Stranger than many things, better than most.

Just one example of the amazing fan-art that has appeared on the internet.

Stranger Things happened to me, and I loved it!

I don't watch a great deal of TV, really. I have a lot of shows that I'd like to watch, but the huge range of options out there at the moment are overwhelming and it can be impossible to get a consistent opinion of a show, with friends and the internet telling you "if you can just get past the first half of the season, it gets way better!" I don't have time for that kind of slog. Perhaps if I've invested time in the show before, I'll keep going, but shows like "Agents of Shield" and DC's latest offerings for "Flash" and "Arrow" often get the quick summary of "slow to start, but improves over time!"

With this being said, I wasn't sure if I would finish Netflix's new show "Stranger Things", but I was willing to give it a shot because all the news about it was universally praising it for its eighties aesthetic, amazing soundtrack and brilliant characters. Of course, with this show being less than a month old, I won't go into any spoilers as I hope that anyone who reads this is inspired to go and watch it themselves.

"Brevity Makes Sweetness, Doesn't It?" - Stephen King

A quote from Stephen King seems fitting as the show draws from so many aspects of his writing, but the most instantly noticeable is the font used to introduce the show. An article at Inverse.com goes into further detail about the sci-fi influences that viewers may or may not be aware of as they watch. Brevity is a real strength of the show, however; with Netflix's preference being to keep the show down to 8 episodes in a season. With a season length much more similar to a British TV show, as opposed to the bloated 24 episode season arc that we've grown accustomed to from America, there's no extra fat in Stranger Things. 

The child actors remind you of The Goonies and of being a nerdy kid in general.

To start with, there's no need for the framing of a TV show season that follows a main arc with "monster of the week" episodes interspersed to break the flow and complicate matters. There's really only one "arc" but the focus on different characters as they come to conclusions on their own is quite reminiscent of Game Of Thrones, where you find yourself shouting at characters to just go and speak to each other, because they each hold opposite halves of the solution to the puzzle at hand. Viewers are rewarded for sticking around with more information about not just the situation that's going on in the quiet little Indiana town, but the back stories of some fascinating and very human characters. I would really like to do a spoiler blog about it in a while, where I can talk about how masterful the character progression is for certain characters, but that will have to wait. Maybe I'll do one for season 1 if they ever make a season 2.

Netflix seems to be hitting it out of the park with their own created content. They've come a long way from the (admittedly disappointing) fourth season of Arrested Development, with Daredevil Season 2 surpassing the brilliant Season 1 in almost every way. I can't help but feel that Netflix are competing with HBO, who happen to have created my all-time favourite TV show: the ten episode long "Band of Brothers". With GoT, Stranger Things and BoB all being relatively short seasons, maybe it's my growing up with British TV formats that have conditioned me to expect more quality from less content? Regardless, judging from anecdotal evidence and internet searches, it looks like Stranger Things is getting the recognition it deserves.

Great Minds makes for great viewing.

Fans of Harmon's work will recognise the ever-patient Spencer Crittenden.

So as well as being a fan of modern pop-culture, I am also a big history nerd (see- "my favourite TV show is Band of Brothers). This has led me to subscribe to the History channel on youtube. I subscribed a long time ago, but I'd given up on them after discovering that apparently looking through abandoned storage lockers and auctioning off the remains is suitable "content". I used to love watching documentaries on the history and discovery channel, but at this point those channels are around 40% adverts, it seems.

So imagine my surprise when I find "Dan Harmon's - Great Minds" pop up in my youtube suggestions. People may not be aware, Dan Harmon is the guy behind the TV show "Community", he's a writer and voice actor on "Rick & Morty" and he presents a weekly podcast called "Harmontown" where he gets drunk in a comicbook shop and berates...well...everyone and everything around him, but mostly himself. He personifies the "tortured genius" persona that modern culture loves to ascribe to great writers and philosophers, but he's so self-effacing and up-front about it that you can't help but admire his ability to keep pushing uphill against his very nature.

While Dan Harmon's personality is the catalyst for my interest being roused, it's the content that's got me excited enough about this show to want to share it with people. It's damn funny, and not in a "funny for the history channel" kinda way. It's actually incredible that the History Channel allowed this to go out with their name on it.

The central conceit is that Dan Harmon and his long-suffering and ever-patient assistant Spencer Crittenden have been given the reigns on a machine that can turn a "puck" of genetic material into a person and imbue it with the personality and looks of famous people from history. The rest of the show involves a conversation with these famous people, from Ada Lovelace to Idi Amin (played by Gillian Jacobs and Ron Funches respectively), the show runs the gamut of history's heroes and villains, each character given their ten minutes to discuss the issues that they are known for, often with Harmon trying to steer them into topics that serves his own agenda. There are many knowing nods to being on the brink of cancellation, which is something Harmon constantly contended with during his time at the helm of Community, and while I am still amazed that he gets to create this kind of content, I just hope it gets the recognition it deserves from the people watching and the network who's funding it.

Jack Black puts in a great performance as Ludwig Van Beethoven.

For those who are uncertain, let me just drop this video in here. Jason Sudeikis plays a rage-fueled Thomas Edison who is one of those "know-it-all" arseholes that insists he invented everything. I won't say any more, just give it a watch. It's an amazing show.

So no games this time, but I have made a start on "Hard West" which has been quite interesting so far, and while it's clearly not got the production values of games like X-Com. The story seems a lot more interesting though, so I'm excited to see how a supernatural western horror pans out.

Until next time!