It feels so hard not to love Stranger Things. I get that some people see too many bits and pieces of other shows and movies they love inside of it, but I think the reason the series works so well is that it treats all of those elements with the perfect balance of seriousness and whimsy. If someone's a ridiculous conspiracy theorist, they get played as wacky and out there, but they also get to be surprisingly prescient, as you'd expect in a world where the government is hiding a portal into another dimension.
What I think is especially wonderful is how you can watch a nine-hour adventure starring a bunch of middle school students and so often forget that you're watching a story about children. The Stranger Things kids get taken seriously...
