Stranger Things has one of the most iconic title sequences of recent memory. Thrumming synths. Grainy, jittery animation is reminiscent of an old videotape. Those glowing red letters. They’ve become just as evocative of the Netflix series as Eleven’s shaved head or Joyce Byers’s Christmas lights. To skip them – as the streaming service allows – is sacrilege.

That the titles employ the same font as classic Stephen King novels, the Choose Your Own Adventure books of the 80s, and various Star Trek movies is not a coincidence. As well as being a gripping, heartfelt, spooky sci-fi adventure and coming-of-age drama all rolled into one, Stranger Things has cemented itself as a love letter to all things geek.

Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 80s, the opening series introduces us to a group of young boys – Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Will (Noah Schnapp). They are geeks themselves, and diehard fans of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.

You probably know what happens next, but just in case: one night, Will goes missing without a trace and a strange, wordless girl with a shaved head and telekinetic powers shows up. Soon, they discover the Upside Down, a subterranean other-dimensional world full of monsters reminiscent of the ones the boys fight in their basement games of D&D.

When a gate between the Upside Down and Hawkins allows the murderous Demogorgon to travel between realms, its up to the gang and their new friend Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to save Will from its clutches and shut it off from the real world forever.

Sci-fi series tend to come and go (is anyone still watching Westworld? Remember The OA?), and they attract a niche crowd. Stranger Things is different. The words “Dungeons and Dragons” and “telekinetic powers” should have been enough to turn viewers away in their droves, but for some reason, they came. And then they stayed.