Netflix Series - Stranger Things 2 - Oct 27 2017 (1 Viewer)

[JohnS]

Finished season 2.

okay, here are some thoughts...

Possible clues...

About

Spoiler

Billy and family

Is it possible

Spoiler

Billy or father is somewhat demonic?
In Billy's room there is a Metallica poster "Kill them all"
Lots of red in his room, he wears red in episode 8
Billy's Dad refers to his date that he doesn't know as a whore.
Billy also says to his sister that they are not like them (when talking about Lucas)Billy seems to have some sort of "presence" or weird "charm" especially when talking to Mike's mother.
Something is definitely up with Billy in the non human form.

Also about Lucas's sister...

Spoiler

When she's making He-man and Barbie kiss. Lucas says it's impossible because they're from two different univereses. I was thinking that might be referring to Lucas and Max, since Billy told Max they are different. Max and Lucas do kiss.
I don't think it refers to Mike and 11, since they missed as well.

 

[Sam Favate]

Watched the first episode, which I thought was great. Nice re-introduction to that world. Glad the show is back, and that it didn't take two years.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yeah, I need to get off the snide and start watching this series instead of those new mediocre network series I've been watching over the last month or so.

I watched the first four episodes of Season One today. I like it, but don't love it yet. Will watch the remainder of the Season One episodes tomorrow.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Just finished "Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak". If any show was destined to do a Halloween episode, it was this one.

Spoiler: 2x02

I really love how lightly threaded the horror is at this point. There's definitely some creepy stuff afoot, but it's still very much at the periphery right now.

I was a bit disappointed that Eleven found her way back to the real world so quickly after being zapped out of existence at the end of the first season. It seemed like she found a hole back from the Upside Down almost immediately after arriving there. But the tidbits we got of her journey between coming back and getting taken in by Hopper are heartbreaking.

Speaking of Hopper: I understand why he's keeping her locked away from civilization, cooped up in that cabin. But it's a terrible way for a kid to grow up, even though his efforts to socialize her appear to be working given that she's much closer to being a normal kid than she was during the first season.

Eleven using her telekinesis basically as a remote control, by turning the channel knob on the old TV with her mind, is one of those tiny perfect details.

The unhinged behavior of Max's older brother was terrifying, but I'm not sure I buy Dacre Montgomery as an unhinged lunatic. It'll be interesting to learn the details of the disputed circumstances that led to their family moving from California to Indiana.

Speaking of Max: It's fun that her vocabulary is as expansive as Eleven's is limited.

The eighties nostalgia casting continues to be on point this season, with Sean Astin (Mikey Walsh himself) as Joyce's boyfriend Bob and Paul Reiser (aka Carter Burke) as the new g-man sent in to clean up the mess at Hawkins National Laboratory.

The big hanging thread of this episode: What happened to Bob the Brain's camcorder? Did it get left in the Upside Down? Is it sitting on the street where Will left it in the real world? Did he bring it back with him, and if so, what does the footage show when he popped back into the Upside Down while holding it?

 

[Sean Bryan]

Absolutely loving it!

This season, the episodes just keep ramping up (and up AND UP). It started out very good, but slower paced than the first season. That works because they needed to give back story on the past year and introduce new players. So the first few episodes are definitely very good, but a bit slower paced. However, by then end of episode 3 things start to move. I watched 1-3 last night and then 4-6 tonight. The second 3 episodes really brought the goodness up to greatness. Really cool. I'll do the last 3 tomorrow. I wish I could stretch it out longer, but this story is just meant to be binged. It took a lot to stop after episode 6 tonight.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

And the marathon continues! This show is a wonderful binging experience, because the episodes really are chapters in one long story.

Spoiler: 2x03 Thoughts

Things are really starting to heat up now.

I'm really struck at how well the show's juggling the two timelines with Eleven. I suppose they could be doing it with wigs and makeup, but given the manner in which Netflix shows are shot and released, I'm wondering if they filmed the flashbacks right after the first season wrapped, or at least during the hiatus between the first and second seasons. Not only is her hair much shorter, but she looks younger. These kids are at an age where a few months can make a big difference.

Now we know that the cabin in the woods was owned by Hopper's father, and they had to fix up the inside into something livable. I loved that detail when they're going through the piled up crap and the camera lingers on a colorful box with "Sara" written on it, undoubtedly filled with those of his daughter's things that he couldn't bear to give up. It helps explain why he's going through such lengths to keep Eleven safe; through her, he gets to be a father again.

I applaud the show taking its time with Eleven, refusing to give into the impulse to throw Eleven back in with the group. The anticipation of the reunion will make it that much more impactful once it happens. Young love is hard to take seriously, because -- while it feels like life and death to those in its clutches -- grown ups know it to be a fleeting and frivolous thing. But they dynamic between Eleven and Mike is a different thing all together. They're each holding a torch for the other, even though it's been a very long time. The scene where Eleven finds Mike, only to misread what she's seeing and think he's moved on with Max, had real impact. And Mike correctly interpreting Eleven's petulant little trick, only to be seconds too late.

The interesting thing about Max as the new kid in town is that Hawkins isn't a normal town. She's trying to make sense of what's going on around her, but she's missing crucial pieces of information. The entire town has been traumatized to a certain extent, but nobody talks about it openly. She's part of the group now, but there's this whole side of their lives that she's excluded from.

It was nice to get the payoff with the camcorder, which somehow recorded both dimensions simultaneously. Once again, we're shown that Joyce may be many things, but stupid is not one of them.

Reiser's character makes a much better human antagonist than Matthew Modine's character did. Reiser's character understands that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. He uses his charm and warm personality as another tool in his arsenal, and understands the importance of proportional response. At the same time, he's not afraid to let you know that if the carrot does work, the stick is waiting in reserve.

Bob's advice was excellent for dealing with nightmares. It was, however, altogether terrible advice for dealing with real and actual shadow monsters looming over another dimensional plane. What a cliffhanger.

Spoiler: 2x04 Thoughts

The first season was a master class in suspense. I was on edge for most of the season, constantly waiting for the demogorgon to leap out of the shadows and attack. This season is a slower, more rewarding vein of horror. The threats are immediate and in your face; they're creeping, insidious, easy to overlook threats.

The Upside Down is a very foreign place, in every sense of the word foreign, and the greatest threat to Hawkins and our characters is the ignorance about the Upside Down entails. Will didn't tell the group about the slug he'd coughed up after the demogorgon slid an tentacle down his throat, so Dustin didn't have any context for evaluating the risk posed by his extra-dimensional new pet. It wasn't until the family pet was half consumed on the carpet of his bedroom floor and Dark's face split open into a giant mouth that he began to understand its true nature. When Dr. Owens used pruning as a metaphor for the U.S. government's efforts at containment, he unknowingly captured the flaw in their whole methodology: pruning only shapes the part of the plant that's visible above the surface. It does nothing to restrict the roots from growing.

I was all ready to excoriate Nancy and Jonathan for being so naive calling Barbara's parents on a tapped phone line and choosing a meeting place where observation is so easy. But, no, Barbara's parents were never the real audience for that phone call. They let the government think it was controlling all of the variables. And then took advance of Dr. Owens's attempt to placate them by leveling with them. Their crucial mistake is believing that the true will set them free, after Dr. Owens has just warned them that intractable problems are dealt with by setting them on fire.

Eleven finding the box with all of Hopper's files from the Hawkins laboratory, the articles and lab notes about her mother, finally getting a sliver of truth about who she is. And then reaching out through the black to connect with her mother, seeing her insanity and then breaking through it to achieve recognition -- only for her mother's hand to dissipate like smoke under her touch -- absolutely devastating. Millie Bobby Brown is one of the best child actresses working today, and that scene was a showcase of just how good she is.

 

[Malcolm R]

I watched the first four episodes of Season One today. I like it, but don't love it yet. Will watch the remainder of the Season One episodes tomorrow.

That's about my experience. It was OK, but I never loved it like many here. Will probably watch Season 2 at some point, but it's not a priority.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Just finished Chapter Five, and it's got me hook, line and sinker now:

Spoiler: 2x05 Thoughts

One of the neat things with this episode is how far Eleven has come with her powers now. It the first season, it was mostly reflex. But now she has control and intent. When she sees the flickering lights figures out that her mother is using them to contact her the way Will used the Christmas lights to communicate with Joyce, she knows exactly how to cross the divide.

And the backstory of how her mother got the way she is turns out to be about as traumatic as could be imagined. I always figured they dosed her heavily on psychedelics when she was pregnant as a means to create a sensory-enhanced child, and she one time she just never came out of the acid trip. But the truth is much, much worse. On one hand, Eleven now knows that her mother has seen her all day every day for the past several years. On the other hand, Eleven now knows that her mother is trapped in a loop of several of the most terrible moments of her life -- on constant repeat over and over again, forever. She will probably be furious at Hopper for withholding the truth about her origins. But he was only trying to spare her the pain she's now experiencing.

Lucas told Max everything, and Max at least accepts that Lucas believes what he's telling her. Meanwhile, her stepbrother is very much opposed to her hanging out with him, presumably because Lucas is black. And Max's stepbrother is not someone who believes in measured solutions to problems.

There was a small time jump at the end of the first season finale, and one of the reveals was that Nancy had chosen Steve over Jonathan. In this episode, we learn the truth was more complicated: In the aftermath of everything that happened, Jonathan focused all of his attention on Will, and Nancy chose Steve because she got tired of waiting. Puts the events of the few few episodes of this season in a different light.

The stuff with Bob was great. When you're known as the smart kid growing up, that's how you establish your worth and self-esteem. So even though the situation he walks into in the Byers house is batshit crazy, he still has that schoolboy need to prove he can solve the equation laid out in front of him. And solve it he does.

Everything inside the roots was beyond creepy. And then the government clean-up crew's fire sending Will into convulsions another hell of an intense way to end an episode.

 

[JohnS]

Here is where I had problems with season 2....

Not so much spoilers, but just thoughts.... (they won't have spoiler tags)

I had a huge problem with episode 7.
Which it seems like a lot of people are expressing their displeasure online.
Episode 7 REALLY takes away the momentum from where episide 6 ends and episode 8 begins.
I understand 11 needed that push and lesson on upping her power from her experience with her sister 8, but it could have been done differently within Mike's group.
It's not a bad episode. It well acted and written, but I just didn't like it, especially the way it breaks up the momentum.
Plus it felt like some kind of superhero, X-men sort of show. (episode)

I kind of also didn't like the full closure mission of Nancy and Jonathan for Barb's evidence. I kind of didn't like them off on their own with mr. conspiracy.

I'm actually going to rewatch season 2 this coming week without episode 7.
And see how that experience goes.


And Adam Lanhardt....
Duffer Brothers said about time jump....

Spoiler

The start of season 3 will also be another year and won't start exactly where season 2 ends. Because of the kids aging in real life, so they have to write in reasons for the year time jump.

 

[Robert Crawford]

That's about my experience. It was OK, but I never loved it like many here. Will probably watch Season 2 at some point, but it's not a priority.

Well, now I'm hooked? I finished Season 1 this morning and have viewed Season 2's first episode. I have one question for those that have finished Season 2 or at least seen enough of it to answer the following question with spoiler tags. By the way, my favorite character is Hopper.

Spoiler

Do they explain how Hopper found Eleven?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I watched the next two episodes before going to bed last night/early this morning. I'm saving the last two for tonight.

Spoiler: 2x06 Thoughts

If the pace ramped up slowly during the first part of the season, we're at a full sprint now.

This episode almost feels like a take on The Exorcist, with the Shadow Monster exerting more and more of an influence over Will. Over the course of the episode, what emerges is that everything from the Upside Down that has crossed over into the real world might be connected to a larger organism, like cells in the body.

If that's the case, than the demogorgons (oh yes, there's a whole lot more than just one) seem to act as the white blood cells, dispatched by the Shadow Monster to attack threats and neutralize foreign invaders. And it enlists Will in the effort. The end result is the most brutal cliffhanger I've seen all year.

Earlier, Joyce stared down an entire room of high-level government scientists, and shut them up completely.

To Owens's credit, he actually is concerned with Will's welfare. When the rest of the decision-making team has no qualms about restarting the containment procedures even if it ends up killing Will, he won't consider sacrificing the boy before trying his damnedest to find another option.

There are two other big story threads. The first centers around Nancy and Jonathan's visit to the conspiracy theorist. I'm just not a fan of Brett Gelman whatsoever, but this role is a good fit for him. His character is smart and surprisingly pragmatic. The plan they come up with has a somewhat decent chance of success and minimizes the chance of blow back. The rom-com stuff with Nancy and Jonathan is fun, but also the first stuff this season where I felt the writer's hand at work. Just didn't feel as natural or organic as the other stuff that's going on.

The second centers around the plan to trap and incinerate Dustin's pet demogorgon. It's a chance to see how far Steve has come as a character since his douche-y first season behavior, and it fleshes out the Lucas-Dustin-Max love triangle a bit while fully inducting Max into the craziness that is Hawkins, Indiana.

Spoiler: 2x07 Thoughts

I thought we were getting an nine-hour story this time, but what this episode makes clear is that we're actually getting another eight-hour story with a bonus Eleven one shot. Given the absolutely brutal cliffhanger Chapter Six ended on, I have a feeling that the frustration JohnS expressed will be shared by a majority of the viewer. But I loved it from beginning to end. Rebecca Thomas's direction was perfect, utterly involving from beginning to end, with the a slightly different aesthetic and feel that nevertheless fits within the show's aesthetic and feel.

The whole hour had a real Girl With the Silver Eyes vibe, which is kind of appropriate since it's a children's book someone Eleven's age would have loved in 1984. We've known based on the tattoo that if she is number eleven there must have been ten before her. Now we meet one for the first time, number eight, aka Kali, the titular "lost sister." There is genuine power in their reunion, like finding like for the first time since they made it into the outside world.

Kali's gifts are different than Eleven's, but just as dangerous. From the tidbits we get, she can use her abilities to cure or at least calm mental illness. But she is not feeling charitable; she's feeling vengeful. Whatever life she built for herself once she escaped, it did not end well. She has been hunting the "bad men", and she shows no mercy when she finds them. There is a wonderful complexity to her character, showing gentleness and familial loyalty to Eleven but pure unadulterated rage toward their jailers and tormentors.

She places Eleven in a position where she has to make a very definitive choice about what type of person she wants to be, and that's where our investment in her journey pays off. Kali has only known pain and loss, but Eleven has known friendship and loyalty and love. Yes, she was angry at Hopper for keeping her cooped up and shielding her from the truth. Yes, she was jealous of what she thought she saw between Mike and Max. But in that moment, when forced to decide whether to orphan two children for the sake of revenge, those aren't the things she thinks about. She thinks of all the ways Hopper showed her love, even if he didn't verbalize it. She thinks of Dustin and the other boys defending her and bragging about her. She thinks of Mike telling her that she is worthy and decent and good and not a monster. And she makes the right choice. Kali wants an eye for an eye; they were robbed of their parents, so this henchman's children should be robbed of their parents. Eleven understands that killing him would just perpetrate the same wrong against these blameless children that was perpetrated against them.

And now our girl is going home, to be a Big Damn Hero and save the day.

Duffer Brothers said about time jump....

Spoiler

The start of season 3 will also be another year and won't start exactly where season 2 ends. Because of the kids aging in real life, so they have to write in reasons for the year time jump.

I much prefer that strategy to shows that fail to acknowledge the real world passage of time, like "The Walking Dead" where eight seasons could be construed as covering less than two years of story time.

I have one question for those that have finished Season 2 or at least seen enough of it to answer the following question with spoiler tags. By the way, my favorite character is Hopper.

Spoiler

Do they explain how Hopper found Eleven?

Spoiler: Answer to your question

Yes, the next few episodes of season two have flashbacks that fill in the gaps between Eleven disappearing in first season finale and that dinner scene at the end of the second season premiere.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Disappointed in season 2. I loved the first season but this one just didn’t do anything for me. I’m not even going to bother watching season 3.

 

[JohnS]

I've watched all seven episodes of "Beyond Stranger Things".
The Talking Dead type of after show for Stranger Things.
It's not imperative to watch it, but just some fun watching the cast get together and talk with Community's Jim Rash.

 

[messzeal]

imo, the first 2 episodes are just meh. story was slow and not that exciting. but the next episodes are really good.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Disappointed in season 2. I loved the first season but this one just didn’t do anything for me. I’m not even going to bother watching season 3.

I'm through five episodes of Season 2 and I have to disagree with regarding Season 2 vs. Season 1. I'm going to finish the remaining four episodes tomorrow.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Just finished the penultimate episode:

Spoiler: 2x08 Thoughts

What a satisfying hour of television. Everything at the Hawkins lab was like a thrill ride. Dr. Owens decided to be the captain who goes down with his ship and save the others. Bob the Brain saved the day but luxuriated in his moment of victory just a little bit too long.

After a season spent mostly segregated into the various subplots, the whole gang comes together again. Everything at the Byers residence was like a condensed reprise of the first season.

And then the episode ends with the moment we've all been waiting for: Eleven returning to take center stage again. And boy does she make an entrance.

Rolling right into the final episode now. Man, I've enjoyed the journey this weekend, and I'll miss it when it's done and the year long wait for the next season begins.

 

[Wayne_j]

I preferred season 1 but still found season 2 to be good.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Watched Chapter Nine right after my last post. Loved it. Great wrap-up to the season.

Spoiler: 2x09 Thoughts

More and more these days, a big-budget production means a climax that devolves into pure action, often primarily CG in nature. This climax definitely through some dollars against the wall, but all of the coalescing story threads were character driven.

Joyce has spent the entire season trying to keep Will safe, to make sure nothing like what happened in the first season ever happens to him again. And in order to get her son back, she has to inflict excuricating pain upon him.

Steve and Billy finally have it out and come to blows, but it's the subtext that drives the scene. Billy's actions are driven by an abusive father, so he walks into the Byers household from a position of weakness: He's scared of what his old man will do to him if he doesn't bring Max home, and his anger and violence reflect that desperation. Steve was the Billy of season one, but he's not that person any more. He doesn't handle his frustration and disappointment in those destructive ways anymore. He's there to keep the kids safe; he's fighting for something more than just himself. So even though Billy's the alpha dog, it's Steve who prevails -- because Steve isn't on his own. And then Max gets to establish dominance over her scary stepbrother, because every time he wants to threaten her he'll remember that she was willing to drive that morning star-esque nail-bat right through his reproductive organs. It's not a coincidence that her phrasing paralleled his father's. She took his fear of his abuser and extended it to herself.

By the time they reached the tunnels, Max is fully integrated into their party. And Dustin's kindness toward Dark pays off, as he is far less willing to eat them than the other demodogs.

The big climax, though, is Eleven battling the Mind Flayer to close the gate to the Upside Down. It's a visual effects extravaganza, but it's also a fitting culmination of her journey over the course of the season. And it's the reason Chapter Seven isn't really skippable. It was a sidetrip from the main narrative, but it gave her the tools she needed in this moment.

More and more these days, movies are over as soon as the climax is over. We may get one or two short scenes after the climax. But not here. Once the immediate threat has been stopped (for now), we get to see a little bit of what that victory earned them. Dr. Owens, somehow surviving the carnage at the lab, repays the belt tourniquet Hopper used to save his life with a new birth certificate for Eleven that makes her legally his daughter. The entire Snow Ball sequence was wonderful. The build-up with Lucas and Max pays off, a wonderful innocent moment that both of them will remember forever. And the much longer build-up with Eleven and Mike pays off, and that's something a little bit more weighted and adult: they traveled a lot of tough lonely miles to get their innocent moment. Will is notorious around town, and that gives him his own unique appeal. Which just leaves Dustin. Nancy, presumably chaperoning because Jonathan is taking the photographs, gives him his first dance and sets the entire gymnasium talking. It's a wonderful moment of pure kindness, and a recognition of the comradery that comes from shared trauma. I love it when she tell him that he's her favorite of all her brother's friends. Older siblings like to pretend they're above the concerns and goings-on of younger siblings, but they do pay attention. And then, outside, Hopper and Joyce share another elusive cigarette, and the bond that seemed to be developing during the first season before Bob entered the picture seems to getting a little more serious.

But while the Mind Flayer may have lost its entry into the real world, it still very much exists and it's still very much furious. So next year, hopefully shortly before Halloween again, the battle continues.

One final thought: The earlier scene between Hopper and Mike was very well done, the two people in Hawkins who care about Eleven the most. Mike's anger is legitimate, and Hopper is resolutely the adult in that situation.

About Billy and family

Is it possible Billy or father is somewhat demonic?
In Billy's room there is a Metallica poster "Kill them all"
Lots of red in his room, he wears red in episode 8
Billy's Dad refers to his date that he doesn't know as a whore.
Billy also says to his sister that they are not like them (when talking about Lucas)Billy seems to have some sort of "presence" or weird "charm" especially when talking to Mike's mother.
Something is definitely up with Billy in the non human form.

I do think there's more to the backstory with Billy and Max than has been thus far revealed. But I don't think either of them are supernatural. I see Billy as an ongoing human antagonist to contrast the more otherworldly threats like the Mind Flayer. I think all of the demonic imagery surrounding him is just to drive home the fact that he is a really bad, irredeemable dude.

Also about Lucas's sister...
When she's making He-man and Barbie kiss. Lucas says it's impossible because they're from two different univereses. I was thinking that might be referring to Lucas and Max, since Billy told Max they are different. Max and Lucas do kiss.
I don't think it refers to Mike and 11, since they missed as well.

It was an allusion to Max and Lucas, but I don't think it should be taken literally. Max is a white girl from California and Lucas is a black kid from suburban Indiana. Max's brother likely opposes the pairing because he and his father are racist on some level. And Lucas is daunted by the prospect because he's never had feelings like this for a girl before, and Max seems like an exotic creature from a more exciting part of the country.

I preferred season 1 but still found season 2 to be good.

I agree with that assessment, because I thought the first season was a tighter, scarier ride. But this was still a very, very good sequel.

With Charlie Heaton barred from the US for cocaine possession, it'll be interesting to see how they handle Jonathan in Season 3.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I absolutely loved season 2. What a fantastic follow up to a fantastic first season. I couldn't be happier with what they managed to pull off for a second time.

 

[JohnS]

Season 3 will take place in 1985.
Like season 2 with Ghostbusters, what movies could they reference or have the characters have something to do with.


The Goonies
Back to the Future
Cocoon