This series is set in '80s Hawkins, Indiana. As it opens twelve year old friends Will Byers, Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair are playing Dungeons and Dragons. Shortly afterwards Will vanishes; he has been taken to 'The Upside Down'; a dark parallel universe. Around the same time a mysterious girl, known as Eleven (shortened to El), turns up. It later becomes apparent that she has telekinetic powers and is being looked for by workers at a secretive facility. As the story progress's Will's friends befriend El and she helps them try to find him. His mother is convinced that he is trying to communicate with her.

I've only described the basic plot of season one; the second and third seasons follow on with new, but related stories with most of the same characters and some new ones.

I really enjoyed this series from the start of the first season to the end of the third. Perhaps it was because I was in my early teens in the early eighties I really enjoyed the nostalgia factor despite the fact that I was growing up in rural Oxfordshire not small town America... of course I was watching American films like ET and late '50s set 'Stand By Me'. The group of friends in this particularly reminded me of the boys in the latter of those films. The story provides some good scary moments and a great atmosphere with threats that are a combination of fantasy and sci-fi... creatures beautifully mirroring the Dungeon and Dragon monsters in the game the boys play. The characters are great; most obviously the boys, Eleven, Will's mother Joyce and Jim Hopper, the town's sheriff. The cast is really good; the youngsters are really great making their characters believable even during the most fantastical of scenes. Millie Bobby Brown particularly stands out as Eleven; a character that is both vulnerable and at times potentially dangerous. The adult cast is impressive too. The effects, an impressive mix of CGI and physical effects, impressively bring the more supernatural elements of the film to life. Overall I'd certainly recommend this series to fans of the genre... I can't wait for season four.