Yea it really is addictive. I'm just loving everything about it.
Bump because I finally finished Stranger Things last night.....***SPOILERS***
First, as an 80's kid, this show ticked off a lot of big, awesome nostalgia boxes for music, movies, video games, etc. for me - thinking ET, Firestarter, Goonies, and Stand By Me, with a lot of early 90's influence too - X-Files, Twin Peaks, and especially the video game Silent Hill. That, above all else, is the biggest influence in this show. It too is about traveling to/from a 'dark world' that mirrors our own, but with more monsters, evil, etc. Anyway, the tone and attention to detail of this show was meticulous - right down to the super awful clothes and hairstyles. And the cast - just fantastic. Everyone was soooooo good! I will say I loved Dustin and El the most, but Wynona Ryder was really compelling in a nice return to form for her - still looks great too.
Anyway, I'm fine with how things played out, and I've read that if/when there is a Season 2 it will be with the same cast moving forward, but that the Upside Down will be more fully explored and explained. I loved some of the sci-fi/meta-human stuff that was going on, but I thought there were a lot of big questions that went unanswered and/or didn't make much sense. For me, I got hung up on:
1. Why, after all these years, did 'The Monster' decide to reach into our world? Was it that he was only recently 'created' by El (by virtue of her entering the 'void' world or whatever it was when she was sent to listen to people via the isolation chamber)?
2. Why can't El speak very good English? She was born in the U.S., right? Was it because she was special? She seemed to be able to talk when she wanted but nothing more than a few words at a time. They could explain this a little better IMO.
3. How on earth did Will survive in the Upside Down? He was captured before Barb, and she was dead way before he was.
4. Why did El suddenly decide to escape? She seemed pretty 'okay' with 'Papa'. Was it to track down the monster?
5. The Monster? Who/what/where/when/why?
This stuff is mostly minor but when you're worldbuilding, I think you really need to have a solid set of rules and the viewer has to at least have some idea of what they are. I do think most people love this show because it does such a nice job of making parallels to movies and songs you loved in the past, but at heart it was a solid, if not spectacular, coming of age story. 8/10