Hello everyone, welcome to my review of Stranger Things Season 2! I remember when I saw the trailer for the first season way before it ever came out, and I was so excited to watch it. The show looked like an amalgamation of all the coolest movies and shows from the eighties that I already love. But nostalgia can only take something so far, it also has to be good. We've seen a lot of different forms of media try and cash in on people's happy memories of the past, when everything was simpler and more pure. Most of it is just pandering to the audience though and isn't worth your time. Then Stranger Things season one finally came out on Netflix, and showed everybody how it's done. The people behind the show are actually huge fans of all the things they reference, and they pay homage to the eighties in the best way possible.
I really enjoyed most of the first season, although there were parts of it that didn't resonate with me the way I would have liked. So I was hoping that season two might improve upon the ground work of the first. All the main characters are back this time around, as well as a few new cast members to keep it feeling fresh. Two big ones that help give the show that eighties feel are Paul Reiser, who played in Aliens, and Sean Astin, who was a child star himself in the beloved film, The Goonies.
When the second season starts we find our cast of characters all dealing with the traumatic events that took place before. It's been almost a year since the ending of season one and everybody's life has been effected in some way. Will Byers is back with his family and gets a lot more screen time as part of the gang. Most of the first season he was trapped in another dimension, but even though he's back it's clear that something's not quite right with him. Lucas and Dustin get a lot more screen time too, and we get to meet their family's. I'm happy about this as the two of them are great characters. Mike is still trying to deal with the disappearance of Eleven, and you can see that it weighs on him pretty bad.
Eleven has been missing for almost a year now and nobody knows where she went or if she'll come back. It's hard to talk about what she does in this season without giving too much away and spoiling something. She is back though obviously, being the biggest character from the first season there's no way she wouldn't be. Eleven actually goes on quite an adventure and has a good story arc where she meets some new people and learns more about herself. We get to know more about all the kids this time and they become more fleshed out and well rounded.
Nancy is still with Steve, and she's feeling an incredible amount of guilt for what happened to Barb. She and Steve clash about what they should do about it, and this leads to a conflict with their characters. Jonathon is happy his brother Will is back and still has a thing for Nancy, and the love triangle plays out again. I wasn't a big fan of Steve in the first season, he came off as an asshole even though he tried to make things right at the end. But honestly, he goes through some stuff in the second season that changes him a little bit, and by the end of it, he was one of my favorite characters and had an unexpected bond with one of the kids. It's unusual for a show to not have a few people I don't like in it, but Stranger Things manages to make everybody likable, and interesting, and it's good to get to know more about them all.
Then we have two new people in town, a young redheaded girl named Max, and her older Camaro driving brother Billy. Max is new to Hawkins school this year and she peaks the interest of two of the boys in our main group. She and her brother are very mysterious out of towners from California, that seem like some rough people at first. Billy is older and he plays an unstable trouble making type. He's kind of disturbing at times and it takes a while for his character to develop, but he does add a threat of sorts that isn't supernatural. All the new people are a welcome addition to the cast, and something the show needed to switch it up a little.
This season has no shortage of creatures to pose a threat on the town either. As you can see in the promotional posters there is some kind of giant monster in the sky, towering over everything. This is the main antagonist and is very intimidating due to it's size, and the amount of power it has. But not only does the cast have to worry about this huge monstrosity, but there's another new creature that plays a big role here too. It's no longer the Demogorgon, but I would say that the creatures in this new season are even better, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Not everything is perfect this time around, I've even seen some reviews and talked to some people that say they thought this season was a big step down. I can't understand this opinion though because to me it was obvious that the second season was much better in every way compared to the first. We get to know the returning characters better, and they all have interesting story's to go through. The creatures are better, and get more screen time. The new people are likable and interesting, with maybe the exception of Billy, and my favorite, Sheriff Hopper, is back and awesome as ever.
So if you watched the first season and you were a fan of it, I don't see how you couldn't think this season is a big improvement. I liked every episode, even the one that takes place in the city that everyone seems to dislike, and I thought it all wrapped up in a satisfying way. I'm actually in the process of watching it again I liked it so much. If you haven't binged this new season yet, what are you waiting for, it's great! Stranger Things Season 2 gets a grade of................................
A
Thanks for checking out my review, I hope you enjoyed it!
Its always nice to read your rewiews.
Thank you very much!