One Show, Two Takes: Stranger Things: Nostalgia and spooky action reign supreme in season 4 of the hit series
It’s only fair I start with a confession: I love Stranger Things. I’ve been a fan since the series kicked off in 2016, well, except maybe of season two, famously billed as a hot mess.
Another plus for the nostalgia junkies is the killer soundtrack, featuring California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & The Papas, Fever by The Cramps and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Up Around the Bend. Undoubtedly, the hit of it all is Kate Bush’s 1985 classic Running Up That Hill. And if there’s one thing Stranger Things can teach us, it’s adults are largely ineffectual. No thanks to the bumbling cops and useless parents, the fate of the world is once again in the hands of a ragtag bunch of teenagers. The only grownups who bring anything to the party are Jim Hopper , conspiracy nut Murray and Joyce Byers. The latter is, of course, played by the queen of the dark 1980s teen movie Winona Ryder.
Based in 1983, in Indiana in the US, Stranger Things begins with 12-year-old friends Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas playing Dungeons and Dragons. Soon after, Will disappears and the search for him — and answers — begins. The mystery thickens as friends and family get drawn into a complex web of top-secret government experiments, paranormal forces and the sudden appearance of a girl with supernatural powers.