Will Byers: Dead or alive?

Claire Leanard, Staff Writer

What do you get when you combine sci-fi and the 80’s? The answer to that question is Stranger Things which debuted on July 15, 2016 on Netflix. It took the world by storm and captivated a vast audience with its incredibly witty humor and complex storyline.

In the beginning viewers meet a ragtag group of friends living in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980’s. These middle school aged boys are Lucas, Dustin, Mike, and Will. They are a close-knit group who spend their days riding bikes around Hawkins or playing Dungeons & Dragons in Mike’s basement. The season leads off with the conclusion of one of their marathons of D&D when the boys head home but do not all make it there. Will Byers, unfortunately, goes missing after being sidetracked by a nearby shed. In the beginning, a girl named Eleven is also introduced. She seems very strange and almost unreal because of the way she acts. It seems as if she has run away from somewhere and is taken in and fed by a cook named Benny. Because the local law enforcement is a joke, it is up to Will’s friends and his mother try to crack the code of where Will went.

The viewer gets a chance to follow different characters as well as their way of coping with the disappearance of Will Byers. For example, the spectators of the show get to experience the viewpoint of Will’s older brother Jonathan as he tries to make sense of his mother’s crazy antics involving lights and being a teenager in general. He’s joined by the distant Nancy Wheeler, Mike’s older sister, who believes that there is something different at play with Will’s disappearance. The series as a whole is an exhilarating sci-fi mystery where viewers are taken on a long journey to find out what is really happening in Hawkins, Indiana.