TL;DR – It is a joy to be back in the world, because there is an attention to detail and understanding that you just do get very often

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –

Oh Stranger Things, you were a revelation in Season One (see review), with an amazing cast and intertwining storylines that even with starkly different tones it still worked together as a whole. As well as this, it nailed both the films it was paying homage to, and the 1980s in general. So it has been just over a year since Season One, so today we will jump in and start our look at Season Two, and please be prepared as there may be some [SPOILERS] in this review.

So to set the scene, it has been almost a year since the events of Season One and Hawkins, Indiana has settled into an odd calm. As much as people have tried to move on from the carnage, there is that lingering reminder of what they all went through. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) still sits in his sheet fort each night trying to contact Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Steve (Joe Keery) still visit Barb’s parents, and of course, there is Will (Noah Schnapp) a living reminder of what they all went through. However, as much as people want to move on, life has a way of not letting them, which is the reason boys and girls why we don’t go poking holes into other dimensions.

No matter how much we try sometimes the past comes back to haunt us

However, this season we don’t even start the show in Hawkins, but instead all the way in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here we get the biggest reveal of the series so far, and that is that 11 is not just a designation, it could very well mean the 11^th test subjects, and that more exist out in the world. This, of course, opens so many questions, is Hawkins the only place where they are doing the testing? How many more of them are there in the world? And can they open portals to The Upside Down World, and have they already.

This first episode had a number of jobs it needed to do, first it needed to re-situate the characters we have known from Season One in the world, then they had to introduce the new characters that are there to mess with the dynamics that we are used to, and finally it has to start teasing the arc for the season. Now on all these fronts, I think MADMAX succeeded, however, this does mean that the first episode of the season is more of a slow burn as you don’t have the disappearance of Will to shock you out of your complacency. Instead, we get a lot of foreshadowing, and some literal shadowing, and discover this season’s big bad, is going to be both big and bad.

The team is back together

So did the first episode of the season hook me, of course, it did, it is clear that The Duffer Brothers have an incredible talent in creating fascinating worlds. The actors are clearly more comfortable with their characters, which means that they can push them further, and we are already seeing some of that. So time will tell if Season Two can be the Empire Strikes Back of TV, but I have full faith in the team that they can pull it off, and so far I am intrigued to see where they will go.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Stranger Things yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Trailer – Click Here to View (all trailers have heavy spoilers)
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Stranger Things
Directed by – The Duffer Brothers
Written by – The Duffer Brothers
Created by – The Duffer Brothers
Starring in Season 2 – Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Cara Buono, Linnea Berthelsen, Paul Reiser  & Sean Astin