The show draws you in immediately, but there's little substance behind the veil of 80s nostalgia. The story and characters seems more like an afterthought, just contrived content to carry the aesthetics.

The actors are talented, but it shows that the characters and their experiences don't draw on personal experience (as the Duffers are to young to remember the early 80s). It's like an AI was fed a bunch of 80s movies and put together a show from that.