Stranger Things Season 1: SPOILER Review

• At some point in Stranger Things, Steve has to leave Hawkins, Indiana and move to Pawnee, Indiana. Change his name to Len Saperstein and become a doctor. And get married and have kids named Mona Lisa and Jean-Ralphio. CANON PEOPLE!

• This is a SPOILER REVIEW. There are SPOILERS AHEAD. If you have not watched the first season of Stranger Things there are SPOILERS in this review. I'm making it clear because I don't want this show ruined for anybody. I recently did a non-spoiler review so if you haven't watched the show, you can read that or just watch the show because it's fantastic. And again, a lot of these thoughts are going to be from other reviewers and people I've talked about the show with. So all but a couple of thoughts were thoughts from my own head. Anyway, let's get into the SPOILERS.

• I rewatched the first season to both review it and get prepared for Season Two to have it fresh in my head. There are SO many moments where I thought "That's my favorite moment. No that's my favorite moment." That is a huge compliment to the creators of this show. I took SO MANY notes and most of them were amazing moments. But you've seen the show. The main thing that I didn't want to spoil was the fact that I loved the older kids of this story. I can say now that Charlie Heaton (Jonathan), Natalie Dyer (Nancy) and Joe Keery (Steve) are all great.

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• To me, you don't really like or care about any of these 3 characters. You initially thought that Jonathan would just end up being a throw away dumb big brother character. You thought Nancy was just going to be a typical 80s big sister. Like when Dustin offered her some pizza and she just closed the door on him. Steve going from being a total jerk and then leaving his super annoying mouth breather friends (like what I did there?). It’s not like you hate the characters initially but you just are kinda feeling distant from them. It's always satisfying to watch characters grow. And in the case of these three characters, our perspective of them as an audience is what grows. And the sudden turn in perspective I think is a big part of why we love these characters so much. I didn’t want to spoil that turn in perspective.

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• Let's talk about Charlie Heaton. He is great. He stood out a lot. His performance is very quiet. very closed off. Which isn’t easy to not appear weird. Because it’s very easy to fall into Hayden Christensen level cheesiness. But Charlie Heaton did great. He has a line that goes “Don’t take it so personally. I don’t like most people. Steve's in the vast majority.” Charlie Heaton is great at playing a guy who’s trying to hold everything inside who eventually grows out of that a bit. And even becomes a better big brother. Dang, right you're gonna drive Will home every day Jonathan!

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• In the first couple episodes, I think Nancy’s teen movie plot doesn’t feel important. It obviously pays off later down the line but that is a small flaw I think. In the first episode, it kinda feels unimportant and distracting from the ultimate story. I don’t recall being annoyed by that the first time watching it. And a lot of the romance stuff just makes you want to roll your eyes. And I’m positive that’s completely intentional. Natalie Dyer plays her role great. The scenes when she's traumatized by the Demogorgon are probably her best. And I think her growth as a character definitely still has a lot to grow. One big thing she did support was Barb. I’m sorry but I couldn't care less about Barb. I think her death worked to give some stakes, especially for Nancy. Barb was the expendable victim to show us as an audience what the Demogorgon can do and to make us more scared. I guess it is kinda funny why Hopper doesn’t ever even mention Barb. But for the story, it’s not important. If they went down that route it would distract us from the main plot. And nobody cares about Barb! I don’t care, Hopper doesn’t care, and the audience shouldn’t care. Sorry that you got slug-ified Barb.

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• And in this season you go through the process of forgiving two characters as an audience. Steve and Lucas. I hated Steve at points of the show. But going into Season Two I love Steve. I've forgiven him. I love when Steve goes the Byers home and is violently thrown into all the supernatural weirdness that’s going on and he’s losing his mind. Speaking of that, at the beginning of that scene Steve says he went to talk to Jonathan. That’s really interesting. When he went to the house he said that he wanted to talk to Jonathan. In the fight between Steve and Jonathan, Steve couldn't take him. I’m curious to see what Steve’s mindset is right now. This show gives character development to even the jerk boyfriend people!

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• In my non-spoiler review, I said that this show satisfies our desire for originality but at the same time satisfies our need for nostalgia and to return to some types of films. It gives us the feel of classic movies (Sci-fi in particular). Like how the bad men dress like the bad guys in ET. Or the stuff coming out of the walls like Poltergeist. But still giving us something original. I love whenever a film or a show gives us a creation we've never seen before. Whenever the filmmakers take time to think of things that are creative and memorable. Joyce using the Christmas lights to communicate with Will is the absolute best creative thing. And how they've eternally made people associate Eggos with Eleven. Or how "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" Will always be a song that will creep us out.

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• Another thing that I love that filmmakers sometimes give us is when they use cliches to manipulate your expectations to ultimately surprise you. I mentioned already the turn in perspective with Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve. But the biggest example of this in the show is when the kids are on their bikes and you think Eleven is gonna make them fly like ET but she uses her powers to flip the bus, thus using our expectations to surprise us. I think the only time when the nostalgia goes too far a little bit for my taste is some of the monster designs. The eggs that Hop and Joyce find in the Upside Down, or the big slug that they pull out of Will's mouth, looks a bit too much like Alien to me. I think that's the only time they cross the line just a little bit.Let's talk about the group of the outcast kids. Finn Wolfhard (great name) who plays Mike, Caleb McLaughlin who plays Lucas, and Gaten Matarazzo who plays Dustin. All these kids are great and are very charismatic. Who doesn't love Dustin and his baby smile? I think the best scenes that define them as characters are, one - the funeral scene. I love the funeral scene. None of them are sad at all because they know Will's still alive. Dustin says “Wait until we tell Will that Jennifer cried at his funeral.” Or when Mr. Clark asks them “How you boys holding up?” and Dustin is distracted “Man! these aren't real Nilla Wafers.” I love how none of the kids ever really appear scared of losing Will. They gave up when the found the body. But anytime they are searching, they don’t ever seem scared that maybe he’s dead.

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• The mindset is always - "We’ve got a mission so let's do it. Yeah, he’s alive. And we're gonna get him back." I think the best example of this is when Lucas and Dustin are asleep in the hospital waiting for Will to wake up. That’s what the characters are. They’re young kids and that’s how they treat the situation. They treat it like Will just came home from a long trip or something. When they talk to him they tell him all the stuff that happened. They don’t get all mushy and sentimental. It's such a great character moment. And again, they're all so much fun. And great supporting characters of Eleven. And I’ve noticed that a lot of the characters struggle with working together. Hopper tries to tell Joyce that he's gonna find Will alone. Jonathan doesn’t tell his mom that he’s going on his own path to find Will. Eleven runs off a lot. And then the fight with Lucas.

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• Let me talk about my second favorite character. Chief Hopper played by David Harbour. If you’re a fan of the show you have GOT to watch the video of David Harbour from the Funny or Die channel. It's one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time. I leave a link in my bio. Anyway, Chief Hopper brings us the awesome detective aspect of the story. About once each episode, you get snippets of what’s going on under the surface of his character. The line he has on the pier “You ever feel cursed?” Again, the show takes it's time building up to the character and building up to David Harbour’s performance. Which is a depressed divorced sheriff looking for some form of redemption or fulfillment or closure. I love the character and I love the actor.

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• A couple times in the show Hopper starts talking about his daughter like she’s still alive. There's the scene in the bar when he’s telling the story of the spelling bee and then the guy he's talking to asks “What’s her name?” The look that Hopper gives back to him looks to me like he was confused. Like he was thinking “Why is this guy asking about my daughter?” I don’t really know anything scientific about grief or if this is something people actually do. But I think that when Hopper talks about his daughter like she’s alive it’s almost like a form of Alzheimer's. He just sorta drifts off. And Hop is yet another support to the motivation to find Will. He feels like if he can find Will for Joyce, that maybe it will give him some form of closure of his daughter's death. And he deeply cares about keeping Joyce away from the life that he has. And David Harbour shows that whenever he's pounding Will's chest yelling "Come on kid!" I literally just got chills typing that line out. I love this character. And I'm dying to see what happens next in his story.

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• Let's talk about Winona Ryder who plays Joyce. I know a lot of people thought her performance was over the top. Watching it again this time, I’m sure that had to be a lot of concern on set about how far she was going with all the crying and the facial expressions. I’m sure it had to feel really risky. She’s great at portraying a realistic mom terrified of losing her son. I just feel like if I were on set, I would be terrified if people were gonna take it seriously. Because when you really stop and think about it, she’s very easy to make fun of. “Will is in the lights! He’s calling to me!” But you don’t laugh because the story has hooked you. But if you watch 6 times like I have you start to realize how funny it is. The ending of Chapter 3 is perfection. It's when they find what turns out to be Will's fake body. The episode ends with the audience thinking -"Well what now?!" And you can do that with a show that's designed to be binged.

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• And then Chapter 4 in my mind is like an entire episode dedicating to telling us “Hey! Will is still out there.” The boys hear Will singing through the walkie-talkie at the beginning of the episode. You’ve got Jonathan and Nancy getting proof of the Demogorgon. You’ve got Joyce seeing Will in the wall. And finally, you’ve got Hopper figuring out the body is cotton. Chapter 4 is the episode that gets motivated again to lead us into the finale of the season. And the final shot of Hopper breaking into the facility is perfection. We’re right back into getting Will back. Which is the perfect entrance for the character of Lonnie (played by Ross Partridge) who is Joyce's ex-husband and Will and Jonathan's dad. You need the character of Lonny to make you get behind Joyce again. You’re wanting to scream at him “She’s not crazy!” Adding conflict and again making you care deeply about finding Will. Sometimes adding jerks to the story can make you care more about ultimate goals. You want to see Joyce throw him out of the house and to keep searching for Will.

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• Another great thing that stood out to me on the re-watch was the relationship between Joyce and Eleven. That’s just amazing character interaction. This show is just filled with amazing setups and character interactions. Eleven needs a parental figure in her life to give her the strength to get her through having to go into the Upside Down again. In Chapter 7: The Bathtub, that's the first time Eleven goes into the Upside Down in her head, without being forced by the bad men. So that's a great transition to talk about my favorite character. Eleven played by Millie Bobbie Brown. I absolutely love how Millie Bobbie Brown is able to portray and communicate to us that all these interactions she’s having with Benny, Dustin, Mike, Lucas is really the first time she’s ever experienced any love or kindness. And just how broken and afraid she is because of how isolated she’s been throughout her whole life. Whenever she interacts with them, Millie initially portrays it as if it’s painful for her. It’s great to watch Eleven become friends and apart of the group of outcasts. It’s just fascinating to watch. I just love this performance and the character so much. When Eleven returns from running and saves Mike's life from jumping off the cliff. And then the group hug. GOOSEBUMPS FOR EVERYBODY!

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• You're introduced to Eleven and you really hate the shaved head look (or at least I did). But by the end of the season, you realize that she’s your favorite. And on top of all the greatness, you also get a bit of the fish out of water aspect of her story. There are the scenes when she's exploring the house or when Mike tries to put makeup on her. I love whenever you get to watch a character exploring our normal world for the first time. One of my favorite scenes of the whole show is when she explains to the boys what the Upside Down is when she flips the D&D board. The score blows my mind in that scene.

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• I’m not really interested in the romance side of Mike and Eleven’s relationship so far. It hasn’t YET felt that important other then it makes her “death” an even bigger gut punch. I think that part of the story will be more pivotal in Season Two. The romantic side of the relationship will make you care a bit more about Mike missing her in Season Two. And I think one of Millie Bobbie Brown's strongest scenes is with Matthew Modine.

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• What her papa is putting her through is awful. But the scene when she just murdered the two lab workers and he comes and picks her up, it's so emotional and sick at the same time. And the score is perfect for giving us that mood. It’s both disturbing and you should just hate it but it’s also touching. But in the last episode, when Eleven and Dr. Brenner are reunited, and she calls her Papa “Bad” and reaches and calls out for Mike. CHILLS CHILLS CHILLS. To me, that scene in the last episode is the answer to the scene when her Papa picks her up and carries her out of the isolation box. That’s where Eleven started and where she ended as a character. Those two scenes are what define Eleven’s arc. Like Joyce said, “You’re a very brave little girl.” Eleven is a scared and tortured girl that had the bravery and strength to sacrifice herself to save the only people who have ever taken care of her. She sacrificed herself and her chance to be happy so she could save the everyone. I wanted to cry a little bit at the conversation between Mike and Eleven in the last episode. Mike: “We can go to the snowball and eat eggos.” Eleven: “Promise?” Mike: “Promise.” The way Eleven is developed is absolutely beautiful.

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• So let's talk about Will. I want an entire episode of Will’s perspective of all the events of Season One. I want to see everything with Will’s time in the upside down. The scene when Joyce is holding the ball of lights in the cubby hole, I want to see the scene with Will in the Upside Down staring face to face with his mom communicating through the lights. Wouldn't that be an amazing scene? And when Eleven finds Will in the Upside Down and tells him “We’re coming for you.” You feel so awful for him. Will is a freaking survivor. He has to sing his favorite music just to calm himself down. I'm already intrigued by Will just from what he's gone through already. And the reunion of Will and everyone (especially Jonathan) is as satisfying as you could ever ask. But it did come with a price. We lost Eleven, and Hopper has made a dangerous deal. I’m positive that there was more to that deal than we heard. How does Hopper know Eleven is alive?! These are the questions. I apologize for the really really really long review. It’s a perfect 9 episode season. I didn't even get to say all my thoughts. I really loved doing this. This is honestly probably my favorite review I’ve ever done. If you read the whole thing, God bless you. But if you want to hear more questions I have going into Season Two you can find that on my account later.