I've finally decided to write my first review, because I think the reviews of Stranger Things need to be balanced a bit from someone who doesn't think it's way up there with all the 8, 9, 10 star reviews.

Stranger Things opens just great. During the first half of the first episode I was really impressed by the look and feel of the show, and the story just brought me in. They nailed the 80'ies feeling quite well. The intro and music feels very authentic (although in shining HD). One of my favorite things was that they've toned the actors down to look less like movie stars, and more like "regular" people like you or I. The look of most 80'ies homages feel a lot less authentic than Stranger Things, where you feel that they've only just added enough of an 80'ies style to get away with it, but it still feels like everything's been modified enough to feel modern. Stranger Things avoids this and that's a very good thing.

Now, for the story, I don't think it quite held up all the way through. I found myself losing interest after a few episodes. In my opinion, they gave away too much, too soon. The mystery disappears after a while, and over time the show started feeling more like a low-budget show. The direction of the show also felt somewhat all over the place. The story is told mostly through the eyes of kids, but there's enough violence and scary parts that I don't think kids are the target audience. Like, for example, The Walking Dead, it's violent and horror-y in a way that's toned down just enough to feel safe and PG and I found that quite distracting. I get a strong Super 8 vibe from this show, but it feels less consistent in what audience it's really trying to appeal to. Obviously, this show has turned out to appeal to most of you, so my opinion is probably not all that common, which is one of the reasons I felt I should write this review.

The acting is decent most of the time. I don't think it'll win any awards or anything, but it doesn't distract, with a couple of exceptions. Winona Ryder feels surprisingly misplaced and I had expected a lot more from her. I didn't really like the acting of Charlie Heaton either, but I suppose it could have been a matter of directing as well. All of the characters are somewhat cliché, which I don't think is a problem. Actually, I think that's what they have been aiming for. This is a homage to 80'ies horror and I think it's a good choice that the characters are the typical characters you find in those old films.

Got to mention again: the intro, wow! I love it. It's incredibly good looking and it sets a great mood immediately.

I gave this a pretty average score, on the low side, because of two things. One: The script. It lost my interest over time. In the long run, it didn't keep the mystery that the opening episode promised going. Two: it was very unclear to me who this was aimed to appeal to. It feels very matinée in quite a few sequences, but I think the target audience is supposed to be adults.

Anyway, I didn't hate it, and as I'm not one of those guys that raves about it or totally hates it, I tried to be a bit more nuanced in my review. But I'm very certain that I won't be seeing this again, and I think that in a year or so, this will be a show that I have pretty much forgotten about.