Season One

The wait is over, Stranger Things Two Is officially out, as of October 27th. The first season came out with a bang, and left viewers with high expectations for the second season. The show was well liked by many people, and it left them craving for the second season.

Although season one of Stranger Things was exceptional, it aired quite some time ago, and may be foggy in some people’s minds. The show starts in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana in the early 80’s. A group of boys, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will, enjoy a long awaited game of Dungeons and Dragons, but that cannot last forever. The boys are sent home, however Will Byers does not make it home. He was abducted without a trace by the infamous Demogorgon, a mythical monster that can switch between an alternate dimension, “the upside down”, and the real world. This leaves the boys bewildered when they hear the news, yet they are ready to take on whatever life will throw at them, in order to get their friend back.

Soon after Will’s strange disappearance, A young, mysterious girl is found at a local diner. This girl is Eleven. She appeared to need help, so the owner fed her and called social services. This was a major mistake. It led to the owner’s death, when people came pretending to be social workers and they shot him, hoping to get Eleven. However, she was able to escape.

The sheriff, Jim Hopper, is charged with finding William Byers. He conducts search parties, but Will is nowhere to be found. Will’s good friends are growing anxious, and decide to search for Will themselves. This journey takes them to Eleven. They are skeptical of her at first, but they take her to Mike’s house. They learn that she needs a place to stay at. The boys decide it is best for her to stay at Mike’s house. Eleven tells the boys about the people that are looking for her, and Mike feels it is necessary to tell his parents, although Eleven has other thoughts. As Mike goes to tell his parents, Eleven uses telekinesis to shut the door, stopping him from telling his parents, and leaving the boys in awe.

Will’s mother, Joyce, is getting pushed to the edge, she needs her son. She gets a phone call from someone that she believes to be her son. Then she starts to believe that Will is trying to communicate with her through various electronics throughout the house.

In the midst of all this, Mike’s sister, Nancy, heads to a party with her friend, Barb, and Boyfriend, Steve. Barb gets frustrated with her friends, and decides to leave, not to be seen again. Little did the partygoers know, Will’s older brother, Jonathan, was searching for Will and stumbled across the party after hearing a scream. He ended up taking pictures while hidden in the woods. Jonathan was the last person to see Barb.

The situation in the Byers home has hope when Joyce realizes that she can communicate with Will through lights that she set up in an ouija board fashion. However, she starts to doubt this after Will’s body is thought to have been found.

The Sheriff decides to look into a nearby lab to see if the security footage had anything with Will in it. The tapes show that Will was not there. However, he soon finds out that the tapes were fake.

As the season continues, the viewer learns more about Eleven. Her father was a doctor at the lab, and they did numerous tests on her, working on telekinesis. She also found a way to communicate with Will with a walkie talkie, but need a stronger signal, so they go to the school, hoping to use their equipment. Although it was brief communication, the boys decide Will is trapped in “the upside down”.

Nancy and Jonathan end up working together to find Barb and Will. They search the woods together, and find a way into “the upside down”, also finding the demogorgon, which attacks Nancy. She manages to escape.

Now the government is involved with finding Eleven, and start questioning the Byers and Mike’s family. However, they avoid all questions and deny all responsibility for Eleven. Everyone escapes away to the school, where they have prepared an area for Eleven’s powers to be at its maximum potential. She enters “the upside down” and finds that Barb is dead, and Will is getting close to death.

Feeling helpless, Joyce goes to the lab with Jim, in order to go into “the upside down”. However, Jim has to give away Eleven’s location to be let in. The government agents go to the school, but Eleven uses her powers to kill most of them. Jim finds Will nearly dead, and gives him CPR, giving him some life. At the school, the demogorgon shows up and attacks everyone there. Eleven is able to destroy it, with the consequence of her disappearing.

Everyone is grateful to have Will back, and reunited with his family.

Season Two

Like the first season, Stranger Things 2 opens on a shot of a starry night. And the similarities don’t end there. From the riveting mystery to the delightfully ‘80s score, the second season of Netflix’s hit show retains much of what made it so popular.

Excellent direction and cinematography are still very present, as well as solid performances all around—especially from Winona Ryder and David Harbour. And, of course, the ‘80s setting was very fun to revisit.

Season 2 even surpasses the first in a few aspects. Namely, the characters are much more two-dimensional. In season 1, there was a clear separation between the “good guys” and the “bad guys,” but this black and white treatment of antagonists is dropped in season 2. All of the characters have more nuanced motives. The score is also an improvement. The first season had excellent original music, but I never went out of my way to listen to it like I do now.

Sadly, this is where the positives end. While it’s clear what makes this show great, it’s harder to put my finger on what drags it down. The occasional dodgy editing, strange sound design, and cringe worthy one-liners are an annoyance, but not nearly enough to outweigh all the positives.

The real problem is that the second season fails to recapture the magic of the first. Season 1 didn’t feel like it was set in the ‘80s, it felt like it was made in the ‘80s. Put it up against The Goonies or E.T. and it would be right at home. The writing in season 2 just lacks this quality. I think the issue is that the writers tried to tackle too much. Not only is the gang faced by a bigger, more formidable enemy, but there are many new characters with their own stories that just didn’t get enough time to really be fleshed out. This all prevents you from really connecting to any of the characters. By trying to go bigger—adding more side stories, ‘80s references, spooky monsters, and extravagant action sequences—the Duffer brothers succeeded in turning Stranger Things from a satisfying story about a group of friends solving a mystery into an impersonal simulacrum of ‘80s media.

It was an enjoyable watch, but fails to live up to the excellence of the first season.

6/10

A second opinion from Mike Farley