When Will Byers coughed out that slimy slug-like thing at the end of Stranger Things last year, fans heaved a giant sigh of relief. There would be a second season — eight more episodes to binge-watch, more demogorgons to vanquish and another mystery to solve. Whether it would be as addictive and satisfying as the first season was the million dollar question. Stranger Things 2, which premiered on October 27, checks a lot of boxes, including the ones marked addictive and satisfying, but is it as good as the first?
ST2 brings back everything we love from Season 1. The Upside Down still exists, the demogorgons are back and the quartet is finally back together again, mostly hale and healthy. But there's something haunting Will in the real world as a result of his sojourn in the Upside Down and once again it is up to his mother, Joyce, to put an end to it.
Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers is nothing short of fantastic, while the story’s main cast comprising the four boys are a delight to watch. Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Hendersen (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLoughlin) are a little bit more grown up, slightly wiser from the events of the first season and completely in their element.
David Harbour as Sheriff Jim Hopper does an adequate job propping up Ryder’s character, but he does get a couple of explosive scenes to himself. The teenage drama-love triangle is back too, with Natalia Dyer’s Nancy, Joe Keery’s Steve and Charlie Heaton’s Jonathan playing off of each other perfectly. Steve Harrington is especially not what you’d expect, and Keery plays the twists and turns his character is put through with aplomb.
There are about five new characters in season 2. Sean Astin plays Bob Newby, Joyce’s old classmate from school and a love interest. Dacre Montgomery and Sadie Sink play Billy and Maxine Hargrove - step siblings who have just moved into Hawkins. There is also Paul Raiser as Dr. Sam Owens, who treats Will in the aftermath of the Upside Down and Kali (played by Danish actor Linnea Berthelsen), a seemingly mysterious character whose origins are only revealed late in the series.
But out of all of them, it is Millie Bobby Brown, playing Eleven, who is the best thing about ST2. Eleven is still herself, but she also grows more different as she digs through all the secrecy surrounding her past. Brown aces every scene she is in effortlessly and darned if she won’t walk away with a handful of statuettes the coming award season.
The only wrong note that any of the cast strikes is Montgomery’s character Billy, who seems woefully one-note and out of sync with the rest of the story. The Duffer brothers had said that “it was important” that they introduce a human antagonist “that could disrupt the lives of the characters”, but by the end of it, you just want Billy to go away and let the show go on.
However, ST2 is less in mystery mode and more in a ‘how do we solve a problem like Maria’ mode. The thing about Stranger Things that captivated most of the audience was the fantastic premise, a tight script and a principal cast so good you wanted them to be real. You get all that in ST2, but at nine episodes, the script feels a little bloated. The story seems to meander off at points — especially concerning Eleven — until something happens each time to drag the focus back onto the matter at hand. The episode concerning Eleven and Kali is placed at a frustrating point in the storyline and you can’t help but wonder if crisper editing could have eased it.
Characters are paired off here and there to do their own sleuthing — Jonathan and Nancy, Dustin and Steve, Lucas and Max, Joyce, Mike and Bob, Hopper on his own. By the time the puzzle comes together, you know what’s going to happen and how. The crippling urgency that gripped you in season one is missing in ST2, but the end is nevertheless satisfying.
I ended up watching the entire season throughout the night, and Internet gods willing, you will too.
Stranger Things 2 is currently airing on Netflix.