Netflix's New Show "Stranger Things" Is A Creepy Blast
Hey @Stranger_Things … pic.twitter.com/NaKeccZiZU
— Rear Admiral (@RearAdBsBlog) July 20, 2016
If you put “E.T.”, “Poltergeist”, “Carrie”, “Alien”, and “Stand By Me” in a blender, added a dollop of “Freaks and Geeks”, then hit puree, you’d end up with the fantastic new Netflix release, “Stranger Things”. Created by twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, the sci-fi/horror/buddy show combines many elements of the many gifts that Steven Spielberg and Stephen King have shared with us over the years in telling a well-crafted, homage-heavy tale revolving around missing kids, love, a forest monster, loss, shadowy feds, grief, and the love child of Chunk and Bobby Clarke (I’d bet a dollar that the Duffers are L.A. Kings fans and naming him Dustin was another homage.)
But this isn’t just some retread of well-tread tropes. While there is a familiarity to older audiences (and the rare millennials that actually deign to absorb pop culture that pre-dates their arrival), there’s also a freshness to the story-telling so it doesn’t feel like you’re watching a cable re-run for the 30th time. Essentially, the old heads get high off a familiar stash while the newbies will ideally get hooked on the same shit that snared us old fucks decades ago.
The reason the story feels so new is the stellar work of the new faces that pace the yarn. It focuses at first on four pre-pubescent boys who still think girls are yucky, while away their hours playing Dungeons and Dragons, and feast on the ample pop-culture that was available to them from the mid-’70s up to 1983 (the year the action takes place). Mike is a passive, generous-of-spirit, young Shelley Duvall-looking kid whose basement is HQ for the geeky crew (Elliott or Gordie Lachance). Dustin is the toothless, lisping, know-it-all comic relief (think Vern or Chunk). Lucas is the black friend who doesn’t mention “reefer” or talk in rhymes, ensuring that this ’80s-set show was not actually made in the ’80s. And Will gets the thankless Justin Bartha role (i.e. we say “sayonara” to him before you finish your popcorn).
The audience soon meets Mike’s sister Nancy (I’ll save you the trouble—she’s 19 in real life), her Mom Jeans-wearing pal Barb, her dickhead boyfriend Steve, and his two shithead friends. This is where the “Freaks and Geeks” parallel comes in. We not only see the younger brother and his friends doing things that got them picked on by assholes at school, we see the thirsty older sister much closer to adulthood than her sibling and their meddling-if-well-meaning parents. This gives the show a nice little dynamic I wasn’t expecting so it doesn’t stay focused on one part of the story too long.
In short order, Will goes AWOL, there are strange goings-on in the woods, and a small girl in a hospital gown with a G.I. Jane ‘do pops up outta nowhere. Then shit REALLY happens. I’m not gonna spoil it because it’s much better to experience on your own. Suffice to say, it’s a hell of a ride. And worth remembering it’s sci-fi for the more literal-minded among us.
A few more buds for your bowl…
*I had to stop counting references, both blatant and subtle, because it was distracting me from watching. But there were so many “E.T.” shout-outs, I was half-expecting the Jew lawyer from the Simpsons to show up and tell us he was there to represent the estate of Melissa Mathison. And I’m not complaining at all.
*It’s too bad the Emmys just passed because Winona Ryder does some of the best work of her career here and now might be handicapped by having her role debut so close to the awards. Ryder digs deep to channel Dee Wallace and JoBeth Williams in portraying a mother’s torturous anguish and crippling grief while looking for her child. Phenomenal stuff.
*Also, full marks to David Harbour, who soars as a local cop dealing with his own demons and issues. I can’t imagine he’ll struggle to find work after this.
*Spielberg’s cynical attitude about government agencies is on full display here. In addition to the paranoia of “E.T.”, the Duffers provide the creeping conspiracy vibe of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and make great use of it. Naturally, there’s a broken family at the center of the story.
*The scenes between Nancy and Will’s brother Jonathan reminded me of an intense, off-the-record conversation between Tuukka Rask and Amalie Benjamin.
*I had never seen any of these kids before and they were all exemplary actors. But relative newcomer Millie Bobby Brown might steal the show. The now 12-year-old girl reminded me of a more evenly-tempered Robert Patrick from “T2″ with her burning intensity that can easily shift to “pissed off”. I got a feeling we’ll be hearing her name a lot more in the future.
*Despite the kid cast, this is hardly a show made specifically for kids. There’s some shit-your-pants stuff in here. Do what you want, just giving you a heads-up.
*Maybe Simmons will leave Matthew Modine alone now.
*I recently watched the Paul Rudd flick “The Fundamentals of Caring”, which was also a Netflix production (I love Rudd but it’s nothing spectacular…save for the scenes with Selena Gomez). Both that and “Stranger Things” had pivotal scenes by the scenic Bellwood Quarry in Atlanta, featured characters that had lost a child, and had frozen waffles as minor story points. Likely coincidences but they still feel like weird Easter eggs.
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