Sometimes it’s easy to be the victorious underdog – you swoop in virtually unannounced, and before you know it, you’ve caught the adoration of the crowd thanks to a cool idea and the element of surprise. However, following up that first grandstanding play is where the mettle is really tested, after all, your audience is not only expecting you now, but the also expect more – will you measure up, or shrink beneath the withering gaze?
It’s now time for Stranger Things to undergo the test of the sophomore season as it returns from it’s red hot debut on Netflix; but the question has to be asked: can the long suffering denizens of Hawkins manage to do the double and repeat the dizzying mixture of intrigue, horror, sci-fi and the flat out plunder of almost every cool 80s trope you can think of? With new threats and characters abound, it’s time for Stranger Things to once again get Upside-Down and boogie.
A little under a year after some pretty weird shit went down in Hawkins, Indiana, the town readies itself for Halloween and the people who found themselves caught up in a goverment conspiracy involving doorways to other dimensions and little girls who can flip vans with their minds are just trying to move on with their lives. Most directly affected by multidimensional monsters and an extended stay in the neighbouring dark universe known as the Upside-Down was young Will Byers, but after being returned, he’s plagued by visions of the other realm during his waking hours. While his friends, Mike, Lucas and Dustin do the best that they can to cheer him up, the real surprise is that lab responsible is under new management, and while they’re still keeping the existence of the Upside-Down a secret, Dr. Sam Owens sees Will regularly to make sure he’s OK.
Elsewhere, the other players go on about their lives. Mike still misses Eleven after her supposed sacrifice; Lucas and Dustin become obsessed about the new girl at school, Max; Joyce has gotten herself a boyfriend in the form of cheesy nice guy Bob and Hopper is still deflecting any questions that arise concerning the events from a year ago. However, Nancy (who is still dating the haircut that walks, Steve Harrington) is starting to have problems continuing to lie to Barb’s parents about the disappearance of their daughter as she met her end at the claws of a monster dubbed the Demogorgon.
Of course, while everything seems normal, there are tiny clues that things are starting to get strange again. Will’s visions of a huge, tentacled cloud monster are getting more violent; a group of young bank robbers in Pittsburgh avoid the police with some mind powers and a familiar tattoo that reads “008” and something bizarre is snuffling around Dustin’s bins. But surely the most seismic reveal is that not only is Eleven alive, but she’s been living with Hopper the entire time.
The return of Stranger Things for its second season seems to come with a swagger of confidence, and why not? Didn’t the first season manage to pierce the public consciousness with Eleven cos plays and elaborate, homemade mockups of the Demogorgon popping up all over social media feeds? Better yet, didn’t the Duffer Brothers somehow channel their gimmick of performing Grand Theft Culture of the early 80s into something that felt vital, new and fresh? However, those thinking that Stranger Things 2 was going to come out of the gates swinging might be a tad disappointed as the opening episode (prologue aside) chooses to take things extraordinarily slow and measured.
We shouldn’t have been surprised really, I’m mean, wasn’t one of the best things about the first season the fact that the whole mystery grew episode by episode from very small, but decidedly malevolent seeds? As a result, MADMAX firmly establishes a sense of barely renewed normalcy as we go round from cast member to cast member to check in with all thoughts familiar faces and lay out the new normal. In fact, drama wise there isn’t that much to truly review. Mike is sad, Nancy is guilty, Hopper’s trying to resume every bad habit he’s ever had and Joyce actually seems to be happy for a change – however, unsurprisingly, it’s the new faces that provide the intrigue here. Filling that “80s face” niche that Winona Ryder capably embodied in season one is a full fledged Goonie in the form of Sean Austin’s affable Bob and and – in an especially smart spot of stunt casting – Paul Reiser as the seemingly friendly new face of Hawkins National Laboratory. Reiser, of course, was most memorable as corporate slimeball, Carter Burke, in Aliens, so the fact that he’s playing the seemingly humanitarian face to a facility that has an impressively long list of illegal human testing and other various shady deals makes you genuinely unsure whether you can trust a single word that comes out of his lie-hole.
The final new addition to the cast (aside from the criminal gang with mind powers – but we’ll get to them later) is Maxine “Max” Mayfield, the new tomboy in town who not only rocks Lucas and Dustin’s worlds – and Dig-Dug scores – by the fact that she’s a girl who plays video games and that she comes equipped with a take no shit attitude. She also comes complete with an older brother whom she is frequently seen arguing with who rocks the full mullet/mustache/denim combo and seems like a bit of a rage filled psycho, but details for now seem a bit scarce.
The main news here however is that Eleven is not only alive, but has been sort of adopted by Hopper who was last seen leaving out food for the superpowered child in the snow and the sight of this union, even though it’s barely a scene, manages to kick like a damn mule. Even though Eleven and Hopper barely spent any scenes together, the fact that both of them have lost so much means that this unofficial daddy/daughter union feels so unbearably right and incredibly poignant and I literally can’t wait to get more of it. But aside from that, all the Duffer Brothers seemingly want to achieve with this first episode is something of a basic welcome back to Hawkins while keeping the Stranger parts of Stranger Things strictly in the background for the time being. Of course, in the age of binge viewing, you don’t have to start your season with all guns blazing as people will no doubt consume the first half of an entire season without even thinking about it – but it’s still admirable that the Duffers feel that it’s important for the season to once again start deceptively small.
Of course, with that being said, the opening sequence that sees a bunch of bank thieves who dress like the Lost Boys and who features a member who can Professor X her way out of a car chase obviously raises more questions than it answers right now – but then question answering isn’t in this first episode’s agenda right now. However, it’s a testament to the show and how beloved it’s characters have already become that this simple welcome back is more than enough to whet our appetites. For now.
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