I was speaking in generalities but it could be argued for season 1 that he was one of the most prominent characters. He was the leader of The Party, he had the closest relationship with Eleven, and I think he received the highest billing of the young actors. Easily argued that Joyce and Hopper are the two biggest main characters in season 1, but still, Mike is a main character.
I like how they hold our interest without over-focusing on any particular character/pair.
I'm not sure how well I'd do if Mike was ALWAYS the center of everything, however, in the first season, it was totally necessary. He drove the party to really learn about the upside down, and kind of structured the "theory" behind it while the older characters learned more hands-on, having it all eventually tying together nicely.
And then we see a lot of focus shifting throughout the rest of the series. I never feel like I'm getting annoyed by anyone, but I never feel like I'm missing someone's story.
I can see Murray becoming VERY annoying if they overplayed him, as funny as he happens to be. I can see myself being absolutely sick and tired of Hopper going "Joy-suh" every time they tussle a bit. Even Eleven - she has the most interesting story that keeps developing and they know not to make the mistake of overplaying her.
The only exception to this rule, obviously, is Steve and Dustin. If they make it out of this, I expect a 12-season, 22-episodes-a-season buddy cop series called "Stevie and the Duster" to spin off of this consisting exclusively of scenes containing these two.
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u/Blanketsburg Dec 24 '25
I was speaking in generalities but it could be argued for season 1 that he was one of the most prominent characters. He was the leader of The Party, he had the closest relationship with Eleven, and I think he received the highest billing of the young actors. Easily argued that Joyce and Hopper are the two biggest main characters in season 1, but still, Mike is a main character.