Stranger Things Season 2
I love this show. I just finished Season 2, and here are my brief yet rambling thoughts on it. Very minor spoilers ahead.
Season Two did the impossible — it was a perfect continuation of the mood and flavor of Season 1. It picks up a year after Season One ended, but certain cliffhangery elements from that first season are just now reaching critical mass. And then things get crazy.
Stranger Things is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket. It’s just a wonderful show all around — great characters, great atmosphere, terrific pacing and filmmaking. And it really does feel more like a film in some wasy than a television show. They’ve taken elements from some of the great 80s properties and creators — King, Speilberg, Carpenter, Lynch — blended them all together and added something new, and the result is awesome.
Stranger Things raises the bar for serialized television entertainment. The mind reels to think of the possibility of getting an eight-episode-season of the Star Wars TV show at this level of quality. (!!)
MINOR SPOILERS, addressing The Lost Sister: Eleven is back, and she kicks ass. The showrunners opt not to give us the reuninon between Eleven and Mike that we want to see right away, however, instead sending Eleven off on her own quest after a few episodes. That particular episode seems to be divisive among fans, and I get it, but I also understand why the showrunners felt it necessary. Eleven needed to come to the fork in the road in her own life and make a choice. The main problem with the Lost Sister (that particular episode) is that none of the new characters are likeable. I would argue that that was the point, that if Eight and her gang had been people we wanted to see more of than Eleven would have been tempted to make another choice. However, I will say that I think the events of that episode could have been streamlined and intercut with events back in Hawkins. But one slightly jarring episode is a minor complaint for an otherwise amazing piece of entertainment.
That controversy aside, wow! What a terrific season. I love that we even get a touch of Lovecraft in Season 2. Perhaps the Mind Flayer isn’t a Lovecraftian horror, but it certainly seems to be very similar. If the Duffer brothers can establish its place in a larger pantheon, we’ll have full-on Lovecraft here (well, almost; there won’t be as much dread, because the world is not doomed and the universe is not quite as hostile . . . yet), and I couldn’t be happier.
Anyway, I’m tempted to rewatch the season already. I loved it, and I can’t wait for Season Three.
What are your thoughts?
