Stranger Things

Episode 1 - Chapter One: The Vanishing Of Will Byers

  1. Opens with a scientist running away from an unseen monster (the Demogorgon) that is revealed later in the series. The scene is an intertextual reference to Alien with the close up and POV shots.
  2. The boys(Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair and Will Byers) play DND in a basement with mise-en-scene full of props to fit the personality of a group of nerds with a poster of The Thing and DND special edition until Mike's mum (Karen Wheeler) interrupts them.
  3. Will runs home and is taken by the Demogorgan with a shotgun(Hopper notices its absent later)
  4. The DND boys go to class and they are bullied by bullies who call Lucas a racially motivated comment
  5. Brenner's crew go back to Hawkins' lab to find a quarantine and mysterious portal
  6. Eleven goes into a burger store in a hospital gown and the owner Benny catches her stealing fries
  7. Hopper and other police officers Powell and Callahan find Will's crashed bike
  8. The Wheeler family have dinner and an argument breaks out after Mike wants to look for Will and Nancy wants to see Steve and Ted ignores the argument and follows the incompetent's dad trope
  9. The boys hunt for Will while Steve climbs into Nancy's room and pressures her to do inappropriate things
  10. A woman who claims to be social service goes to Benny but is actually working for Brenner and kills Benny as Eleven escapes killing two of his agents
  11. Johnathan and Joyce receive a call and Joyce hears Will's breathing then a growl and gets electrocuted
  12. The boys search for Will in the rain and Dustin wants to turn back but Mike and Lucas disagree and they find Eleven in the rain

Context

Released 15th July 2016 because in 2016 Donald Trump ran for president and made a campaign about removing immigrants from the country as well as spreading sexism and homophobia and picking off outsiders, this can be seen in Stranger Things as Will(a lower class gay person) and Barb(a masculine presenting women), the |Duffer brothers are actually brothers who grew up together in the 80s and were obsessed with 80s culture, they made the horror film Hidden which got them some reputation for them to go to Netflix to pitch Stranger Things as it could made as a far more unique series with its release schedule and episode numbers. Netflix also allows a younger audience to be targeted by the newer technology.

Audience

Stranger Things targets a dual audience of 30-40 year old nostalgic adults who grew up in the 80s that will understand the intertextuality and can identify with the older characters and younger teens who will relate to the younger characters and are appealed to by the Netflix platform. 80s style became popular because of the TV series with caps like Dustin's becoming very popular after the show

Intertextuality

  • Alien is referenced in the opening scene with the scientist being chased down a corridor using POV shots and close ups to reference a similar scene in Alien another horror film in the late 70s that would've held influence into the 80s
  • The basement has a poster for The Thing which was another horror movie from 1982 that is then referenced later on in the series in episode 7 when the boys call their teacher who is watching the movie with his girlfriend, the film also gave the Duffer Brothers ideas for practical effects
  • Hellraiser also inspired practical effects
  • The plotline about children being experimented on is inspired by Akira which also features kids with phycological powers tested on by the government which are all given numbers that may have inspired Eleven's name
  • Government experiments were also a reference to the experiments in the Cold War for Project MK Ultra
  • Stand By Me inspired the show with it being about a group of 4 boys searching for something they aren't supposed to and the teens in the movie possibly inspiring the teenagers with Steve and his group of popular rebellious kids like Tommy and Carol
  • Steven King and Spielberg inspired them with films like IT from Steven king and Steven Spielberg's ET

Narrative enigma

gaps in a story left for the audience to figure out such as
  • 'where did the creatures come from?' - long term
  • 'what took Will byers?' - medium term
  • 'where did Eleven escape from?' - short term


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