Stranger Things

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About

Stranger Things is an American supernatural science fiction thriller web series written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer and released through Netflix in July 2016. The series takes place in Hawkins, Indiana, and primarily focuses on a group of children, one of whom mysteriously vanished.^[28] They befriend a mysterious girl they meet in the woods, while the town's police chief and the mother of the missing boy discover a series of dark secrets surrounding the rural town as they investigate the boy's sudden disappearance. Upon its global release, the pilot season of Stranger Things was met with positive reviews as an homage to the 1980s pop culture, taking inspiration from works by Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Stephen King and many others.

History

Stranger Things was written and directed by Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, the brother filmmakers who received their first exposure fresh out of college in 2011 after a spec script for their debut horror-thriller film Hidden drew interest from multiple film studios in Hollywood. In April 2015, Hollywood news site Deadline^[11] reported that the production of the series began in Atlanta, Georgia (under the working title Montauk) shortly after Netflix ordered a pilot season of eight, hour-long episodes.

Cast

During the production phase, the series drew widespread attention for casting Winona Ryder (Beetle Juice, Edward Scissorhands) one of the most iconic actresses of the 1990s, in the lead role of Joyce Byers, a single divorced mother of two teenagers who go on a frantic search of his son after he disappears in the forest one night. In addition to Ryder, other notable cast members include Millie Bobby Brown (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Intruders, Grey's Anatomy) as "Eleven," a young girl with psychokinetic abilities and limited vocabulary, David Harbour (Law & Order, The Newsroom, State of Affairs) as Chief Jim Hopper, the town's police chief, and Charlie Heaton (DCI Banks, Casualty, Shut In) as Jonathan Byers, a brooding high school student and older brother of the missing boy.

Release

On June 9th, 2016, the first trailer for Stranger Things was released via YouTube, where it garnered more than four million views within the first month (shown below). On July 15th, the pilot season of the series was released in entirety on Netflix.

Season 2

On August 31st, 2016, Netflix announced that Stranger Things would return for a second, nine-chapter season in 2017. A teaser with names of the episode titles was released on YouTube the same day (shown below).

Also on the same day, Entertainment Weekly^[21] published an interview with The Duffer Brothers discussing the plans for Season 2. The Brothers revealed that the second seaosn would take place a year after Season 1, and that several important characters, including Mike, Joyce, and Dustin would return. They also revealed that where would be several new characters, and that Hawkins, Indiana, would not be the only setting for the show.

On February 5th, 2017, Netflix aired the trailer for the new season during the Super Bowl. The trailer was posted to Netflix YouTube channel^[25] that day, and as of October 2017, it has received more than 16 million views.

The second season of Stranger Things began streaming on Netflix on October 27th, 2017.

Reception

Season 1

Upon its Netflix premiere on July 15th, the series was promptly met with mostly positive reviews from the viewers and critics alike, with an average score of 94% (based on 50 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes^[1] and a 75/100 rating (based on 33 reviews) on Metacritic.^[2] Much of the praises from the critics focused on the Duffer Brothers' stylish incorporation of familiar themes and motifs that had been pioneered by several influential filmmakers and storytellers in the 1980s, including Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Stephen King, Rob Reiner and George Lucas, among others.

Season 2

Stranger Things season two received generally positive review critics. On the review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, ^[26] the show earned a 93% positive score (out of 60 reviews) and a 78/100 rating (out of 30 critics) on Metacritic.^[27] Critics praised the show for maintaining the sweetness, humor, nostalgia and horror of the first season.

Online Presence

Aside from its official channel on Netflix^[13], Stranger Things maintains some branded presence on the social media; its official Facebook page^[6] has more than 781,000 likes and its Twitter account^[5] has nearly 90,000 followers (as of August 2016).

Fandom

The series has amassed a large following online, spawning various pieces of fan art as well as theory videos for what might be in-store for the series after the season one finale. On Tumblr^[3], there are several posts tagged under the series. As of August 29th, 2016, Stranger Things ranks as the third TV show with the most activity, only falling behind long time first placer Steven Universe and then Voltron: Legendary Defender. ^[22] There are roughly 2.9k results for 'Stranger Things' on DeviantArt, most of which are based on the show.^[17] Surprisingly, a Wikia for the show run by fans is under heavy development, with only 81 pages so far.^[23]

Fan Illustrations

1980s Style Cover Art

RPG Parodies

Make It Stranger

Make it Stranger is the website address of the Stranger Things Type Generator, an unofficial word generator created by the creative studio Nelson Cash's Michael McMillan. The site allows users to make their own words into the font akin to the eerie artistic style of the Stranger Things logo.

Stranger Gif

Stranger Gif is the name of Netflix's generator website^[18] that recreates the iconic scene wherein Will communicates with Joyce using Christmas lights that correspond to a letter of the alphabet on the wall. The site allows users to make their own Christmas lights message up to 20 characters long.

Ramsophone

Ramsophone is a Single-Serving Site that provides the user with a unique electronic musical box upon every refresh. The site was inspired by both innovative designer Dieter Rams and the Score of Stranger Things.^[24] It has received widespread recognition from entertainment news sites due to the popularity of Stranger Things.