I tend to refer to this as a Mixtape versus Remix spectrum distinction. A Mixtape plays the "hits" in about their original form, just in a new order. A Remix might sample the hits, but adds in new original content and takes it in a new direction.
Personally, I bounced out of Stranger Things S1 pretty hard because it seemed far too much like a Mixtape and not enough like a Remix than I wanted. The part that hit me was a feeling that entire monologues were lifted from the originals nearly verbatim with maybe a couple Proper Nouns swapped Mad Libs style. That can be incredibly fun (one that worked for me: William Shakespeare's Terminator the Second, was a creative mixtape of Shakespeare dialog reordered to retell Terminator 2), but at least for Stranger Things I kept having too many moments pulling me out of the story with "I've heard this before" because of the worse follow up feelings of "I'd just rather watch the originals, because they did it better" or "This isn't really adding much new or original to this moment".
But I realize there are a lot of opinions in the Mixtape versus Remix spectrum and also a lot of opinions on where something like Stranger Things falls. If it feels more like a Remix to you, that doesn't necessarily change that I found it too much like a Mixtape. (And vice versa, just because I find it too much of a Mixtape doesn't mean that I missed things that others felt made it a useful Remix, just that maybe my opinions on Mixtapes are stronger.)
Personally, I bounced out of Stranger Things S1 pretty hard because it seemed far too much like a Mixtape and not enough like a Remix than I wanted. The part that hit me was a feeling that entire monologues were lifted from the originals nearly verbatim with maybe a couple Proper Nouns swapped Mad Libs style. That can be incredibly fun (one that worked for me: William Shakespeare's Terminator the Second, was a creative mixtape of Shakespeare dialog reordered to retell Terminator 2), but at least for Stranger Things I kept having too many moments pulling me out of the story with "I've heard this before" because of the worse follow up feelings of "I'd just rather watch the originals, because they did it better" or "This isn't really adding much new or original to this moment".
But I realize there are a lot of opinions in the Mixtape versus Remix spectrum and also a lot of opinions on where something like Stranger Things falls. If it feels more like a Remix to you, that doesn't necessarily change that I found it too much like a Mixtape. (And vice versa, just because I find it too much of a Mixtape doesn't mean that I missed things that others felt made it a useful Remix, just that maybe my opinions on Mixtapes are stronger.)