Stranger Things: Genre Hybridity, Post Modernism Essay

Stranger things is a long form TV drama that mixes different genres together creating a form of genre hybridity to attract a larger audience. 

But creating this genre hybridity risks alienating certain individuals by frustrating those who only like one certain genre, for example the horror fans wouldn’t like the coming of age romance between Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler and vice versa with those fans not liking the horror aspects such as the demogorgon.

Although most genres depicted, the main ones being; Sci-Fi, Coming Of Age, Mystery & Horror are subverted. For example, if we’re speaking on Sci-Fi, most Sci-Fi shows/movies are set in the future whereas Stranger Things is set in the past. Another key subversion would be Eleven’s character; she’s not the typical ‘alien’ character as she’s a human girl, she’s too normal for Sci-Fi but not normal enough for a Teen/Coming Of Age genre. Onto the topic of Teen/Coming Of Age we have subversions in this category too, this being that the primary focus is on the nerd characters (Mike, Dustin and Lucas) rather than the popular cool characters (Steve Harrington and his crew). In terms of Mystery we have the detective character, who are usually collected, organised and mature characters but Chief Hopper is the complete opposite, in his introduction scene he’s depicted as messy and undressed and then disregards his police duties by munching on a donut. But by the end of season one this character subverts himself and goes beyond the stereotype, he starts off as one character but then changes into another much more heroic character. The final genre is horror, the main convention of horrors would be the overuse of blood/guts/destruction but in Stranger Things we see barely any. Another convention would be the character types; Horrors usually feature adult characters but in Stranger Things our main protagonists are children. 

Many argue that Stranger Things is not really about the 1980s but more about films during that era. We see this done through intertextuality; many scenes in Stranger Things are references to many different 80s classics such as Stand By Me, Aliens, Gremlins, Carrie, Firestarter, The Thing, Close Encounters With The Third Kind and the list continues but the main two would be The Goonies & E.T. as not only are certain shots mimicked but character types and narratives are replicated as well. Eleven and Mike are heavily similar to Elliott and E.T. and their entire storyline is similar to E.T. The Goonies also feature children as their protagonist which is similar to Stranger Things. 

Many describe Stranger Things as a Hyper-real version of the 1980s. It’s not the real 1980s, but the 1980s based on 1980s films. Even within marketing, the poster for the show is a clear reference to the Star Wars poster. The show also hired actors who starred in popular movies from the 1980s such as Winona Ryder (Heathers, Beetlejuice), Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Vision Quest) and an actor who comes in much later (season 2 to be exact) Sean Astin (The Goonies). These specific actors are used to bring in the secondary audience; the older generation who actually grew up in the 1980s and watch Stranger Things for the sense of nostalgia. This Postmodern intertextuality can be used to create something new, even the misinterpretations can create something new.

The idea of implosion is the idea that distinctions have collapsed within themselves; it’s less about looking backwards and more about collapsing in. Distinctions that were important to modern society have disappeared: high & low culture, gender, and working class. These would be questioned around implosion. For example the character of Eleven would question the issue around gender, she dresses like a boy and doesn’t conform to female stereotypes. 

To conclude the impact of genre hybridity, postmodern intertextuality and implosion on Stranger Things is created to bring in a variety of audiences; the first being the modern day teenagers and the second being the older generation who watch for the nostalgia.