In July of 2016, Netflix released all 8 episodes of the first season of Stranger Things, a show focusing on a particularly odd event in a small, fictitious town named Hawkins, in Indiana. Opening on the night of November 3, 1983, at a place called "Hawkins Lab: US Department of Energy", particularly most interesting is the time period. At this laboratory, something has seemingly gone horribly wrong, where an eerie alert siren rings inside the building with only one frightened scientists running down the halls, trying to escape something that seemed to be lurking. This one-minute preface to the show defines its supernatural feel, as viewers do not yet know what has happened after the scientist is suddenly pulled upward out of the frame by the unknown being that was presumably chasing him.

Closing in on the time period, the show then shifts to the basement of a house viewers assume to be close to the lab, in Hawkins, where a group of four kids, Mike Wheeler (played by Finn Wolfhard), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), and Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), are playing the classic 80s boardgame, Dungeons and Dragons (a fantasy role-play game). As one player reveals a particularly powerful character called the Demogorgon, the opposer attempts a fireball defense, but rolls a 7, thus losing the game, after their 10-hour campaign. As the kids make their way upstairs, we see the television not working properly. Will, Lucas, and Dustin leave what we learn to be Mike's house, ominously as the outside light on the garage flickers. The group rides their bikes, and as Lucas pulls away to go to his house, Dustin and Will race. Will, seemingly more athletic, outpaces Dustin, but finds himself lost, accidentally biking onto the property of Hawkins laboratory. The light on his bike extinguishes, and he is left nervous, only to catch a small glimpse of what seems like an unearthly figure. He falls off his bike, and runs home to his nearby house, only to find his mother and brother Jonathan are nowhere to be seen. He runs to the shed and loads a gun. The unknown being gets closer, closer. Suddenly, the light inside the shed brightens, then, in the next instant, Will had disappeared. The show, having only run 5 minutes so far, breaks into a full-blown strider and begins introductory theme song.

The music of Stranger Things is where viewers started to get a real flavor of the show and it's striving to maintain it's 80s-esque persona. Primarily utilizing musical synthesizers ("hardware synths") to create a true "retro-synth" sound, the show's introductory title sequence consists of ominous red, luminous text letters coming together to spell the title of the show, STRANGER THINGS. Anybody who lived through the 80s would most likely be greeted with overwhelming nostalgia as the synths begin to bleed away to a VHS-like flickering red and white text. Written by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, this type of music is in fact prevalent throughout the show, each of the many songs sounding considerably different to match with any particular scene, primarily featuring the show's main theme and a song entitled "Kids" to set the stage as the story opens in "Chapter One: The Disappearance of Will Byers" (rather than refer to episodes, the are categorized as chapters, much like Netflix's House of Cards featuring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright). Each piece of music is indeed designed to evoke emotion on a subconscious level, never fully intruding into a scene to make itself known. The music also assists viewers in recalling certain points of the show and associating events with it, as the rises and falls of notation are designed to coalesce with the show's mood swings.

In general, the series focuses on multiple character plots... that of the town police officer (depicted by David Harbour) and the missing child's emotion-stricken mother (Winona Ryder); the group of young friends (the three boys whose friend mysteriously vanished) with their new-found lab runaway Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown); and their older siblings and a friend (Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery). To put it simply, the boy who went missing's mother teamed with the local sheriff for the manhunt, while his friends also try to look for him, while his older brother and friend's older sister also join the force. These are told as separate storylines with their own subplots, which eventually combine in the last episode, "Chapter 8: The Upside Down". As the series develops, more and more is uncovered regarding the disappearance of the boy, eventually revealing (rather quickly) an over-mounting government coverup and various other backstabs and plot twists.

Utilizing multiple plots was something Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of Stranger Things, wanted to maintain, despite being turned down multiple times by production companies suggesting the show should focus on one character or another. However, the Duffers remained true to their creation. After multiple rejections, they presented their show to Netflix (who adopted the script) and a version closer the original final cut of the script was approved, and soon, the show was in production. The casting itself was conducted by the Duffer brothers, looking at some 600 or so male auditions (for the group of boys), as well as 400 female auditions to play the role of Eleven. The producers were primarily looking not only for those who genuinely fit the role, but a group of kids who seemed gregarious, thus fitting the characters of the show. Chemistry, the Duffers said, was important.
Onward, the show itself has a unique combination of character and plot, with a truly genuine dialogue, which can be accredited to the creators (as well as co-producer Justin Doble and the rest), directors, including Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, and the cast. The development of characters and the acting itself is incredible to say the least, falling together perfectly in summation by the season finale "Chapter Eight: The Upside Down". The eventual combination of plots by this point is masterful as the lovable characters collaborate and struggle in the attempt to find the missing boy.

Furthermore, being the setting's time period of the 1980s, the Duffers said that the show was strongly inspired by a number of classic 80s adventure and thriller movies, most prominently such movies as, "The Goonies","E.T.", "Poltergeist", "Stand By Me", "Jaws", "Super 8", "Nightmare on Elm Street", "The Breakfast Cub", novels by Stephen King, director Steven Speilberg, and others. These shows, having been hallmark productions in the 1970s and 1980s, present a fond recollection for those watching the show with the prior knowledge. While Stranger Thins certainly portrays many elements from the aforementioned movie, sometimes itself referred to as an "8-hour movie", the unique combination of various stories is fascinating to see come into play.

Infinite praise can certainly go out to the Duffer Brothers and the cast, as the show has been presented with resounding levels of praise. With Season 2 already set to release in July of 2017, viewers can expect more great soundtracks, more of the cherishable characters (along with some additions to the cast), and more riveting plot points from the Duffer brothers. The composition of the show is truly inspiring, as very few shows have realistically depicted a character's dialogue and decision-making as well as Stranger Things was able to do. In the coming months, the progression of the script is only expected to unfold in a darker and more gradual manner as Season 2 begins to be produced into another 9 episodes by mid-2017, and fans from reaches of the world can gladly have the honor of calling this fictitious world 'strange'.