I’m sure you don’t need telling about the nostalgic appeal of Stranger Things. For a series that traffics in all manner of supernatural occurrences – telekinetic teenagers, alternate dimensions, demonic possessions – it is first and foremost a series about the 1980s. Or rather, it is a series about what we all imagine the 1980s to be. Devotees of the Netflix sci-fi have drawn the obvious comparisons to old Stephen King stories, the films of John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg. The latest season borrows heavily from 1984’s horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street. But Stranger Things has always lacked the depth of its forebears, as well as a rounded interest in the realities of the time period. It is, as the kids say, “no thoughts, just vibes”.
The series, which returned for the first “volume” of its fourth season on Friday, is one of many recent films and TV shows to have plumbed this specific reserve of nostalgia. Without even leaving Netflix, you’ve got projects like Russian Doll, Glow and Black Mirror’s much-talked about episode “San Junipero”; elsewhere, everything from The Americans, to The Deuce to Super 8 has thrust viewers back to the Eighties. The teen protagonists of the 2017 King adaptation It seemed to breathe the very same air as the Stranger Things kids – if It weren’t already deep into development when Stranger Things first debuted, you’d swear to God that a studio executive must have just turned on Netflix one evening and gone, “I want that”.
