Season 1 of "Stranger Things" takes place in 1983. The story begins on November 6, 1983, when Will Byers disappears after leaving his friends’ Dungeons & Dragons game in Hawkins, Indiana.
That date anchors the season’s entire 1980s atmosphere: walkie-talkies, arcades, bicycles, cassette music, Cold War anxieties, and the series’ many references to earlier science-fiction and horror films. Eleven escapes from Hawkins National Laboratory around the same time, setting the supernatural plot in motion.
The year is sometimes confused with the show’s release date, 2016, or with the settings of later seasons. Season 2 moves into 1984, Season 3 into 1985, and Season 4 into 1986. Season 1’s events unfold over roughly a week, concluding around the Christmas period, although its final scenes also tease what comes next for Will and the Upside Down.