I didn't care for it. It started off interesting, but, by the time it was over, I wondered what the hype was all about.

Kinda agree, I mean I really liked it but I don't get why people talked about it like it was indeed a masterpiece; However I have to say the soundtrack, the edition and the acting were super great! Left me excited for the next season tho.

@Renovatio said:

I liked the show... in particular the first episode or two... however, people were talking about it as if it was some kind of masterpiece... It's not...

It quickly devolves into a kid's adventure movie, becoming increasingly less eerie or creepy as more and more is explained... I suppose it's partly the TV format which leads to the constant need to explain and convey information...

It's still miles ahead of most TV, but it doesn't measure up to most decent horror movies...

Do you guys think it's overrated? Was it over-hyped? Am I being too harsh?

I get why people enjoy the show, but people are definitely overhyping it as if the show is the Second Coming. The plot and characters are way too simple for this show to be considered as phenomenal as people make it out to be. I watched each episode expecting for some sort of extraordinary change that would take the show from being an entertaining hour of Tv to the extreme brilliance people proclaimed it as. Never happened. Half way through I was like "Really?" "This is what's blowing people away?"

I think critics have a tendency to overrate things that are heavily self-referential and cross-referential. Most of the commentary on this show focuses on its nods to '80s Spielberg and Stephen King. My reaction to this is: so what? Sure it's enjoyable, but what does this really have to say that's in any way relevant to today? And what is the appeal to people who aren't already confirmed movie geeks? I was hoping there'd be some kind of twist or new angle, but all I got out of it was nostalgia (and being both a movie geek and a child of the '80s, it was effective for me on that level, but it didn't seem to reach any further). Sometimes what is called a clever homage is just a way of trying to sell what is in fact simply derivative.

@Renovatio said:

I liked the show... in particular the first episode or two... however, people were talking about it as if it was some kind of masterpiece... It's not...

This seems to happen with TV shows that are niche. See also The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy. People watch the former because of zombies and the latter because of bikers.

Try suggesting to Sons of Anarchy fans to watch The Shield, an earlier show from the same creators which does the same sort of things but a million times better and they'll just stare at you blankly.

I do enjoy Stranger Things and Walking Dead, but people do blow them out of all proportion to the extent that they ignore all their flaws. How many episodes of WD do we get where they're just strolling through the woods doing nothing?

Yeah, I agree with you about it being overrated although I gave it a 9 (partly because of 'enjoyment factor' and marathoning through the first season, not because I'm a movie geek)... but it is not a masterpiece and I could see why someone might not think much of it.

Reminds me of the book 'Ready Player One' which I didn't like at all, but people loved so much due to nostalgia. Makes them blind to story and character problems.

All Netflix shows are inflated by at least half a star, usually one star. It's really annoying seeing something legitimately great like Legion have the same score as something that's just really good like Daredevil.

Calling it overrated is accurate, it was pretty good but nothing spectacular.

I'd rate it 7.5 personally.

@ubuzen said:

All Netflix shows are inflated by at least half a star, usually one star. It's really annoying seeing something legitimately great like Legion have the same score as something that's just really good like Daredevil.

All of this. IFC and foreign shows/movies also get a rating bump.

I've just watched the first episode of the second season... no... it's still overrated... still relies too heavily on nostalgia and sentimentality... if anything it's even more overhyped... It was a slog to get through one episode...

Too nostalgic, too fax of a photocopy of a sketch... too sentimental... too much of a kids show... and it looked way too digital for my tastes, which is surprising given how slavish they are to all things 80s... Perhaps it is a Netflix restriction...

I felt nothing... Nothing funny, nothing scary, nothing sad, nothing suspensful... yes, I did get a sense that there are things to come, but only the very TV show way of we're-going-to-hold-the-good-moments-back-so-you-watch...

This seems like a show for committed fans of the first season... I won't be watching any more of this... I'd rather watch some actual 80s movies instead...

Yeah, the first season started out with promise but quickly devolved into a fairly middling affair with way too many "hey I remember that from the 80's" moments, and season two is even worse. Way too overhyped and undeservedly so. Sticking with the far superior Channel Zero instead.

@Renovatio said:

I liked the show... in particular the first episode or two... however, people were talking about it as if it was some kind of masterpiece... It's not...

It quickly devolves into a kid's adventure movie, becoming increasingly less eerie or creepy as more and more is explained... I suppose it's partly the TV format which leads to the constant need to explain and convey information...

It's still miles ahead of most TV, but it doesn't measure up to most decent horror movies...

Do you guys think it's overrated? Was it over-hyped? Am I being too harsh?

Never heard of it until a week or so ago when I saw a clip of "Eleven" rapping on The Tonight Show. I guess I had heard of it once before, I remember that Stephen Colbert referenced it once but I didn't get around to looking up what he was talking about.

@Renovatio said:

I liked the show... in particular the first episode or two... however, people were talking about it as if it was some kind of masterpiece... It's not...

It quickly devolves into a kid's adventure movie, becoming increasingly less eerie or creepy as more and more is explained... I suppose it's partly the TV format which leads to the constant need to explain and convey information...

It's still miles ahead of most TV, but it doesn't measure up to most decent horror movies...

Do you guys think it's overrated? Was it over-hyped? Am I being too harsh?

Yeah it is overrated and it was way over-hyped.