There really is a kind of sophisticated genius behind Stranger Things, and while others may try to imitate what the Duffers are doing, it’s harder than it may seem. If anything, the pair have moved the game forward in the second season by making the show scarier without losing the wise innocence of ’80s films as embodied by a bunch of kids, riding around Indiana on bikes in the middle of a real adventure.

Entertaining and warm in appropriate 1980s fashion, “Stranger Things 2,” now streaming, fills its nine episodes better than season one filled its eight episodes.

It affirms all the reasons you liked the first Stranger Things, and deepens your knowledge and affection for its storytelling and characters.

Though it takes two or three episodes for the various story lines to fully kick into gear, Stranger Things 2 is a suspenseful, thoroughly satisfying follow-up that goes to emotionally deeper places than its predecessor did.

Like that first season, not everything works perfectly, but its cumulative effect is one that is again joyous, emotional, satisfyingly spooky, and most of all, makes us care deeply about the fates of these outsiders who band together as heroes.

The pace is brisk, the gang’s all (eventually) here and there’s a lot coming down the pike--so settle in for the ride.

The cast remains full of delightful performers, but they sprawl in different directions, many of them boring.

This is the best series i ever ever seen stranger things1 stranger things2 stranger things3 all season pretty cool romance scary and funny all one of the best series in the world

Esta es la peor temporada de la serie, la mas plana, aburrida y poco original, es hasta salteable. Solo vale la pena por la trama de eleven y hoop.

It didn't get any better and it had more than enough footage (for example the ep. 7). There were creative transitions and that is something to recognize. Collapse

omg emos so cool plot: 5/10 characters: -10/10 writing: 2/10 cgi: 7/10 humor: -1/10

I truly enjoyed the first season of the show. In spite of it being so blatantly derivative, it was very well made, very well acted, and very heartfelt and entertaining. It had genuinely rousing moments, good pacing, and a great sense of tension. The sum was larger than its parts. The new season was a disappointment to say the least. There is a fine line between inspiration and an honest to goodness ripoff, and I struggled to find a single original idea here: the show's creators sticky fingers lift ideas ranging all the way from Akira, to the Exorcist, to Alien, to H.P. Lovecraft, to Star Wars, to every John Hughes movie ever made, to E.T. again, and it isn't a passing nod of admiration, no, we are talking ideas and shots plucked straight out of other titles. It's so thoroughly creatively bankrupt, anyone with any degree of familiarity of genre films or series of the past 40 years would be hard pressed not to scoff or roll their eyes at some point. Not good, not good at all. The series relied on nostalgia very heavily in the first installment, and that is doubled down on here. In the original it was obvious, but it was second to some very good story telling, whereas here, it seems to be the central focus. This is made more awkward by the fact that some of the anachronisms are incorrect: Reese's pieces didn't have chocolate in them, Kentucky Fried Chicken wasn't called 'KFC' in the 80s (I suspect that last one was due to product endorsement issues), among many others. Nitpicking, perhaps, but it tarnishes the sense of immersion, all the same. Some of this could be perhaps be forgivable in service **** story, but the overall plot is also wooden, predictable, and in places, straight up boring. There's an episode in the middle that is a complete throw away (and yet another opportunity to be 'inspired' by Akira), and when we finally do get back to the main event, it is done in such a trite fashion as to be laughable. You won't have to guess what's about to happen in the slightest. From there events unfold in a series of episodes that are films and shows you have probably already seen, and done better, elsewhere. The new characters that are added serve no purpose other than to fill up space and disrupt the terrific ensemble from the first series. Were they left out of the script entirely it would not have changed a thing or even been noticeable, but for the opportunity they provided for still more nostalgia signaling. All in all, season 2 is watchable for the most part, and the performances are still great, that can't be overstated. You will love the kids as much as ever. The ending is supremely sweet, but getting there is an exercise in the worst kind of lazy writing and production, designed specifically to play on nostalgia and its related emotions that you may or may not even possess in lieu of quality or depth or anything resembling fresh, creative ideas. The setup for season 3 is impossibly lame, and if the mediocrity of episode 7 was an indication of where they are headed, count me out. This is 21st century film-making in every worst possible sense of the notion with some terrific moments thrown in, seemingly almost by accident or as an after thought. Its a shame, and indicative of Netflix in general as time goes by - I can't decide if their shows are indeed penned by algorithms or just people that have been trained to write like them. One point for the cast, one point for the production values, and one for the truly sweet ending.