The first season really did have something special going for it. The Duffer Brothers weaved a tight-knit, supernatural tale with a realistic feel that gave the narrative believability, The writing for the younger cast was near homage to Spielberg's "The Goonies", which wrapped everything up in a nice feel good blanket of nostalgia. It wasn't the best supernatural story ever written, but it didn't have to be and the amazing soundtrack scored by Dixon and Stein gave the season a palpable sense of identity.
And then season two happens. And the lack of creative writing begins to show. We have the ham-fisted plot concerning an isolated Eleven. A runaway Demagorgan that Dustin feels the need to hide from everybody, for some reason. An extremely awkward romance that somehow includes a roid-induced brother that really should have been cut from the final product. And to top it all off, we get several not so subtle hints that Mike's mom has the hots for Billy. The acting talent is there (and not there in some cases, although I was very pleased with Sean Astin's work as Bob Newby) and the soundtrack continues to impress, but the mystery was gone in place of a thriller that makes me feel like the writers had just finished watching CW's "Supernatural" for the first time.
The only thing supernatural going on here is this shows continued popularity, and I feel there will be a number of disappointed fans come the release of season three.
Review by mshollaBlockedParent2018-12-12T07:05:13Z
The first season really did have something special going for it. The Duffer Brothers weaved a tight-knit, supernatural tale with a realistic feel that gave the narrative believability, The writing for the younger cast was near homage to Spielberg's "The Goonies", which wrapped everything up in a nice feel good blanket of nostalgia. It wasn't the best supernatural story ever written, but it didn't have to be and the amazing soundtrack scored by Dixon and Stein gave the season a palpable sense of identity.
And then season two happens. And the lack of creative writing begins to show. We have the ham-fisted plot concerning an isolated Eleven. A runaway Demagorgan that Dustin feels the need to hide from everybody, for some reason. An extremely awkward romance that somehow includes a roid-induced brother that really should have been cut from the final product. And to top it all off, we get several not so subtle hints that Mike's mom has the hots for Billy. The acting talent is there (and not there in some cases, although I was very pleased with Sean Astin's work as Bob Newby) and the soundtrack continues to impress, but the mystery was gone in place of a thriller that makes me feel like the writers had just finished watching CW's "Supernatural" for the first time.
The only thing supernatural going on here is this shows continued popularity, and I feel there will be a number of disappointed fans come the release of season three.