Stranger Things

Stranger Things is a 2010's television show on Netflix. It is produced and was created by the Duffer Brothers.

Premise
Stranger Things is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins, Indiana, USA during the early 1980s. The nearby Hawkins National Laboratory ostensibly performs scientific research for the United States Department of Energy, but secretly does experiments into the paranormal and supernatural, including those that involve human test subjects. Inadvertently, they have created a portal to an alternate dimension called "the Upside Down". The influence of the Upside Down starts to affect the unknowing residents of Hawkins in calamitous ways.

The first season begins in November 1983, when Will Byers is abducted by a creature from the Upside Down. His mother, Joyce, and the town's police chief, Jim Hopper, search for Will. At the same time, a young psychokinetic girl called Eleven escapes from the laboratory and assists Will's friends, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, in their own efforts to find Will.

The second season is set a year later, starting in October 1984. Will has been rescued, but few know of the details of the events. When it is discovered that Will is still being influenced by entities from the Upside Down, his friends and family learn there is a larger threat to their universe from the Upside Down.

The third season is currently planned to take place another year later, in 1985, and in the midst of the popularity of Back to the Future's release. Mike and Eleven have developed a relationship, as have Max and Lucas.

Cast
Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers,[7] the mother of Will and Jonathan Byers. She is divorced from Lonnie Byers. In season two, she is dating her old high school classmate, Bob, until his death later in the season. She and Hopper are suggested to have feelings for each other.

David Harbour as Jim Hopper,[7] chief of Hawkins Police Department. After his young daughter died of cancer, Hopper divorced and lapsed into alcoholism. Eventually he grows to be more responsible, saving Joyce's son as well as taking Eleven as his adopted daughter. It is suggested he and Joyce have feelings for each other.

Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler,[8] son of Karen and Ted, younger brother of Nancy, and one of three friends of Will Byers. He is an intelligent and conscientious student and is committed to his friends. He develops romantic feelings for Eleven.

Millie Bobby Brown[8] as Eleven ("El"), a young girl with psychokinetic abilities and a limited vocabulary. Her real name is Jane, and she is the biological daughter of Terry Ives. After escaping from Hawkins Laboratory, where experiments were being performed on her, she befriends Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. She develops romantic feelings for Mike.

Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson,[8] one of Will's friends. His cleidocranial dysplasia causes him to lisp. In the second season, he is proud of his new front teeth and is attracted to Max.

Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair,[8] one of Will's friends. He is wary of Eleven but later befriends her. In season two, he is one of Max's love interests.

Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler,[8] daughter of Karen and Ted and older sister of Mike. In season one, she is Steve Harrington's girlfriend. In season two, she becomes Jonathan Byers' girlfriend.

Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers,[8] the older brother of Will Byers and the son of Joyce Byers. He is a quiet teenager, an outsider at school, and an aspiring photographer. He is close with his mother and brother, and he becomes the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler.

Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler,[9] mother of teenaged Nancy, middle schooler Mike, and toddler Holly. Matthew Modine]] as Martin Brenner,[10] the scientist in charge of Hawkins Laboratory. He is manipulative and remote. He and his team are searching for Eleven. He reappears in season 2 briefly.[11]

Noah Schnapp as Will Byers,[8] the son of Joyce Byers and younger brother of Jonathan Byers. He is captured by a monster from the "Upside Down", an alternate dimension discovered by Hawkins Laboratory scientists.[12] Schnapp was promoted to series regular for the second season, after recurring in the first.[13]

Sadie Sink as Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Billy's younger stepsister, and a tomboy who catches the attention of both Lucas and Dustin. She was introduced in the second season.[13]

Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, a popular high school student and the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler. He ostracizes Jonathan Byers, but later comes to befriend him. He begins as Nancy's boyfriend but breaks up with her in season two.[14] Keery was promoted to series regular for the second season, after recurring in the first.[13]

Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove, Max's violent and unpredictable older stepbrother. He challenges Steve's popularity. He was introduced in the second season.[13]

Sean Astin as Bob Newby, a former schoolmate of Joyce and Hopper. In season two, he runs the Hawkins RadioShack[15] and is Joyce's boyfriend, putting him at odds with Hopper. He was introduced in the second season.[16]

Paul Reiser as Sam Owens, a Department of Energy executive. He replaces Brenner as director of Hawkins Laboratory. He is stubborn and committed to scientific research, yet empathetic to the residents of Hawkins. He was introduced in the second season.[15]

Maya Hawke as Robin, an "alternative girl" bored with her job until she stumbles onto one of the secrets of Hawkins. She will be introduced in the third season.[17]

Season 1 (2016)
Main article: Stranger Things (season 1)

Season 2 (2017)
Main article: Stranger Things (season 2)

Season 3
Main article: Stranger Things (season 3)

Release
Season One was released on July 15, 2016 with eight episodes.

Season Two was released on October 27, 2017 with nine episodes.

Season Three is planned to be released at the end of 2018, or early 2019.

Development




Ross (left) and Matt Duffer, the creators of the series

Stranger Things was created by Matt and Ross Duffer, known professionally as the Duffer Brothers.[23]  The two had completed writing and producing their 2015 film Hidden, which they had tried to emulate the style of M. Night Shyamalan, however, due to changes at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros. Warner Bros.], its distributor, the film did not see a wide release and the Duffer Brothers were unsure of their future.[24]  To their surprise, television producer Donald De Line approached them, impressed with Hidden's script, and offered them the opportunity to work on episodes of Wayward Pines alongside Shyamalan. The brothers were mentored by Shyamalan during the episode's production, so that when they finished, they felt they were ready to produce their own television series.[25]

The Duffer Brothers prepared a script that would essentially be similar to the series' actual pilot episode, along with a 20-page pitch book to help shop the series around for a network.[26]  They pitched the story to about fifteen[27]  cable networks, all of which rejected the script on the basis that they felt a plot centered around children as leading characters would not work, asking them to make it a children's series or to drop the children and focus on Hopper's investigation in the paranormal.[25]  In early 2015, Dan Cohen, the VP of 21 Laps Entertainment, brought the script to his colleague Shawn Levy. They subsequently invited the Duffer Brothers to their office and purchased the rights for the series, giving full authorship of it to the brothers. After reading the pilot, the streaming service Netflix purchased the whole season for an undisclosed amount;[28]  the series was subsequently announced for a planned 2016 release by Netflix in early April 2015.[29]  The Duffer Brothers stated that at the time they had pitched to Netflix, the service had already gotten recognized for its original programming, such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, with well-recognized producers behind them, and were ready to start giving upcoming producers like them a chance.[26]  The brothers started to write out the series and brought Levy and Cohen in as executive producers to start casting and filming.[30]

"Montauk is an eight-hour sci-fi horror epic. Set in Long Island in 1980 and inspired by the supernatural classics of that era, we explore the crossroads where the ordinary meet the extraordinary...emotional, cinematic and rooted in character, Montauk is a love letter to the golden age of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King – a marriage of human drama and supernatural fear."

— The Duffer Brothers' original pitch for Montauk[31]



The book cover the Duffer Brothers created to pitch Montauk, inspired by Stephen King book covers such as Firestarter

The series was originally known as Montauk, as the setting of the script was in Montauk, New York and nearby Long Islandlocations.[29] [32]  The brothers had chosen Montauk as it had further Spielberg ties with the film Jaws, where Montauk was used for the fictional setting of Amity Island.[33]  After deciding to change the narrative of the series to take place in the fictional town of Hawkins instead, the brothers felt they could now do things to the town, such as placing it under quarantine, that they really could not envision with a real location.[33]  With the change in location, they had to come up with a new title for the series under direction from Netflix's Ted Sarandos so that they could start marketing it to the public. The brothers started by using a copy of Stephen King's Firestarter novel to consider the title's font and appearance, and came up with a long list of potential alternatives. Stranger Things came about as it sounded similar to another King novel, Needful Things, though Matt noted they still had a "lot of heated arguments" over this final title.[34]

To pitch the series, the Duffer Brothers showcased images, footage and music from 1980s films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Poltergeist, Hellraiser, Stand by Me, Firestarter, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Jaws, in order to establish the tone of the series.<sup id="cite_ref-Miyamoto_31-1">[31]

Writing
The idea of Stranger Things started with how the brothers felt they could take the concept of the 2013 film Prisoners, detailing the moral struggles a father goes through when his daughter is kidnapped, and expand it out over eight or so hours in a serialized television approach. As they focused on the missing child aspect of the story, they wanted to introduce the idea of "childlike sensibilities" they could offer, and toyed around with the idea of a monster that could consume humans. The brothers thought the combination of these things "was the best thing ever". To introduce this monster into the narrative, they considered "bizarre experiments we had read about taking place in the Cold War" such as Project MKUltra, which gave a way to ground the monster's existence in science rather than something spiritual. This also helped them to decide on using 1983 as the time period, as it was a year before the film Red Dawn came out, which focused on Cold War paranoia.<sup id="cite_ref-rs_25-2">[25]  Subsequently, they were able to use all their own personal inspirations from the 1980s, the decade they were born, as elements of the series,<sup id="cite_ref-rs_25-3">[25] <sup id="cite_ref-35">[35]  crafting it in the realm of science fiction and horror.<sup id="cite_ref-36">[36]  Other influences cited by the Duffer Brothers include: Stephen King novels; films produced by Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Wes Craven,<sup id="cite_ref-hollywoodreporter_37-0">[37] <sup id="cite_ref-screenertv_38-0">[38] <sup id="cite_ref-39">[39]  and Guillermo del Toro;<sup id="cite_ref-daily_beast_34-1">[34]  films such as Star Wars, Alien, and Stand by Me;<sup id="cite_ref-daily_beast_34-2">[34] <sup id="cite_ref-screenertv_38-1">[38] <sup id="cite_ref-40">[40]  Japanese anime such as Akira and Elfen Lied;<sup id="cite_ref-daily_beast_34-3">[34] <sup id="cite_ref-hollywoodreporter_37-1">[37]  and several video games including Silent Hill, Dark Souls and The Last of Us.<sup id="cite_ref-41">[41] <sup id="cite_ref-42">[42] <sup id="cite_ref-hollywoodreporter_37-2">[37]  The Duffer Brothers also believe that they may have brought influences from other works unintentionally, including Beyond the Black Rainbow and D.A.R.Y.L., discovered by reviewing fan feedback on the series.<sup id="cite_ref-hwr_montauk_33-2">[33]  Several websites and publications have found other pop culture references in the series, particularly references to 1980s pop culture.<sup id="cite_ref-43">[43] <sup id="cite_ref-44">[44] <sup id="cite_ref-45">[45] <sup id="cite_ref-46">[46]

With Netflix as the platform, the Duffer Brothers were not limited to a typical 22-episode format, opting for the eight-episode approach. They had been concerned that a 22-episode season on broadcast television would be difficult to "tell a cinematic story" with that many episodes. Eight episodes allowed them to give time to characterization in addition to narrative development; if they had less time available, they would have had to remain committed to telling a horror film as soon as the monster was introduced and abandon the characterization.<sup id="cite_ref-nytimes_interview_26-2">[26]  Within the eight episodes, the brothers aimed to make the first season "feel like a big movie" with all the major plot lines completed so that "the audience feels satisfied", but left enough unresolved to indicate "there's a bigger mythology, and there's a lot of dangling threads at the end", something that could be explored in further seasons if Netflix opted to create more.<sup id="cite_ref-variety_maybes2_47-0">[47]

Regarding writing for the children characters of the series, the Duffer Brothers considered themselves as outcasts from other students while in high school and thus found it easy to write for Mike and his friends, and particularly for Barb.<sup id="cite_ref-daily_beast_34-4">[34]  Joyce was fashioned after Richard Dreyfuss' character Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as she appears "absolutely bonkers" to everyone else as she tries to find Will.<sup id="cite_ref-empire_48-0">[48]

Casting


The Duffer Brothers cast David Harbour as Chief Hopper believing this was his opportunity to have a lead character in a work.

In June 2015, it was announced that Winona Ryder and David Harbour had joined the series as Joyce and as the unnamed chief of police, respectively.<sup id="cite_ref-June2015TVL_7-2">[7]  The brothers' casting director Carmen Cuba had suggested Ryder for the role of Joyce, which the two were immediately drawn to because of her predominance in the films of the 1980s.<sup id="cite_ref-rs_25-4">[25]  Levy believed Ryder could "wretch up the emotional urgency and yet find layers and nuance and different sides of [Joyce]". Ryder praised that the show's multiple storylines required her to act for Joyce as "she's out of her mind, but she's actually kind of onto something", and that the producers had faith she could pull off the difficult role.<sup id="cite_ref-49">[49]  The Duffer Brothers had been interested in Harbour before, who until Stranger Things primarily had smaller roles as villainous characters, and they felt that he had been "waiting too long for this opportunity" to play a lead, while Harbour himself was thrilled by the script and the chance to play "a broken, flawed, anti-hero character".<sup id="cite_ref-daily_beast_34-5">[34] <sup id="cite_ref-50">[50]

Additional casting followed two months later with Finn Wolfhard as Mike, Millie Bobby Brown in an undisclosed role, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas, Natalia Dyeras Nancy, and Charlie Heaton as Jonathan.<sup id="cite_ref-Aug2015Deadline_8-7">[8]  In September 2015, Cara Buono joined the cast as Karen,<sup id="cite_ref-BuonoCast_9-1">[9]  followed by Matthew Modine as Martin Brenner a month later.<sup id="cite_ref-ModineCast_10-1">[10]  Additional cast who recur include Noah Schnapp as Will,<sup id="cite_ref-Aug2015Deadline_8-8">[8] <sup id="cite_ref-S2Cast_13-4">[13]  Shannon Purser as Barbara "Barb" Holland,<sup id="cite_ref-Purser_51-0">[51]  Joe Keery as Steve Harrington,<sup id="cite_ref-KeeryAug2016_14-1">[14] <sup id="cite_ref-S2Cast_13-5">[13]  and Ross Partridge as Lonnie,<sup id="cite_ref-Partridge_52-0">[52]  among others.

Actors auditioning for the children roles read lines from Stand By Me.<sup id="cite_ref-rs_25-5">[25]  The Duffer Brothers estimated they went through about a thousand different child actors for the roles. They noted that Wolfhard was already "a movie buff" of the films from the 1980s period and easily filled the role, while they found Matarazzo's audition to be much more authentic than most of the other audition tapes, and selected him after a single viewing of his audition tape.<sup id="cite_ref-nytimes_interview_26-3">[26]  As casting was started immediately after Netflix greenlit the show, and prior to the scripts being fully completed, this allowed some of the actor's takes on the roles to reflect into the script. The casting of the young actors for Will and his friends had been done just after the first script was completed, and subsequent scripts incorporated aspects from these actors.<sup id="cite_ref-variety_maybes2_47-1">[47]  The brothers said Modine provided significant input on the character of Dr. Brenner, whom they had not really fleshed out before as they considered him the hardest character to write for given his limited appearances within the narrative.<sup id="cite_ref-empire_48-1">[48]

Filming
The brothers had desired to film the series around the Long Island area to match the initial Montauk concept. However, with filming scheduled to take place in November 2015, it was difficult to shoot in Long Island in the cold weather, and the production started scouting locations in and around the Atlanta, Georgia area. The brothers, who grew up in North Carolina, found many places that reminded them of their own childhoods in that area, and felt the area would work well with the narrative shift to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.<sup id="cite_ref-hwr_montauk_33-3">[33]

The filming of the first season began in November 2015 and was extensively done in Atlanta, Georgia, with the Duffer Brothers and Levy handling the direction of individual episodes.<sup id="cite_ref-53">[53]  Jackson served as the basis of the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.<sup id="cite_ref-FilmingConclusion_54-0">[54] <sup id="cite_ref-55">[55]  Other shooting locations included the Georgia Mental Health Institute as the Hawkins National Laboratory site, Bellwood Quarry, Patrick Henry High School in Stockbridge, Georgia, for the middle and high school scenes,<sup id="cite_ref-56">[56]  Emory University's Continuing Education Department, the former city hall in Douglasville, Georgia, the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, Georgia, the probate court in Butts County, Georgia, Old East Point Library and East Point First Baptist Church in East Point, Georgia, Fayetteville, Georgia, Stone Mountain Park, Palmetto, Georgia, and Winston, Georgia.<sup id="cite_ref-DeepSouthMag_57-0">[57]  Set work was done at Screen Gem Studios in Atlanta.<sup id="cite_ref-DeepSouthMag_57-1">[57]  The series was filmed with a Red Dragon digital camera.<sup id="cite_ref-empire_48-2">[48]  Filming for the first season concluded in early 2016.<sup id="cite_ref-FilmingConclusion_54-1">[54]

Visual effects
To create the aged effect for the series, a film grain was added over the footage, which was captured by scanning in film stock from the 1980s.<sup id="cite_ref-empire_48-3">[48]  The Duffer Brothers wanted to scare the audience, but not to necessarily make the series violent or gory, following in line with how the 1980s Amblin Entertainment films drove the creation of the PG-13 movie rating. It was "much more about mood and atmosphere and suspense and dread than they are about gore", though they were not afraid to push into more scary elements, particularly towards the end of the first season.<sup id="cite_ref-empire_48-4">[48]  The brothers had wanted to avoid any computer-generated effects for the monster and other parts of the series and stay with practical effects, so they created an animatronic to play the part of the demogorgon.<sup id="cite_ref-58">[58] <sup id="cite_ref-59">[59]  However, the six-month filming time left them little time to plan out and test practical effects rigs for some of the shots. They went with a middle ground of using constructed props including one for the monster whenever they could, but for other shots, such as when the monster bursts through a wall, they opted to use digital effects. Post-production on the first season was completed the week before it was released to Netflix.<sup id="cite_ref-rs_25-6">[25]

The title sequence uses closeups of the letters in the Stranger Things title with a red tint against a black background as they slide into place within the title. The sequence was created by the studio Imaginary Forces, formerly part of R/GA, led by creative director Michelle Doughtey.<sup id="cite_ref-60">[60]  Levy introduced the studio to the Duffer Brothers, who explained their vision of the 1980s-inspired series, which helped the studio to fix the concept the producers wanted. Later, but prior to filming, the producers sent Imaginary Forces the pilot script, the synth-heavy background music for the titles, as well as the various book covers from King and other authors that they had used to establish the title and imagery, and were looking for a similar approach for the series' titles, primarily using a typographical sequence. They took inspiration from several title sequences of works from the 1980s that were previously designed by Richard Greenberg under R/GA, such as Altered States and The Dead Zone. They also got input from Dan Perri, who worked on the title credits of several 1980s films. Various iterations included having letters vanish, to reflect the "missing" theme of the series, and having letters cast shadows on others, alluding to the mysteries, before settling into the sliding letters. The studio began working on the title sequence before filming, and took about a month off during the filming process to let the producers get immersed in the series and come back with more input. Initially they had been working with various fonts for the title and used close-ups of the best features of these fonts, but near the end the producers wanted to work with ITC Benguiat, requiring them to rework those shots. The final sequence is fully computer generated, but they took inspiration from testing some practical effects, such as using Kodalith masks as would have been done in the 1980s, to develop the appropriate filters for the rendering software. The individual episode title cards used a "fly through" approach, similar to the film Bullitt, which the producers had suggested to the studio.<sup id="cite_ref-61">[61]

Music
Main article: Music of Stranger Things

The Stranger Things original soundtrack was composed by Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon of the electronic band Survive.<sup id="cite_ref-billboard_music_62-0">[62]  It makes extensive use of synthesizers in homage to 1980s artists and film composers including Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Goblin, John Carpenter, Giorgio Moroder, and Fabio Frizzi.<sup id="cite_ref-63">[63]

According to Stein and Dixon, the Duffer Brothers had been fans of Survive's music, and used their song "Dirge" for the mock trailer that was used to sell the series to Netflix.<sup id="cite_ref-billboard_music_62-1">[62] <sup id="cite_ref-rs_music_64-0">[64]  The Duffer Brothers discovered the band through the 2014 film The Guest, where Survive features on the soundtrack.<sup id="cite_ref-65">[65]  Once the series was green-lit, the Duffer Brothers contacted Survive around July 2015 to ask if they were still doing music; the two provided the production team with dozens of songs from their band's past to gain their interest, helping to land them the role.<sup id="cite_ref-billboard_music_62-2">[62]  Once aboard, the two worked with producers to select some of their older music to rework for the series, while developing new music, principally with character motifs.<sup id="cite_ref-rs_music_64-1">[64]  The two had been hired before the casting process, so their motif demos were used and played over the actors' audition tapes, aiding in the casting selection.<sup id="cite_ref-rs_music_64-2">[64] <sup id="cite_ref-66">[66]  The series' theme is based on an unused work Stein composed much earlier that ended up in the library of work they shared with the production staff, who thought that with some reworking would be good for the opening credits.<sup id="cite_ref-billboard_music_62-3">[62]

In addition to original music, Stranger Things features period music from artists including The Clash, Joy Division, Toto, New Order, The Bangles, Foreigner, Echo and the Bunnymen, Peter Gabriel, and Corey Hart, as well as excerpts from Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, and Vangelis.<sup id="cite_ref-67">[67] <sup id="cite_ref-pitchfork_albums_68-0">[68]  In particular, The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" was specifically picked to play at pivotal moments of the story, such as when Will is trying to communicate with Joyce from the Upside Down.<sup id="cite_ref-pitchfork_albums_68-1">[68]

Release
The first season consisted of eight one-hour-long episodes which were released worldwide on Netflix on July 15, 2016,<sup id="cite_ref-69">[69]  in Ultra HD 4K. The second season, consisting of nine episodes, was released on October 27, 2017<sup id="cite_ref-70">[70]  in HDR.<sup id="cite_ref-71">[71]  The third season will once again consist of eight episodes,<sup id="cite_ref-S3Directors_18-5">[18]  and is set to be released on July 4, 2019.<sup id="cite_ref-S3Release_19-1">[19]

Home media
The first season of Stranger Things was released on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack exclusively to Target retailers on October 17, 2017, and the same for the 4K/Blu-ray combo pack on November 15, 2017, both of which includes vintage CBS-FOX VHS-inspired packaging.<sup id="cite_ref-72">[72] <sup id="cite_ref-73">[73]  The second season received a similar release on November 6, 2018.<sup id="cite_ref-74">[74] <sup id="cite_ref-75">[75]