As you read some of the negative reviews for Stranger Things, you begin to realise just how messed up modern society is when it comes to judging the quality of movies and TV.

There seems to be a completely false misconception that in order for something to be good or 'original' it needs to be filled with brand new ideas that no one has ever seen (or thought of) before.

Frankly, this is rubbish and the people spouting utter codswallop about it on this site clearly have way too much time on their hands or just enjoy being negative.

It genuinely feels as though some people are just panning this show so they can demonstrate their knowledge of movie and TV history, mentioning a moment in the decades of movies that have gone before, where a scene was similar to one shown in Stranger Things. If that is how we judge things nowadays, it's a bit of shame.

Apologies, rant over.

This show is excellent. Really it is. I personally found it so engrossing that I was – for the duration of each episode – transported back in to the 80s. Credit goes to the actors - especially the kids, for making it seem so real despite having no first-hand experience on which to draw from.

The way this is filmed, the lighting, the vast amount of electronic music used, the graininess in the opening credits, the cars and technology, the bicycles, the clothes and the haircuts – it's all first rate. Actually, let me just say that again. The soundtrack is awesome.

As mentioned, the acting is also good. I agree with another reviewer who said that our old friend Winona Ryder wails like a slightly mentally unstable person for the majority of her time on screen but this just about bearable given the context.

David Harbour is excellent as a run-down but hard-nosed local cop and all the kids are outstanding. Mathew Modine is a little under-used, but he almost feels like a last minute addition to the cast anyway so it's no real loss.

The CGI and special effects are pretty solid. I think the dark settings and low lighting obviously helps. Indeed, as we get to the later episodes and the CGI becomes more important and more frequently used, you start seeing the inevitable shortcuts that were taken to support a TV series versus a blockbuster summer movie.

For me the best thing about this series is the fact that it made me want to see more episodes. I found it hard to stop watching. And the interesting thing is that I couldn't quite put my finger on one single thing that made me want to watch. It really was a bit of everything.

Yes, I could see where the story was heading from fairly early on, but I still wanted to see it unfold because the experience was, well, a whole lot of fun.

And I guess this brings me full circle to my initial rant.

There are countless references to countless 80s + 90s movies and TV series. If you're old enough, you'll spot most of them. But this didn't pose a problem for me, nor did it reduce the level of enjoyment of watching. On the contrary, it made me smile and briefly think back to my own childhood.

The whole series treads a very unusual line between thriller, horror, and retro-spoof. Now, you can could say that drawing all these genres together is boring and unoriginal, but I beg to differ.

Putting them all together in this way is not something I've seen before. Maybe it has been done, but I haven't seen it, and I watch plenty of series.

The fact that so many people are giving this 10 stars speaks volumes, so please don't be influenced by the negative reviews without first giving at least one episode a go.

This series draws you in and it's enjoyable, funny, cheesy and mildly frightening right to the very predictable ending/intro to season 2. To be fair, I'm not entirely sure how else they could've ended it.

You can choose to miss it if you think everything that comes of out of Hollywood needs to be something we've never seen before – but honestly, I dare you to find a single thing on a planet of 7.6 billion people and countless series, books, movies etc. that no one has thought of or done before.

Watch it. Stranger Things is fun because it's different to most of the other things out there.