Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Like a good many of you, I had no idea Stranger Things existed before Netflix released their trailer for it last month. It's not often a show or movie sneaks up on me like that anymore. It was a welcome surprise to get excited about something that was coming so soon.
The trailer had great production value, hints of huge Amblin and Stephen King influences and glimpses of an intriguing supernatural mystery wrapped up in a “kids fight a monster” story. In short, it had all the ingredients that make Mr. Quint throw goo-goo love eyes at his TV screen.
I'm not really hooked up with anybody at Netflix, it's a little off my regular beat, so I didn't get any sort of early access to the show or anything. I did what I assume a great many of you folks reading this did (or will do): I stocked up on some snacks (sadly healthy snacks because I'm on a stupid, yet so far successful, diet) and settled in for a binger. I thought I'd probably knock out the first half of the series Saturday and finish it Sunday. Instead I stayed up until about 3am Sunday morning and watched the whole thing like one nearly 8 hour movie.
Stranger Things is an all-timer for me. It watches like reading a great Stephen King page turner from back in the day when he was doing all the drugs and would blast out detailed masterpieces left and right.
The stakes are not world-threatening. Much like King's IT, it's about a singular monster in a small town and the group of kids who band together to fight it.
The smart thing that the Duffer Brothers did when setting up this story was not just borrow liberally from a lot of King (It, Firestarter, The Mist, The Stand), they also understood WHY those book/stories worked. When King is on fire he paints a picture of a whole community. Derry is not just the backdrop for the kids in It. King shifts POV to random people all the time. You get to know someone random even if they don't play a huge part in the story.
There's an early sequence in Stranger Things where a mysterious girl (Millie Bobby Brown) in a hospital gown shows up to a little roadside grease pit looking for food. The owner is this gruff, thick, intimidating dude named Benny (Chris Sullivan) and at first he's pissed at this kid, but soon becomes very protective of her. It's a simple twist on expectation: the big, scary guy is actually very kind and tries to help this scared kid.
Of course, Benny isn't exactly rewarded for his kindness, but the point is they spend time on this small character, giving him probably double the screen time than most storytellers would and by doing so they make Stranger Things feel more novelistic. It's not just a series of events hitting one plot point after another, it's also taking the time to draw a detailed image of the setting.
The actual plot of the series is simple: a young boy disappears and his young friends and some adults try to find him. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. What makes this rich is the huge amount of character work going on in every single scene.
There are multiple storylines going. The A story is the kids' search, the B story is the teenager's search and the C story is the adults' search.
THE KIDS
The core group here is definitely done in the ET mold with a healthy sprinkling of the Loser's Club from It. We meet them playing D&D (which, of course, foreshadows the monster about to enter their lives) and when the heart of the group, a thoughtful, sweet kid named Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) leaves that night he runs into something pretty nasty and disappears.
The group is a great sampling of archetypes, including the enthusiastically nerdy kid (Gaten Matarazzo), the kinda dorky leader (Finn Wolfhard) and his strong-headed best friend that isn't afraid to call bullshit on anything (Caleb McLaughlin).
While the adults go on their usual missing kid search parties, Will's friends want to help as well and end up stumbling upon the supernatural element waaaaaay sooner than the adults, of course, which means as the adults are skirting around the monstrous truth, these kids are actually much closer to figuring out what happened to their buddy.
It also means they're much closer to the danger.
But unlike the adults they have something special on their side: a mysterious telepathic girl on the run (Millie Bobby Brown). She has Carrie's powers, but ET's disposition. She's scared, alone and hunted. Millie turns in the best single performance in this series. She's both powerful and incredibly vulnerable. That's a huge range to ask of a young actress and Brown plays it so well it looks effortless.
The friendship on display feels authentic and the kids all somehow act well without feeling like kid actors. It's usually a miracle to find one young actor that can do that, but somehow the Duffer Brothers found five.
Wolfhard has a lot of the series' weight on his shoulders. He's essentially the leader of this particular Monster Squad (speaking of, I'm toying with an op-ed about how The Duffer Brothers need to spearhead a Monster Squad series now. Good idea? Or is it just me that gets excited at that thought?) and the glue that holds them together.
He's acts a little bit with his hands, which isn't uncommon with young actors, but he never strikes an inauthentic chord and he's so damn earnest that I'm with him and the group every time the story focuses on them. It also helps that his character is falling in love for the first time in an incredibly realistic way that reminded me a lot of my first crushes. More than the authentic early '80s setting, little touches like that really trigger the nostalgia centers of my brain.
THE TEENAGERS
This storyline also benefits from some layered writing. On the surface the teenager's storyline is pretty basic stuff: A young virgin gives it up to a cool kid who turns out to be kind of a jerk while the weird boy in her life proves to actually be there for her.
It's a testament to the talents behind this series that this part of the story works so well. Once again their casting was spot on. Natalia Dyer plays Nancy Wheeler (Mike's big sister), Charlie Heaton plays the dark and brooding Jonathan Byers (missing Will's big brother) and Joe Keery is Steve, the popular kid who Nancy falls for.
It'd be easy to make this a simple Pretty In Pink love triangle, but they somehow make this love triangle both deep background in importance to the plot while also giving the characters rich layers. Steve isn't the villain, but does some petty things when hurt. Jonathan isn't the lovesick pining boy the whole time, but clearly has feelings for Nancy. Nancy isn't really torn between two loves, she's a woman on a mission (to find her friend, who was also taken by the monster) and finds support in that from someone that isn't her new boyfriend. There is a bond that happens between her and Jonathan and that bond is kind of romantic, but it's not full on romantic.
It's a great note to strike with these characters that is more complex than I expected at first glance. I especially like how they pay off Steve's storyline here.
THE ADULTS
The final string we follow is with the grown ups. Sheriff Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is front and center, but he's soon joined by the semi-crazed desperate mother of the missing boy, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) as they pull at strings that unravel a greater conspiracy in the small town of Hawkins.
Harbour has a superstar making role here. Hopper is a great, great character and Harbour plays him with all the charm and gravitas and man on a mission intensity to really bring him to life. The Sheriff has been marked by tragedy and that tragedy is something that gives him motivation to go all in when looking for this missing kid, but it isn't something they pound over our heads for the entire show.
Hopper is such a fun character to watch because he's the kind of “I don't give a shit what you think of me” person that actually cares about finding the truth, so that leads to some rather funny encounters. Most importantly you invest in him. You like this dude, you cheer him on during the investigation, so when it cuts away from the flashier kids storyline with all the super powers and stuff you're not just sitting there checking your watch, waiting for that storyline to continue again.
Winona Ryder was an inspired choice to play Joyce Byers. You believe her when she goes off her rocker. Not only does she have the character motivation to spiral into a form of insanity only a parent who loses a child knows, but Ryder brings an off-kilter edge that makes the character really pop.
Joyce has the kernel of hope that every parent of a missing child has, even when things look as grim as grim can be for the kid, but instead of playing her as a woman controlled by her emotions Ryder instead uses the near insanity of this character to make her stronger, a real force to be reckoned with.
When her path crosses with Sheriff Hopper the show really catches fire for me. I loved seeing these two strong characters working together as the walls start closing in.
THE BAD GUYS
Matthew Modine leads the secret CIA team of assassins, evil scientists and all around nasty people. He's Peter Coyote in ET except without the revelation that he's pretty much just a grown up Elliott. Modine is pretty great here as a fully despicable guy (definnitely rocking a Cronenberg look to boot). Quiet, cunning, on the hunt for Millie Bobby Brown's character. His threat is oddly more severe than the monster's.
Enough can't be said about the production design and cinematography, too. The period setting is made or broken by those two departments and they didn't drop the ball here. Out of all the cool period accurate stuff (from haircuts to room décor) the one that really knocked me back was a tiny little prop that immediately took me back to my childhood. At one point in the very last episode Sheriff Hopper is holding a plastic food container (aka Tupperware) that was the ugliest avacado green and had a ridged top that looks like you could juice a lemon with. I know it's silly, but that's exactly what we had when I was growing up and it's something I haven't seen or thought of in probably 25 years.
That level of detail is what makes this whole thing gel so well.
I'm so happy with this thing. I love the character work, the casting, the story, the design and the simple supernatural story told with complex characters strategy that King is so great at. I want to hang out with all the adults and I want to adopt all the kids, so what that means is the Duffer Brothers successfully invested me in all aspects of this particular bit of weird awesomeness.
I have no idea where they go from here, but I'd welcome a return to these characters. We know from the pretty rad ending that they could continue this storyline if they wanted to, but they also found a great resting place for these characters, too. I'd be more inclined to see a direct sequel than a True Detective style “spin-off” story, but honestly at this point I just want to see whatever the creative team behind this feels compelled to give us.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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