Stranger Things won’t win me many fans, mainly because I’m currently battling PTSD from watching it. There are a few things that for me make a TV show addictive. Stephen King’s Misery is one of the most brilliant horror books ever, and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks did that thing of subtly signalling everything you thought you knew, and then having time travel happen, and leaving you having to weigh up if it was worth getting your head around the strangeness.
It’s also possible that the ambition of a show is a key reason why it sticks in your mind. In my opinion, Game of Thrones is one of the best – if not the best – TV show of all time. But because it’s also incredibly grim, well, it hasn’t quite made it to a cult status where most people would care. I’m trying to say it’s almost impossible for me to get swept away by a show when I’m enthralled by what that show is trying to do, but love for it is on a whole other level.
Breaking Bad made Breaking Bad. Its 11.3 million first episode viewers were larger than any of the six seasons of True Detective, and the average number of viewers overall after its five-year run was eight million. I’m not saying Breaking Bad had as much to do with people’s decision to watch television over a six-hour break of researching zombie organisations for a day, but if you look at those figures, it’s fair to assume there’s not much crossover in the formula.
A lot of sci-fi films have tackled real world issues. The Abyss is a decent example, its monsters strolling into alien environments that only rarely out-exist something perfectly capable of surviving without fear – and rightly so. Critters 2: Guest Shark attacked real world panic issues with a characteristic wit and empathy. The Abyss. Critters 2: Guest Shark. The Abyss 2. Critters 3. Critters 4. Critters 5. Critters 6. Critters 7. Critters 8. Critters 9. Critters 10. Critters 11. Critters 12. Critters 13. Critters 14. Critters 15. Critters 16. Critters 17. Critters 18. Critters 19. Critters 20. Critters 21. Critters 22. Critters 23. Critters 24. Critters 25. Critters 26. Critters 27. Critters 28. Critters 29. Critters 30. Critters 31. Critters 32. Critters 33. Critters 34. Critters 35. Critters 36. Critters 37. Critters 38. Critters 39. Critters 40. Critters 41. Critters 42. Critters 43. Critters 44. Critters 45. Critters 46. Critters 47. Critters 48. Critters 49. Critters 50. Critters 51. Critters 52. Critters 53. Critters 54. Critters 55. Critters 56. Critters 57. Critters 58. Critters 59. Critters 60. Critters 61. Critters 62. Critters 63. Critters 64. Critters 65. Critters 66. Critters 67. Critters 68. Critters 69. Critters 70. Critters 71. Critters 72. Critters 73. Critters 74. Critters 75. Critters 76. Critters 77. Critters 78. Critters 79. Critters 80. Critters 81. Critters 82. Critters 83. Critters 84. Critters 85. Critters 86. Critters 87. Critters 88. Critters 89. Critters 90. Critters 91. Critters 92. Critters 93. Critters 94. Critters 95. Critters 96. Critters 97. Critters 98. Critters 99. Critters 100. Critters 101. Critters 102. Critters 103. Critters 104. Critters 105. Critters 106. Critters 107. Critters 108. Critters 109. Critters 110. Critters 111. Critters 112. Critters 113. Critters 114. Critters 115. Critters 116. Critters 117. Critters 118. Critters 119. Critters 120. Critters 121. Critters 122. Critters 123. Critters 124. Critters 125. Critters 126. Critters 127. Critters 128. Critters 129. Critters 130. Critters 131. Critters 132. Critters 133. Critters 134. Critters 135. Critters 136. Critters 137. Critters 138. Critters 139. Critters 140. Critters 141. Critters 142. Crit