Why Have We All Been Captured by Stranger Things?

I am not the typical Stranger Things fan. I can admit I am a super-fan, but what I don’t want to admit is that I am also an “older” fan. I’m a grownup—a “middle aged” grownup. As much as I would like to pretend that’s not true sometimes, I have been a grownup for more years of my life than I was a child. So I try not to overdo it with excitement when talking about Stranger Things to my “peers” (i.e. other Gen-X “grownups”), because I know they think I am just a tad bit crazy. Maybe I’m just a nerd. Maybe I spend too much time with pre-teens and teenagers. Or maybe this is my version of a mid-life crisis? But thankfully, there are a few nerdy peers of mine who share my passion, and many others from younger generations in my life as a middle school teacher that I can talk to and geek out with about the show! So why has Stranger Things captured my heart and the heart of so many others across generations?

Good Writing

As an avid reader, writer, and veteran teacher of reading and writing, Stranger Things is one of the most well-written and well-developed stories I have ever experienced. I seriously want to meet and hug the Duffer Brothers just to thank them for being so amazing and modeling good storytelling to the billions of kids who are fans of the show! There are elements of adventure, science fiction, horror, comedy, romance…the story crosses into all genres. The setting is idyllic—what other era can kids get into so much trouble without their parents even batting an eye than the 1980s? The characters are all very unique and have their own arcs, histories, and storylines that have been so precisely created that we begin to view them as real people, even friends. There is the perfect amount of exposition provided to help us understand just enough of what is going on, but always keeping us wondering; meticulously created rising action; intense climaxes; and then sufficient falling action and resolution before leaving viewers wanting more. As a teacher, that’s EXACTLY how I teach my students to write their narratives. Every word in the dialogue is rich with meaning and keeps the story moving forward, highlighting each character’s very unique, individual personality. A few of my favorite lines from Season 4 include:

Eddie’s explosion: “THIS IS MUSIC!”
Dustin’s “Hey, you’re really ready for BAT-tle?” And then that characteristic giggle…who doesn’t love that kid?
Steve asking, “What is Mordor?”
Eleven’s characteristic short and always literal sentences: “I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer” made me laugh way too hard (at the risk of waking up my two sleeping kids in next room over).
“We gonna do this, or are we gonna keep chit-chatting like this is your mommy’s book club?” Pretty much every single line Erica has is pure poetry to my snarky, sarcastic side.

The story is so well-written and produced that I often find myself having conversations with my students about the literary qualities of Stranger Things. I’ve been able to teach kids who may not be big readers using examples from the character/plot development and themes of the show, which are essential skills to understand in Language Arts. I started a “Stranger Things” fan club in 2019-2020 with another teacher back before Covid shut our school down, and we filled up to our maximum capacity of 50 kids in a matter of minutes during the sign up period! We had a blast discussing the the setting, characters, plots, themes, and of course, speculating about what might be coming in the next season(s). There are endless conversation starters related to the show that help me break the ice with my middle schoolers, and that shared interest has created a connection with many of them that I may not have been able to reach otherwise.

And have you watched it with the subtitles turned on? If you haven’t yet, do it. As soon as possible. Sometimes I completely miss out on a scene because I get so distracted reading them! The captions are pure gold, unless you’re not a big fan of the word moist. You will see “wet squelching,” “tittering,” “ominous stinger,” “eldrich thrumming,” and other hilarious descriptions like “Eleven pants.” I didn’t even know the word eldritch until I looked it up, and I have been a wordsmith for most of my life. Jeff T. and Karli W., the creative subtitles team, definitely deserve an Emmy!

Big hair at the roller rink

My childhood best friend Brandy (right) and me (left) at the skating rink when we were middle schoolers in the mid-1980s…GAH, those perm and outfits!!!

Nostalgia

I was a child of the 80s, so every episode of Stranger Things is a trip down memory lane for me. From the bikes and walkie-talkies, shopping mall craze, obnoxious outfits, big hair and bangs (I had a perm that looked like a cross between Nancy’s perm and Dustin's curly mop), skating rink shenanigans, movie references (E.T. was the first movie I saw in a theater), and food throwbacks (Eggos and New Coke—yuck), I see reflections of my childhood everywhere. In the mid-80s, a group of my neighborhood friends built a fort in a nearby forest not unlike Will’s “Castle Byers” and actually camped out there overnight. I rode on my bike through my neighborhood and got into mischief with other kids—my friend and I were convinced there was a Russian spy living in a trailer off a dirt road in the woods near our homes, and we even peeked in his window as we were “investigating!” (Don’t try this now, kids…seriously.) I don’t think either of our parents had a clue what we were up to. I was terrified of Russians and nuclear war, and I even won a writing award for a short story I composed about a family surviving nuclear fallout after a bombing…I was a Cold War kid. I rescued little creatures from certain annihilation—my “Dart” was a mouse I pulled right out of a cat’s mouth that I intended on keeping as a pet, until it escaped the basket on my bicycle and scurried up my arm and down my shirt! I remember not coming home until the sun started to set, my parents having no idea where I had been for hours at a time. And when I got into high school, I was “Mom Steve” to groups of YMCA Adventure campers for three summers. Like the stolen RV, we had an old van we nicknamed “Piggy Funk” that we bounced around town in. (Except it wasn’t stolen…but we often wished it would be so we could get a new van!) So every single scene in this show IS my childhood and full of nostalgia. And it’s impossible to talk about the nostalgia of the 80s without mentioning the music from this era; that deserves its own section.

The Music

I have always been especially drawn to music and scores. Solid soundtracks can raise a movie or show to a whole new level. I’m not sure there is a soundtrack I have enjoyed more than the soundtrack of Stranger Things—after all, it is literally the playlist of my childhood! When Suzie and Dustin began singing “The Neverending Story” in Season 3, I almost lost my mind. That was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and I found myself remembering every single word while singing along with them! There are countless songs in the series that I recognize, but the way they are woven into the show and add other layers of meaning to what’s happening in the story is brilliant. Just a few notable tunes have been Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time” at the Snow Ball during Dustin’s repeated rejections and then salvation by Nancy; the use of Peter Gabriel’s “Heroes” in both Seasons 1 and 3; The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” underneath the seemingly sweet SnowBall scene as the Shadow Monster watches Hawkins from the Upside Down; The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” for Will’s mantra while he hides in the Upside Down in Season 1; the “Separate Ways/Worlds Apart” Journey remix in Season 4 as the groups split up and head off to their separate battles; of course, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” while Max literally runs up the hill of her life; and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” as Eddie plays Pied Piper to the demobats, luring them away from Vecna’s lair. And it’s not just the soundtrack from the 80s that resonates with me…the musical score under every scene is perfectly composed to create an exact mood. I immediately recognized Moby’s “When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die” in both Seasons 1 and 4 from my X-Files-obsessed days—Moby has always been a master of creating music that elicits emotion. Musical geniuses Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein have created most of the score with a fantastic 80s synth vibe—can you really watch an episode without watching the title sequence? (For the record, I cannot.) And that very last scene taking the original Stranger Things theme and turning it into a cinematic score with full orchestra…goosebumps.

Me as “Joyce”

For Halloween 2017, I dressed up as Joyce Byers. (I wish I had been able to convince my son to dress up as Will, but he was only 4, so…) I did see a couple of Elevens roaming the neighborhood in pink dresses and blonde wigs!

The Acting

Beyond the gifted writing, there is SO MUCH TALENT in the actors of “Stranger Things.” In Season One, the five kids playing Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Eleven stole our hearts and became absolute powerhouses of pop culture. Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, and Millie Bobby Brown are such gifted actors, musicians, and seemingly good people and role models from what I have seen of them on social media (I am praying they keep it that way for the kids who idolize them!). The fact that Joe Keery was so good that the writers decided not to kill him off and retain him as a main character throughout the series is a testament to his amazing acting. Winona Ryder, the penultimate 80s child actress cast as Joyce could not be more fitting! The additional characters/actors who have been added throughout the seasons have been incredible. Bringing in Goonies alum Sean Astin as Bob Newby was such a blast from the past. When Mike and Bob were examining the map Will had drawn and Bob replied, “Yeah? What’s at the X? Pirate treasure?” I think I jumped off the couch and screamed “YASSSS!!!” The Goonies was one of my favorite movies as a child and I had already connected Stranger Things to a Goonies-like story from the first episodes: a group of kids going on a dangerous adventure to save their beloved town. So when Sean Astin/Mikey/Bob made his first appearance, I couldn’t have been more excited.

Another addition that took me back has been Maya Hawke. It took me a few episodes to figure out that she was the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke—my celebrity crush in the late 80s/90s. And the fact that he and Winona Ryder starred opposite each other in one of my angsty teen faves, Reality Bites, is the icing on the cake. Despite her uber talented parental influences, Maya has turned out to be quite the starlet herself, especially in her quirky scenes opposite Steve/Joe Keery. Sadie Sink as Max has added a ton of humor and depth to the characters and their relationships—her performances this season especially are Oscar-worthy. Caleb McLaughlin took his acting to a whole new level during the scene in the Creel house, giving us all the feels as he wept while Max was dying. I have really enjoyed watching Priah Ferguson as Erica get more screen time and snarky lines over the last two seasons, and Joseph Quinn’s role as Eddie, the ultimate hero who played “the most metal concert in the history of the world,” was epic.

These actors are so adept at building emotion onscreen and in our hearts, whether it’s making us roll with laughter or choke up with tears. Millie Bobby Brown is a master at this—she can somehow convey 4-5 emotions in a matter of seconds with her eyes and expressions. Not since the reunion between Scully and Mulder in Season 8 of The X-Files have I been so grateful to see reunions like those between Mike and Eleven, Joyce and Hopper, and Hopper and Eleven…that last scene in Season 4 between El and Hopper was gut-wrenching. I bawled at “I kept the door open 3 inches…”

Good vs. Evil

In the real world, where evil is present but seemingly more hidden, we don’t have to fight demogorgons, shadow monsters, Vecnas, or mind flayers. But we do fight monsters: bullies, politics, cancer, racism, fake news, mental illness, social media. In Stranger Things, we get to see good prevail. Yes, there are casualties (RIP Barb, Bob Newby, Alexei, Billy, and Eddie), but ultimately, good triumphs over evil. And in this corrupted world, we desperately need that inspiration to keep fighting the good fight, whether it be against actual monsters or just regular old bullies, mean people, and corrupt politicians. I often wonder where the Duffer brothers are spiritually, because the themes in Stranger Things often feel like themes from the Bible—the least equipped and least popular people are always given the most important jobs (like Rahab, Mary, Joseph, Moses, and David), the truth is twisted, hidden, and revealed time and time again, and in the end, good always wins. I desperately hope that we see those themes continue through Season 5, because even though we know the series will be coming to an end, our lives will not. We need an ending that inspires us to keep fighting the good fight, that all our efforts to stay true and flee evil are not in vain.

So thank you, Matt and Ross Duffer, Shawn Levy, and the entire production team and cast of Stranger Things, for not only entertaining but educating and inspiring all generations of literary nerds (and teachers). And if you need an extra to play a teacher at Hawkins Middle or High in Season 5, I’m all yours!

Why Have We All Been Captured So by Stranger Things?

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