The pressure was on for the Netflix original series Stranger Things 2 after the very well-received first season and fortunately they didn’t disappoint, as part 2 is just as good as the first. Everything that was so great about season 1 is still there and I’d have to imagine most fans would be pleased.
I watched all the episodes on the first day and it was addicting and easy to binge. There are multiple cliffhangers, so you’re always wanting to move on to the next episode quickly. I loved the design of the giant Lovecraftian monster and this led to a bit more usage of CGI. The special effects were maybe not quite as good as a big budget feature film, but still good enough.
The season was pretty consistent, with really only one episode standing out as worse than the rest. I’m referring to one later in the season that features only one of the main characters. It was an interesting experiment, but it was brought down by some one-dimensional, cheesy characters.
It wasn’t terrible or anything and it does provide important character development, but it’s just not up to the series usual standards. And it ends up not being a big deal because the last two episodes delivered a satisfying conclusion. Additionally, this was helped by the fact that this is not a weekly show, but rather the episodes are all available at once, so you could quickly move on to the ending.
The best performance is given by Noah Schnapp as Will, who was barely in season one, but serves as the emotional core of season two.
There are plenty of new characters introduced and they’re just as fun to watch as the others. Sean Astin plays Joyce’s boyfriend Bob, and comes off as dorky, but likable. Paul Reiser also joins the cast as a gentler version of Matthew Modine’s character.
The John Carpenter-influenced score from Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein is fantastic and atmospheric as always. The soundtrack of 80s songs wasn’t quite as effective but I will give them credit, but not always going with super cliche picks, minus a few exceptions. One of those exceptions was “Runaway” by Bon Jovi, which was pretty on the nose for the onscreen situation.
That’s all for the spoiler free section, so stop reading if you don’t want to know what happens.
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The episode I was referring to earlier was episode 7 and it focuses on 11 off on her own with a new character known as 8. 8 is a decent enough character, but her group of punk friends is very cliche and shallow.
They might not have been quite as annoying if they hadn’t been in their own episode. They felt especially poorly written in comparison to all the other well-rounded characters and this seems to be agreed upon by many fans and critics. This episode was also right after a significant cliffhanger so it was slightly frustrating to have to wait to see that resolved.
The episode after that contained a major death that I sort of saw coming, at least once he went off his own heroically. I did like how they made you think he was safe at the very end for a moment, but even then I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
One small nitpick I had was that it seemed a bit odd that Nancy could sneak in an audio recorder to the lab without them checking her purse, but this is minor.
I really loved the adorable denouement at the school dance and getting one last fun series of moments with all the kids after the climax. And of course the final shot was fantastic and a great teaser for Stranger Things 3.
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