Stranger Things Season 2 (2018)
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Stranger Things Season 2 Review
The second season of Stranger Things is another stellar one filled with a lot of truly moving or sweet sequences, good storytelling and terrific characterization.
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“Nobody normal ever accomplished anything meaningful in this world“
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Yes, first and foremost, the character development continues to be the selling point for this particular show. Easily and by far its characters make me want to see many more seasons of it as I just love them so much. So let’s talk about each of them one by one and through the characters I’ll also comment upon the story itself.
Joyce is much more interesting here than she was in the previous season and Winona Ryder’s performance is actually stupendous here. Jim Hopper continues to be simply a wonderful character and his fatherly relationship with Eleven is quite possibly the heart of this entire season. I loved that so much and their interactions are first troublesome and then so endearing.
Speaking of Eleven, she continues to be the most powerful and mystical of the characters here and I absolutely loved the use of her powers. She is particularly memorable thanks to Millie Bobby Brown’s truly fantastic, emotive performance which is amazing for such a young age. I really liked her relationship with Mike too and I also liked that he took a backseat this time around.
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Dustin is the most realistic kid here and his romantic pursuits are very sweet and grounded in reality. Lucas is also great and I loved his growing relationship with Max who is actually a really strong new addition to the team, even though she was quite unlikable at first. Will is somewhat typical, but I loved how they used Steve in this season as this sort of fun mentor to Dustin. And of course the relationship between Nancy and Jonathan is absolutely fantastic and they’re adorable together. Both are great characters individually too.
The acting in Stranger Things continues to be fantastic along with of course the special effects, but the soundtrack is one of the selling points too along with the costuming and the cinematography as well as hairstyles. The series looks and sounds like it literally came out during the 80s and although definitely manipulative in that old-fashioned strive, it’s simply nostalgia porn that is increasingly difficult to resist.
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The only issue I’ve had with the second season is the story itself which is actually rather weak when you think about it. It is derivative and the entire series has always been familiar and an unoriginal mish-mash of many different ideas. I also found its over-reliance on setting up the third season somewhat problematic. But this show has never been about the story, but more about the characters and they are so great that I did not mind the familiarity of its story beats. The aliens themselves are quite creepy and well realized here. In terms of the episodes, the finale is the standout as that final prom scene is just indescribably sweet and inherently adorable.
Overall, I really liked the second season of Stranger Things. It is probably not as good as the first one, but it still came eerily close thanks to particularly astounding characterization, strong emotion and a great emphasis on endearing relationships. Although slow and somewhat typical at first, it ended up being much greater in its second half and the focus on intimate character moments and emotion was the right focus for this season.
Worst Episode: Chapter One: MADMAX.
Best Episode: Chapter Nine: The Gate.
