Two series in 2016, two paths for serial television. The first is Stranger Things.
Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in the summer of 2016. That’s a long time in human years, but even longer in TV years. The show was only the seventh non-MCU original drama the platform had produced—it was early enough that Netflix was still in experimental mode, fishing around for prestige but also a firm identity to rival the Premium Cable giants that still monopolized the conversation. With Stranger Things, more than any of the other original series of that era, Netflix seemed to find both. While technically an original concept, the show’s calling card was always its intense, nonstop, nostalgic referentiality. From its first frames, Stranger Things was a pastiche, paying homage to Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, and the terrifying suburban landscape of 1980s horror cinema. The show was derivative, but that was its genius.
