Netflix's 'Stranger Things' is an homage to creepy '80s flicks — and their plot holes
Written and directed by filmmaking twins Matt and Ross Duffer (who bill themselves as the Duffer Brothers), Netflix's beguiling, yet imperfect, eight-episode mystery series “Stranger Things,” which begins streaming July 15, has a style and form that honors early 1980s moviedom — the same time period in which the show is set.
A little like J.J. Abrams's “Super 8” in 2011, “Stranger Things” borrows here and there from “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Poltergeist” and the early “Halloween” flicks, among others, including a dash of the 1999 TV cult hit “Freaks and Geeks.” The Duffers certainly nail the look and feel.
But a series can't subsist only as a nostalgia trip, which is why, a few episodes in, the writing and pacing fail to deliver on the larger idea. It's still fun to see Winona Ryder so perfectly cast as Joyce Byers, a harried working mom in the small town of Hawkins, Ind., whose son Will (Noah Schnapp) disappears one night while bicycling home from a marathon Dungeons & Dragons game at the home of his friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard).
Joyce implores Jim Hopper (David Harbour), the town's lazy police chief, to step up the search for Will — but soon enough she starts sensing her son's presence in the lightbulbs and other electrical appliances in her house. “Where are you?” she asks the thin air. “R-I-G-H-T ... H-E-R-E” he spells out in Christmas lights.
Meanwhile, Mike and two other middle-school nerds (Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo) set out to find their friend and instead discover “Number 11” (Millie Brown), a frightened girl with a shaved head who has escaped from the nearby top-secret government lab, where the creepy Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) is conducting some kind of alien telekinesis experiment that has unleashed a monster.
Nothing here feels particularly new, except for the compelling way the Duffers have put it all together — and even that can't fix some plot holes and deliberate obfuscation that make “Stranger Things” a clumsier ride than it needs to be. I guess one could argue that many of our favorite '80s movies also left something to be desired in execution, which didn't make them any less fun.
Hank Stuever is a Washington Post staff writer.
