If you haven’t already garbled down Netflix’s new original Stranger Things, you should before school starts. Everyone in your classes will be talking about it. Created by the Duffer brothers, Stranger Things is set in 1983 in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana and follows the supernatural disappearance of a young boy. There’s also telekinesis, government conspiracies, and a monster that lives in the woods.

Stranger Things is beyond fun. Despite its monsters, the Duffer brothers created a world so rich and populated with characters that you will want to live in it for years. And while the show has its flaws, particularly in its finale, these flaws don’t detract from the incredibly enjoyable experience that is the show’s first season.

The world of Stranger Things is elaborate and immersive – a mix of detailed 80’s nostalgia, science fiction, suspense, and an abundance of Christmas lights. It is endearing and engaging, inviting viewers to let the experience wash over them as they quickly begin to question the odd occurrences happening in Hawkins.

A few weeks ago I had brunch with my favorite high school teacher who could not stop talking about how fascinated she was by this show – and that seems to be the general response: fascination. But what drew her in above all else was the doses of nostalgia being served by the bucket-load. Beyond the obvious music and Star Wars references the kids play outside on their bikes, dream up zany scenarios, are avid members of the AV club and live in the slight shadow of Vietnam.

Hawkins is so vividly rendered that it allows the show to continually create a unique mixture of suspense and humor that keeps audiences arrested as the plot carefully unfolds. Equal parts eerie and enamoring, it becomes impossible to tear yourself away.

The plot is not entirely unfamiliar – perhaps this decade’s take on Twin Peaks or The X-Files – but the charming characters that inhabit this world make it feel remarkably new. The people of Hawkins are distinct, loveable, and feel genuine. Whether it’s the kids searching for their friend, the teens hunting for monsters, the single mother searching for her son, the hardboiled cop with a dark past, or the little

girl with the shaved head and super powers; every viewer will fall in love with at least one (if not every) character they encounter.

Each character undergoes a keen sense of loss, uniting them to search for the missing boy and the greater truth hiding in the woods, and with this loss the characters are bound to each other, and us to them.

But, this show does have flaws.

To start, the show needs more than one person of color and more than five women. In such a large ensemble show on Netflix in 2016, this is unacceptable and should have been remedied before production ever started.

Additionally, the acting is in many roles fairly weak. While Winona Ryder’s stardom was used to sell most of the show, this is by far one of her weakest performances and feels indistinguishable from her more familiar material. The child actors contribute some of the strongest performances, even with heavier subject matter.

Stranger Things’ fatal flaw is that there is almost no resolution for any of the millions of storylines introduced in its brief first season, and this lack of resolution only feels more pressing as weeks pass without news of whether or not the show will get a second season. While the most dire question is answered (the fate of the missing boy), we don’t really know what’s happening in Hawkins.

We live in this artfully crafted universe, but we know very little about its mechanics. When the end of episode eight rolls around, there is no sense of closure, no sense of resolution, only my dad turning to my mom and shouting “That’s it? That’s all there is?” The final scenes are perplexing and out of character for the show’s protagonists and leaves, more than anything, an undeniable sense of frustration.

Stranger Things is great, until it’s over.

And while the show even acknowledges these faults in one of its final scenes as the kids play Dungeons and Dragons – it still doesn’t undo the fact that so much is left open. I fully believe the Duffer brothers

can resolve all of their story lines and answer all of our questions, the fact of the matter is they may not have the opportunity to do so, and to a degree is disrespectful to an audience that has patiently endured eight hours of suspense and wondering to provide absolutely no resolution. We deserve to know. Not everything, but at least something. They have certainly left room for season 2, but perhaps too much room. If we get a season 2, I fear attempts to resolve all of these questions and expand the story will be messy, hasty, and disappointing.

Despite its finale’s flaws, Stranger Things is one of Netflix’s finest – engaging, mystifying, endearing, and above all spooky. If I hadn’t already decided on my Halloween costume for this year, it would come from this show. Maybe next year.

Stranger Things is available on Netflix now.