/2016/10/16/stranger-things-arduino-light-wall/
