Streaming giant Netflix has proved its ability to churn out award-winning original series, producing hit shows such as Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and most recently, Stranger Things.
“I do like Stranger Things,” senior Bryce Tricas said. “I like how the topic goes against some of the regular things that we see on TV, like a lot of dramas in hospitals, like Grey’s Anatomy, or just random cop shows like NCIS.”
The sci-fi show has gained a massive viewership and online cult following. Although Stranger Things has resonated with viewers worldwide, for some people it resonates on a more local level as well. Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, the creators of the show, are native to Durham, North Carolina. The brothers leave Easter eggs about the Triangle area and allude to their own childhoods throughout both seasons of the show.
“What they will say is that they’re too lazy to think of an original name for a river or a lake or a street name, so they used street names that they remember from their time in Durham,” said Allen Duffer, the father of the Duffer brothers. “I think there may be some truth to that, but also their childhood was special to them, and Durham is special to them.”
Allusions in the show include staples of the area such as Jordan Lake, Eno River and Forest Hills Park, but according to Allen, there are many more references to teachers, neighbors and childhood friends of the boys.
“In addition to the locations that they reference that are related to Durham, some of the names of the characters in the show are people that are teachers or that they knew while growing up here,” Allen said. “If you remember, in the end scene of season one, where the boys are playing Dungeons and Dragons again, they bring up a character called King Tristan, and Tristan Smith was one of their friends growing up. They made all of their movies with him, so that’s a reference to him…. Dustin calls Mr. McCorkle when he’s looking for his cat in season two, and the McCorkles are our next-door neighbors, so that’s where that name comes from. I think they’re in a sense honoring friends and neighbors and places that were important to them growing up. But also, they’re just looking for names, and some of these names they like the sound of, so they use them for that reason as well. I think it’s sort of a combination of things.”
A large part of the show’s popularity is attributed to the nostalgia that the show provides, as it is set in the 1980s; however, parts of this are also based on the creators’ own childhoods, as they were born in 1984.
“So most summers, I’d say from about age 10 on, they, along with their friends in the neighborhood, would make a movie,” Allen said. “So they spent most summers preparing that movie and filming it in the neighborhood, and as a result of that, they ventured out, just like the kids in Stranger Things do…. Of course they never encountered any monsters or anything, but some of that’s reminiscent. I know one summer, one of their films involved a train and train tracks, and so those scenes in season one and season two, where the kids were walking down the train tracks, talking to each other, while it evokes some of the scenes of Stand by Me, it’s actually something that they did during the summertime while making a movie. So a lot of what they did during the summer, in terms of the movie making, hanging out with their buddies and playing and making films is very reminiscent of the relationship between particularly the four boys in the show.”
While according to IMDb.com, the Duffer Brothers’ show has amassed 29 awards and 118 nominations since the release of the first season in 2016, the broad success of the show has surprised many people involved.
“I always believed in their talent,” Allen said. “We supported them, and I always felt like they could do this, so I’m not surprised that they’re able to do this as a living and that they were successful at it, but I’m certainly surprised at the scale and the scope of the success. There are people in Hollywood who have been making movies their whole life and have never had a hit like this and are still successful and making good films. So the sort of acceptance of this show and the broad appeal of it surprised everyone. It surprised my sons, it surprised Netflix, it surprised all of the actors in the show. I mean they all liked it—they all knew they were making a good film—but I don’t think they recognized that it would connect with as many people as it has connected with, so it’s been pretty amazing from that standpoint.”
– By Chloe Maynard
