Hype. It can be a dangerous thing. When the media spins wild and wondrous about a new programme it doesn't automatically mean I will chime with the journalistic zeitgeist. When friends insist I will love said programme I tend to come to it with either too much anticipation or with a sense of resignation and advance sorrow that I am about to prove my compadres wrong.
I am late to this party. I quite like being late to parties sometimes although there is a deeper satisfaction to be had coming early, eating the best of the snacks, drinking some punch, smoking some fine ass weed and then leaving before too many assholes arrive. But it's not literally a party, I got tangled up in my own metaphor.
Late or not, I spent an entire day binge-watching to catch up with this series which was apparently somehow startlingly innovative and yet also evocative of some of the greatest science fiction creations television and cinema have ever spawned. When it comes to the latter it is undeniable that Spielberg looms large as does Lynch, various adaptations of Stephen King's work and maybe a little Ridley Scott. I also saw nods to Scooby Doo and Buffy The Vampire Slayer but you don't have to if you don't want to.
Innovation? Actually yes, the Duffer Brothers have achieved a gloomy newness of their own, not least because the investigations into kooky, spooky goings on in Hawkins, Indiana (a very authentic unreal American backwater town) are explored from the angle of several different groups. The dungeons and dragons loving kids whose buddy, Will's disappearance is the start and the heart of the piece, are brave, refreshing and strike completely genuine notes throughout despite the plot requiring them to face up to horrors most of us would soil our underwear over at their age.
Will's mother, Winona Ryder in surely her career best performance, is convinced even after a body is dragged from a nearby lake that her son is alive and communicating with her through the lights in her house. She also fears that some kind of monster is in the walls of her house. It should feel like schlock Hammer House stuff where walls drip blood and voices erupt out of static but it's too gripping and well directed to be so stale. She's eventually aided by an initially cynical cop who has his eyes prised wide open to the freakery in the county when he sticks his nose into things government folk would rather he did not.
Wills older brother teams up with one of the other kids' big sisters, much to the annoyance of her boyfriend, lending good old teen drama and sexual tension into the mix but, again, nothing is rote or just retread, the relationships are taut and real enough, the performances strong, emotional.
The aforementioned government folk are led by the Droopy The Dog features of Matthew Modine who, Winona aside, is the biggest name here. He clearly has unpleasant, weaponising intentions for his strange, psychokinetic prodigy, a twelve year old girl known as Eleven who teams up with the youngsters to find Will. She dominates the entire series, a mini-Sinead O'Connor in appearance and aloof weirdery, but vital to the final knitting together of all the disparate pieces of the puzzle and dealing with the very real monster lurking in the shadows.
To divulge more would be to spoil it for any who are coming to the party even later than I (just remember it's not a real party and there will be no vol au vents or dancing to The Human League). I can say that for once I agree with the hype and with the insistences of my friends: Stranger Things is a combination of satisfyingly familiar elements melded together in a unique and compelling way. The cinematography is atmospheric and impeccable throughout, the dialogue and action weave perfectly to keep the story rolling along at a pace which allows for true development of individual plot lines yet never lets things drag. And the performances, particularly Ryder's, are of such high quality that suspension of disbelief is easier than you might imagine when you are also admiring yourself for noticing the references to Stand By Me, Close Encounters, Gremlins, E.T., Alien, Hanna, and a whole bunch of other noteworthy cinematic moments.
Another series on the way, you say? They'll find it hard to match this one but I have every confidence they will try their very best to do just that.
