5 Reasons Stranger Things Is The Best New Show On Netflix

I admit, I didn’t see any pre-promotion for Stranger Things season 1 on Netflix at. Nothing on Twitter, nothing on Facebook. And then all of a sudden, EVERYONE was talking about it. I was very hesitant because I’ve long since grown out of the ability to watch scary things mostly because I can’t stand the anxious anticipation of something that ‘possibly’ may happen that ‘might’ scare the crap out of me. Yeah that feeling. However, I couldn’t resist the buzz around this new original offering from Netflix so I got my biggest blanket and put my hands over my eyes and hit play. Within the first 10 minutes, I was HOOKED! Here are my 5 reasons Stranger Things is the best new show on Netflix.

1. Best Mash-up Ever – Stranger Things is the perfect mash up of all my favourite old school shows that would make up sleepovers, birthday parties and family movie nights when I was a kid. It’s got the kids on bikes on an adventure from Goonies. The science fiction mystery of X Files. The best friends, I would go to the ends of the earth and fight all the bad guys for camaraderie of Stand By Me. And it has the alien to human to government agency chase of E.T. The only thing it’s missing is a princess and a giant. 
2. All Things 80’s – The year 1983 seems to play as much of a character in the show as the actors themselves. From the over hair sprayed AND feathered bangs to the heavy focus on the wall mounted, spiral chorded rotary phone, to the wide shots of the houses on the street that had an uncanny likeness to EVERY HOUSE IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD! Raise your hand if you lived in or next to a split level house with aluminum siding! There are a hand full of shows that are set in the 80’s but Stranger Things wins for authenticity. Fun Fact: Although the show was shot digitally, a layer of real film grain was applied to help achieve a more vintage look. 
3. Low Tech, No Tech – I am physically attached to my electronic devices. My phone is never out of arms reach even when I sleep (bad habit, I know) but I can’t help but remember how simple things were in the 80’s. I would leave the house to hang with my friends and no one could reach me. No one knew where we were if we weren’t at someone’s house. It was a game of messages left with actual people over a phone line with no call waiting and no caller I.D. Googling something meant asking the science teacher. The closest thing to a cell phone was a walkie talkie and they only worked for the 2 people who had them and if they weren’t too far apart. 
4. Bikes = Freedom – Ok, I admit that the scene where Jonathan Byers is riding home in the dark and is ‘taken’ by something or someone, leaving his bike spinning it’s tires on the ground IS the stuff of nightmares that my mother warned me about every time I was out after dark. However all that aside, the day I got my 10 speed bike with the curved handlebars (for better aerodynamics, of course) was the day I got my freedom and it was amazing. I could make it to my friends house in 5 minutes flat and she lived on the other side of the whole neighbourhood. Easily a 25 minute walk. I rode that bike everywhere, parks, corner store for candy, library and school. There was no where I went without my bike and like the kids on Stranger Things, no helmet required. 
5. Scary Not Scary – Keeping true to the feel of a vintage 1983 production, the show is just the right amount of scary and seems to have a relief from the tension right at the exact moment you think your heart will explode out of your chest. Kind of like when Mike Meyers in Halloween was walk-chasing someone thru the woods and just when you thought she was done for, she would run right into a police station full of cops. Hey, what’s this police station doing here? Kinda like that. I only had to cover my eyes a couple of times during the whole 8 episode season. Not bad, really. Fun Fact: Netflix has signed on for a second season of Stranger Things with 17 episodes in the works and I CAN’T WAIT! 

Tell me what YOU thought about Stranger Things? Love it? Hate it? Haven’t watched it yet?