Just finished it, and it's amazing. I didn't grow up in the 80's, but I grew up on 80's popcorn cinema, and this is a greatest hits of that aesthetic. It's very reverent of that era in cinema, but it doesn't feel overbearing or hamfisted like some other films/shows that go for the same thing. The best way to describe it is super 8 with a soul/character. It doesn't feel like it was made by people doing a Spielberg paint by numbers, but by people who actually understand what makes that era of film great. It's the perfect combination of weird and whimsical. So yeah, I really loved it.
With that said, it did have a few short comings. The main thing is the bad monster CGI. They should have taken a page out of the Jaws playbook and not show the monster so much; put the monster budget towards the final climactic confrontation, instead of peppering the whole series with something lackluster. They also use CGI in some weird places where practical effects would have been much better (the "portals"/monster goop). I'm also afraid of where it goes from here. Season 1 worked so well as this self contained thing, but then they leave a few bread crumbs right at the end indicating a direct continuation for season 2. I can only see bad things happening if they do that. It would work much better as an anthology series ala American Horror Story.
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