"Stranger Things" has been out on Netflix for a little over a month now. It's a sci-fi drama set in the 1983 rural town of Hawkins, Indiana. A 12-year-old boy goes missing and his best friends and mom won't give up on finding him. While I love the sci-fi theme and the '80s feel, the series felt lacking. To me, it relied on too many unnecessary tropes. I feel the show would have made just as much sense and been even more amazing if it hadn't included all of them.
Tropes in "Stranger Things" Include:
1 .Girl as monster
2. ”Good girl” loses virginity
3. Over-involved mom & disinterested dad
4. Woman as crazy/not taken seriously
5. D-bag boyfriend
6. Loner boy as creep
7. One black friend to show we’re totally not racist
8. Alcoholic cop
9. Girl without agency
10. Neglectful single mom
11. Deadbeat dad who sleeps with younger woman
12. Funny fat friend
13. Fighting over girl
14 .Nerd girl as uncool who is subsequently killed off
15. Bullying weird kids
16. Ignoring friends due to boyfriend/girlfriend
That's 16 tropes when the first season of the show is only 8 episodes long. Plus I'm probably missing some.
What's more upsetting is the fact that none of these tropes contribute to the show. Remove them/switch them up and the plot is still the same. There's no reason a young girl has to be the monster or another has to lose her virginity or date an asshole. There can be more than one black character in the show. Why does the nerd girl have to be killed? Make the skinny characters the really funny ones, have the fat one as the main protagonist. There's no reason that the single mom can't be really successful and still want to go find her missing son.
While I understand that the show wants to recreate the '80s feel, that is done through the scene design and clothing choices for the characters. It can be done in the language they use and the props.
Netflix has been hailed for their progressive originals but it feels as though they dropped the ball on this one. I hope they make up for it in Season 2.
