“80’s References and The Guy From That Wrestling Movie: What You Might Be Missing on NETFLIX”

“80’s References and The Guy From That Wrestling Movie: What You Might Be Missing on NETFLIX”

STRANGER THINGS (2016, TV-MA, NETFLIX ORIGINALS)

 

Having hit puberty in the eighties, I tend to remember most of it. Not that I want to, mind you; puberty still sucks, and that era of big hair, rebellious punk rock, and John Carpenter movies on Cinemax is decades past.

Hell, thirty years from now, the decade we are in now will be marked with completely different things, like, uh, Donald Trump, Arctic Monkeys…okay, yeah, still big hair and English punk rock. And, The Sweet Baby Hey-Zeus save us, PokemanGo. (And yes, I totally believe that there is a rare one hiding atop Trump’s head, and I’ll give ten bucks to the first person that finds it.)

Thankfully, we have Netflix to keep us in check. “Stranger Things” is ALL THINGS EIGHTIES. Even the lettering used in the credits is lifted straight from TV shows from that bygone time, and the title itself borrows the same style of many of the Stephen King books that came out at the time. The story centers on a small town (yes, there are numerous King references in this show) in which odd occurrences begin—namely, the disappearance of a boy. His friends, all Dungeons and Dragons nerds, do their utmost to help search for him, as does his distraught mother and the town sheriff. Little does anyone know, the government facility on the outskirts of town, which is run by a mysterious doctor, may have something to do with the strange events taking place.

The show itself is entertaining enough, although at times the references to that long-dead era can seem overwhelming. I know it takes place back then, but STOP REMINDING ME EVERY OTHER SCENE, I FREAKING GET IT ALREADY. What creators/directors Matt and Ross Duffer decided to do was hire famous actors from the eighties to play two of their adult leads. Winona Ryder plays the missing Will’s mother, and Mattthew Modine plays the “evil” doctor. These additional “throwbacks” to the eighties could have been overkill, but the actors themselves are perfectly cast. Ryder occasionally gets a tad over-the-top with the sudden manic spiral of a mother searching desperately for her son, and it isn’t until the fourth episode when you finally see her start taking charge. Modine’s performance is the exact opposite, and the slightly better of the two. His Dr. Brenner is quiet and reserved, making his subtle performance an interesting contrast to Ryder’s over-bearing presence. She is good here; there are moments of genuine feeling from her that nearly break your heart.

But with this show, the adults, like in every eighties’ Spielberg or Dante film, just kind of get in the way (the exception to this rule is the Chief of Police, played with a great amount of care and focus by David Harbour). This story belongs to the kids, and the storytelling misses not a beat when it is focused on its younger stars. The show takes about four episodes to really hit its stride, and the clunky adult storylines converge and become more cohesive as the season draws to a close. The child actors, especially young Millie Bobby Brown (“Intruders”) as “Eleven”, do wonderfully in their roles. They sell the time period, the story, and most importantly, their friendship with one another in a way that is more honest than the adult groups around them.

While this is not the best series Netflix has released, the service is proving itself to be a dependable provider of programming that is fresh and well produced. Sometimes the effects aren’t up to the Hollywood blockbuster standard, but they don’t distract from the flow of the story. No second season has been announced yet, but I would be disappointed if there wasn’t one. The dynamic that the Brothers Duffer have created, while not original, expands upon a time and place/space of Hollywood history when the friendship between kids was a genre all unto itself. They do not waste much of the eight hours given to them to tell their tale—which may feel a bit short at times, but it is just enough to not overdo it.

And hell, if “Hemlock Grove” got three seasons…seriously…

Series Grade: B+

-- T.S.Kummelman