Stranger Things 2: Reactions?

[Battenberg]

I really enjoyed the first one, but I don't feel like I'm getting the same level of enjoyment from this series so far. I'm on chapter 3. Can't put my finger on what's missing yet... How is everyone finding it?

Don't worry, it will pick up. I was thinking the same thing early on and I was worried it would be a big filler season as they set up S3 and beyond but from episode 4, maybe 5 onwards the show REALLY kicks off. I'll have to rewatch it again at some point but for me the second half of the season might have bested season 1 (the first half of the season fell a bit short). In particular I loved the Lovecraftian way the monster is portrayed, really worked for me.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

The first creature could exit the upside down seemingly wherever it wanted into the regular world, so couldn't the Hive-mind leader just open its own door too?

gonna spoiler tag this since its specific

Spoiler

the Demogorgon and the mind flayer aren't the same species, and thus they don?t have the same abilities. While a lot of it is left up to implications and theories, the smoke monster/hive mind leader is the one controlling the demodogs and others through it's....infection.

We'll have to wait for the next season to really see what?s up though.

Are you sure they aren't of the same species? I mean, it's not like they've tested their DNA. Granted, who's to say the Flayer is even organic. Also, it seems odd that the Flayer would have an underling with an ability that lets it travel between dimensions, but not have it himself.

Here's what I want to know. (Spoilers, duh, get out of here if you haven't seen the show yet).

The first creature could exit the upside down seemingly wherever it wanted into the regular world, so couldn't the Hive-mind leader just open its own door too? I mean, it did seem to be able to pull Will into the upside down (unless something else was making him pop in and out of there).

Granted, these doors seemed to be only temporary and closed on their own after a short while.

It could, but the gate was open. It only did so originally after Eleven opened the gate

Spoiler

Now, Eleven has closed the gate. Maybe the mind flayer/smoke monster can still can reach into the regular world. But then again maybe El or another one of the MK Ultra babies has to open a gate somewhere for anything from the upside down to be able to affect the normal world.

I could buy that the gate being closed could strengthen the barrier between worlds, and what not. Although, was El really the one who opened it in the first place? When she contacted the demogrogon she wasn't in the upside down, but contacting it telepathically. I got the impression from the scene that after sensing her, the demogorgon was sent after her, and now that maybe it was a scout of the Flayer looking for more food for young demogorgans, like Dart.

 

[Chewster]

Only about half-way through and first, it is slower to get started. The first couple episodes felt like throwaway ones. Second, it feels more disjointed. There was the one main mystery in the first one: Where the hell is Will? What is this Upside Down place? Now, we have

Spoiler

Hopper trying to protect El and her trying to find her mum, Will and his giant monster visions, the charming doctor at the lab and his mysterious bullshit, Nancy and Johnathan running around trying to get justice for Barbara, Lucas trying to convince Max of the truth and make her one of the group, Dustin and his Upside Down lizard thing, etc.

I feel like there are too many plot threads going at once and except the main one, none of them are that interesting to me.

That said, I feel like this season has been better acted than the first, but maybe that's just me. I'll finish it off this week and see how I feel. It's not bad so far, just, kind of all over the place.

 

[Dalisclock]

I have to ask. I watched the first season and found it fine, but it didn't grab me like it did a lot of other people. Is season 2 going to change my mind if I watch it?

 

[Bob_McMillan]

WARNING, very, very light spoiler ahead


I liked it but I felt it lost a lot of the pseudo-science in it. All the nerd stuff was gone too. I think the plot also suffered from not knowing wtf the shadow thing actually wants. In the first season it just so happened that the demogorgon got into the real world and followed it's natural instinct to eat everything.

But I liked all of the new characters. Asshole Steve is an asshole, but they handled him well. Steve also had some great development (although it was kinda sad to see him have zero victories). The addition of Mad Max was eh, I mean she didn't really add much. Nice to see black kid get some screen time this time. Also, the government dudes this time around were done well too, instead of just being anonymous dicks in suits. Not so sure what I feel about Eleven. I mean her shizz with Hopper is great and all but I feel she didn't have much to do this season.

Overall I think it was a solid follow up (the way they used the death of Barb was cool, I love it when a sequel answers things that I thought they glossed over in the original), but I still liked the last one better.

 

[Fappy]

I really liked it, but it's not as good as Season 1. Then again, I don't think they will ever be able to one-up themselves there considering the mystique of the Upside-down is all but gone by this point.

I like pretty much all the characters, but this season really knocked it out of the park with Steve. In the context of 80's movies he's pretty damn subversive, and he's just so damn likable. Nancy and Dustin were great too.

I get that Eleven had her own pseudo solo arc this season but I think Mike's character suffered for it. He was stagnant for most of the season and I kept forgetting where he was.

 

[helwyr]

I get that Eleven had her own pseudo solo arc this season but I think Mike's character suffered for it. He was stagnant for most of the season and I kept forgetting where he was.

Yeah it seemed like Dustin was the main character of the group this time round. Last time it was Mike and Elle's relationship that kept the plot moving forward, this time we were following Dustin's crazy adventure. I really enjoyed it

 

[Trunkage]

I have to ask. I watched the first season and found it fine, but it didn't grab me like it did a lot of other people. Is season 2 going to change my mind if I watch it?

Probably not. I thought the first season was good but not great. This one just reinforces that opinion.

 

[Cowabungaa]

That was some good popcorn TV, some great acting and character happenings, a fun and relatively engaging retro story so yeah I'm alright with it. Dustin, El and Steve stood out for me with a shout-out to Bob. I read a headline of an article saying season 2 took the James Cameron road to sequels and now that I finished it I really get where the writer was coming from. It felt more grand, like Terminator 2 compared to 1.

My main gripes were Mike's and Max's characters this season. Mike was just an utter little shit to Max just because he's sad about El? Get outta here. He wasn't even given the screentime to justify his behaviour. And Max was just so underutilised. I feel like she was just put in to create conflict in the group. A real pity that was, she had potential as the no-nonsense straight-man of the group. Otherwise I'm scratching my head a little at how they're going to do season 3. They can't do this song and dance again, it'd be stale.

Goddamn it, a smoke monster? Really?

Part of me wants to believe that it's how the smoke monster from Lost happened. That show's lore is such a clusterfuck you could probably somehow cram it in.

 

[pearcinator]

It's not nearly as scary as the first season...probably because we know what to expect for the most part. Ep. 6 and 8 are the best of Season 2.

 

[Ogoid]

I'm about halfway through it, and I do have to say that, at least thus far, the writing has been nowhere as strong as in the first season; possibly because this time there's no narrative core like "what happened to Will" tying it all together.

Still a very enjoyable show, though.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I fell asleep during the first episode and have yet to go back.

Admittedly, it was 5 in the morning and I did stay up all night drinking wine, relaxing the self through various nefarious means.
Oh and I generally hate watching TV alone.
But it looked aight. Need an unsuspecting accomplice or two to go back into with though. I'm such a fucking codependent twatface with this.

 

[Tiger King]

I was excited for it but went into season 2 knowing that unless they pulled off something special they just weren't going to match season 1.
Kinda like when a band has an awesome debut album and has to follow it up with that tricky second album. (And they usually end up going down the 'experimental' route)

Binged it in 2 days and whilst it was ok it didn't grip me like season 1. Was a little confused towards jims actions towards eleven, yeah I get that he was scared of losing her like his daughter but he was downright mean to her in parts.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Sorry for being late to the party (I don't binge watched it).

While I did liked it but it didn't has the charm as the first one for some reason (can't explained it).

Still I am interested on how season 3 will be played out since that guy menton Elieven papa is apparently alived and the shadow thing is still invested toward the real world etc.

 

[Exley97_v1legacy]

I really enjoyed the first one, but I don't feel like I'm getting the same level of enjoyment from this series so far. I'm on chapter 3. Can't put my finger on what's missing yet... How is everyone finding it?

I loved it. I know I'm in the minority here, but I thought it was just as good as the first season and did an excellent job living up to the hype. In retrospect, as much as I loved Season 1, I think Season 2 did a MUCH better job in a couple of areas: the kids seemed like more distinct characters in S2 with actual personalities rather than just the cardboard geek cutouts; the adults (save Hopper, who carries S1) were more interesting and had more to do this time around, especially Winona Ryder, instead of slowing the story down' and overall I think S2 was less reliant on obvious tropes and callbacks to the movies that inspired the show (ET, Poltergeist, etc.).

In no particular order, the stuff that really made S2 for me was:
* Will and Max -- both kid actors were GREAT this season (as in, Emmy nods for both) and rather than cluttering the group dynamic as new characters often do, I think they absolutely enhanced it and added layers to Mike, Dustin and especially Lucas.
* Hopper and Eleven -- I wasn't expected the show to go there, even though in retrospect it seems obvious, but putting them together from the start made a fascinating dymanic/storyline for the entire season.
* Steve -- other folks and critics and have said it already, but it's true. This guy was supposed to be the prototypical 80s "cool guy" bully/villain and the show deftly threw that out the window and made him a legit interesting and sympathetic character.
* Paul Reiser -- I thought he was going to be a throwaway character and/or suddenly turn into a heel ala Carter Burke, but I LOVED that they didn't do that with him and that he ended up being a kinda/sorta ally.
* The Billy storyline -- I couldn't stand this dude and the screentime he was taking up....until the very end with the last episode, when the violent behavior, bullying, unspoken racism and everything negative about the character was put on display through the father's parental abuse. In the end, it didn't advance the plot for S2 at all, but it made the overall story and characters so much more interesting.