 "Stranger Things")
In the sleepy town of Hawkins, Indiana, where nothing ever happens and children fearlessly ride their banana-seat bikes along the forest long after the sun has set, life is all about chasing garden gnome-thieves for the town's top cop Chief Jim Hopper. In the American science fiction thriller Stranger Things, David Harbour essays the role of Hopper, a man coping with depression after a personal tragedy.
"Ninety-nine out of 100 times when a kid goes missing, he's with a parent or relative," the cop says in the beginning of the series. Stranger Things is clearly the story about the other "one" time. It all begins when four young friends wrap up a 10-hour-long game of Dungeons and Dragons and head home on their bikes. Somewhere along the way, Will Byers, one of the four boys, vanishes into the night.
The show has become an instant hit across the globe: IMDB (Internet Movie Database) rating for the series, which premiered just a few weeks ago on Netflix, is currently 9.1; many have binge-watched all eight episodes of the first season back-to-back. Netflix has always been rather tight-lipped about its viewing figures, but top bosses at the e-entertainment company have said that it would be "dumb" not to commission a second season.
Also Read
One reason for Stranger Things to have become so popular is that the story moves swiftly - in contrast, other shows like Bloodline and Outlander on Netflix take some time to flesh out their plots. But the real charm of Stranger Things lies in the certitude that the series is strangely familiar.
Written and directed by twins Matt and Ross Duffer, known as the Duffer Brothers, the series stars Winona Ryder as a harried single mother, Joyce Byers. In the first episode itself, she sets off on a frantic search for her missing 12-year-old (Will), but it isn't Ryder who keeps the story rolling. Instead, it is three of Will's friends who keep one engaged as they take up the challenge of finding their friend.
While Mike Wheeler is the "leader" of this trio of child-detectives, the comic-book loving Dustin Henderson has a characteristic lisp and their friend Lucas Sinclair is bold and wary. Breaking curfews imposed after Will's disappearance, they zip through the empty streets and woods of Hawkins in search of Will.
The appearance of a young girl in a hospital gown, her head shaved and "011" tattooed on her wrist adds to the mystery, clearly indicating that there's more to the going-ons in Hawkins than what meets the eye. When the boys befriend this girl and call her "El" (short for Eleven), they find that El's strangely limited vocabulary and sudden appearance isn't the most puzzling thing about her: El has telekinetic abilities too.
Set in the early '80s, Stranger Things comes across as a rather adoring "thank you" note to everyone from Steven Spielberg to Stephen King for giving us Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Carrie (2013) and It (1990).
Much like in these stories that have become a part of cult fiction, extra-ordinary things happen to ordinary people in Stranger Things and they are gripped by a compelling sense of "impending danger". When you add government-funded secret experiments and cover ups to the supernatural terror arising from a horrific alternate dimension, it makes it a tale that is likely to be enjoyed by adults and children alike.
The series is far from being a flawless thriller: there are many things left unexplained and unanswered, but the well-woven narrative hauls you through the first season and makes you Google for the second season's making.
