To Matt & Ross Duffer,
This is a standing ovation from a Gen-X kid who grew up in the '80s, the era you so wonderfully resurrected in Stranger Things.
I finished watching the Stranger Things finale the same day it was released. I watched it with trepidation, sadness, and tears. It's been almost ten years of amazing entertainment and jumping back through time, revisiting memories of an era I didn't even realise I had lost.
You gave me back something I didn't even know I'd forgotten; not just the memories but the feeling of growing up in the '80's.
Of course, I never forgot the movies I loved and the music I listened to growing up. But bringing back the sensory memories was amazing, the ones that lived below conscious thought. The feeling of complete freedom riding around on my bicycle. Being outdoors the whole day and having friendships that felt carefree and deep, because at that age, they were.
Stranger Things didn't just remind us of the 80's. It unlocked them. Suddenly, we remembered things we didn't know we'd forgotten and realised we'd been carrying them all along, waiting for someone to show us it was real, that it mattered, that we hadn't imagined how different childhood used to be.
You nailed it.
Because you didn't just recreate the 1980's, you remembered what it felt like to live through them.
Capturing The Details Of The 80's Perfectly.
Other shows have tried to capture the '80s. They throw in some synthesisers, post a few movie posters around the set, and maybe add a Rubik's Cube for good measure. But you? You understood that the '80s weren't just an aesthetic; they were a specific frequency of childhood freedom that was uniquely experienced by a child growing up in that era.
The way we were as kids, just... leave our houses. On bikes. For hours. No cell phones, no GPS trackers, no scheduled playdates. Just us, outdoors, under the sun the whole day, returning, for me at least, just before nighttime.
Our parents genuinely didn't know where we were, and that was just normal. Watching Stranger Things, I remembered that freedom to just be without constant supervision or documentation.
I remembered the worlds we created for ourselves. In Stranger Things, it was kids playing D&D in the basement, for me it was hanging out at the neighbourhood park, the library and a huge drainage area that my friends and I used to sit and play house. These areas were not just locations, they were sacred ground.
No Childhood Was Perfect
But here's where you really earned my respect: you didn't sanitise our childhood.
The '80s weren't all BMX bikes and Saturday morning cartoons, and you knew that. You gave us the Upside Down, which is such a perfect metaphor for what it was like to be a kid then, this understanding that darkness existed parallel to our adventures, that real monsters lived in the world even as we fought imaginary ones.
We were raised on Poltergeist and Gremlins, on movies that terrified us but our parents allowed us to watch anyway. We watched E.T. and cried when he had to leave Elliot behind. You understood that our pop culture didn't protect us from sad endings or fear but taught us how to process it.
The bullying in Stranger Things isn't a subplot; it's environmental. Troy and his crew aren't after-school special villains - they're an ever present threat. I was lucky and was never bullied as a child but kids can be mean without intending to and these are the kids I try to avoid, making me map my routes to avoid certain streets, certain bathrooms, certain parts of the playground.
I recently saw a video of someone asking if the 80's were really like how it was depicted in the show. They couldn't fathom how kids that age were allowed to freely roam in and out of the house without supervision. They asked, what happened to the adults? They were around but mostly oblivious, absent, or overwhelmed. Just like real life.
You Trusted the Kids (and Us)
What strikes me the most is that you trusted your young characters the way our best '80s movies trusted us.
Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will aren't miniature adults spouting wisdom beyond their years. They're legitimately smart kids who say "shit" and fight with each other and don't always know what to do. They're brave and scared simultaneously. They plan brilliant strategies and make catastrophically stupid decisions. That's just reflective of real life.
And Eleven.... You took a character who could have been pure plot device, the girl with powers, and gave her deep humanity. Her journey from weapon to person, her struggles with language and identity and belonging, her fierce protection of her friends despite barely understanding friendships... Well, thats all the stuff we remember from the movies we loved.
That's E.T., that's Edward Scissorhands, thats every outsider I ever rooted for.
The Scenes I Recognized (And My Kids Didn't)
You know what made me lose it?
When Joyce Byers asked if they needed a "flux capacitor" and I laughed so hard I snorted. My kids just stared at me like I'd lost my marbles. They had no idea why that scene was comedy gold.
I think thats the genius of what you did - you wove in the DNA of every movie we watched on VHS until the tape wore out.
I saw it all.
Every reference, every homage, every loving nod. The kids on bikes with flashlights? So E.T., shot for shot. Eleven lifting the van? Felt like her using her telekinetic powers just like in Carrie. The government conspiracy and kids outsmarting adults? The Goonies meets E.T. meets every other movie we saw growing up. The Christmas lights spelling out messages? Poltergeist, but make it about love instead of terror.
The lab breakout scenes. Eleven's shaved head and hospital gown, the sinister scientists, that's every "evil government experiment" thriller we devoured. Firestarter (when Drew Barrymore was so cute), maybe a little bit of the Scanners.
And the way you shot certain scenes, it felt like you were deeply inspired by Spielberg's work. But you were not copying. You were speaking language kids from the '80s understood, using visual vocabulary that shaped how we understood adventure and danger and friendships.
My kids watched Stranger Things and loved it. I watched Stranger Things and felt like I had this double vision - seeing the show you created and seeing all the movies that may have inspired critical scenes from the show. When I tried to explain the references, my kids looked at me the same way I must have looked to my parents when they tried to explain their childhood references.
And that's the beauty of what you've created; you'd made something that worked on two levels. For kids today, it's a great story. For us? It's a love letter written in a code only we can fully crack.
Now, Let's Talk About The Music!
Can we also talk about the soundtrack?
Because guys, you did your homework. You didn't just license some popular '80's hit and call it a day. You understood that music was a big part of our growing up. The Clash, Joy Division, Toto, these weren't just songs we heard; they were the frequencies we lived on.
But there were some eye-roll moments. Like when my kids belted out Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and said, "This new song is so cool, Mum," without realising it was from my era. I just smiled and let them have it. At least you brought our music back.
The Ending Only Adults Could Fully Understand
I think you wrapped up the show quite nicely but here's what really got me about the finale: The moments I feel only adults would truly appreciate.
When Nancy, Steve, Robin, and Jonathan promised to meet once a month, we knew it wouldn't happen. My kids took it at face value, but I knew how life works. People drift despite the best intentions.
And when Mike closed the basement door after watching the younger kids start playing D&D? That wasn't just him leaving the room. That was him saying goodbye to childhood, stepping into adulthood. My kids saw a scene transition. I saw the younger version of Mike he had to leave behind.
Life goes on, despite everything. Friendships change. Childhood ends. You captured that truth without spelling it out.
What You Gave Us Back
Here's the thing:
Stranger Things became a worldwide phenomenon. People everywhere binged it, loved it, quoted it, dressed up as the characters for Halloween. It was a massive success by any metric.
But for those of us who actually lived through the '80's, Gen Xers and older Millennials who remember life before the internet, this show meant something different.
Everyone else watched a great story. I felt like we were revisiting our youth.
You gave us our childhood back.
But you also reminded us of what it was like to live in a world where our parents couldn't text us every five minutes, where we solved our own problems because the adults were uncontactable and probably dealing with their own mess.
You remembered that we were the last generation to have a fundamentally analog childhood, and you captured both the magic and the terror of that.
So thanks, Matt and Ross. Thank you for taking our childhood seriously enough to get it right. Thank you for understanding that the '80's weren't just a decade. They were a frequency, a feeling, a very specific kind of freedom and fear mixed together.
Thank you Stranger Things for almost 10 years of reminiscing the past and for great storytelling that brought out the truth of what it was like growing up in that era.
Now, if you'll excuse me. I have to go blast some Clash.
