There were some very nice aspects of Stranger Things. Personally, I was watching it for the sci-fi angle. It was more of an X-Files/Goonies/Beverly Hills 90210. The X-Files/Firestarter likeness was cool. Even the Goonies/E.T. type style was OK. The Beverly Hills 90210 teenage drama was sickening. I don't care who likes who, who's sleeping with who or who a sweet young girl is going to lose her virginity to. That very unnecessary aspect of the show very nearly ruined it.

Well, that and Winona Ryder--she was awful. I couldn't take the show seriously whenever they put her exaggerated mug on the screen. Goodness, she was such a caricature. I didn't know if she was going for comedy, crazy or an Oscar. She greatly overplayed the distressed-I'm-not-crazy mother role. She was terrible.

Strip away the teen love component and Winona Ryder then this was a solid sci-fi series. It's 1983 and a young kid named Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) goes missing. The mom, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) is convinced that he's alive and nearby. Coupled with that strange disappearance a young girl named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) shows up and is able to do some real Professor X-type stuff.

The show centers around four distinct characters: Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), young nerd and leader of his pack. Joyce Byers, distressed mother. Jim Hopper (David Harbour), town sheriff and relentless searcher. Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), confused teenager in love looking for her friend. As I stated before; two of the characters' stories I couldn't care less about and the other two were the meat and potatoes for me. More bizarre happenings and less soap opera drama and it is a lot better show.