Stranger Things

I saw the trailer for this a month ago, figured, fuck, another show, meh i might watch the pilot, it will be another Hemlock Grove, i will like it but it will not hook me, well 24 hours after watching the pilot, i viewed the finale! It helps that it is only 8 episodes, to me that is perfect, too many shows are slow in the middle, they will have a great first 2 and great last 2 but with a boring batch in the middle, regardless if it is a 24, 16, 13 or 10 episode run. A lot of series are serialized now a days, which i love, i think it makes shows better, but even something like Lost(my favorite show of all time) or Breaking Bad(my second favorite) feel like series. This feels like a 6 hour film, to some you may say, ugh, 6 hours? It flies by, it is fast paced, well humored, well acted and full of 80's love. Imagine if Steven Spielberg had produced a film directed & scored by John Carpenter, that is Stranger Things! Had this been a film it would have starred Tom Atkins! So far this clocks in neck for neck with Mr. Robot as my favorite series of 2016, though Mr. Robot still has about 10 or so episodes left, so this could end up being number 2, but even so, it is a series i will watch again, i will gladly watch it again, i mean it would take 6 hours or so to watch all 8 episodes. So many times a Netflix show will hit and it will take me 2 or 3 weeks to finish, i i didn't want to do that here, these were not episodes, this was a film. A film of wonder, a film of celebrating their inspirations, a coming of age film filled with an amazing soundtrack. It doesn't play by the rules either, the protagonist doesn't always get the girl, characters don't cross paths just because they need to, it feels organic and real, even with such a fantastical element. This is E.T. meets the Poltergeist, and there are homages galore, and for a cinephile it is glorious, there are points where you expect them to do certain homages but they don't, which works for the shows advantage(the one i am thinking deals with an alien on a bike flying in the air). Horror movie posters, f/x talk on The Thing,  punk rock & new wave, Star Wars, and if you're into D&D, they have that covered to! Much like Wayward Pines i would like for this to be a single season series, but unlike Wayward, i think if it does get a second,  that it will succeed, cause it wont be a second season, it will be a sequel to a film!