Today I get the pleasure of talking about a real favorite TV show of mine, Stranger Things! Before Stranger Things first aired back in 2016, I heard it described as Stephen King meets Steven Spielberg and that was all I needed to hear. The series has gone from strength to strength and as I write this, I am patiently waiting for the fourth season.
How to Stream or Download Stranger Things
You can stream it or you can download Stranger Things using the Netflix App. Click on the Download button at the end of this review. Check out also our review of the fantastic Dark, which begins in a similar fashion – with a young boy missing.
The TV Series Review
Brought to us from the creative minds of The Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things is set in the 80s and as someone who grew up in the 80s that is awesome. The fashion, the way people talk, the trends and so on all feel very authentic to the 80s. The setting is great, but it is the story and the characters that make this series so compelling.
The setting is the early 80s in a town called Hawkins that is in Indiana. There is a research lab here that is tinkering with the paranormal and they have opened a gateway to another dimension. This place is called The Upside Down and it is a pretty horrific place inhabited by evil monstrous creatures.
Four D&D living kids, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will are just living their life until Will gets taken to The Upside Down! At the same time as Will’s disappearance, a girl called Eleven who has telekinesis abilities escapes from the lab. She joins the boys and tries to help them find and save Will from The Upside Down.
What is neat about the first season of Stranger Things is that as well as the kids, there are other plots going on. Wills mother, Joyce along with Police Chief Hopper are also trying to find out what happened to Will. It is great and emotional stuff and the bond that the kids have is something truly special and feels very natural.
I enjoyed the first season a great deal, but Stranger Things season 2 is my favorite. In this season we get a new character, Max, and her brother Billy joining things. Add to this Will not being 100 percent OK after returning from The Upside Down and you have a truly epic season. I love the whole dynamic with Billy and his rivalry with Steve.
Actually, I forgot to mention that as well as the younger kids, we do also have Steve, Nancy, and Johnathon as the older teenagers. Billy was such a great character and it was great the way he made you feel uncomfortable, but he was also so cool at the same time. I felt that the stakes felt much higher during the second season and I wondered where it would go from there.
For season three, we had a new main location and that is the Starcourt Mall. We also get a new character in Robin who works with Steve at the ice cream store. The Starcourt Mall is home to an underground Russian base that is trying to open a door to the Upside Down! I loved the whole mystery of this.
Of course, the kids are getting older and with that comes different kinds of social pressure. Eleven is living with Hopper and Hopper is having a hard time dealing with her and Mike’s budding romance. I enjoyed the third season greatly, but I do think I prefer the second season, but only just.
Overall, Stranger Things is such a great show. I love the lore that this show has created and think that everyone involved has done a fantastic job. It is just so much fun to watch that I have actually watched all three seasons three times. I will probably end up watching them all again before the new season starts in 2022!
