Stranger Things

What it is

Stranger Things is a drama series produced by Netflix, which released its first season in 2016. It was created by twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, who also led the writing and directing. It is set in Hawkins, a small fictional town in 1980s Indiana, where something hard to explain disturbs an ordinary-looking community and children, teenagers and adults each approach it in their own way. It is often cited as the show that proved a streaming service's original series could become the centre of mainstream conversation.

How it summons the 1980s

The strongest impression the show leaves is its sense of period. It does not simply move the setting into the past; it recreates, across the whole frame, the feel remembered by a generation raised on that era's youth adventure films and horror novels. Viewers who lived through the decade experience it as nostalgia, while those who did not find it a fresh texture.

• Bikes and walkie-talkies: how kids got around and kept in touch before mobile phones
• Synthesiser music: cold, dreamy electronic sound that builds tension
• Props and costumes: arcades, videotapes, and the clothes and hairstyles of the time
• Tabletop role-playing: the fantasy game the kids play becomes a metaphor for the story

Three generations moving in parallel

The story usually runs along several threads. A group of kids, their teenage siblings, and the parents and adults of the town each hold different clues and move separately before converging late in the season. Seeing the same events taken in so differently by age lets a single mystery carry a coming-of-age story, a family drama and a teen romance at once. Part of the appeal is that the same season is remembered differently depending on which thread you cared about most.

Balancing horror and warmth

It is a horror story with uncanny creatures and mysterious experiments, but at its heart is the friendship of kids who refuse to give up on one another. Bickering and jokes slip in between the tense scenes, giving room to breathe and keeping the horror from sinking too heavily. That is why even viewers who do not enjoy scary scenes grow attached to the characters and stay to the end. The level of horror and violence does tend to rise as the seasons go on, however.

Season structure and release pattern

As a Netflix series, it began by releasing each season's episodes all at once, with eight or nine episodes per season. Episodes grew longer as the series went on, and later seasons include episodes close to the length of a feature film. Later seasons were also released in two or more batches. With gaps of several years between seasons, the young cast visibly grew up on screen, an unusual experience for viewers who followed the series over time. The creators announced the fifth season as the final one.

Creators and cast

The Duffer Brothers made no secret of their love for 1980s popular culture, and that taste defined the show's character. The music was composed by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, whose synthesiser-driven theme and score became one of the show's signatures. Winona Ryder and David Harbour appear among the adults, and the young actors of the time, including Millie Bobby Brown, became widely known through the series. The fact that children who were near newcomers grew up alongside the show adds the weight of real time to it.

Worth knowing before watching

Each season resolves its central crisis, but the relationships and the world's rules carry on, making it a serialised story, so watch strictly in order from the first season. Given the long gaps, rewatching the last few episodes of the previous season before starting the next keeps the thread clear. It is a hugely popular show, so key developments surface easily in searches and video recommendations; be careful until you have finished.

• Order: from season one, in release order
• Age rating: horror and violence intensify each season, so check first
• Episode length: later seasons have very long episodes, so plan your time
• Spoilers: watch out for short-video recommendations and search autocomplete

Where to go next

If you enjoyed it, what you liked decides where to go next. If the 1980s atmosphere drew you in, the most natural step is to look back at the youth adventure and horror films of that decade; the show is full of homage to them, and tracing the sources is a pleasure in itself. If the kids' friendship and growing up mattered most, try coming-of-age dramas; if the mystery and eerie mood did, choose serialised science fiction or supernatural series. Anthology horror series, which wrap up each season, offer a similar tension at a shorter stretch.