Recently at a friend's house (actually the house of a couple of friends and their kids) I saw the first two episodes of Stranger Things. Netflix show, set in Indiana. Seems to be sort of a cross between ET and the works of Stephen King, especially IT and Firestarter. A brief breakdown.
Best thing: The acting. Fair dialogue, too. Even the characters who come off as sort of jerky are pretty well drawn. I liked Barb, although I knew from hearing things that she wouldn't be around that long.
Worst thing: The suspicion that I had just watched the opening act of a nine hour story Rod Serling could have wrapped up in 25 minutes.
Middle thing: While the show is supposed to have a "summer movie" feel, the video cinematography undercuts it. The picture is sharp and clear, but flat with no feel of a world beyond the edges of the frame. Sometimes this works for the mood of the story. Other times less so. And the teenage makeout scenes wind up looking like porn.
Still, I can see why people have gotten into it.
Best thing: The acting. Fair dialogue, too. Even the characters who come off as sort of jerky are pretty well drawn. I liked Barb, although I knew from hearing things that she wouldn't be around that long.
Worst thing: The suspicion that I had just watched the opening act of a nine hour story Rod Serling could have wrapped up in 25 minutes.
Middle thing: While the show is supposed to have a "summer movie" feel, the video cinematography undercuts it. The picture is sharp and clear, but flat with no feel of a world beyond the edges of the frame. Sometimes this works for the mood of the story. Other times less so. And the teenage makeout scenes wind up looking like porn.
Still, I can see why people have gotten into it.
2 comments:
I can't say this story has attracted our attention so far. Maybe it's just too new. I see from the info provided on wiki that they plan to make 4 or 5 seasons in the long run and they're only now showing the second part.
The points made in your review concerning best, worst, and middle are insightful to say the least. You are a fine reviewer.
Last year when we saw a couple of episodes of Dark Mirror we found it tacky and very overblown. Somehow we'd already watched a couple of episodes before seeing the first which was about a British PM and a kidnapped princess. It turned out to be so disgusting we passed on the whole thing.
Speaking of 80s summer movies featuring kids, The Goonies didn't set the bar very high but is a standard of its type.
Yeah, there was another guy hanging out with us, apparently a fan of the show, who'd seen part of the second season. There's a girl in the first season with a shaved head - not by choice, it seems - and her hair's grown out by season 2, which is basically all I know. A lot of these shows are made for bingers, which isn't me. If I see six hours of a TV show all at a time it's going to become background music for me. I thank you for the compliment, though.
Dark Mirror I haven't seen yet. Simple curiosity will probably make me check it out, although I take fair warning from your opinion.
The Goonies came out a few years after ET. One effected me and the other really didn't. Could be because I was older, or maybe one was better. Really it's just a personal thing, I think.
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