Stranger Things

Dad,

It took me a long time to decide which show I wanted to write about this week, because I knew you’d be reading it. As I sat there pondering, a recommendation came to me from the last place I ever expected to receive one: in our basement talking with Luke Shawhan. He thought I would enjoy Stranger Things. I had been avoiding hopping on this bandwagon for so long, but I finally caved and decided to watch this show that had captivated all of my peers (and apparently Mr. Shawhan).

I’m going to give you a quick plot summary that I pulled from Wikipedia, because there was honestly so much going on that I couldn’t think of a good way to summarize it: “Stranger Things is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins, Indiana, during the early 1980s. The nearby Hawkins National Laboratory ostensibly performs scientific research for the United States Department of Energy, but secretly does experiments into the paranormal and supernatural, including those that involve human test subjects. These start to affect the unknowing residents of Hawkins in calamitous ways.”

You know better than anyone that science fiction has never been my favorite genre. I avoid it at all costs, occasionally to your chagrin (think Star Trek). But as I watched this new show, there were a couple of moments that made me think that maybe, just maybe, science fiction isn’t the worst thing in the world.

First, I was really captivated by the number of plot lines that the show was following. It seemed like each character has his or her own detailed background and mystery to solve, which is relatively unique to this show. As I was watching a few of these plot lines unfold and become even more intertwined, I noticed that I wanted to watch more episodes in order to find the answers to questions that I had. I think that by making this show as detailed as it is, the creators ran a risk. If they made it simpler to follow, I don’t think they would be able to keep their audience captivated and hungry for more. But if they made it too difficult to follow, the audience would most likely find the show mentally exhausting and thus not an enjoyable thing to watch. In my opinion, Stranger Things has managed to find the perfect balance between complex and entertaining.

The second thing about the show that really interested me was the use of children as main characters. Normally, a science fiction show involving language and “scary” content would have mostly adult actors, but the main actors in Stranger Things are children. These kids do an incredible job of portraying material that is difficult to grasp, and I wish I was friends with all of them in real life. Regardless of acting ability though, I would like to ask the creators of the show why they chose to use children. Maybe it allows them to interest their audience in a way that most other shows can’t? Maybe they wanted to make the events that occur in the show even less relatable by having an age gap between the actors and the audience? Whatever the reason, the use of child actors has a profound effect on the show as a whole.

There are honestly a lot of other things that make this show an oddity, but for sake of your time and my word count, I think I’m going to conclude with those thoughts for today. Let me know what you think of these observations!

With love from your favorite daughter,

Anna