STRANGER THINGSHORROR

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S ince the dawn of the millennium, plenty of shows have taken their turn in the coveted ‘water-cooler’ slot: destined to be discussed, dissected and poured over. The

likes of Lost, The Walking Dead, Mad Men and Game Of Thrones have all had their time, but they were always destined for popularity – their massive marketing budgets saw to that.

Stranger Things didn’t demand our attention like these juggernauts though; it stole it. Whether you were tuning in to discover exactly what abducted Will Byers, wondered what the deal was with Eleven, or to bask in the radiated warmth of all those nods to your favourite films and TV shows, it was simultaneously familiar, yet like nothing we’d ever seen before. Here, we examine exactly how it became a sleeper hit…

IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE

01 Netflix had been a big thing for a while, regularly welcoming new shows that might never have seen

the light of day on regular networks (Master Of None, Sense8). But their big success stories were the ones with the big marketing campaigns –

think House Of Cards, Orange Is The New Black and the Marvel shows.

As far as most of us could see, the big selling point of Stranger Things pre-release was the presence of Winona Ryder – the rest of the cast were basically unknown, and creators the Duffer Brothers’ credits were limited to a few episodes of Wayward Pines and the forgotten-about Hidden. Then it landed, and it was unknown no longer.

If you managed to avoid the frenzied discussions of Demogorgons, Eleven and Barb, then every episode came as a genuine revelation. There hadn’t been innumerable trailers laying bare every frame, nor an extensive interview campaign telling you what to expect. Every episode was a fresh voyage of dark discovery – that Stranger Things managed to slip through the net in an age where every network is shouting from the rooftops about their next big thing is a cause for celebration indeed.

IT HAS THE BEST KIND OF NOSTALGIA

02 To call Stranger Things an Eighties homage would be to hew ever so slightly into understatement

territory: it’s jam-packed with film, TV and literature references from that period, it’s hard to know where to start. The works of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg come in for particular interrogation (the lead group of kids are part Losers Club, part Goonies); the small-town setting is quintessential Amblin era, and the tongue-in-cheek nods to classic scenes are plentiful (think Eleven going bad-ET and flipping the car instead of sailing over it, or Dustin’s unsuccessful attempt to finish the Demogorgon with a slingshot).

And it’s not even the fictional references that stand out – Eleven almost singlehandly brought Eggos back in fashion, and the kids’ use of their ham radios had people desperately rummaging through the loft for theirs. With the first images from Season Two showing them in full Ghostbuster attire, you can bet the fun will only continue.

“Eleven almost singlehandedly brought Eggos back into fashion”

With season two due in 2017, Steve Wright lists six reasons why Stranger Things became the first cult hit of the 21st century

WELCOME TO THE UPSIDE DOWN

Stranger Things’ young cast ended up stealing the show.

Eggo sales have probably gone through the roof.

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STRANGER THINGSHORROR

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“It’s a rare beast: a

homage that manages to be its own thing”

We don’t have a local sheriff, but if we did, we’d want them

to be like Hopper.

Millie Bobby Brown does a fantastic job with minimal dialogue. It’s all in the eyes.

Not your average teen love triangle.

Can someone please tell us where we can get the Steve

Harrington haircut?

WInona Ryder’s presence was an initial selling point of the show .

gradually opens up her human side, but then she’s gone again all too quickly.

Brown is already set for stardom, having been slated to star in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters in 2019, but in the meantime we can look forward to seeing her give a few more ill-advised government spooks some painful-looking nosebleeds in Season Two.

IT MADE DUNGEONS & DRAGONS COOL AGAIN

05 The world’s most famous role-playing game has never exactly had an easy time of it. At best inviting

mockery, and at worst linked with Satanism and teen suicide, it was due a break – and it gets that courtesy of the Stranger Things kids, aka the world’s best feel-good marketing team.

It’s through their playing of the game that they (really rather accurately) theorise as to the wherebouts of their missing friend Will Byers, and the nature of the Upside Down’s dark reality. See, D&D saves lives.

And there’s theDemogorgon itself. Ripped straight from a D&D board, as well as being a suitably monstrous creation, its presence is apt in more ways than one: he represents something the children know and can fight against, and works as a focal rallying point for the group,

who have their fair share of disputes over the series’ run time. Now that Will’s safely back in the land of the Downside Up, expect to see the gang continuing to roll the dice come the show’s return.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

06 It’s easy to forget that the first season was brief compared to Netflix’s usual fare, clocking in at

just eight episodes. What hasn’t been difficult to retain is just how many things we were left hanging on for come last year’s epic climax, and how many questions we want answered: where is Eleven? What is Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) up to? Why is Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) coughing up slugs into the bathroom sink? And what the holy hell is that gigantic Lovecraftian monster in the trailer?

One thing is for sure: however the second season turns out, Stranger Things is already a classic. The first show on a streaming platform to truly enter the cultural zeitgeist, it successfully achieves the feat of being both of and apart from our time: embodying the current trend for embracing nostalgia, while at the same time allowing its own time capsule to render it timeless. Nicely done.

IT SHOOK UP THE STEREOTYPES

03 Superficially, the bulk of the population of Hawkins, Indiana conform to various stereotypes –

although dig a little deeper, and there’s more to them then meets the eye. Adolescent Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) is more independent and driven than the female components in love-triangle stories tend to be; loveable loner Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) has a not-particularly-healthy camcorder habit, and while initially conforming to our expectations of him as walking jack-off, the impeccably coiffed Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) goes out of his way to redeem himself after attempting to publicly shame and embarrass Nancy.

The Eighties setting gathers together pretty much every caricature the movies have introduced us to over the years, then proceeds to drag them into the real world. It’s that rare beast: a homage that manages to be its own thing, with nary a trace of self-deprecation or sarcasm in sight. As poor Barb showed, the stakes are high and very real.

IT GAVE US MILLIE BOBBY BROWN

04 As we mentioned, Ryder was the one everyone was talking about pre-air date, and while she’s on

form, it’s the young cast who deliver the most memorable performances. The standout, however, is undoubtedly the incomparable Millie Bobby Brown.

An amalgamation of any number of tortured Stephen King children (Carrie White and Firestarter’s Charlie McGee spring to mind), there are so many layers to Brown’s performance. Vulnerable, damaged yet capable of truly terrifying displays of power, Eleven invites audience sympathy on every level while simultaneously never allowing us to lose sight of what she’s capable of. Hanging around with Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Rufus (Caleb McLaughlin)