- #Stranger things season 2 episode 1 game they play plus#
- #Stranger things season 2 episode 1 game they play professional#
#Stranger things season 2 episode 1 game they play plus#
The Upside Down is back, bigger and badder than ever, and so are the outcast kids who brought it down last time, plus a newcomer in the form of redheaded tomboy Max (Sadie Sink).
Netflix-imposed NDAs prevented critics who filed advance reviews from revealing much, but the plot of Stranger Things 2 wasn’t exactly hard to guess. I’m still not convinced that Stranger Things deserves a place in the canon above or even alongside the long list of nostalgia objects it’s paying homage to on the flip side, I’m more convinced than ever that the Duffers understand their influences well enough to channel them into a slickly addictive product, aided by a cast talented enough to deepen their characters from stock archetypes into people worth caring for.
That reaction is an accurate summation of Stranger Things 2, a season of television that, like its predecessor, has its flaws, but overcomes them through the sheer strength of its stars’ charisma and the expertly choreographed momentum of its plotting. Even when you consider yourself an impartial observer, Stranger Things has a way of pulling you in. I wanted to see if Stranger Things 2 could win over someone who was agnostic about its very existence.Īnd then I found myself shouting-yelping, really-at the television when a character left their gun on the table during the climactic standoff of “Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer” and walked straight into a supernatural war zone unarmed and suffered the inevitable consequences. I liked the troubling ambiguities of the first season’s epilogue as the grace note to a limited series, yet they didn’t leave me craving resolution.
#Stranger things season 2 episode 1 game they play professional#
They were, of course, the responsible things to ask as a professional observer of television at stake was Netflix’s ability to transmute a grassroots sensation into a sustainable flagship. Would Stranger Things be able to sustain the level of scrutiny that comes with popularity, a raft of Emmy nominations, and a full-blown aftershow? Could full-court-press promotion serve as an adequate substitute for word of mouth? In short: Would Stranger Things live up to the hype?įor the first five or so of Stranger Things 2’s nine episodes, such questions remained at the forefront of my viewing experience. When I fired up the season that Netflix and the Duffer brothers are insisting we call Stranger Things 2, franchise sequel-style, it was with equal parts curiosity and skepticism. I was thoroughly charmed by the universally and surprisingly strong performances from an ensemble of child actors, but couldn’t help but wince every time I saw a Verizon commercial or fashion spread featuring one of the newly minted tween celebrities.Įssentially, I’m down-the-middle on this show-neither wholly invested in its success nor cheering for its failure. I enjoyed the internet’s Barb obsession as much as anyone else, some traitorous colleagues excepted, but was sympathetic to the harshest critiques characterizing the show as a shallow pastiche. I liked the show well enough when it arrived on the scene as an unassuming summer entertainment, but the craze that followed-or seemed to follow, given that Netflix remains tight-lipped about quantitative data-blindsided and, if we’re being honest, somewhat confused me. If there’s an ideal test case for whether Stranger Things can replicate the bona fide phenomenon it became over the course of last year, I’d like to think I’m close to it.