It’s a shame because I really loved “Stranger Things: Season 1”, but unfortunately, Netflix didn’t give 4K UHD consumers the release they should’ve gotten.
TITLE: Stranger Things: Season 1 Collector’s Edition
TV AIRDATE: 2016
DURATION: 8 Episodes (480 Minutes)
4K INFORMATION: 2160p 4K Ultra High Definition, 2:00:1 aspect ratio, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio / The Blu-ray is 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and English 5.1 Descriptive Audio
COMPANY: Netflix
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE: November 14, 2017
Directed by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Shaw Levy
Written by Mat Duffer, Ross Duffer, Paul Dichter, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Justin Doble, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
Producer: Justin Doble, Rand Geiger
Co-Producer: Alison Tatlock
Executive Producer: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Karl Gajdusek, Brian Wright, Cindy Holland, Matthew Thunell, Iain Paterson
Co-Executive Producer: Jessica Mecklenburg, Curtis Gwinn
Music by Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein
Cinematography by Tim Ives, Tod Campbell
Edited by Kevin D. Ross, Dean Zimmerman
Casting by Carmen Cuba
Production Design by Chris Trujillo
Art Direction by William G. Davis
Set Decoration by Jess Royal
Costume Design by Malgosia Turzanska, Kimberly Adams-Galligan
Starring:
Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers
David Harbour as Jim Hopper
Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven
Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler
Joe Keery as Steve Harrington
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers
Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield
Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove
Joe Chrest as Ted Wheeler
Matthew Modine as Dr. Martin Brenner
Randy Havens as Mr. Clarke
John Reynolds as Officer Callahan
Tinsley Price as Holly Wheeler
Hop on your bike, grab some waffles and get ready to save Will and Barb with the Stranger Things Season 1 Collector’s Edition: Blu – Ray / 4K Disc / Poster. The ‘80s are alive and well in this special edition of your favorite binge-worthy show, coming in a VHS-style box containing a Blu-ray Disc and 4K Disc. Whether you want to enjoy one episode at a time or you’re ready to finish them all in one sitting, this Stranger Things box set will have you ready to take a trip to the Upside Down. Stranger Things Season 1 has been one of the biggest breakout shows in recent memory. When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.
In 2016, “Stranger Things” made its debut on Netflix.
The sc-fi drama series created by Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer has received critical acclaim winning a Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series” and also receiving 19 nominations for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series.
With a third season being planned and the Duffer Brothers having said that they plan to end the storyline after its fourth or fifth season, “Stranger Things” has no doubt attracted audiences thanks to its homage to 1980s genre films, pop culture and more.
The series stars Winona Ryder (“Little Women”, “Girl, Interrupted”, “Edward Scissorhands”), David Harbour (“Revolutionary Road”, “Suicide Squad”, “The Green Hornet”), Finn Wolfhard (“It”, “Carmen Sandiego”), Millie Bobby Brown (“NCIS”, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”, “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland”), Gaten Matarazzo (“Blacklist”), Caleb McLaughlin (“The New Edition Story”), Natalia Dyer (“Blue Like Jazz”, “I Believe in Unicorns”, “Hanna Montana: The Movie”), Charlie Heaton (“The New Mutants”, “The Secret of Morrowbone”), Cara Buono (“The Sopranos”, “Mad Men”), Joe Keery (“Molly’s Game”, “Slice”), Noah Schnapp (“Bridge of Spies”, “The Peanuts Movie”) and Matthew Modine (“Full Metal Jacket”, “The Dark Knight Rises”, Vision Quest”).
The series was released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray and Blu-ray + DVD courtesy of Netflix.
The series is set during the early ’80s in Hawkins, Indiana.
Will Byers (portrayed by Noah Schnapp) is a young man who likes hanging out with his best friends Mike Wheeler (portrayed by Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (portrayed by Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas Sinclair (portrayed by Caleb McLaughlin) and together they enjoy a game of tabletop RPG.
Will’s mother Joyce (portrayed by Winona Ryder) is a single mother trying to raise the children on her own, so she is busy working and her oldest son Jonathan (portrayed by Charlie Heaton) is also trying to work to help the family. Jonathan is a person who is anti-social but loves music and photography. He is also attracted to Mike’s older sister, Nancy.
As Will is returning home, something out of the woods tries to abduct Will. Will gets knocked off his bike and when he runs home and tries to get the shotgun, unfortunately he is abducted.
Meanwhile, at the nearby Hawkins National Laboratory, a young girl (portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown) with a shaved head escapes. As the girl manages to escape to a local burger joint, the owner tries to help her and finds out that she goes by the name “Eleven” (a mark that is on the skin of her arm). While the business owner calls protective services to help, it turns out the government agents are bad, killing the business owner and trying to capture Eleven.
As Joyce goes to report a child missing to the town’s police chief, Jim Hopper, Jim has a hard time believing anything bad can happen in Hawkins.
Meanwhile, Mike, Dustin and Lucas go to find Will and instead find Eleven. As Mike takes her into her home, they all find out that Eleven is a girl blessed with special psychokinetic abilities.
Also, Mike’s sister Nancy Wheeler (portrayed by Natalia Dyer) is an intelligent teen who is being pursued by the bad boy in school, Steve Harrington (portrayed by Joe Keery), who wants Nancy to be her boyfriend. Nancy’s best friend Barbara Holland (portrayed by Shannon Purser) is not happy that her best friend is hooking up with a bad boy and when Nancy gets invited to a pool party at Steve’s home, Nancy goes with her.
But after a night of drinking and Nancy going upstairs with Steve for alone time, Jonathan who is taking pictures of the area, takes photos of Nancy and friends at the pool party. He doesn’t realize that a photo he took of Barbara alone shows a monster above her.
As Joyce tries to look for her son, she realizes that Will is trying to communicate with her through the house. Joyce starts putting up Christmas lights in the home for her son to communicate with her but starts to realize he is in danger when a monster starts coming out of the walls of her home.
As for Eleven and Mike’s friends, Mike wants to use Eleven’s powers to find Will but her involvement is causing friction between Mike and Lucas, who doesn’t trust her at all.
As police chief Jim Hopper investigates, he seems that things are amiss when the Indiana State Trooper starts to get involved in the case and realizes that all things point to the Hawkins National Laboratory. What is going inside there?
And most of all, can they rescue Will?
VIDEO:
“Stranger Things: Season 1 Collector’s Edition” is presented in 4K Ultra High Definition ala 2160p 4K Ultra High Definition (2:00:1 aspect ratio).
The original show was shot in Redcode RAW codec 6K using RED Epic Dragon Cameras, but Netflix chose to not present the series in HDR.
So, Netflix pretty much skimped on the 4K Ultra HD release, not presenting it in the best quality as possible and while it does look slightly better than its Blu-ray counterpart, not by much. But if you thought that Netflix skimped on the video, they also skimped on the audio as well.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW: To watch 4K Ultra HD, you will need a 4K UHD TV with HDR and an Ultra HD Blu-ray Player + a high-speed HDMI (Category 2) Cable.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Stranger Things: Season 1 Collector’s Edition” and its audio is probably the main thing that will surprise those who were considering to purchase the 4K Ultra HD over the Blu-ray + DVD version (which is $5 less). What is surprising is that while the Blu-ray is given an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless audio soundtrack and an English 5.1 descriptive audio track. The 4K UltraHD version is just given a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Below the quality of the Blu-ray release.
Part of the reason is that Netflix chose to have the series on two Blu-ray discs (four episodes each). Possibly for cost-saving reasons and packaging reasons, not wanting to create a third or fourth disc with a lossless soundtrack, they chose Dolby Digital 5.1. So, this a rare situation in which the included Blu-ray release has a better soundtrack than it’s 4K Ultra HD counterpart. It’s not suppose to be this way, but it’s what Netflix decided.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Stranger Things: Season 1 Collector’s Edition” comes with no special features.
EXTRAS:
“Stranger Things: Season 1 Collector’s Edition” comes with a poster and special VHS packaging to hold two Blu-rays and two 4K Ultra HD discs.
It has been a long while where I watched a series from beginning to end during a weekend because I enjoyed it so much.
In some ways, the series manages to combine the ’80s teen adventure of “The Goonies”, the government chasing the teens of “E.T”, the us vs. the monsters style of “Monster Squad” and “The Lost Boys” and child/parent communication of “Poltergeist”, the “Uncanny X-Men” references and the homage to the ’80s in this series was fantastic.
But it’s the engrossing storyline that keeps you glued to the series.
You literally have four storylines that later converge.
The first storyline revolves around mother trying to find her son, not believing anyone who thinks that her son is dead and manages to communicate with him through Christmas lights.
The second storyline revolves around Will’s friends: Mike, Lucas and Dustin who discover a scared girl named Eleven who has special abilities. The children’s storylines are my favorites as these kids are often bullied, but through Eleven, they believe their friend is alive and are trying to save him, without going to the adults. Of course, when the government knows they are harboring Eleven, they realize their life is in danger.
The third storyline revolves around Nancy and Jonathan. Nancy’s storyline starts out slow as she is an intelligent teen who goes for the bad boy in school, Steve Harrington. And while she starts to become rebellious in order to see Steve, in the process, her best friend Barb is abducted. And the only person who may have proof that a monster abducted her is Jonathan, who is out trying to find his brother in the woods but manages to take a photo in a stalker-like fashion of Nancy and friends out partying at Steve’s pool. But also getting a photo of Barb before she is abducted by a monster. And with Jonathan seeing his mother’s craziness at home of trying to communicate with Will and Nancy seeing a monster with no face, what happens when these two teens team up to find out who is responsible for Will and Barb’s disappearance?
The fourth storyline revolves around police chief Jim Hopper. While his fellow police are not used to seeing much crime in Hawkins, Indiana, the case starts to become important for Jim as he lost his daughter (which we learn how towards the end of the series) but it’s a drive that makes him want to find Will. But it all becomes real when he tries to investigate the nearby Hawkins National Laboratory.
And when these four storylines converge, that’s when the series grows even more exciting, considering it was already captivating beforehand.
In essence, this series is wonderfully written and performed. And I can see why “Stranger Things” was nominated for so many awards and why it has received critical acclaim.
And while I give the series 5 stars, I can’t say the same for the “Stranger Things: Season 1 Collector’s Edition” on 4K UHD/Blu-ray.
Perhaps for the first time in a 4K Ultra HD release, we have a release that is not as good as it’s Blu-ray counterpart. Not only does Netflix choose to release “Stranger Things” without HDR, they chose to release it with in Dolby Digital 5.1 unlike the Blu-ray which has a lossless DolbyTrue HD 5.1 soundtrack. And as for special features, there are none.
So, while it’s tempting to go for the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray version because it’s $5 more than the Blu-ray/DVD version, you’re not missing much and that’s unfortunate. So, if you are on the fence of trying to decide which version to get and you want to save $5, then go for the Blu-ray/DVD version.
Otherwise, for $20 for 8-episodes, I still found it a great price for a 4K Ultra HD release. But it just comes up short when it comes to a 4K Ultra HD release and for us reviewers, it’s not all about the story, it’s about the whole package.
And it’s a shame because I really loved “Stranger Things: Season 1”, but unfortunately, Netflix didn’t give 4K UHD consumer the release they should’ve gotten.