I like the show. I do. There are many elements that are done well. But there’s plenty I don’t like about it, and therefore I cannot heap endless praise upon the show.
I was intrigued by the very opening sequence of the season. It appeared to have nothing to do with anything we saw in season 1. And then we realize that the sequence is introducing us to Eight. Given that we’ve spent a season following the adventures of a psychokinetic girl named Eleven, it should have been natural for viewers to assume, and wonder, about the 10 who preceded her. But I never considered there were others out there. Great opening sequence.
We had already learned that the police chief, Hopper, lost a daughter to cancer, and his life was a mess because of it. The idea that he would provide shelter and care for Eleven wasn’t a stretch. We knew he was attempting to help her out at the conclusion of season 1, and the first episodes of season 2 provided flashbacks regarding their relationship. But I missed the explanation of how Hopper knew that Eleven was wandering alone in the woods. Was it just a hunch? How did he know to leave Eggos hidden in the woods for her?
Given that those associated with the Hawkins Laboratory had such great technology and governmental resources, how did Hopper’s hiding of Eleven in an old family cabin go undetected? Even if nobody at the lab suspected Eleven was alive, we would learn that government agents were tapping phones of residents in Hawkins, and therefore had the city under some sort of surveillance. Yet none of them dared to investigate why the police chief was running out to his cabin nightly, or buying Eggos periodically? He wasn’t nearly stealthy enough to avoid detection by government agents, and since they were trying to ensure the town’s secret remained a secret to the rest of the world, they had to be watching the skeptical police chief.
I know, it’s sci-fi, by definition I need to suspend disbelief. Stranger Things really tests my limits of suspension.
The tension between Eleven and Hopper grows, and it was well done. The struggles of her young friends, however, left something to be desired.
While the introduction of tomboy Max provides friction between Dustin and Lucas, who are vying for her attention/affection, it doesn’t add anything to the show. If there was a benefit to Max befriending the boys, it was that her presence illustrated how difficult it was for people to live with the town’s secret. The boys know they’re supposed to keep quiet about the events of season 1, but it’s hard when Max wonders why Will is called “Zombie Boy” by classmates. The challenge of keeping the secret intensifies, and it’s quite plausible that one of them would ultimately spill the town’s secrets. In this case it’s Lucas, and it’s a great twist when he finishes, and Max doubts his story completely.
Max also causes friction between the boys because Mike doesn’t like her, and doesn’t want her in their group. I never picked up on why that was specifically, but assume it’s simply because she doesn’t fit in with their interests.
As for Max and her stepbrother Billy, their presence seemed rather pointless. Billy seems to be the stereotypical ‘80s high school “freak,” and for much of the season we don’t know why Billy and the stepsister he hates wound up moving from California to Hawkins. I was expecting a greater purpose… some sort of connection between their parents and the Hawkins Laboratory, but we got nothing. All we learn is that Billy’s dad is a hard ass who doesn’t like his son’s disrespectful ways.
The fact that the new freak smokes and happens to be a good basketball player who antagonizes Steve added nothing to the show.
Steve’s character was a series regular in season 2, as opposed to a recurring character in season 1. And that did nothing for the show. Steve awkwardly befriends Dustin when his relationship with Nancy fizzles, and his presence in the latter half of season 2 is rather silly. I think the struggle Nancy and Steve had with keeping the secret of Nancy’s deceased friend Barb was a pretty good storyline. If you lived in a city that went through the supernatural hell that Hawkins did, it can’t be easy to keep all of that a secret, especially when others are in the dark about what was behind the disappearance of Will and Barb. But the split between Nancy and Steve leaves Steve with nothing meaningful to do, so he winds up as a babysitter to the youngsters.
As I noted, Billy and Max added nothing significant to the show. Ditto for Dustin’s mother and Lucas’ family. Sure, they have parents, but why introduce them when they serve no meaningful purpose. So Lucas has an obnoxious younger sister. Big deal.
I admire the fact that some of the Netflix shows I’ve watched have assembled huge casts. Stranger Things has plenty of recurring characters, and I wouldn’t argue that each of them needs to play a significant part in the story, but the aforementioned characters were frivolous.
And yet other characters seemed to disappear. We barely saw Mike and Nancy’s parents, and their appearances were typically insignificant, unlike in season 1. And perhaps I blinked, but Mike and Nancy have a younger sister. Did we see her in season 2? What about the bullies who taunted the boys at school in season 1? Did we see them? How about Steve’s friends. And why was the police department’s staff nowhere to be found in the second half of season 2? They weren’t significant, but why bring them back, only to leave them out of the latter half of season 2? It seems like they swapped out minor and insignificant characters from season 1 for new insignificant characters in season 2.
We got a new chief antagonist at Hawkins Laboratory. He may have been known as Dr. Owens, but I can’t look at him and think of him as anybody other than Paul Reiser. I like Reiser, he plays every part well. But quit distracting me with the fact that the new doc is Paul Reiser. Cast a character actor I couldn’t name if my life depended upon it.
I liked the idea that Reiser’s character was brought in to clean up the mess, and that he had compassion for Will. Another stone cold, company man would have been annoying. Reiser nailed the part. It’s too bad I couldn’t get past the fact it was Paul Reiser!
The best new character? Probably Bob, the new boyfriend of Joyce. He was a simple guy, living in a simple time, in a modest Indiana town. Joyce tried to move on with her life, and Bob was the guy who was unflappable, no matter how bizarre the circumstances were. While we should be disappointed that he was killed, I call it karma. He convinced Will to face the demon rather than run from it, which nearly killed Will and brought catastrophe to Hawkins, again. Arguably it was inevitable, but we can blame it on Bob, and therefore we can’t feel bad about him biting the dust.
Who am I missing? I suppose Jonathan, the socially inept older brother of Will who finds himself aligned with Nancy yet again. He’s fine, although the sexual tension between him and Nancy didn’t entertain me. Leave the sexual tension to General Hospital.
As for the story, it left a lot to be desired.
We knew that Will was still connected to the “Upside-Down,” and could predict that his connection to it would manifest itself in season 2.
I didn’t remember a lot of the hows and whys of the “Demogorgon,” but my basic explanation for what happens on Stranger Things is that they make it up as they go along. Last season’s existence of the Demogorgon was explained, more or less, but I’m still unclear how its defeat opened up an underworld network that is inhabited by “Demodogs” or why a “Shadow Monster” is now stalking Will. I get it, when you write sci-fi you can make up any set of rules you want, but nothing these other-world creatures do makes any sense, in season 1 or season 2. And that’s my biggest gripe. There’s no logic to what happens, and seemingly no attempt at logic. So for everything they do well, from the ‘80s look and feel of the show to the homages to ‘80s film and television – most of which is lost upon me – they really blow it with the storytelling.
And the lack of logic seems not to be a concern to most of the characters. There’s an inexplicable presence infecting pumpkins in Hawkins. Will is somehow able to create an elaborate map of the underworld beneath Hawkins, and Bob easily figures out what Will has created since Will is unable to explain what the hell he was doing. Hopper decides to spend an entire day digging an elaborate hole, by himself, and when he reaches the underworld after hours of digging, he hops right in, with seemingly no concern for the fact nobody knows he’s there, and seemingly no plan to get out should he somehow survive in the town’s creepy underbelly.
And when Joyce and Bob show up, they jump right in, as if there’s no chance they’ll die in some creepy underworld that is somehow poisoning Joyce’s son. Of course they do.
And why did a tiny, baby Demodog show up in Dustin’s garbage can? Of all the places, it picks Dustin’s garbage can, randomly? And for what, to cause friction between the boys and their tomboy friend?
I guess for me there are just too many wild, outrageous elements in play. Perhaps that’s why I don’t love the show. Create a show about a psychokinetic girl and an underworld demon that escapes to wreak havoc on a sleepy Indiana town. But the need to create some elaborate, multi-layered world that randomly dispenses new elements and challenges for the main characters does little for me. As the old saying goes, less is more.
As for the story of Eleven, that’s perhaps the best part. She, and her mother, were products of wacky government science experiments. And we learned more about that in season 2. The idea that Eleven finds a box of news clippings Hopper has collected, reads them and then sets out to find her vegetative mother via hitchhiking leaves a lot to be desired, but their story is far more compelling than that of the Upside-Down, its tunnels, Demogorgon, Demodogs and the Shadow Monster.
By the way, how the hell did Paul Reiser survive a Demodog attack in the laboratory when the creatures made short work of everybody else they encountered?
What did I like the most? “Chapter 7: The Lost Sister.”
Eleven is able to track down her “sister,” who has banded together with other outcasts to exact revenge upon those who have done them wrong. And Eight uses her unique power to aid in their mission. Eleven has a conscience and ultimately chooses not to be a part of their mission, otherwise she’d never be able to save her friends in Hawkins.
But there’s your show. Forget the crap about the Demogorgon and Shadow Monster. Take the story of the Hawkins Laboratory and show how a couple of its escapees with unique power exact revenge, and the struggles they face in doing so, physically and/or emotionally. Yeah, that show has been done, I’m certain, but pair the concept of revenge with the craziness of Stranger Things, and now you’re onto something.
Yes, for all its faults, I like the show. But I can’t love it, and there are clearly more than 13 reasons why. (See what I did there?)
Bonus points: While the homages to '80s horror and sci-fi are often lost upon me, I loved the John Hughes vibe to the school dance at the end of season 2. Kudos!
