I am woman, hear me roar...
(Drew Barrymore in Firestarter, Jessica Alba in Dark Angel and Millie Bobby Brown in Stranger Things)
First impressions of Stranger Things is “This series is so cool”, the 80’s vibe
with the detail of music, costume, sets, cars, mannerisms and speech is spot-on. The more you get into Stranger Things, the
more similarities there is with Firestarter – the government agency called “The
Shop” trying to control Charlie (little baby Drew Barrymore) and the US
Department of Energy research lab at the
centre of Stranger Things. Following
this theme, you can then see how similar it is to Dark Angel & Manticore
who created those pesky genetically enhanced soldiers so our screens could be
graced with the awesome Jessica Alba.
For any fans of Stephen King they will love Stranger Things,
the similarities to Stand By Me, IT & Firestarter are obvious because the
story is about children and their perceptions but the feeling – attributed to
the lighting & soundtrack – is also so similar to most of the B movies made
in the 80’s based on Stephen Kings work.
King himself is a huge fan of Stranger Things...
I like the format of a shorter season – 8 episodes in season
1 & 9 episodes in season 2. This
means you’re not devoting too much time in watching “another” series as we are
drowning in stuff to watch today. The
shortened series forces the creators/directors, The Duffer Brothers, to get on
with the story and of course also gives them less opportunity to mess up (read
more later on about episode 7). It’s
also great to be able to watch a whole series in a few days rather than having
to wait week-on-week as a series is drip fed, let’s not even mention those
bloody series cliff hangers – Who the hell gets to meet Lucille up close and
personal?
Anyway, to concentrate on season 2 of Stranger Things – you can
comfortably manage it in 3 nights with 3 episodes per night. Perfect.
Short and sweet. It picks up
perfectly from the ending of the previous series, telling the story of how
Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is looked after by Officer Hopper (the hunk that is
David Harbour who will be the new Hellboy).
You have the separate storyline of the four boys attempting to get back
to normal life after the revelations in the “Upside Down”. Hopper plays the vital role of being the
common denominator, of course you know at some stage both storylines need to
intertwine.
There are unfortunately a couple of problems with the
plot. A common story line when children
are involved is to split them up, throw in a bit of jealousy, unrequited love,
brash racism but then have them join back together at the end of the series,
hug-it-out and beat the monster. Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and the Scooby Gang are the prime example of this, so why
would Stranger Things do anything different.
Next, the story is a little bit predictable, the seemingly unbeatable
monster can be slain (maybe) if the star of the show – who has been sidelined
for most of the season – turns up and does her thing, which, surprisingly she
does. Unfortunately, this lack of
originality means Stranger Things season 2 loses a review point here.
All of the characters (except one) are great and the acting
is sublime...the cringe worthy “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” by Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is hilarious and
the cast bounces off each other really well.
Ultimately it’s a story about a group of friends banding together over
seemingly insurmountable odds and winning.
I like the idea of a group of unpopular nerds (reminiscent of The Losers
Club in IT) saving the day and can maybe reach out to geeks today. My one exception is Winona “Whining” Ryder as
Joyce (Will’s mother). She spends two whole
seasons bawling and needs to be in as many scenes as possible. The story isn’t about her Duffer Brothers, we
want more of Eleven!
This brings me neatly to Eleven, HELLO! She is the one with the super powers...let’s
make a film about Superman but not actually have him in the film. No, just No!.
We want more of Eleven, episode 7 is just a mess, it could have been so
much more, exploring the origin of Eleven and her meeting her sister instead it
was clearly an episode thrown in there to create a spin-off series. Just concentrate on this series; let’s not
worry about the next one quite yet.
Whining Ryder and episode 7 loses another review point.
But, to get back to the positives, the story is still well
written. The graphics and special
effects are seamless and considering our standards are so high now-a-days it
does brilliantly. I suppose this is
another advantage of a short season, it keeps the budget down so stuff can be
done properly, gone are the days that the cost of special effects determine
major characters, plot lines and sets. It’s
a fast-paced story and you would definitely benefit by watching series 1 before
you start, if you don’t have time for that at least watch the last 2 episodes. Throughout the series, you find yourself
asking – who is actually responsible, is Eleven at the heart of everything? –
is Dr. Owens good or bad, does he actually care for Will or Eleven?
– both of these conundrums are answered (kind of) by the end. The fast-paced story, comedic moments, great
special effects and just enough intrigue gives a great series and a must-see in
the ocean of burgeoning must-see series.
Overall, 2 review points are lost so my rating for Stranger
Things, Season 2 is 8 out of 10 planets.
John "The Captain" Ryan
No comments:
Post a Comment