The next show I want to introduce on Netflix is a combination, science fiction, horror story, ah, two of my favorite genres. The Stranger Things TV series first season, first aired in July 2016. Stranger Things is set in 1983, in the fictional rural Indiana town of Hawkins. It is created, written and directed by the Duffer brothers. It has some star power with Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine, along with an up and coming young actress Millie Bobby Brown.
Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers
The story opens up in your typical horror show fashion, a man in a white lab coat is running down dimly and flickering lit halls, obviously trying to get away from something. He comes to a freight elevator, pushes the button, several times, to summon the elevator. The doors finally open, the man hurriedly gets in, staring down the long hall looking for his pursuer. Nothing there, or is there? He slowly looks up and BOOM, he is snatched by the unseen monster from above and disappears without a sound.
Next, we go to the family room of the Wheeler household, where Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) are playing Dungeons and Dragons and have been for many hours. Mike’s mom Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) yells down the stairs that it is getting late, and it is time for the other boys to go home. Mike pleads for more time, to no avail, and the other three boys leave.
Lucas lives just down the street, so that leaves Will and Dustin turning on their bike headlights and taking off down the road. Will challenges Dustin to a race, takes off and leaves Dustin way behind. Will, by himself now, riding next to a wooded area, hears something. His headlight winks out, he hears a roar, steers his bike into the woods and crashes. He runs through the woods making it home, takes out his key and opens the door, with the unseen Monster (Mark Steger) hot on his tail. He runs through the house looking for his mom, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) and his brother, Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), but neither are home.
Will hears the monster and sees a shadow of it out front, so he runs out the back door across the backyard to the shed, goes into the shed finds a rifle and shells for it, spilling shells, he loads the rifle and stands looking at the shed door waiting for the monster to come in. The single light bulb hanging from the ceiling of the shed grows very bright, the light bulb dims to regular intensity, and all goes quiet, but the monster and Will are nowhere to be seen, the monster has Will!
The Next Morning
Jonathon is fixing breakfast for himself, Joyce and Will. Joyce goes to Will’s bedroom to wake him, and he is not there, Joyce calls the Wheelers to see if he spent the night there and he didn’t. Jonathon tries to keep his mom calm, but she is beginning to panic. She gets ready and heads to the police station.
Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is slowly getting ready for work. He showers, takes a drink from an open can of beer, puts his clothes on and heads out the door. Upon arriving at work his assistant asks where he has been, that several people are looking for him, including Joyce Byers. He tells his assistant to settle down, everyone needs to take it easy, especially himself, and things will be fine. He walks into his office and there is an extremely nervous Joyce Byers waiting for him.
Hopper had been a police officer in the hustle and bustle of the big city. He also had been married with a daughter. But now the marriage was over and the daughter had died. He left that all behind taking the job in Hawkins, thinking it would be nice and easy going here, he was ready for nice and easy.
Hawkins National Laboratory – US Department of Energy
Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) shows up at the Hawkins Laboratory to take care of the situation. He has three problems, the monster, the portal where the monster came from in his facility and the missing girl. The portal area has been sealed off, as for the missing girl, she can’t be very far away, the government agents are monitoring all the telephones in the area, so they will find the girl soon. Brenner and other agents, tasked with controlling the situation, get suited up in hazmat suits and go into the sealed area to investigate the portal.
As for the missing girl, she shows up at Benny’s Burgers, a local diner, dressed only in an oversize nightshirt, she sneaks into the kitchen and starts scarfing down food. The owner of the Diner, Benny Hammond (Chris Sullivan) sees her, yells at her and runs and catches her. Benny tries to get the girl to talk, promises her food if she will answer some questions. Benny notices a tattoo, “011,” on her arm, the girl tells him that is her name, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).
Benny calls social services, telling them that a cold, very scared young girl, with a shaved head, has shown up at his diner. He also tells them he thinks the girl has been abused. Social Services tells him they will send someone out. Hawkins Laboratory will be sending someone out, also, as they have intercepted the call. A table-top fan in the kitchen is making a lot of noise, Eleven, annoyed with it, makes it stop with her mind!
Meanwhile, Hopper questions Will’s three friends, Lucas, Dustin and Mike, they tell him the way Will usually goes home from Mike’s house. Hopper and his two officers start tracking where Will might have gone and comes across Will’s bike. They take the bike to the Byer’s house, Joyce and Jonathon identify it as Will’s bike. Hopper believes Will came home. Hopper is drawn to the backyard by a barking dog. He goes out back sees the shed, goes in and finds the spilled rifle shells and the open box of rifle shells. He looks around the shed and something is telling him that Will was in the shed.
Back at the diner, Benny has closed up for the night and is waiting on the social worker. Eleven is in the kitchen eating ice cream right out of the carton. There is a knock at the front door, it is agent Connie Frazier (Catherine Dyer) posing as the social worker. Benny lets her in and is walking back to the kitchen as Agent Frazier pulls a gun and shoots Benny in the back of the head. Eleven sees it and runs to the back door. Two agents with guns drawn are waiting for her as she opens the door. Brenner comes in and with agent Frazier finds the two agents that confronted Eleven, dead on the floor of the kitchen and Eleven is gone.
Get Netflix on your Roku!
I hope this has whetted your appetite for the show. It is a very good and suspenseful show. There are so many other things to see on the Roku, I love my Roku. I don’t miss cable, Dish Network, any of it. I watch whatever I want, whenever I want, on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or PlayStation Vue. Oh, and I have the 27 over the air channels I get with my inexpensive handy dandy boosted TV antenna. And all for a lot less than I would pay for cable, satellite, whatever.
Again, I hope this has helped you with your decision about where to go to watch TV. One thing is for certain, it is not cable or satellite. If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out.
All the best,
mark@bethmark.com
