So I finally got around to watching and man is it good, although I do think it might be just a tad bit overrated.
A lot of people make it out to be over reliant on 80's nostalgia, but it's more 80's movie nostalgia, but it never comes across as banking on that. It's this giant bowl of different influences from John Carpenter to Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead to Stand By Me, and there's even a little bit of Under The Skin there with how the psychic space was filmed (although that one could be a coincidence). Most prominently, though, it feels like the lovechild of Stephen King and Spielberg. The former, especially, and almost too much with some of his typical tropes: like the frighteningly as*hole bullies that come across as just borderline psychopathic to an extent that they no longer come across as real, anymore (which is probably the only flaw, IMO).
Despite that, though, it does just as much in regards to subverting tropes: like the as*hole boyfriend turns out to not be an as*hole at all and actually ends up helping out to fight the monster, or the character that never believes that there's anything supernatural going on and ends up being useless actually is the one to help out Winona Ryder's character the most by the end of the series.
The acting is pretty good across the board, although, Millie Brown as Eleven is the definite highlight, with David Harbour as Hopper a very close second to me (especially just how likeable his character ends up being).
Think that's all I have to say about the show, really; would love to hear other opinions.
