Stranger things (review)

Stranger things (seasons 1 and 2)

Review rating : 5/5

Cast : Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Gaten Matarazzo, Winona Ryder, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp.

Directed by Duffer Brothers

Review by Zulfiqar

It is not just pure pleasure but a very exhilarating and gratifying privilege watching a show like ‘stranger things’. The show had a profound effect on my long spell of silence regarding the reviews of current silver screens and telly world.

            ‘Stranger things’ could be accounted on many levels for its wonder but the obvious play is on the aesthetics. It is an exemplary throwback to the 80s for its accurate pressure on the right notes of nostalgia. It recreates that ET magic, which too was based on the aesthetics of innocent, young friendships and local country gossip over a global, but principally originated, simple issue. It extends this picture by building up of an implausible conspiracy and an element of another dimension.

            Like ‘Arrival’ as of late, ‘Stranger things’ breaks many stereotypes of proceeding with a fiasco or a conspiracy. It has its own world of characters, who have their shades of grey, while at the same time, interpret the situation in their own way. The plot though may move at a little slow pace, has so much grace in its unfolding. It transports us not only to the past but into an utopian fantastical universe, probably for which I had been scouring the Hollywood movies and television after having been given the taste in that transcendent movie called ‘groundhog day’. It was all about atmosphere and ‘stranger things’ though justifies every level of its structure, celebrates the aesthetics more than I found it so happily in the series, ‘fargo’.

            The basic plot is the hunt for the mystery of a missing boy, Will, in a small fictional town called Hawkins in Indiana. At the same time, a new girl, tattooed eleven and so gains the name, from nowhere lands into the town, and who has an oblique connection with the fiasco. The hunting parties for Will here are four, the boy’s close friends, his mother, the town sheriff and his brother along with his friend’s sister. The affair though at first looks a small everyday matter in the little town takes the shape of a gigantic conspiracy, which is believably absurd and futile to comprehend. The directors, Duffer brothers, construct many POVs here and in doing so, explores different personalities of the characters. The easy going policeman, Hopper (David Harbour), retraces his own murky past with the case, while the mother of the missing child, Joyce (Winona Ryder), resorts to take on the unbelievable monster as she drops the habit of convincing people around to the reality of the issue. The brother of the child (Jonathan), that rare righteous teenager, like ‘scent of a woman’s caretaker boy, teams up with a pretty but sensible Nancy Wheeler (on whom he has a crush) to crack the conundrum.

            But it is the geeky gang of Will’s friends, who steal the show, from the rest of the superb cast. The sensible Mike (Finn Wolfhard) is the band’s righteous boy, who breaks the silent Eleven or El to speak with his caring attitude. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) is responsible gentleman, and my favorite, Dustin (Gaten Matarzzo) is the geekiest of them, who recites the confounding physics theories, with an obvious and prolific tone and making a bamboozling face at other’s ignorance. The kids are an amazing pack of those rare acting geniuses (but not at all rare in Hollywood), who have a flair in their body language, dialogue delivery and immaculate timing while they act around. But it is their so fitting camaraderie, which is easy not to miss.

When they find the ETesque Eleven, they squabble and resort to work along with their childish struggles. Eleven’s Millie Bobby Brown is not at all an easy role. Though she is at the center with being the powerful of the lot and has a slow story of realizing her potentials, it becomes a tedious spectacle for us after having being dished a dozen load of mutant and superhero movies. Even then, she makes the viewer invest a lot of sympathy for her with her contemplating performance and expressive features.

            Winona Ryder’s mom character is etched artistically. she doesn’t just get lost in Will’s loss and the strive to get him back. Her character moves ahead with nullifying cathartic approach of substantiating her love for the kid. She believes in her theory of breaking the barrier of a new dimension, which is guided by her passion to get Will back. She has that streak of plausible madness in her, which I witnessed in Ellen Burstyn’s performance in ‘requiem for a dream’. Her histrionics look sensible if we see the situation through her eyes, while at the ignorant outset, she resembles a mad woman. David Harbour as the policeman adds that genial touch of the little town’s endearing caricature of a reluctant hero, with a sympathetic past.

            Natalia Dyer becomes the crux of a plausible love triangle in this implausible plot. Duffer brothers toys with the elements of the triangle, quite enticingly and also innovatively. Jonathan and Steve have a realistic relationship and Steve Harrington’s Steve is continuously puzzling in his character’s path in the plot. He makes a great duo with Gaten’s Dustin tutoring the latter on chick-magneting skills. Gaten holds the partnership with as much as incredulousness as nonchalance when dealing with the paranormal. But it is his chemistry with his favorite teacher, Mr Clarke (Randy Havens) which is rip-roaringly hilarious. I haven’t seen anything funnier than their conversations in recent cinema. Mr Clarke is elicited both as a genius and a genial idiot, at the same time, by Dustin, which is brilliance in the writing.

            What makes ‘Stranger Things’ so endearing is that it makes us live us in the town of Hawkins in the 80s with these great characters and their friendships and in their gossips. The POV of kids is obviously the winner here. Not just because they give that nostalgic touch, but because we marvel at how their geeky knowledge of upside down and the theory of ‘the flea and the acrobat’ is so deliciously possible. Hawkins’s geography is another asset. It isn’t just pictorially beautiful with its forests, but has that old haunted house’s equal called Hawkins Lab. Mathew Modine’s creepy Papa may make a comeback with a delicious re-emergence story. Season 2 had seen Mike’s gang grow in number by 1 with Max (Sadie Sink), who becomes an easy addition to their friendship.

            There are a list of movies, which hold the series’s inspiration starting from ‘ET’, ‘the goonies’, ‘twin peaks’, ‘gremlins’, and many others. But it has a complete new spirit of its own. It celebrates the old happiness which we felt when holidays were declared, social gatherings happened in the wake of a fiasco and nightlong chats over a mystery, which didn’t have an explanation and deep down wished it never should have. Netflix rightly has bagged the best of the telly as of now and as it seems there is a lot to reveal of the plot. The only pain is the long-wait.