An unpopular opinion, probably akin to popular culture heresy...but I just didn't like "Stranger Things". I watched the first four episodes of season 1 and it didn't grip me in the compulsive binge-watch fashion that it has for other people I know. On the contrary my elder brother, who was born in 1983, just loves the show.
As a child of the '90s and 2000s perhaps I just don't have that much of an affinity for the '80s decade. The characters were engaging and well-acted I admit but the plot just didn't hold me and the nostalgia is quite lost on me.
Also, I'm British and our 1980s was a rather hellish period under Mrs. Thatcher (if you happen to share my political beliefs) - so I'm probably biased against it for that reason too! It brings to mind for me images of miners striking and the Iron Lady not being for turning.....oh and IRA bombings. Doesn't quite give me the warm fuzzies.....
But good acting and dialogue, yes Stranger Things has that imho, unfortunately I just couldn't get invested in the plot and setting - the latter of which seems to be a particular draw for many, especially amongst Americans no doubt.
I wanted to like it but I have an aversion to the horror genre.
It struck me as a bit of an unoriginal re-telling of the 1982 movie Poltergeist in which the youngest child of a family is sucked through a portal in her closet into another dimension inhabited by malevolent entities, the family realizing that she has been taken when they hear her voice emanating from the television set. There's a desperate mother trying to communicate like Winona Ryder's character, a concerned sibling...the difference, I suppose, is the "nefarious government experiment" element to Stranger Things.
Don't get me wrong, the child actors were generally superb and the character interactions well written. But the '80s nostalgia trip just didn't work on me and moreover I have a pathological hatred for creepy horrors set in small-town locations next to secret government installations where children are abducted.
But as I said, I'm sure that makes me a heretic as it seems to garner rave reviews and accolades.