The STRANGER THINGS filmmakers, Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer are twins born in 1984. Reagan was President. But are they identical? Is their mind one in the same? Ross explained to Vulture.com, “Back when we were born, they didn’t do those tests and we just looked so similar that everyone assumed we were identical. But we don’t actually have confirmation, and we’re too freaked out to get a test now because finding out that we’re not identical could really screw us up psychologically.”

On one hand Slate describes STRANGER THINGS as “an homage to and pastiche of all things Spielberg — and a bulwark against a time when Netflix no longer has streaming rights to E.T. Created by the Duffer brothers, STRANGER THINGS pays respect not just to Spielberg but to Star Wars, ’80s horror films, and Dungeons & Dragons,” and on the other hand Slate describes STRANGER THINGS “as a little empty, a paean to the Duffer brothers’ own youth masquerading as a compliment to a master.” I find their tributes to the masters of VHS to be quite filling.

The original Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977. Jimmy Carter was President, and George Lucas was — according to IMDB — “so sure the film would flop that instead of attending the premiere, he went on holiday to Hawaii with his good friend Steven Spielberg, where they came up with the idea for Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It totaled $775 million, surpassing Jaws to become the highest-grossing film of all time, until the release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Eleven, like E.T., is bald and hidden in the room of a brave child for the first third of the movie. Wikipedia summarizes the rise of 1980s horror films as, “Creativity from 1970s horror films extended throughout the 1980s, except having more gore, with many successful 1980s horror films having numerous sequels as their murderers were themselves unstoppable.” So that’s a fact. I am currently fact checking Slate if you haven’t noticed. The streaming generation has transformed sequels into series’ and yet again we have a seemingly unstoppable demogorgon. Dungeons and Dragons was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Inc., and this entire series just may be people acting out a few turns of the game. With that said, let’s meet the players.

Characters in order of likability, headlined by one scene that explains why:

1. Eleven. ‘Nuff Said.