So, there is this little thing called Netflix. Some people may have heard of it. A streaming service taking the world by storm. That service seems to be pumping out amazing original shows as of late. I recently stumbled upon this amazing trailer online of a show called Stranger Things. Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWxyRG_tckY
We’ve already got goosebumps…
Right then and there, I have to admit, I got goosebumps. So slap me for being head over heels for clever marketing or call me smart for noticing how original it looks. Creators Matt & Ross Duffer are here to stay it seems. Their work on Fox’s sleeper hit Wayward Pines clearly showed the audience what they can do and we definitely want more of this.
To see Winona Ryder back in a lead role is making me giddy with excitement. Ryder plays Joyce, a grieving mother, who is in search of her son Will (Noah Schnapp) With strange and mysterious things standing in her way of getting him back. Things seem to go from Strange to Extraordinary. Will’s friends team up and out to the woods to find Will and they stumble upon a mysterious young girl with a simple and bizarre name of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).
The trailer’s dark tones drag you in and low porch lighting through slow falling rain seep through the screen. The slow and memorable keys of a child’s xylophone keys play one, two, three and as young Will seems to go missing abruptly after a get together with his mates, it already had me hooked. A rugged looking David Harper playing Chief Hopper, at one point tries to explain to Joyce, “99 out of 100 times a kid goes missing, a kid is with a parent or relative”. Joyce doesn’t seem convinced and with wide eyes she replies “What about the other time? The one, The one?”
We have been spoilt with shows on Netflix for some time now. The Exclusive Marvel Series Daredevil and Jessica Jones. The gritty drama Bloodline, The Last Kingdom and Marco Polo (another show I am yet to even start). As epic as they can be. Sometimes we just want a little small town magic to take us back to that wonderful Spielbergian that is Extra Terrestrial.
I require something a little more bizarre in my quota of shows sometimes. A mystery of sorts. Something to take me back to my childhood. The deep and bizarre 80’s. Others have tried before and come close. J.J. Abrams shiny Super 8 was my most recent memory of doing it right. I had a lot of fun with David Green’s Earth to Echo, but it came over a little empty on the heart strings.
This seems to have government cover ups, child fugitives, experiments, super powered children, need I go on? If this is just as great as the surprise hit that Wayward Pines turned out to be, only with less cheese and more flying bikes (OK, well maybe not flying bikes) and some Goonies style adventuring, we are all in for one wild binge watch come Thursday.
Stranger Things season one airs all episodes on Netflix from 15th July 2016
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