Stranger Things 2 Review
It is understandably difficult to review a whole season of a show, and I much prefer to look at things on an episode to episode basis because different writers write different episodes. All that being said, I am going to attempt to review the self-proclaimed sequel of the pop-culture phenomenon, Stranger Things.
Please first draw your attention to this video here:
The video pretty well summarizes why the writing of the first season of Stranger Things is so good, and I don’t want to spend any time beating the proverbial dead horse. But besides its stellar writing, the first Stranger Things had the advantage of being completely unexpected. If we, the audience, had all been aware of, and anticipated the release of the first Stranger Things, I posit that it would not have been as highly reviewed as it was. Obviously the writing must stand on its own regardless of audience anticipation, but the lack of preparation did help an otherwise pretty good show become a “great” one. It came out of nowhere.
Look at it like this: Stranger Things was like walking down the street and stumbling across $1,000. Maybe first we approach with a bit of skepticism. How could something this good happen to me? But then we take the money and run, never to look back. It is a wonderful, more-than-pleasant surprise, and we are the better for having it happen to us (this analogy obviously excludes any real issues that may be associated with finding a large, random sum of cash).
Now look at Stranger Things 2 like a paycheck. Not only do we expect our paycheck, but we need it. We look forward to it every two weeks (or every month whatever), and we are overjoyed when it finally arrives. But it is a different kind of a joy. It is never quite like just stumbling across money even if the paycheck and the random bag of cash are the exact same amount.
So it is with that analogy that I think we need to consider Stranger Things 2. It is already at a disadvantage to the first season, and to judge it by the same merits you judged the first season is near impossible. I don’t mean to make any excuses for the sequel; there are no excuses for bad writing. What I mean to say is that the perspective has changed for the sequel and our judgements should change with it.
So enough bloviating, here’s the deal: Stranger Things 2 is good. Plain and simple. It is not good because it is unexpected like its predecessor. It is good because of the exact opposite. We have been waiting to see these wonderful characters again. We have been waiting to return to the 80’s. We have needed it like we need our paycheck. And we got it. We got the characters. We got the wonderful setting. Everything is back. But no, it is not as good as the first season, and that’s okay. There was very little chance it could have been better, or even equal to, season 1. And again, that’s okay. They use some fairly cheap writing tactics, and some of the characters stay in one place for a little too long. Nevertheless, they are the same characters. The changes they’ve made are natural developments from the plot. It was like getting together with a group of old friends, and the end of the season left me a bit misty-eyed, I’m not going to lie. It has emotional weight, despite everything it has going against it. If you were blown away by the first one and need more of the characters, the sequel delivers.
Given my recent review of the declining quality of Game of Thrones, it may seem that my judgements are a bit uneven. Couldn’t Game of Thrones be looked at the same way as this? Well, no. Even the first season of that show was anticipated by a moderately sized audience of book readers. And it was HBO. No one, at that point in time anyway, was ever going to be surprised that HBO put out a good show. Netflix as a TV show producer has always been a mixed bag pretty much. So no, I don’t think the two are comparable.
Anyway, if you are on the fence before watching for whatever reason (and you’re also reading this blog for whatever reason) go ahead, dive in. The water is just fine. Just temper your expectations. If you fell in love with the characters the first go round and want to be with them again, then I think you’ll have a good time. If you’re in it for the writing alone, expecting greatness, then you will understandably be disappointed. Take all that how you wish, but I will leave you with this bit of wisdom from the music industry, though. Something to chew on. Though not the first to express this sentiment, Elvis Costello, in an interview for Creem magazine in 1981, said “You have 20 years to write your first album and you have six months to write your second one.”
