Two Seasons, five child actors, three teens, three old timers, seventeen episodes, 857 minutes, eight million dollars per episode, a week end filled with suspense, fear and joy plus a psychokinetic bald girl that loves waffles. When you hit play on this Netflix Original this is what you are in for.

This Duffer Brothers produced series has experienced huge success in the past weeks after season 2 dropped and last year when the first season was released. Generally a Netflix Original of this type’s demographic would be young adults and teenagers, but Stranger Things has managed to appeal to a wide group of people that spreads from pre-teens to teenagers who will watch whatever you put in front of them, to young-adults who are a much more harsh audience which critiques mostly everything, to full-fledged adults who work eight to ten hour days then get home and have very little time to rest and do everything they are tasked with.

This wide spread success throughout all age groups is what we will go in depth into and analize in the following article.

What makes it appealing to younger audiences?

It is no secret that although the 1980s setting in the show it has garnered a huge amount of young followers. A big reason for this is the way that the show has been distributed; this show has been uploaded to one of the world’s biggest online streaming websites, Netflix.

“I believe that Netflix widespread popularity and avialence, since it is online everyone can have access to it, has allowed Stranger Things to become one of the most popular shows in recent memory,” said Sebastian Eusse when asked about the Stranger Things popularity.

According to Variety Magazine 54% of US households have Netflix; the this number has surpassed the amount of households with DVRs. This attests to Netflix outrageous popularity and shows how important it was to Stranger Things popularity.

According to avid fan and TCS 11th grader Davide Sangiovanni, Stranger Things is appealing to all ages groups because, “The TV series is really different; it has a really different topic to what we are used to. Many series now a days are maybe [about] zombies or maybe the law or other common things but you have never seen a TV series like this that talks about mystery and suspense and has a very cool story. Also the scenery is amazing and all this adds up and creates a very appealing story.”

And this brings me to my next point: you could have all of Netflix’s power and influence in the web but if you have a show that does not have quality in writing, acting, special effects, sound and all other attributes that make a great production then would have wasted all of your time and money. However, this is not the case with Stranger Things, as said by Sangiovanni, the story is good and refreshing take on everything that has trended in the last few years.

Finally the part of the formula that has made it so appealing to young people is the great distribution through Netflix.

What makes it appealing to older audiences?

“I think that what so appealing to people of all ages is the fact that not only [does] it provide an environment of sci-fi and fantasy but it also gives us teenage characters, that we can all relate to. And all something I really like about the series is the 80s vibe, kind of like the Steven Spielberg movie vibe,” Said Gregorio Lince, a man of self-reportedly pretty strict tastes when it comes to the media he consumes.

So now we must switch to the other side of the spectrum, old people. Normally more seasoned audiences don’t really mingle with online series or basically anything that is lighthearted but amazingly they did with this one for various reason. The first is the heavy 80 influence, the Duffer Brothers. took from iconic people from this time such as Stephen King and Steven Spielberg. The series is filled with Easter eggs and tons of references to those times such as Eggos, Dungeons and Dragons, Arcades, Star Wars and Ghostbusters. Another big thing that may attract them are the old school actors such as Winona Ryder or Sean Austin. For many of these older demographic they might feel as if they are going back to their childhoods and this inflicts a deep sense of nostalgia.

“I think what makes it so appealing for someone of my generation is that it is a real sort of throw back to the time and place of the late 80s and early 90s. Folks who grew up watching things like E.T. or The Goonies can really relate to the aesthetic that they are creating with Stranger Things,” said Jonathan Scolnick, when asked about the shows popularity inside adult circles.

What makes it a overall great series?

Overall what makes it a great series is its ability to joint these extremely different generations and find a common ground that makes them both feel like they can relate to this show while still feeling like it is just shoving a ton of 80s pop culture into a new topic and calling it a day. It is a masterfully written and produced homage of everything that made the 1980s a great moment in modern history and this is what has propelled it into being a huge phenomenon that has turn the world upside down.

“I feel like I found out about the first season through social media and people talking about it. It was you know one of these series that was all the rage. Normally I don’t invest in those things but for some reason I think somebody had turned me on to this one and I did watch it and I probably watch all of the episodes over a couple weeks span, you know a two week span for the first season and the for this season [Season two] I probably watched it all in a week. Not super proud about that but I had invested,” said Scolnick.