Stranger Things (2016)
It only gets stranger...
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.
| Type | TV series |
|---|---|
| First aired | 15 July 2016 |
| Status | Ended, last episode 31 December 2025 |
| Genre | Action & Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
| Created by | Ross Duffer and Matt Duffer |
| Starring | Winona Ryder, David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown |
| Seasons | 5 seasons, 42 episodes |
| Episode length | about 51 min |
| Time to watch it all | about 36 hours |
| Rated | TV-14 |
| Scores | TMDB users 8.6/10 |
Where to watch Stranger Things
Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix ($17.99 a month) in the US. At ten hours a week, all of the series takes about 1 month of Netflix, or $17.99 at list price.
We check availability daily. Page last updated 30 September 2026. Prices are standard monthly plans and change often, so check with the service before you sign up.
What kind of watch this is
Stranger Things is a 2016 sci-fi mystery that trades in small-town secrets and supernatural weirdness. The Duffer Brothers built a world where the monsters are literal and the friendships are the real magic. With 5 seasons and 42 episodes, the full run clocks in at 36 hours. That is a significant block of time to spend in Hawkins. It rewards viewers who enjoy when the rules of reality start to bend.
What the critics said
Rotten Tomatoes holds the series at 90% across 658 reviews, while Metacritic scores it 74. The first season alone hit 97%, with an average of 8.2/10. Critics leaned hard into the nostalgia. The New York Times linked the show to Stand by Me, citing a moment where "everything seemed tantalizingly, scarily new." That is a fair read. Later seasons dipped slightly, landing between 82% and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus remained generally favorable. Nostalgia does heavy lifting here, but the characters do the work.
How it did with audiences
TMDB users give the first season an 8.6. Netflix didn't release subscriber counts then, so Symphony Technology Group used phone audio detection to estimate viewership. That method placed the show at roughly 14.07 million adults aged 18 to 49 in its first 35 days. It ranked third among Netflix originals at the time, behind Fuller House and Orange Is the New Black. The network later noted that 70% of viewers who watched episode 2 finished the season. By season 3, 64 million households tuned in during the first month. A dry metric for a loud show.
What came next for the cast
Winona Ryder spent the decade before 2016 in a holding pattern, her last major roles anchored by Edward Scissorhands and Black Swan. She returned with Destination Wedding and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. David Harbour moved from War of the Worlds and The Equalizer to a steady diet of action, including Extraction and Black Widow. The credits list what followed. They do not prove the show caused it.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Stranger Things.
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Sources
- Stranger Things on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q19798734 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Stranger Things” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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