Plodding ‘Stranger Things’ still has something to offer
TV may not have reached its peak, but it’s close to reaching the limits of our patience. Friday, Netflix unveils Stranger Things ( eeg out of four), a multisourced, 1980s-set horror homage to Steven Spielberg films such as E.T., The Goonies and Poltergeist that — at about eight hours — exceeds the length of all three films combined. If you want to emulate Spielberg, don’t mimic his themes; study his skill at propelling a story forward and tailoring it for its audience.
Length, of course, is subjective and contextual. FX’s superb The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story ran longer than Stranger Things, but it was compelling every second of the way. This monsters-among-us story feels sluggish and flaccid: There are too many padded scenes, too many resolutions that are delayed and too much time to contemplate logical lapses. Like, for example, how is it the monster seems to be impervious to gunfire, but not to sharp objects?
Luckily, for those seeking the kind of action/horror adventure Poltergeist provided, Stranger Things generally delivers in sufficiently large amounts. Whether it’s family-friendly is something parents must decide, but for guidance, sex and violence are more often hinted at than shown, gore is minimal, and the nightmare-inducement level is probably right around that Poltergeist mark.
Written and directed by Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, Stranger follows four bookish Indiana boys — Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Will (Noah Schnapp) — who are bullied but not bowed. One day, two strange things happen: Will is taken by some unseen force, and Mike meets a girl with strange powers known only as Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) whom he hides, E.T.- like, in his basement. The police chief (a very good David Harbour) fears Will is dead. But the boys and Will’s mother Joyce (Winona Ryder, one of Stranger’s best assets) are certain he’s alive — a certainty Ryder plays to great effect as Joyce becomes increasingly unhinged.
Stranger does a fine job of capturing the boys’ friendship and resilience and an often humorous job of capturing family dynamics. I could have done without an adolescent angst/romance subplot involving Will’s brother and Mike’s sister, but the adolescents in your home may feel differently.
If only it all felt just a bit faster. There are inevitable moments in such stories — as when someone finally believes the person everyone else thinks is crazy — and Stranger keeps you waiting too long to reach them. Worse yet, it tacks on a postscript designed solely to propel a second edition of a story that had already lingered too long and a character who had already suffered enough.
Netflix is not the only TV outlet to stretch shows past their natural lives, but it does rank among the worst offenders as it hustles to feed the hunger for binge viewing it helped create. Now and then, it would just be nice to see a show get the time it needs: no less but no more.
Hey, stranger things have happened.