Just like making a good movie sequel, nailing the second season of a hit show is really, really hard. The first season of Stranger Things was a surprise hit without any expectations or fanfare. The stakes were infinitely higher this time around, especially given the growing sentiment that there wouldn’t be enough story to keep it going. Stranger Things 2 definitely proves that it has plenty more to say, widening the scope and expanding its influences with some fantastic set pieces (adding most notably Aliens and Jurassic Park to the growing list), but it also shows some cracks in narrative structure and pacing. This time around, you could really see the grinding gears straining to get the plot moving, and struggling to justify everyone we know in Hawkins still being somehow crucial to the plot.
Season 1 never felt that way. It started with a bang, and was built entirely around finding out what the hell happened to Will Byers. All of the mysteries about Eleven, and the lab, and the monster and the Upside Down were expertly woven into that story, but they were all centered around the big question of what happened to Will (and unlike LOST, all of these questions were for the most part answered in the first season). Everyone raved about the 80s pop culture influences and killer synth score, but the real reason for season one’s success was its straightforward plot that became less and less straightforward (the amazing cast didn’t hurt, either).
The obvious question to build season 2 around (what happened to Eleven?) gets answered at the end of the first episode, so that leaves us with several seemingly unrelated questions, none of which really provide the same tension (the mysteries of the rotting pumpkin patch or why the new bully in town is such a dick just don’t have the same narrative weight as a missing kid). Season 2 struggles to navigate expanding its universe enough to justify multiple seasons, while also staying charming and grounded. Still, it discovers some fantastic new relationships between characters, and the final two episodes were such great fun it was all worth it.
To take a closer look at how successful The Duffer Brothers were at all of this, let’s look at the arc of each character in the three groups (kids, teens, adults). Needless to say, there will be massive spoilers for Season 2 in this deep dive, so don’t read this until you’ve watched it, obviously.
THE KIDS
ELEVEN
At the end of season 1, we all know Eleven isn’t really gone, and it’s just a matter of time before she comes back. Rather than seeing her stuck in the Upside Down, it is revealed at the end of the pilot that she has been hiding at Hopper’s cabin the past year. This is a genuine surprise, and sets up the payoff of the fantastic relationship between her and Hopper, a young girl who lost her “poppa” and a father who lost his daughter. This plot only buys you one episode, though, and we quickly get just as frustrated as Eleven when it becomes clear that Hopper has no real plan here. Doesn’t he want to give her a chance at a normal life? It would seem easy enough for him to put in his resignation, leave Hawkins, and quietly disappear with her to another small town a few states away where no one would ask questions. It is really hard to believe that he has been sheltering her for a year, and has made no attempt at this, or any plan at all.
The second half of Eleven’s storyline for season 2 starts with her finding her mother, who unfortunately doesn’t offer much in the way of flashbacks that Hopper didn’t already piece together for us. While it doesn’t need to be a multiple episode arc, this section felt rushed and under-baked. Eleven and her mother reuniting should have been a huge deal with major revelations and implications, but that just wasn’t the case. Things finally pick up for her when she travels to find Eight (aka Kali), the other girl she now remembers being in the lab with her. After being a prisoner her whole life, Eleven gets a refreshing taste of freedom by joining Kali’s punk band of misfits seeking justice by any means necessary. Some critics have really hated on episode 7, and while I didn’t love the execution of it, I really liked the idea. Eleven gains a mentor and a sister, someone who helps her become more herself and also shows her what she doesn’t want to become.But it really needed to come earlier in the season.
Episode 6 ends with tons of momentum finally building in Hawkins, and then we take a frustrating detour that we know will only lead to Eleven’s telegraphed return to save the day. It was definitely necessary for Eleven to go on a personal journey to learn more about herself and where she comes from, but she’s just gone for way too long (This was like stretching Luke’s training in The Empire Strikes Back into a whole separate movie). Her interactions with Mike and the boys were sorely missed, and we know way before she does that they are her true “home.” Millie Bobby Brown still killed it, but all of the soul searching Eleven needed to do kept us from seeing a lot more of the fun moments from the first season.
MIKE
While Millie Bobby Brown was no doubt the breakout star of season 1, Finn Wolfhard’s unique look and assuredness beyond his years didn’t go unnoticed. He landed a big role in IT, and seemed primed to continue his path to stardom here. The problem for Mike in season 2 is that so much of his identity has been wrapped up in his relationship with Eleven, and since she’s gone the whole season, they don’t know what to do with him.
This does make a lot of room to expand the roles of the other three boys and the new girl Max, but Mike was essentially useless all season. His leadership and problem solving skills were never needed, and he was boiled down to one of the most frustrating tv archetypes: an uncharacteristically stubborn asshole that broods for a whole season instead of being the character we actually tune in to see. And the worst part is this didn’t even pay off with a lesson about friendship where he gets to apologize and redeem himself. Mike’s arc was one of the weakest parts of season 2, and it had a lot to do with his inaction.
Instead of just talking to his radio each night, he should have been investigating the lab, searching for ways to actually enter the upside down himself to go looking for Eleven. While everyone else believes she’s gone for good, he knows better. A kid in love is stubborn beyond reason, and his obsession with Eleven should have been taken to much more interesting and dangerous places beyond just melancholy isolation. At the very least, he could have tailed Hopper and discovered he was hiding Eleven. Seeing how happy he was to see her, and the kiss at the dance was all really great, but it was mostly too little too late.
WILL
One of the biggest winners of the season is Noah Schnapp, because he actually gets to be a part of it. Will going missing in the first episode of Season kicks off the whole plot of the show, but for the most part he just stayed missing (The Duffer Brothers wisely chose not to show him suffering horribly too often to keep things light and exciting). The trade off with him getting so much more screen time this season, though, is that they go the other way and show far too much of Will being tortured, which is really hard to watch. One of the strongest parts of the first season was the commitment to show the three boys as real kids, even when there’s all this supernatural danger and evil adults swirling around them. This is why the dance at the end of the season is so fantastic, we are so happy whenever these kids get to actually act like kids. It’s 80s nostalgia. but also our own nostalgia, for when we were like them and the stakes for a first kiss were through the roof.
Will never gets to really join in on the fun though, and is almost stuck in a different show about exorcism. Schnapp gets to show off his acting chops (these kids really are all crazy talented) but it is brutal to watch him suffer. He does get some interesting “powers” while he is possessed, and by episode four it becomes clear that while the need to save him is driving the season again, he gets to be way more involved this time. His connection to the Mind Flayer, and the tunnel drawings all felt a little underdeveloped, and it never really matched the magic of the blinking Christmas lights or the mystery of Will’s dead body in the first season. But he definitely became way more of a character this time around. Moving forward, you have to think he is safe from here on out. There’s just no way that they can justify him being in danger a third time.
DUSTIN
Dustin, maybe everyone’s favorite character, gets to do a lot more beyond comic relief this season. Gaten Matarazzo did most of the heavy lifting in season 1 to make sure Dustin was more than just a caricature, but the Duffer Brothers really help him out this time around. To flesh him out, we meet his useless mom and his doomed cat, he has a crush on the new girl, and he becomes the loyal sidekick of Steve. But most importantly, he also gets his own Gremlins plot of secretly raising a tiny monster that will eventually become a Demidog. If anything, I wanted this plot to get more screen time, as it could have easily driven the story instead of Will’s dark possession. This was way more fun to watch, and had more of the light hearted adventure tone that Stranger Things often forgot to deploy this season. Dustin’s scenes at the dance wouldn’t have carried much dramatic weight beyond a laugh if it was at the end of season 1. But the character grew so much this season that we really cared about him finding someone to dance with. He was a big winner as well.
LUCAS
Lucas also gets a lot more fleshed out this season. The true skeptic of the group, he was often portrayed as a bit of a one note jerk in the first season. He took the longest to accept Eleven, having an arc much like Mike does this season. This time around we get to meet his family (most notably his scene-stealing little sister), and he develops a relationship with Max, the new girl. This also gives Lucas a pretty half-baked side-plot of the threat of Max’s brother, Billy, who irrationally hates him before they even meet. The problem with this is that it never really pays off. Lucas never has to face Billy and talk him down, or ask his dad how to face a presumably racist bully (this show mostly sidesteps addressing race completely, but it did have a nice moment calling out the boys for assuming that Lucas would be Winston). The randomness of Billy’s plot hurt Lucas the most. Instead of leading directly to the bigger picture like Dustin’s secret pet, Lucas’ problems don’t really add to anything this season. He’s probably got the most potential out of any of the characters to keep growing in interesting ways, so here’s hoping season 3 lets Caleb McLaughlin do more than hide in an arcade.
MAX
Bringing in another girl to the group was a wise move, but the red herring mystery that surrounds Max and her brother really prevents them from becoming real characters. Max is amazing at Dig Dug and skateboarding, and her brother refuses to accept her as his sister, causing us to question whether she herself might be a test subject from the lab. Mike’s apprehension towards her is completely misguided, but it hangs over the whole season without any payoff. It’s fun to see her realize that everything Lucas has been telling her is real, and its great to watch her ultimately stand up to her brother, but by delaying showing her family life for so long, we don’t care about her as much as we should. If we knew Max’s real story right away, it would have immediately made her a character we were rooting for, instead of a character we were unsure about. She’ll be great next season, but her introduction felt like a lot of wasted opportunity.
THE TEENS
NANCY
Nancy was a character that really grew on me in the first season. At first it wasn’t obvious how she would be brought into the plot at all as Mike’s annoying older sister. But her quest to date the popular guy lead her down a rabbit hole that cost her her best friend, and then everything became just as personal for her as it was for her brother. She freaking crawled through that tree and entered the upside down without a hazmat suit in the first season to look for Barb, but she doesn’t get to do anything as adventurous this time around.
Her love triangle between Steve and Jonathan is probably the least interesting thing about her, but unfortunately that’s what really gets focused on this season. Instead of teaming her up with her brother and the kids, she is mostly left along with Jonathan as they navigate the sub plot of reporting the lab that never really amounts to anything. It unfortunately feels like filler to occupy them until they eventually reunite with everyone. I was rooting for her to end up with Jonathan in season 1, but that essentially flipped in season 2 because of how bad the plot was that they were stuck in. The “Temple of Doom” moment between them didn’t quite work, but more importantly they never felt in danger enough. I really thought the investigator guy was gonna get shot by the government, and then they would be on the run themselves. The reveal that Paul Reiser isn’t a bad guy after all worked well for his character, but it did cost the other characters. If there’s no dangerous “bad men” with guns killing people to cover it all up, you lose a lot of the stakes that made season 1 so good.
JONATHAN
I’ve tried really hard to care about this character, and I just can’t do it. He slowly gets roped into the plot of season 1 more and more as his connection with Nancy develops, but I never cared about his relationship with Will (Winona Ryder was doing plenty in that department). We’re wired to hope that the shy photographer will end up with the smart popular girl, but you still have to fill in the chemistry blanks for us a little. This season he gets teamed up even more with Nancy, and even though I should be rooting for them to get together, I never really felt it.
Part of the issue is how much Steve changes. At first he’s a huge jerk that Nancy clearly shouldn’t be with, but now he’s a way better and more likable character. The side plot of Jonathan and Nancy sending out proof to the world about what’s going on at the lab was probably the weakest of the season, and was too removed from the action of the main kids to feel important. As you can probably tell by now, there’s too many characters to give everyone enough to do, and Nancy and Jonathan really suffered because of it.
STEVE
A fan favorite who went from expendable jerk to dependable hero, Steve was a bright spot of the season for sure. To keep him relevant to the plot even though Nancy and Jonathan have moved on from the love triangle, Steve gets paired up with Dustin in the buddy comedy we didn’t know we wanted. I was laughing at almost every one of his lines. The only downside here is that Steve seemed to move to the massive list of characters on this show that are untouchable. We know none of the young kids will die (nor should they, there would be revolt) and Nancy and Jonathan and Joyce are all definitely safe (the Byers family has been through enough), so that leaves precious few characters we actually care about who can be killed to remind us of the stakes. And if the show just keeps introducing new characters in order to kill people off, that won’t move the needle. I thought Steve was for sure a goner both seasons, and while I’m really glad he survived season 1, I think it was a mistake to let him make it through season 2. As many popular shows have shown us, sometimes you have to kill the fan favorites to keep people tuned in.
BILLY
Dacre Montgomery stole every scene he was in, which made it all the more disappointing that his new bad boy bully character was ultimately revealed to have no purpose at all. I guess he was a red herring for a while, the new kid that seemed to have some secret reason for being a dick and not calling Max his sister. My money was on it being revealed that they were the children of Paul Reiser’s Dr. Owens, but then we finally saw that their parents weren’t the missing piece connecting them to the plot. His rivalry with Steve didn’t really lead to anything, and his irrational hatred for Lucas never actually put Lucas in danger. While I’m glad he didn’t end up having the same arc as Steve (a bully non-believer who ends up joining the team and having a heart of gold), I sure wish SOMETHING interesting happened with him. Critics are rightly targeting this character as one of the low points of the season.
KALI
Heading into this season, I had one hope about where the story would go: that we would somehow meet another numbered kid. The cold open immediately answered that question, and you knew it was only a matter of time before Eight would meet Eleven. What I didn’t expect is how much this would steer Stranger Things into the direction of X-Men. Kali’s existence seems to be setting up a team-up in future seasons of kids from the lab who each have different powers, which I’m not sure is where I want Stranger Things to go. But therein lies the problem with trying to stretch this show into five seasons.
Can this show possibly still only take place in Hawkins from here on out? If it doesn’t, how do you keep our favorite people in the action? Our main characters are a group of normal kids, who are charming and likable and were smartly able to use their nerd knowledge to uncover a dark secret in their small town. But it will become harder and harder to justify their roles in the coming war with the government and the upside down (and maybe even the Russians at some point, I could totally see a reveal that Matthew Modine’s character is alive and well and has turned traitor in order to continue his dangerous research in the USSR).
At any rate, Kali is clearly an important piece to the future of Stranger Things, and I’m not sure her story line was given enough time or care for us to trust this coming shift of Stranger Things beyond Hawkins. I’ve read several reviews that said Kali’s plot felt like a bad episode of Heroes, which is a comparison you definitely don’t want.
THE ADULTS
HOPPER
One of the biggest reasons we were on the edge of our seat for all of season one is the shocking death of that really nice, burly owner of the diner in the first episode. As we are still meeting all of our characters in the town, we think he’s gonna be important. A brawler who takes in Eleven and protects her, and then he is ruthlessly killed by the government!
This really raised the stakes beyond what they actually were, making us think that any adult character was expendable at any moment. And the guy who kept running into danger the most was Sheriff Hopper. I would have bet so much money that he wasn’t making it out of season one, his rash decisions fueled by his actual desire to no longer suffer through life without his daughter. We loved him for this, watching him go from being the town drunk to the bravest man in Hawkins. We just knew he would die guns blazing, but kept hoping he’d somehow make it out. And David Harbour did such a good job with this character, that you could tell they didn’t want to get rid of him. So they didn’t.
And once he bonded with Eleven, we realize this season he’s not going anywhere either. Don’t get me wrong, his new dynamic with Eleven is one of the strongest parts of this season, and I’m glad he has made it this far for them to explore it. But the trade off is that I wasn’t the least bit worried for him. Not when he was trapped in that tunnel covered in vines, or making his way through the lab. He has quietly joined the list of the untouchable characters, which, unfairly to Harbour, lessened the impact of some of his scenes.
I’m really glad they didn’t latch on too hard to the cliffhanger of season 1, where he seems to be no longer trustworthy (which reminded me of the ridiculous ending to season 1 of The Killing with Joel Kinnaman’s character), but it’s hard to know where Hopper goes from here. His connection to the plot is now only through the characters he cares about. A romantic reunion with Joyce feels inevitable, and he is now the guardian of Eleven. Season 3 might open with the Byers and Hopper and Eleven all living under the same roof, but I think the only thing left for him to do is sacrifice himself to protect everyone else.
JOYCE
Winona Ryder did such an amazing job in season one (you try turning talking to a clump of Christmas lights into a powerhouse scene), and all you want for her now is happiness and a normal life. You start out with some of this, seeing her and Bob’s cute relationship. But of course she’s put through the ringer again, this time having her son right in front of her, but not able to understand what’s happening to him now that he’s returned. It’s exhausting for her, and it’s a little exhausting for us, too. It was amazing to watch Joyce transform in the first season from a helpless mom into the fearless hero. Her ability to figure out how the lights work with Will, her headstrong belief that he was still alive was the heart of the season, and she doesn’t get to match that here. She knows something is wrong with Will, but this time she needs everyone else’s help to figure it out (she does ultimately decide to turn all the heaters on to exorcise the shadow monster out of Will, but Bob steals a lot of her thunder in earlier episodes).
Another highlight of the first season was her instant relationship with Eleven in the later episodes. She immediately knew how to comfort and care for her, to treat her like a kid, and I was expecting to see that relationship grow this season. Hopper basically takes over that role instead, but it felt like a missed opportunity for Joyce.
BOB
Sean Aston took a very basic role and turned Bob into the Barb of this season. Watching him go down after his Jurassic Park heroics was one of the most brutal deaths I’ve ever seen on a tv show. He was so nice and good that I thought for sure that he was untouchable, that Joyce would merely dump him for Hopper and he’d leave the show in one piece. But boy was I wrong about that. Bob’s general good nature as he was rapidly brought up to speed about all the craziness in his town was another big part of what made this season so fun. Unlike Max, he was immediately easy to root for, and even though you knew it wouldn’t, you actually wanted him and Joyce to work out. Having him be an older version of the boys was great, but I wished he had been more of a mentor figure to them (like the mustachioed teacher from season one who explained the upside down). Instead they all hated Bob until it was too late, realizing he was more than just a weirdo after he died. Bob was a tragic character who never became annoying, which is really hard to pull off. He will be missed for sure, which is a good sign that it was the right move to sacrifice him.
DR. OWENS
Paul Reiser’s role as Burke in Aliens loomed large as soon as he was cast, and we kept waiting for him to screw everyone over at some point. Would he okay an order to kill everyone in the town who was onto them? Would he try to turn a demidog into a soldier? It turned out that he was just a guy in over his head, trying to clean up the mess. I was so pleasantly surprised that they used our expectations of his motivations against us. It was a welcome twist that the seemingly evil scientist is actually just trying to do the right thing (so much that I still never quite believed it! I was expecting the final scene to be him reporting to a recovering Matthew Modine that “phase 3 was underway” or whatever). Reiser did great with every scene he was given, but after you realize he is actually a good guy, his character does become a little boring and expendable. Still, he makes it out, and could be a major asset for Hopper and Eleven to uncover the sites of other shady government experiments.
Overall, I still really enjoyed this season as I was watching it. The fun characters, amazing cast and pop culture homages make it hard to deny. But I felt a lot less patient this time around waiting for the plot to actually click into place. While I completely trusted where things were going the first season, I wasn’t so sure this time around. The stakes for the third season will be even higher now, and I’m really rooting for the Duffer Brothers to deliver.
FORREST GUMP FAN CLUB 