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Stranger Things Season 2

How do you rate season 2?


  • Total voters
    29
Just done with this season and now i'm sort of pissed that i have to wait another year for the next season! :lol:

Without going into spoilers i love how they effortlessly continued the story of this group and gave each character their moment and a bit of development. Since it's a current thing one of my favorite books is IT by Stephen King because i love how he manages to write about a group of kids whose friendship lets them conquer all and Stranger Things is exactly that, in fact it could have been easily a Stephen King novel adapted to the TV screen.. hell, it even includes supernatural events and powers :lol:

Kudos to the Duffer Brothers for coming up with this, pushing it through the Hollywood process and turning out this fantastic show, striking gold with all the actors and writing characters and events that makes you care for them. I usually dislike child actors because it's rare that they are any good.. it's not their fault because i think they lack the life experience to draw from in acting and sometimes the directors just can't direct them properly (or the material they have to act out just doesn't sit right for kids) but this time it all feels so real which is why so many people relate to this show so well.

I know it's also been said many times but i love the 80s setting so much and to a big degree because i grew up in the 80s and know and remember it all.. from the music, the kids stuff (Atari, Dungeons & Dragons "It's a manual!" :guffaw::guffaw:) and all the little things.. it brought back so many memories and a smile rarely left me when i watched it.

Oh my god.. what a finale! Jane going full on Eleven on the Shadow Monster/Mind Flayer was so amazing that i was blown away.. the scene itself, her torn up but rage filled face.. i can't praise Millie Bobby Brown enough for her performance because she has it all.. talent, looks and judging from interviews i've seen of her personaliy that i could easily see her becomng an A lister in Hollywood a few years down the line if that's the path she's willing to take.

However the best part was the aftermath and i can't thank the showrunners enough for going that way because it's, at least to me, central to the show and what makes it so good.. the character moments. Our heroes get their moment of joy and it doesn't turn into ash immediately.. they get to enjoy themselves and take the first tentative steps to growing up. My heart broke for Dustin who got all dressed up, full of self confidence only to get shot down brutally and then be rescued and given a bit of advance wisdom, Lucas and Max finally taking that step forward as well as Mike and Jane.. it was so fun and heartwarming to see this.

I also love that few characters are downright evil on this show.. the government doctor who turns out to be a decent guy (love the scene where they have a meeting to decide the fate of Will and he blows up because he will not give up the fight and sacrifice him, even that dickhead stepbrother of Max got his scene that at least explained why he's a dick. Doesn't give him absolution (maybe in season 3) but it's still a bit of background so he's not just a cardboard cutout character.

Hopper and Jane was a brilliant pair and i had a big smile when it was made "official" that she's his daughter concerning the government, he was it already both in spirit and heart so it's all good.

Now i'm curious to see more of the shows mythology evolve over the seasons.. to learn more about the upside down, the Mind Flayer and to see all those kids grow up and become teenagers. Bring it on! :techman:
 
I agree with both of you, Mr. Adventure and FPAlpha, that it was refreshing to see so few evil characters. As I said in my review, I fully expected Paul Reiser's character to be evil as soon as we saw where and who he was. I didn't think that was the case for Bob the Brain except for a brief moment during "The Spy." I'm still sad that he died (and in the way he died), but I suppose that leaves the door open for a possible new relationship for Hopper and Joyce.

I also agree that the core essence of the show are the character beats and that's where the show succeeded the most, along with the many, many references.

Speaking of references, I may have been seeing things, but there was a moment in the second or third episode where Joyce makes this weird face in reaction to something and I swear it was the exact same zany, zoned out expression Winona Ryder made during the now infamous award ceremony where she looked high. Maybe it was a meta-reference, maybe it was just Winona Ryder being Winona Ryder, but I found the moment rather amusing.
 
Four episodes in. Dustin, who was by far the smartest of the kids in series 1, is all of a sudden a complete idiot.
 
Good season. Nothing to add other than I liked the teensy Goonies reference they gave to Bob.
 
I just finished it, so perfect. As has been said, I too love that they don't portray all the adults as either evil or overtly dense just to make the kids look good, that's a tired trope this show thankfully avoids.
Funny seeing some of it taking place on the day I was born. Well, me beeing from the upside-down... would explain a lot.
 
Less focused than Season 1, but built on it, expanded on it, dug deeper. Very much Godfather Part 2-esque in that sense. Loved, loved, loved it. This show is special. Truly special.

In terms of references, I'll have to watch it again to get some of them (Eleven as the "ghost" 'ala ET was obvious, as were the references to The Terminator. But I also think the Duffers snuck a few nods to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in there, too. The part where Jonathan and Nancy were in separate rooms at that guy's house, and the elevator thing that lowered Hopper and Eleven into the "fire pit thingy" both seemed very deliberate. And given that the Duffers specifically mentioned Temple of Doom in an interview they gave with Deadline, I have to think that was the intention. I appreciated it. :-)

I also liked that they didn't make Kali an outright villain, or obviously wanting revenge after Eleven left. Or made Paul Reiser a villain. And Steve! I loved Steve this season! And the final scene brought tears to my eyes.

And the season began when I was a mere 1 day old. Loved that too. :-)

Where do they go from here is the question. How many times can Eleven battle the Upside Down before it gets old? In various interviews they've said that they have 4 or 5 seasons of material, but that doesn't mean it *should* go on that long. Whatever it ends up being, count me in for season 3 at the very least. :)
 
Less focused than Season 1, but built on it, expanded on it, dug deeper. Very much Godfather Part 2-esque in that sense. Loved, loved, loved it. This show is special. Truly special.

In terms of references, I'll have to watch it again to get some of them (Eleven as the "ghost" 'ala ET was obvious, as were the references to The Terminator. But I also think the Duffers snuck a few nods to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in there, too. The part where Jonathan and Nancy were in separate rooms at that guy's house, and the elevator thing that lowered Hopper and Eleven into the "fire pit thingy" both seemed very deliberate. And given that the Duffers specifically mentioned Temple of Doom in an interview they gave with Deadline, I have to think that was the intention. I appreciated it. :-)

I also liked that they didn't make Kali an outright villain, or obviously wanting revenge after Eleven left. Or made Paul Reiser a villain. And Steve! I loved Steve this season! And the final scene brought tears to my eyes.

And the season began when I was a mere 1 day old. Loved that too. :-)

Where do they go from here is the question. How many times can Eleven battle the Upside Down before it gets old? In various interviews they've said that they have 4 or 5 seasons of material, but that doesn't mean it *should* go on that long. Whatever it ends up being, count me in for season 3 at the very least. :)

I don't think it necessarily has to be the Upside Down every time, though. Kali and Dr. Brenner are some pretty big dangling threads that could potentially lead in a whole new direction at some point.
 
No, it doesn't necessarily have to be The Upside Down, although the final shot suggests that the Mind Flayer isn't ultimately defeated....yet. And my first thought was that Season 3 could be about finding the other kids. I was glad that the aftershow made it clear that Kali wasn't angry...she just realized that Jane/Eleven had something she didn't -- actual friends and family. Making her evil or wanting to hunt Eleven down for abandoning her group would be the wrong move. And so far, this show has hardly put a foot wrong.

But if I'm honest, Plot is only 40% of my enjoyment of this show. The majority is the characters and the 80's setting (which it does so, so well). Plot is pure gravy.

I don't know what's going to be harder...the wait for season 3 of this, or the final season of Game of Thrones.
 
Great season 2. I will probably need to rewatch both [seasons] before I can decide which I like better.
Awesome!

One of the most surprising things about season two is that not every character has some dark ulterior motive. I thought for sure Bob was going to be a plant and that Dr. Owens would be bad...

As another poster mentioned, the scene in the conference room where he yelled at the other tech/doctor for basically giving Will up for dead cemented it for me that he was ok.
 
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Doing better than I did then. I didn't even think of it as a halloween costume until you mentioned it.:D
I was going back and forth. Steve was in a costume and so was everyone else, but was Nancy? I pegged Steve as Tom Cruise but all Cruises are pretty much the same costume, :lol: I
 
Really enjoyed this season but
I rolled my eyes at the scientists who decided to get in the lift everyone knowns when you are fleeing for your life you never get in the lift.
and poor Bob he must have been really tasty has they just killed everyone else but decided to eat him.:rommie:
 
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