So who here checked this out? It caught my interest, I heard good things, then ended up watching all 8 episodes consecutively with my mom.
It's one of those, you know? Just can't wait to see what's going to happen next.
For those of you not in the know, this is the general plot. Small town, boy goes missing, simultaneously a girl near his age escapes a laboratory. Lots of weird stuff is going down & all signs point to this lab. Scary stuff aside, it's for everyone. There are moments that cater to adults, teens, & kids respectively. You've got drama, terror, romance, friendship, fantasy, perseverance, conspiracy, all sorts of themes to keep you interested. It feels like Aliens meets Goonies meets Fringe. Best way I can describe it, honestly. One lead is the ever awesome Wynona Ryder, the rest are lesser known names who put in some powerful performances.
I really liked it a lot. I have complaints, naturally, but overall it was a cool original story wrapped up in real world conspiracy & 80's film homages. One of the best original scores I have ever heard, honestly. So dope. Some Vangelis/Richard Wright type ish.
These were my issues with it. Those pertaining to story beats will be spoilered. Aside from these things, it was perfect.
-It's a period piece, taking place in 1983, but not terribly convincing. Some of the clothes, & decor are on point, but a lot of the time it's easy to forget it's supposed to have been 30+ years ago. I think they could've done better in that respect.
-To me, the characters feel very much like
characters, not real people. The actors' performances were fine, but they're pretty over the top & somewhat unrealistic in how they behave/respond to things. I have to figure it's fault of the writing. Given this is a love letter to (among other things) horror flicks of days past, I thought that may very well have been intentional, so it was a minor gripe (one that lessened as the story progressed).
-Some of the CGI is very unconvincing. Not a big deal, I guess, but it definitely gives this otherwise visually spectacular material a handicap. It's like mid 2000's quality CGI, maybe. ***
Spoiler:
-The general effects are just fine, really! All the explosions, distortions, portal stuff, etc, no complaints. *** It's really just the beasts whose CGI falters.
They look pretty good in their own black environments, but when they're in the mortal plane it starts to cheese up. I found it a little jarring, but I openly have a bias against fully animated figures. I think they would've greatly benefited from using more traditional effects, you know, creature suits & whatnot. They could've just CGI'd certain movement, the faces, etc. Maybe that costs a lot more, I don't know.
-I think they took the Aliens nods a bit too far. Death by fire, slime laden hive-like territories, hatching from egg pods, their young reproducing in the digestive tract of a human host, etc.
-After all that happened, I was kinda let down that the 'big bad' of this series was just a couple of generic monsters. It's a very eccentric & thought provoking show, dealing with real horrors that took place behind the closed doors of facilities run by a government we're taught to believe has nothing but our best interests in mind. They're experimenting with mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, portals, shadow realms, just all kinds of crazy stuff. So why go through all of that just to make it a matter of creatures out for blood? Could've been something more cerebral, I think. No problem with their inclusion, but to give them the eventual focus, meh...
-We kinda get the death of "Papa" taken away from us. We all wanted to see that son of a bitch suffer, but instead he's just pulled off screen and it cuts to the next shot. C'mon.
-Nancy stays with the douche bag after all that character development between her & John. Boo! John's not so bad after all, I suppose, but still. Oh well, points for not doing something predictably. The romance in general was a bit forced, I thought, but I almost always feel that way. I'm not a big fan of it.
-We're led to believe Hopper struck a deal with the devil, so to speak, as he gets in a car with the government dudes once everything blows over. You figure, damn, he's gonna be their new experiment or something now. But instead we see him bringing food Eleven. Soooo Eleven is not only alive & well but her captors employed a guy who foiled their operation & protected their victim to bring her snacks? I don't get it. I'm glad they're both well, but it doesn't make much sense to me. The head figures from the facility are all dead, what happens now? I needed more answers in the end.
-Tacked on backpedal ending. Another one of their horror movie homages that works against them. Everything's okay now... but it's not! Will is spitting up larval beasts! Oooh! Don't do that. A much better ending would've been shaving off that last family dinner sequence entirely.