HEART IN HAWKINS.

So long, Stranger Things. This past weekend the television series phenomenon on Netflix had its grand finale. I’ll never forget seeing THIS poster which would have been 10 years ago and had this gut feeling that I knew I was going to love whatever this was. Thankfully I was right.

Great TV shows come and go but this one feels more meaningful as it was a direct bullseye hit to basically everything we love. Stranger Things just went to a different place.

Personally it tapped into something that seemed almost dormant in me. Not memories from childhood per say, but feelings from simpler days that I hadn’t thought about in a long time. Call it nostalgia although it feels like something else. That sense of mystery, of wonder, heart and heavy emotions that come with adolescence. Hanging out in your friends’ basement for an entire afternoon with not a care in the world. Racing through town on bikes through neighbor’s yards and cemetery paths on an adventure with hopes of discovering something…strange.

This show executed the 1980s aesthetic better than most because of great storytelling. We as connoisseurs of this decade can’t help being critical of how it’s represented in film and TV — it’s hard to get it right. It was clear from the beginning that Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers were operating on a similar wavelength as you, me and disciples of TNUC.

Even detailed items within the production design were never cliché or “retro” for the sake of it, which would have looked cheap and been distracting. Yes, it was colorful but no, it wasn’t over the top in a cartoonish delivery. Instead, it was just as damn authentic looking as Elliot and his friends biking around town in E.T.

For many of us it brought back the Steven Spielberg/John Hughes magic of how families and friends were portrayed on screen. Stranger Things pulled it off beautifully in a way that transported you back to a time when tales of adventure, action, science fiction and horror could still at the end of the day hit home and resonate with real, relatable people. The Goonies, E.T., Poltergeist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Silver Bullet, The Monster Squad, The Thing…..the list goes on.

These movies delivered a certain charm in the way their characters seemed like people that could be your neighbors — only they just happen to be fighting acid-drooling aliens or creatures from another dimension. Until watching Stranger Things it felt like this formula hadn’t been captured in a long time. The Duffer Brothers achieved it with class — not by copying. They wore their influences on their sleeves but make no mistake, Stranger Things was brand new.

As silly as it might sound, one of the things I’ll miss the most is the “Anywhere, USA” town of Hawkins, Indiana. It’s similar to how all my favorite Stephen King stories happen to be set in small towns and remote locations. Vampires taking over “Jerusalem’s Lot” (Salem’s Lot). A clown haunting kids in “Derry” (IT). Wheelchair-bound Corey Haim and Gary Busey fighting a werewolf in “Tarkers Mills” (Silver Bullet). There’s something special about deadly beings looming over these sleepy settings. Hawkins was the perfect corner of America for this story of government military experiments and monsters lurking in an upside down dimension. A kid goes missing and all hell brakes loose.

Fans of the show have their favorite characters throughout the 5 seasons. However it all starts and ends with the group of best friends at the core: Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Max and of course, Eleven.

Special shout out to other personal favorites Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove, Eddie Munson, Joyce, Mr. Wheeler and of course, Chief Hopper.

I was hooked on this show the moment I saw these kids riding bikes and then heard the music. When a television series can give you emotional chills/goosebumps from the original music designed for the project, I consider that serious magic.

Only the greats can pull it off in a way that compliments or amplifies what you’re watching but doesn’t take you out of the scene. Tangerine Dream, John Williams. Ennio Morricone. Goblin. Giorgio Moroder. Jan Hammer. John Carpenter. Steve Moore. Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein.

Dixon and Stein’s synth-heavy score didn’t need to be this good. Meaning they could have approached it more subtly and still delivered. Instead, the score is firing at all times and going for the jugular and/or the heartstrings. The emotional highs and lows of the music in Stranger Things masterfully coincides with the innocence of youth up against the fight of their lives.

For the record I loved how the series ended and thought it was the right time to end, but the end still hurts. The internet loves to criticize and critique every second of every moment of every episode but at this point all that dweeby nitpicking seems meaningless. Think about what they gave us! I’m just grateful the show existed.

What an era. What a journey.

Don’t forget — TNUC has made two Stranger Things-themed mixtapes in tribute to Billy Hargrove and Eddie Munson. Relish the memories and greatness by listening to these today.