Today I will be doing a spoiler-free review of season 1 of Stranger Things. This is one of my favorite shows I’ve watched, simply because of how unique it is. This is a science fiction show set in the 80s that is based on a group of kids witnessing a bunch of supernatural events when one of their friends goes missing. In this show, the main group of friends are Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will is the one that goes missing. The true main character is someone they meet that is named Eleven. She’s a child that was tested on because of her supernatural abilities. Other main characters are Nancy (Mike’s sister) and her boyfriend Steve. There is also Joyce (Will’s mom) and Jonathan (Will’s brother). The final main character is the town sheriff Jim Hopper. As you can see, there are many characters and the cast keeps growing as the seasons go on. There are only eight episodes in this season so there isn’t much filler at all. All the episodes fly by and are paced very well. There isn’t really one bad episode this season but I also don’t think there’s one that stands out the most. It’s just a bunch of really good television episodes.
The villain of this season is a bit different than in the other seasons of the show. They don’t really show a true villain, as it’s more so just a shadow figure because the main group of characters are all trying to figure everything out. A side villain though could be Dr. Martin Brenner, who is the man that tested on Eleven. He truly is evil and only cares about himself. I was a major fan of the plot in this season and everything made a lot of sense. My favorite character in this season is probably Dustin. I think Gaten Matarazzo plays him perfectly, and he’s just the funniest character in the show. With that being said, I’m also a fan of every main character this season. I think they’re all written very well and the acting from everyone involved was really good too. One of the other main standouts was Joyce played by Winona Ryder. She plays the role of a crazy distressed mom to absolute perfection and really makes everything feel so much more real.
I always rate shows I watch and I rate them based on 10 things in the show. Those things are action, acting, cinematography, pacing, score, characters, ending, plot, protagonist, and antagonist. I rate all of those pieces 1-10 and then after that, I add up the scores of all 10 of them and get a total score out of 100. I gave this season a 93/100, and honestly, the main thing that brings it down is the fact that there isn’t a truly known villain. It works for the show but I have to grade Martin Brenner as the main villain and in total, he’s just fine. Everything else this season is really great though and it’s not even the peak of this show yet.
