While it feels like it was just released, Stranger Things has been around for nearly a decade. The cast has grown up before our eyes, and somehow their aging makes us extremely aware of our own.

It’s a show that invested in world-building, and audiences quickly immerse themselves in it. It had all the ingredients studios dream of: multi-generational appeal, a potent sense of nostalgia, characters to fall in love with and root for, and a visual identity strong enough to launch a thousand Halloween costumes. 

The show was lived in as much as it was watched.