TV Review: Stranger Things Season 2
Updated: May 27, 2019
The Duffer Brothers return with the sequel to Stranger Things on Netflix. After the show was left on such a huge note, how you can make a comparable follow –up? Well, all you can do is go big or go home and what’s what the Duffer Brothers did with their second installment of Stranger things.
A year has passed since Will escaped the “Upside Down,” Dustin has front teeth, Eleven is now “Jane” with hair, and there is a new red headed girl in town named Max. Max unfortunately comes with an angry and annoying step brother named Billy. Billy kind of a dick. But for this review, we will call him Angry Rob Lowe.
Up to this point, there is been no real issue with the “Upside Down” or even the Demogorgon from the first season. Or so we thought. Will apparently has been having nightmares/visions of a different type of huge smoke monster from “The Upside Down.” However, its origins is not fully explained in the season but it clearly is a bigger piece to the puzzle than a Demogorgon can ever be. The science lab from the first season is there and the doctors were involved in trying to figure out what’s wrong with Will this entire season. But like all scientists from the 80’s, there is always a hidden agenda. Oh yeah, Paul Reiser is alive and well because he is Sam Owens. Well, sorry Paul, didn’t realize it was you at first.
11 which you will now know her as Jane, has been hidden away in the woods by Sherriff Jim Hopper to keep her safe from the government and the scientists from the lab she was tested in. However, she lives a life of solitude and is unable to see her friends. Over time she grows tired of being hidden away and eventually wants to find her own identity and whom her mother was. This adds a new mechanic into her character building and is a pleasantly well received twist.
This season airs 9 episode opposed to the 8 in the previous season but could have gotten away with 8, if the 7th episode was dropped. The 7th episode, “The lost Sister” deep dives into the backstory of Eleven and shows that there was other children that were affected by the experiments. However, it is the least favorite episode of the season. Honestly, the episode could have been scrapped without the season whatsoever. All it establishes is how eleven can focus her powers in a stronger way. The end.
But the true MVP of the show is Dustin played by Gaten Matarazzo. Audiences fell in love with his toothless character in the first season. However in season 2 he became more of leader of the group and kept the group moving forward while dealing with Will being violated by a smoke monster, a love triangle with himself/Max/Caleb, and raising a baby Demogorgon he named Dart. Give this kid a medal!
Overall, you get to see all the characters from the first season while making the second season more of a bugger and exciting plot. But where is Barb? The Duffer Brothers haven’t confirmed she is dead. Just a thought.