What It Means To Be A Fan Of Stranger Things
Stranger Things, the Netflix Original released on July 15th, 2016, has already amassed a large fanbase considering how new the show is. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980s, the show is evocative of a Stephen King thriller, or a sci-fi show of the time. Unsurprisingly enough, one of the main stars of the television show is 1980s starlet, Winona Ryder, who plays Joyce Byers, mum of Will Byers, who is taken by a fictional creature known as the Demogorgon. But just what is it about this show that has created this large fanbase, and what does it mean to be a fan of the show itself?
A premise to the show itself: the storyline follows Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper (David Harbour), head of the Hawkins Police Dept., as they try to uncover what happened to Joyce's son, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), with the help of his friends Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), along with their new companion Eleven (or "El", played by Millie Bobby Brown). Other characters include Mike's older sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Joyce's other son Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Steve Harrington (Joe Keery). One important character who has now become immortalized in the show's story is Barbara "Barb" Holland (played by Shannon Purser), who many people feel was treated unfairly by the show's producers, coining the hashtag "#JusticeForBarb" and a whole social media outpouring of support for Purser's character, which then carried on over to her other show, Riverdale, after queen bee Cheryl Blossom (played by Madelaine Petsch) famously said this line:
The social media response to this line was massive, with one user on social media site Tumblr making this post:
The original show of Stranger Things also showed a response to the case of Barb, with Harbour having spoken earlier this year at an event and saying that Nancy will definitely feel like nobody truly cares about her best friend and that will be a dominant part of the second season, set to air in October.
Another reason for the large following behind the show is the amount of pop culture references that are involved in episodes: songs like The Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" and Toto's "Africa feature with prominent associations to the storyline behind them, along with bands like The Bangles and Joy Division featuring in the episodes. Connections have been made to Ryder's involvement in the 1980s, as both a teenager and an adult mum, and the content of the storyline itself is perfect for the time period it portrays, as it involves government testing, and was set at a time where the US was unsure about what was going to happen next due to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and America.
The decor of the houses and the school itself is reminiscent of the 80s, with stripes, floral designs and pastel colours being recurring themes. One thing shown above as well is the radio that was used by all the boys in order to keep in contact with each other when cycling home or going anywhere. This element of nostalgia is probably another key thing that keeps people watching.
But what does it actually mean to be a fan of the show itself? Well, for many it's sharing the gifs and screengrabs of the TV show on their favourite social networking sites, more commonly Tumblr. Some people create mood boards for their favourite characters, trying to capture their aesthetic in 8 or 9 photos:
As you can see above, this portrays Nancy as a tough girl who won't take nonsense from anybody (shown by the images of her holding a bat, the gun and the enamel "Bullshit" badge), but also as someone who is happy with conforming to society's expectations of how girls should act (shown by the image of her smiling, the floral bedsheets, the images of her and Barb, and the empty school hallway), along with a hint of somebody who is broken, shown by the final image of her in the shower, suggesting an emotional breakdown through fear of change or losing those she loves the most.
Many of these moodboards are minimalistic, monochromatic pieces, that usually focus on one colour or aspect of the person they wish to portray, and then go from there. They usually are also posted along with a quote from the TV show, or one that relates to the character aspect the user has tried to portray. These posts do garner a fair amount of popularity in the fanbase, along with video edits of the characters, or even "Crack" videos, featuring popular references along with clips from the episodes themselves. One popular YouTube creator who makes these kinds of videos is Alice Harmon:
And although the show only came out last year, many people have dressed up as the characters for conventions like Comic-Con, or even for Halloween. At Comic-Con conventions, however, there are often panels that the cast will take part in, these being more likely to be at the San Diego Comic-Con rather than the London MCM Comic Con, but that doesn't stop fans from turning out in full force to support their favourite actors and actresses by dressing up like them.
It's this fan culture that keeps shows being talked about, keeps them running, and the fact that there are shows that are similar to this one, like Riverdale (2016 - ) and Twin Peaks (1990 - 1991, 2017) which introduce both teens and adults alike to shows they never would have expected to find solace in. And now, with the return of Stranger Things on Halloween this year, there's even more reason to become a fan of this show and find out what happened before the world turned upside down.
