Stranger Things Review [1×01]: “The Vanishing of Will Byers” [PREMIERE]

‘Stranger Things’ isn’t messing about. We’re getting straight into the thick of it, and you’ll lose track of the number of times you jumped out of your seat.

‘Stranger Things’ hurtles into action by booking nearly every eighties horror-movie cliché in a jumpy sequence at Hawkins facility, Indiana. We’re then launched into the nerd-world of Dungeons & Dragons and our motley crew. Comprised of Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), they cycle into the night in youthful carelessness, to the joyous backing synth.

It stops.

In a frantic sequence, we last see Will shakily pointing a rifle at a growling, unseen monster before the lights dim and the credits roll. Instantly, we’re introduced to the cast of characters—the Duffer brothers don’t let up pace. David Harbour’s the grizzled Chief Hopper. Winona Ryder’s the over-worried mother to Will and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Joyce Byers. Manning the fort of the next household is Cara Buono’s Karen, mother to Mike and Nancy (Natalia Dyer).

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…And then Joyce reports Will as missing. We meet Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) and guys in suits—they’re studying a frankly disgusting-looking monster in the Hawkins facility. It’s zip-zip-zip. There’s a mysterious ‘Eleven’ (Millie Bobby Brown), stealing food from a diner chef. Immediately something’s amiss: Eleven’s telekinetic. She stops a fan with her mind.

As the cops amp up their search, Joyce crumples. The boys naively assemble their own hunt, Eleven’s hunted down by a division headed by Dr. Brenner, Nancy’s being somewhat courted to the backing of ‘Africa’.

You ever think Will went missing ’cause he ran into something bad? And we’re going to the exact same spot where he was last seen? And we have no weapons or anything? – Dustin

Dustin, shut up. – Mike

I’m just saying, does that seem smart to you-? – Dustin

Shut up! – Mike

Then Will calls, and the mask Joyce had been holding up—with intense fragility—dissipates wholly. The boys, out in the woods, encounter the impossibly-present Eleven. Was that really Will on the phone? What’s with all the electric failures? How did she get there? How far do her powers extend? Did that hour just go by? They’re all questions that…can be answered by obsessively clicking the next episode.

Winona Ryder is the perfect Joyce Byers—but she is a star out of a whole bag of them.

There is absolutely no-one who could’ve pulled off the performance of Joyce Byers quite like Ms. Winona Ryder. Gifted with a juicy bag of emotions to toy with, Ryder masterfully cocoons us in her gentle affection for her boys. We’re helplessly drawn towards Joyce. Such is Ryder’s magnetism. Thus, when Will disappears and her life doesn’t so much ebb away as it does crumble and crack around her, we feel it.

There are simply some scenes that wouldn’t have worked with an actress minutely less malleable and transformative than Ryder. It is quite heavily showcased in ‘Stranger Things’, particularly, just how much actors truly add to a show. It’s not just a matter of words on a script. Joyce Byers may not be the mother you necessarily want, but she is damn well a mother you want to reunite with her son.

However, Ryder’s captivating performance doesn’t overshadow the others. The geek squad require a section of their own, especially with their grin-inducing breakthrough in this episode. But equally, Cara Buono is particularly grounding. She’s quietly brilliant, balancing gentility and unfettered love for her children that is often unreturned—at least, visibly.

David Harbour’s gruff, no-nonsense Chief Jim Hopper could easily have been brushed off as another cop douchebag at the beginning. But as the episode unravelled, his steady, strong demeanour gave yet another excellently nuanced performance jotted down. Quite simply: the cast are far too good, and we haven’t even gotten to the kids yet…

The child actors featured on this show are equally as talented and engrossing as the adults—especially our charming rebooted-Goonies gang.

When you’re telling a story and you allocate so much screen-time to child actors, it’s obvious that a requirement is that they should be good. Despite this, often shows don’t seem to get this memo. The casting department presumably sat down, read the memo, and smoked it because they easily picked the best bunch of rag-a-tag nerd-boys for this gig.

Particularly charming is Finn Wolfhard as the mini-Goonies’ sensitive and thoughtful Mike. He was surely somehow moulded into Cara Buono’s son in advance, for he plays the role to a delicate, sweet degree. His relationship with elder sister Natalia Dyer’s Nancy is also equally entertaining if so for the classic elder/little sibling bickering. Dyer also shone as the shy girl caught in a whirlwind romance with the bad boy. Hers is a role that could be written off as annoying or whatnot—but Dyer handles her character with such masterful dexterity for someone so young that it’s grin-inducing.

The key bond here is between the boys: the now-gone Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas. And it worked. It worked to heaven and back, and it was genuine joyousness that compounded us upon seeing them skip ahead to their school’s A.V club, ride around on their bikes, play Dungeons & Dragons in the basement whilst firing petty quips at each other. Schnapp, Wolfhard, Matarazzo and McLaughlin were utterly charming in their brief moments of happiness.

With Will now gone, it’ll be interesting to see how that dynamic shifts when the mysterious Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven is introduced to their group. Speaking of whom: whoa. Millie Bobby Brown could convey with a withering stare one thing—that she’d be an utter revelation.

There’s no copycat game around here: ‘Stranger Things’ is an unabashed love-letter to the eighties era in general, but it does not cross the line into imitation.

Right from the retro-style opening credits to the bash-worthy telephones to the denim jackets and cranky trucks, the rugged feel of small-town Indiana envelopes us instantly. It’s sometimes hard to actually remember that it’s a production from now, because it’s of its genuine vintage touch. There’s a brisk, crisp pinch in the camera-work that makes it feel like it’s been shot in the eighties.

In addition, there are pop culture references strewn everywhere. From the nostalgic music of Toto’s ‘Africa’ to the synth-score backing the show, music proves key in driving the narrative. It also proves key in toying with our emotions with samples of a delightful synth backdrop morphing into a screech of terror as the mood swings like a violent pendulum.

There must be huge praise lumped onto the costume and design department of this production, for everything just feels so…authentic. There’s a great focus on light and the usage of the dim-flicker perhaps as a signal for terror. For Will, the light growing impossibly bright before fizzing out was the last thing he saw.

With the boys especially, there’s no stopping the barrage of ‘X-Men’ throw-outs, bickering over ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’…they’re playing Dungeons & Dragons, for crying out loud. If you couldn’t feel ‘E.T.’ pulsing through you whilst affably thinking of the boys as the ‘Goonies’, you are an exceptional liar. The throwbacks are upfront and unabashed, but not once does it feel like a cheap rip-off. The Duffer brothers have excelled in walking that tightrope. It’s a homage, not a copy—and as nostalgic as it feels, it also feels refreshingly new.

Final Verdict: ‘Stranger Things’ bravely throws a gauntlet out into the open—”do you think your season premiere can top ours?”

The title of this episode was misleading. As much as the world depicted so beautifully to us—by the cast, the sublime Duffer brothers, the magical script, music supervision and cinematography—centred around Will’s disappearance, that wasn’t what set ‘Stranger Things’ up to be so special. Will’s disappearance was a rippling tragedy that spread far and wide in this small town. But what it’s done is set the wheels into motion for a promising, thrilling ride. It’s unified an otherwise sparse cast of characters, and suddenly we just want the cops and the Byers and everyone in that town to band together and find Will. We want to find Will.

That, surely, is how you reel a viewer in: hook, line and sinker. It barely gave us time to process our own grief over Will’s possible demise. That’s surely a con, you’d think. But instead, it allowed us all-out access to the rawness of everyone’s emotions, notably Joyce and Jonathan’s. Winona Ryder and Charlie Heaton excelled at channelling our very own emotions too, gripping onto a world that won’t stop spinning for their lost son and brother respectively. That’s the true brutality of this high-octane opener: life doesn’t stop so you can rummage around for answers. Catch your breath back.

So lock yourselves up for eight hours and try not to binge this series that’ll surely take Netflix by storm. We recommend deodorant and a hand-fan (note: we’ve tried, and still broke out into sweat). Strange things indeed—and we can’t wait for them to get even stranger.

Questions and Comments:

• We should probably play a game. Every time there’s a casual nod to a cult icon of the not-so-bygone era, you chug some hard liquor.
• Who’s cooking up some theories about where Will went, already? Let @TVAfterDark know! Rest assured, we don’t have a clue…
• At some point, I just want Cara Buono’s Karen and Winona Ryder’s Joyce to cuddle it out and eat ice-cream. It’ll be okay, ladies.
• Will we see more of Eleven’s backstory? What rendered her mute? Was she born that way? To whom was she born?
• Where is Will? Is he locked up in a lab somewhere? Or is it something of an entirely fantastical other dimension? How far into sci-fi will ‘Stranger Things’ push, until it’s converging into supernatural territory?
  • It’s a bit hapless asking ‘where is Will?’ at this stage, isn’t it…
• This may genuinely be the first show I’ve seen where the child actors are equally as good as their fantastic adult counterparts. Everyone just slips into their character like it’s a second skin.

Catch episodes of STRANGER THINGS on Netflix.