About Stranger Things Season 1 – TV Series

Stranger Things Season 1

The first season of the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things premiered worldwide on the streaming service Netflix on July 15, 2016. The series was created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen.

This season stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, and Matthew Modine, with Noah Schnapp, Joe Keery, and Shannon Purser in recurring roles. The first season of Stranger Things received universal acclaim, in particular for its originality, homages to the 1980s, characterization, tone, visuals, and acting.

Stranger Things Season 1

STORY

Episodes 01

“Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers”

On November 6, 1983 in Hawkins, Indiana, a scientist is attacked by an unseen creature at a U.S. government laboratory. 12-year-old Will Byers encounters the creature and mysteriously vanishes while cycling home from a Dungeons & Dragons session with his friends Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair. The following day, Will’s single mother Joyce Byers reports his disappearance to the police chief Jim Hopper, who starts a search but assures Joyce that almost all missing children are quickly found. The lab’s director, Dr. Martin Brenner, investigates an organic substance oozing from the lab’s basement, claiming that “the girl” cannot have gone far. A nervous young girl wearing a hospital gown wanders into a local diner. The owner, Benny, finds a tattoo of “011” on her arm and learns that her name is Eleven. Brenner, monitoring the phone lines, sends agents to the diner after Benny calls social services. The agents kill Benny, but Eleven manages to escape using telekinetic abilities. Joyce’s phone short circuits after receiving a mysterious phone call that she believes is from Will. While searching for Will in the woods, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas come across Eleven.

Episodes 02

“Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street”

The boys bring Eleven to Mike’s house, where they disagree on what to do. Mike formulates a plan for Eleven to pretend to be a runaway and seek help from his mother, Karen. Eleven refuses, however, revealing that “bad men” are after her. Will’s brother Jonathan visits his estranged father Lonnie in Indianapolis to search for Will, but Lonnie rebuffs him. Hopper’s search party discovers a scrap of hospital gown near the lab. After recognizing Will in a photograph and demonstrating her telekinesis, Eleven convinces the boys to trust her, as they believe she can find Will. Using the Dungeons & Dragons board, Eleven indicates that Will is on the “Upside Down” side of the board and is being hunted by the “Demogorgon” (the creature). Mike’s sister Nancy and her friend Barbara ‘Barb’ Holland go to a party with Nancy’s boyfriend Steve Harrington. Barb has driven Nancy there using her 1983 Volkswagen Golf. Searching for Will near Steve’s house, Jonathan secretly photographs the party. Joyce receives another call from Will, hears music playing from his stereo, and sees a creature coming through the wall. Left alone by the swimming pool, Barb is attacked by the Demogorgon and vanishes.

Episodes 03

“Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly”

Barb awakens in the Upside Down: a decaying, overgrown alternate dimension. She attempts to escape, but is attacked by the Demogorgon. Joyce believes Will is communicating through pulses in light bulbs. Hopper visits Hawkins Lab, and the staff permits him to view doctored security footage from the night Will vanished, leading Hopper to investigate Brenner and discovering his involvement with Project MKUltra and that a woman named Terry Ives alleged years earlier that Brenner took her daughter. Eleven recalls Brenner, whom she calls “Papa,” punishing her for refusing to hurt a cat telekinetically. Steve destroys Jonathan’s camera after discovering the photos from the party. Nancy later recovers a photo of Barb, simultaneously realizing that Barb is missing. Returning to Steve’s house to investigate, Nancy finds Barb’s untouched Volkswagen and encounters the Demogorgon but manages to escape. Joyce paints an alphabetic board on her wall with Christmas lights, allowing Will to sign to her that he is “RIGHT HERE” and that she needs to “RUN” as the Demogorgon comes through the wall. Believing Eleven knows where Will is, the boys ask her to lead them to him. Eleven leads them, to their frustration, to Will’s house. From there they follow emergency vehicles to a nearby quarry just as Will’s body is recovered from the water.

Episodes 04

“Chapter Four: The Body”

Joyce refuses to believe that the body found at the quarry is Will’s. Mike feels betrayed by Eleven until she proves that Will is still alive, channeling his voice through Mike’s walkie-talkie. The boys theorize that Eleven could use a ham radio at their school to communicate with Will. Nancy notices a figure behind Barb in Jonathan’s photo, which Jonathan realizes matches his mother’s description of the Demogorgon. Nancy tells the police about Barb’s disappearance. She later fights with Steve, who only cares about not getting in trouble with his father. Hopper has suspicions regarding the authenticity of the body found in the quarry when he learns that the usual coroner was sent home. Hopper confronts the state trooper who found it and beats him until he admits he was ordered to lie. The boys sneak Eleven into their school to use the radio, while Joyce hears Will’s voice through her living room wall. Tearing away the wallpaper, she sees him. Eleven uses the radio to channel Will talking to his mother. Hopper goes to the morgue and finds that the body is a fake, and, suspecting that Brenner is responsible, breaks into the lab.

Episodes 05

“Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat”

Hopper searches the lab before being knocked out by the lab’s guards. The boys ask their science teacher, Mr. Clarke, if it would be possible to travel between alternate dimensions, to which he answers that there could be a theoretical “gate” between dimensions. Hopper awakens at his house and finds a hidden microphone, realizing that Joyce was right the whole time. The boys follow their compasses, searching for a gate that could disrupt the Earth’s electromagnetic field. Eleven recalls memories of being placed in a sensory-deprivation tank to telepathically eavesdrop on a man speaking Russian; while listening, she came across the Demogorgon. Fearing another encounter with the Demogorgon, Eleven redirects the compasses. Lucas misinterprets this as an act of betrayal, leading Mike and Lucas to fight and Eleven to telekinetically fling Lucas away from Mike. While Dustin and Mike tend to the unconscious Lucas, Eleven runs off. Nancy and Jonathan formulate a plan to kill the Demogorgon. While searching in the woods, they encounter a wounded deer. Nancy crawls through a small gate to the Upside Down and inadvertently draws the Demogorgon’s attention.

Episodes 06

“Chapter Six: The Monster”

Jonathan pulls Nancy back through the gate. That night, Nancy is afraid to be alone and asks Jonathan to stay in her bedroom. Steve, attempting to reconcile with Nancy, sees them together through her bedroom window and assumes they are dating. Joyce and Hopper track down Terry Ives, who is catatonic and tended by her sister Becky. Becky explains that Terry was a Project MKUltra participant while unknowingly pregnant, and that Terry believes Brenner kidnapped her daughter Jane at birth due to her supposed telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Nancy and Jonathan stockpile weapons to kill the Demogorgon, theorizing that it is attracted by blood. Steve gets into a fistfight with Jonathan after calling Nancy a slut. Eleven walks into a grocery store and shoplifts several boxes of Eggo waffles. Searching for Eleven, Mike and Dustin are ambushed by a group of bullies but are rescued by her, as she uses her powers to break one bully’s arm after he attempts to kill Mike. Eleven collapses and recalls being asked by Brenner to contact the Demogorgon and, in her terror, inadvertently opening the gate. She tearfully admits to Mike that she is responsible for allowing the Demogorgon to enter this dimension. Lucas sees agents, who have tracked down Eleven, preparing to ambush Mike’s house.

Episodes 07

“Chapter Seven: The Bathtub”

Lucas warns Mike that agents are searching for Eleven. Mike, Dustin, and Eleven flee the house. Eleven telekinetically flips one of the vans that block their path as the kids escape. Lucas reconciles with Mike and Eleven, and the kids hide in the junkyard. Nancy and Jonathan reveal their knowledge of the Demogorgon to Joyce and Hopper. The group contact the kids, and everyone meets at the Byers’ house. Joyce and Hopper realize that Eleven is Jane Ives. The group ask Eleven to search for Will and Barb telepathically, but her earlier feats have weakened her. They break into the middle school and build a makeshift sensory-deprivation tank to amplify Eleven’s powers. Eleven finds Barb dead and Will alive, hiding in the Upside Down version of his backyard fort. Realizing that the gate is in the basement of the lab, Hopper and Joyce break into the lab and are apprehended by security guards. Nancy and Jonathan head back to the Byers’ house, planning to lure and kill the Demogorgon. In the Upside Down, the Demogorgon breaks into Will’s fort.

Episodes 08

“Chapter Eight: The Upside Down”

Hopper, haunted by the death of his daughter Sara from cancer years earlier, gives up Eleven’s location to Brenner, who in exchange allows Hopper and Joyce to enter the Upside Down to rescue Will. Nancy and Jonathan cut their hands to attract the Demogorgon at the Byers’ house. Steve, intending to apologize to Jonathan about their fight, arrives just as the Demogorgon appears. Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan fight the Demogorgon and light it on fire, forcing it to retreat to the Upside Down. Meanwhile, Eleven and the boys hide in the middle school when Brenner and his agents arrive to kidnap Eleven; she kills most of them before collapsing from exhaustion. As Brenner and some of his agents pin Eleven and the boys down, the Demogorgon who is attracted to the bleeding corpses of the agents Eleven killed appears and attacks the rest of the agents with a horrified Brenner also being attacked as the boys escape with Eleven. Hopper and Joyce enter the Upside Down’s version of the Hawkins library, where they encounter several corpses of the Demogorgon’s victims, including Barb’s, and find Will unconscious with an impregnating tendril down his throat, and revive him using CPR after removing the tendril. The Demogorgon finds the boys, and after several failed attempts to hurt the Demogorgan with Lucas’ slingshot, Eleven unexpectedly recovers from her exhaustion and disintegrates it but disappears. Will recovers in the hospital with him reuniting with his family and friends. One month later, it’s Christmas and Nancy is back together with Steve, and both are friends with Jonathan. Will coughs up a slug-like creature (a larva) and has a vision of the Upside Down, but hides this from his family.

CAST

Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers
David Harbour as Jim Hopper
Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven (“El”)
Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler
Matthew Modine as Martin Brenner
Joe Keery as Steve Harrington
Shannon Purser as Barbara “Barb” Holland
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers
Joe Chrest as Ted Wheeler
Ross Partridge as Lonnie Byers
Rob Morgan as Officer Powell
John Paul Reynolds as Officer Callahan
Randy Havens as Scott Clarke
Catherine Dyer as Connie Frazier
Aimee Mullins as Terry Ives
Amy Seimetz as Becky Ives
Peyton Wich as Troy^[12]
Tony Vaughn as Principal Coleman
Charles Lawlor as Mr. Melvald
Tinsley and Anniston Price as Holly Wheeler
Cade Jones as James
Chester Rushing as Tommy H.
Chelsea Talmadge as Carol
Glennellen Anderson as Nicole
Cynthia Barrett as Marsha Holland
Jerri Tubbs as Diane Hopper
Elle Graham as Sara Hopper
Chris Sullivan as Benny Hammond
Tobias Jelinek as lead agent
Robert Walker-Branchaud as repairman agent
Susan Shalhoub Larkin as Florence (“Flo”)

PRODUCTION

Development

Stranger Things was created by Matt and Ross Duffer, known professionally as The Duffer Brothers. The two had completed writing and producing their 2015 film Hidden, which they had tried to emulate the style of M. Night Shyamalan, however, due to changes at Warner Bros., its distributor, the film did not see a wide release and the Duffers were unsure of their future. To their surprise, television producer Donald De Line approached them, impressed with Hidden‘s script, and offered them the opportunity to work on episodes of Wayward Pines alongside Shyamalan. The brothers were mentored by Shyamalan during the episode’s production so that when they finished, they felt they were ready to produce their own television series.

The Duffer Brothers prepared a script that would essentially be similar to the series’ actual pilot episode, along with a 20-page pitch book to help shop the series around for a network. They pitched the story to a number of cable networks, all of which rejected the script on the basis that they felt a plot centered around children as leading characters would not work, asking them to make it a children’s show or to drop the children and focus on Hopper’s investigation in the paranormal. In early 2015, Dan Cohen, the VP of 21 Laps Entertainment, brought the script to his colleague Shawn Levy. They subsequently invited The Duffer Brothers to their office and purchased the rights for the series, giving full authorship of it to the brothers. After reading the pilot, the streaming service Netflix purchased the whole season for an undisclosed amount; the show was subsequently announced for a planned 2016 release by Netflix in early April 2015. The Duffer Brothers stated that at the time they had pitched to Netflix, the service had already been recognized for its original programming, such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, with well-recognized producers behind them, and were ready to start giving upcoming producers like them a chance. The brothers started to write out the series and brought Levy and Cohen in as executive producers to start casting and filming.

The series was originally known as Montauk, as the setting of the script was in Montauk, New York and nearby Long Beach locations. The brothers had chosen Montauk as it had further Spielberg ties with the film Jaws, where Montauk was used for the fictional setting of Amity Island. After deciding to change the narrative of the series to take place in the fictional town of Hawkins instead, the brothers felt they could now do things to the town, such as placing it under quarantine, that they really could not envision with a real location. With the change in location, they had to come up with a new title for the series under the direction from Netflix’s Ted Sarandos so that they could start marketing it to the public. The brothers started by using a copy of Stephen King’s Firestarter novel to consider the title’s font and appearance and came up with a long list of potential alternatives. Stranger Things came about as it sounded similar to another King novel, Needful Things, though Matt noted they still had a “lot of heated arguments” over this final title.