Stranger Things and Voltron?.. What is this The 80’s?

 

Has anyone else been paying attention this summer or maybe I’m just late, but Netflix has been booming with shows and movies all summer, especially its original series and reboots. Recently I just got back into watching Netflix and over these last few weeks I heard a lot of people mention a show called “Stranger Things” I first looked at cover picture and said this looks interesting but then for some reason everyone on social media, I mean everyone was buzzing about this show. I don’t normally like following the crowd  and watch what everyone else is watching, but man am I happy I went in that direction this time. But I want to bring to you two quick reviews that I’ve been checking out of Stranger things and Voltron?…..VOLTRON!!! I KNOW RIGHT VOLTRON!! Well it is back and has a new look. Let’s get this started First

Stranger Things:

 

When I mentioned the 80’s, this show screams 80’s from the way this show was shot, to even the amazing theme music of the show, which I love by the way. Stranger things takes place in Indiana around 1983, where  we first see a group of friends playing in the basement of their friend Mike’s house, when they appear to be playing Dungeons and Dragons. This show starts of when their friend will goes missing, leaving the town and Will’s mother played by Winona Ryder on a crazy journey to find her son.

Stranger Things is truly our modern day E.T., X-Files, whatever Sci-Fi thriller from the 80s you can think of, this is the child of those shows and movies.  From the way this show was shot, to the classic music from the Clash, and many other artist, even to the style of clothes the kids wear in this show is amazing. Introducing the main characters, there is Mike, Dustin, Lucas. These guys are all funny in their own way, but I have to say I love Dustin, he is a fun loving character and almost the voice of reason a lot of the time in the group.

We see a young child escape from some strange facility who turns out to be 11(eleven), she is a strong child with some extraordinary abilities who doesn’t talk much, but in this case her actions speak louder than her words. From what we can see she is a science experiment used as a weapon, I guess she is what wolverine was to Weapon X in X-men, Eleven is true weapon, but does not care to harm anyone unless her life is endanger. Her powers are incredible which makes her extremely dangerous, but she understands the powers.  I will not lie the first 2 episodes of this show are a little slow, but once the end of the second episode goes into episode three, wow just wow you honestly can’t stop watching this show. The action and the story just sucks you in to figure out what is this object or this thing that took will, what is terrorizing the town. We do not know if this is an Alien, some formed from science experiment, this show leaves you wanting more.

 

Two characters I would like highlight are Joyce Byers played by Winona Ryder, and Chief Hopper played by David Harbour. I grew up watching so many movies with Winona Ryder in it that it was amazing to see her in this show, and she did an amazing job, they truly made her character feel real, where it was like if will was your child you would do the same thing she did. You would probably almost drive yourself crazy trying to find your child. At first I did not recognize David Harbour as the Chief, even though I’ve seen him in countless shows and movies, he did an excellent job as the chief. His character seemed so nonchalant, but that 3rd episode and 4th episode he got super gangsta I said to myself ok he’s my favorite. I also like to highlight Lucas for being the black nerd amongst the group, he was very skeptical of anything that put the group in danger, but when it got down to getting something done, he was in full combat mode. With Lucas being in the picture it kind of made me feel like maybe that’s how I would’ve been if I was born in the  80s.

This show gives you suspense, drama, comedy, and a lot of questions at the end, and really hoping for a season 2. I really would like to know what was the origin of the creature in the show, and what made it attack, and how did they even capture it. Hopefully once season 2 comes around we get a back a story. If you are skeptical  to watch this show I say watch the first episode  and see how you feel, Only 8 episodes in this series but it is action packed . You will see what all the hype is about with this show.

Voltron: Legendary Defender:

VOLTRON IS BACK!!.. yea I said it Voltron is back, now growing up I rarely watched Voltron, I was born in the 90’s. So the only time I really watched Voltron, was after school when Thundercats, and He-Man would come on cartoon network, before  Ed, Edd, and Eddy would come on so I knew a little bit about the history of Voltron. But what made me want to watch Voltron was the trailer that came out a few months ago, and just the way the characters looked and everything I said to myself I’ll check it out when I have a chance. So this weekend I took a break from watching Once Upon a Time (great show by the way) and wanted to check out something else on Netflix, and what do you know it was Voltron.

For anyone who is semi new to Voltron like me; here’s a  brief run down Voltron is a legendary weapon used over thousands over years ago to protect the universe from the evil Galra empire, there are 5 lions which a different person operates to form the mega machine of which we see is Voltron. Each lion is capable of being a dangerous force on it’s own, but each one has a special purpose when formed into Voltron. Watching this show I did not know what to expect coming in, but I was thoroughly entertained watching this, there wasn’t a lot of forced comedy, but enough where when one of the characters did say something funny it was actually funny. But also made each character feel real in a since of if you were randomly chosen to pilot one of these  lions and form this legendary machine you wouldn’t know how to take it either.

We meet a very random selection of Teens/adults in this show. we first meet Shiro, one of my favorite characters, then there is Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Keith all who are the Paladins or Pilots of the different lions. Each character brings something different to the table, Lance is the comical relief, mixed with Hunk who loves food but is also the skeptical one, Pidge is the hacker, but also very suspicious member of the group, but very head strong, then there’s Keith the drop out but the proclaimed best fighter pilot there is among his class, then have Shiro even though his memory has been lost, his leadership skills, and combat skills are amazing. These 5 are chosen and awaken Coran and Princess Allura from a 10 thousand year sleep, when Commander Zendak is threatening the universe to find Voltron.

They did great with Voltron Legendary Defender only 11 episodes, but it has a great story, and really good fight scenes, and the shots are great. The end of the season made me upset the way  they ended it, but I just heard there will be a season 2 later on this year so this will be interesting to see what happens especially after the battle with Zendak.

Stranger things, and Voltron brought the 80’s back to Netflix, and these are two shows I am anticipating to see the second seasons once they roll around.