Well, i just binged Season 2 of Stranger Things, and today, that's what I talk about. I suppose, as always, II'll chat about what was the shit and what was shit.
This season added in a whole new bunch of new characters. One of the main ones, Max, basically replaced Eleven for the season, and let me tell you, she was... present. You know, she was there. She wasn't particularly funny, or charming, or likeable, and her character flickered between "I'm tool cool for you guys" and "Why won't you guys let me into your party?!" She just kind of acted as a placeholder for where a good character could've been.
Max's brother was... I don't know what they were going for here. At times, he was super understandable and sympathetic, such as when he was bullied by his dad. Or when he understandably said he'd ditch his sister if he kept being forced to wait for her, which I get. Or getting aggressive when a grown man was trying to hide his little sister in his house after she'd gone missing. Then, there were bits where he just hated Lucas and the main characters because the plot demanded it, acting like a complete and utter sociopath. I kept expecting an act of character development like S1 Steve got, but instead, we just get to see him humiliated and forced to repeat "I understand" by his sister, just like his father made him say. Fucking waste.
There was also the addition of Will. Yes, he became a character rather than an objective. I found him genuinely interesting as he tried dealing with his issues, the nightmares and all that, and he got to have some actual character interactions. He felt like one of the group. Unfortunately, this fell apart when he was taken by the Mind Flayer. For some reason, when being chased by the horrific Mind Flayer, he decided to act on Bob's advice and tell it to leave him alone. Yes, whine at the monster. This moment of stupidity led to countless deaths as he became evil or possessed or what have you, so fuck him. His ultimate moment of fighting back was telling the group to "Close the portal the monster is spewing from", which they should've guessed. Fuck Will.
Oh yeah, Bob. Bob was new. I loved Bob. Bob was really fun, and goofy, but intelligent and plot-driving. He seemed to genuinely care about everyone, and I really empathized with him. Then they killed him off in the most obvious manner, like a prick. Don't emotionally manipulate me, show. This was obvious, and manipulative. Fuck off. They should've kept Bob around.
There was also the huge group of the Evil Government Conspiracy. They were the best. They were somehow both sinister and mysterious, while remaining somehow fun and likeable. The replacement to Brenner seemed like he was heading down the path of Nice, but secretly evil, but instead he was just a nice, pragmatic man who covered up death and destruction for the greater good. They had a really cool flame thrower guy who had fun banter while being super badass inn fighting the evil dimension monsters. Unfortunately, most of them were killed near the end in an admittedly cool but wasted scene that could've been far better, so it was a shame. I always preferred it when the only survivors weren't just the main cast, and other people managed to get out. It made the events feel less focused on a small segment of the world.
Then, there was 8 and her band of rejects. A really cool group of outcasts who hunted down the government conspiracists. It was cool as shit, and we got a bit of them, but I wanted more. Oh yeah, and there was a fun conspiracy nut who I liked because he was actually super helpful and realistic.
The old characters pretty much across the got worse. The only exceptions that spring to mind was Steve. Steve in S1 was an asshole who turned out to be less than one-dimensional. Here, he was by far the most interesting of the teens. He was helpful, understandable and kind, and pretty badass in fighting off monsters. Good for him, that's development from an asshole to a cool guy.
The main party was... eh. Lucas was just kind of there doing nothing, so there's not much to be said about him. Mike was just hanging about for most of it. All he did was be a dick to Max, because apparently, missing Eleven meant you can't talk to other girls, ever. The tooth guy got teeth, which was fun, but then spent ages being a dumbass who thought he could befriend an evil monster from the hell dimension. What a fucking dumb cunt, it annoyed me how stupid he was.
Then, there was Eleven. For almost all of it, she was a dumb brat doing fuck all but whining. Then, she had a cool episode where she rolled with the criminals and got a badass new look, but ended up bitching out of killing the evil scientist to instead show mercy, which she sure didn't show to the far more innocent guards that she killed brutally in S1's finale. She was important in the finale I guess, but she should've died in the finale of S1. Not for good, necessarily, but keep her dead or gone or whatever. I think bringing her back was an act of cowardice on the part of the Duffer brothers, because they were scared of not using such a great character and actor for a season. Instead, they used her, and wasted her anyway.
Hopper and Winona Rider were OK. No real change there.
Nancy and Jonathan were just fucking terrible. They spent almost the entire season caring about Barb. People caring about Barb was a joke, she was an anti-party cunt no one liked and no one should've liked. It was cool seeing her parents and that, but then Nancy had to be a cunt to Steve, telling him she didn't love him at a party, and then running off with Jonathan to ruin the cool Government guys. She manages to use a meeting with the Head Scientist to find out they're preventing the nightmare world from spreading through the earth and killing everyone. Then, she decides to expose this to the world "For Barb" even though the Head Scientist explained how dangerous this was. She risked billions for fucking Barb. The actions lead to the government place closing down, which thankfully coincides with the destruction of the evil portal they guarded, but those nerds didn't plan for the portal to be destroyed. If something had went the other way, the portal would be abandoned and the monsters take over... for fucking Barb.
Just make a straw corpse for the family and finish the whole shit show there. Fuck the two of them, their cool, interesting personalities from S1 became "Will they, won't they?" in a story I didn't care about.
The monsters were... well, the Mind Flayer was shit cool, but the Demidogs were weak as shit, just a pale imitation of the demigorgon so they could reuse the design.
So that's what the Season was. Some cool stuff but a shit ton of wasted potential, and a lot of going downhill. I mean, it was pretty good, but there was just so much that could've been better that I was left feeling disappointed.
