Excitement has us, my friend!

Stranger Things is about to be released (episodes will be up to streaming next Friday, July 15) but the first reviews are already popping up and I cannot be more happier with the results. Check some excerpts (spoilers free):

Deadline – Steven Spielberg didn’t exactly have the best box office outcome this past weekend with The BFG, but in a way he’ll be back next week with what looks like a bigger and more classic hit on the small screen. Launching on July 15 on Netflix, the Winona Ryder-led eight-episode Stranger Things is nothing if not a surprising, sometimes scary, moving and successful homage to the era of Spielberg’s ET and the 1980s themselves — as well as the films of the great John Carpenter.

(…) Yes, there are a lot of clichés in Stranger Things, but like outdoor string lights, they all hold together. They also cast a warm glow on the sheer enthusiasm and respect the series has for those who have come before and a very particular time in America’s recent history that now feels so far and so close at the same time.

io9 – The biggest reason is that Stranger Things is so entertaining that it’s totally worth the time commitment, because believe me you will be mainlining the whole thing once it hooks you in. The characters are especially well-drawn, no small feat when most of them are around 12 years old.

JoBlo – After a surprisingly popular trailer popped Stranger Things onto my radar, I may have thought twice before checking it out. After seeing the first three episodes, I can say this is going to be the best show of the summer and may rival some of the blockbusters hitting theaters.

(…) While the show is very much centered on the child characters, it is the performances from David Harbour as Chief Hopper and Winona Ryder as grieving mother Joyce that really make this show work. Ryder has always been a great actress but it is amazing to see her show so much depth as a mother torn apart by the abduction of her son under odd circumstances.

The List – Stranger Things is beautifully made. The fashion, the synth soundtrack, even the typeface in the opening credits are spot on. It could be a lost 80s relic. Capturing the look and feel of the era, referencing Poltergeist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind or a darker remix of ET.

Thankfully Stranger Things isn’t just an exercise in retro nostalgia; it’s also a gripping mystery with heavy sci-fi overtones. Winona Ryder’s distress, as Will’s distraught mother, is palpable; there’s also a wonderful naturalistic air to the free and easy camaraderie between Will and his geeky friends, who set out to find him after he disappears.