Stranger Things - Season 2

Watching Stranger Things 2 is akin to letting a wave of ’80s pop-culture nostalgia wash over you, carrying you back to movies and shows you loved from your childhood. The Duffer Brothers have created a fascinating entertainment phenomenon by mining so much of what people loved about the era. While some of the winks and references in Stranger Things 2 are quite upfront — James Cameron, Stephen King, and Steven Spielberg definitely come to mind — others may have slid under your radar. Let us guide the way through the pop-culture tunnels that run throughout Hawkins, Indiana.
Every Major Pop-Culture Reference in Stranger Things 2, From A to Z

When Nancy got off her face at the party and went to say those words to Steve about their relationship, I was facepalming and thinking she's not going to get remember anything at next morning, but Steve's going to be mighty pissed. That scene was so real life that I felt sorry for Nancy.
 
I thought it was a homage to Elm Street, Friday 13th and all other nasty horror movies, especially as they show young adults getting drunk and partying, while the monster prowls outside waiting for opportunity.

Eleven being held in a government run testing lab with guys in white coats chasing after the boys in Season 1... And you wonder why I automatically think X-Files lolz.

But in Season 2, they had a bunch of cigarette smoking men in a room, not just one!
 
We found ST on Netflix and binge watched season one. Then found season two and just ripped through it all. It kind of reminds me of 80s teen movies like Gremlins, the Goonies and it has a lot of Stand By Me/IT in there. Looking forward to season 3...
 
I have gone through 7 of the series 2 episodes. I agree with Bugg that episode 7 with its different focus isn't as good as the others. But it's still decent. The first 6 episodes are near perfection. This is an amazing show. Inspired by, but improves upon, 80s classics. There are very few scenes that aren't excellent. I could do without some of the shy, cheesy romance scenes between two young adult characters who aren't key really. But it is part of the fun.
 
My wife and I watched season one on the recommendation of our daughter. Wound up watching the entire season over five work nights.

Couldn't wait for season two's release. It hit and we watched it all starting on a Friday night and finishing the next day.

Very good TV.
 
I've been watching one a week, got to the last ep on Christmas eve (which was handy, seeing as it was a Christmas ep!). Excellent, super tense episode.
 
After binge watching season 1, I've just also finished season 2. I thought season 2 was better. The pace was certainly faster. I also found season one "derivative," just as Madmax said when Lucas told her the story.
season 1 was more X-files ripoff.
I thought it was a homage to Elm Street, Friday 13th and all other nasty horror movies, especially as they show young adults getting drunk and partying, while the monster prowls outside waiting for opportunity.
Not to mention Scanners (1980) and E.T. (1982) and Gremlins (1984) and Super Eight (2011) and, so many other movies. Though the 1980's homage is surely part of the appeal?
I thought season 2 was more original. I even liked the episode 7 everyone seems to hate. That was an important episode to have. 011 was very naive. She would be, having spent her childhood in captivity. How else was she going to learn to be streetwise and get worldly wise. She learnt about her mother and that gave her something to be angry about. 008 taught her how to focus her anger to increase her powers. However, she could not kill the ex-orderly with the children. He was a cruel and brutal man, but killing him would be murder, and she has only killed in self-defence before. The episode taught her about who she is.
IF there is going to be Season 3. At the moment the story ends quite well.
See, at the end of series 1 I thought it was so perfect that they'd definitely ruin it if they commissioned a series 2. Ho-hum, I was proven wrong (and happily proven wrong, I hasten to add).
Season 1 left many threads behind to pick up - the mother, the gorgondog that went down the sink, the fate of 011, the gate still being open. Season 2 has not left much. The thing is still above the school in upsidedown land, but it has no way to get through to ours. I expect that Season 3 will be quite different, with some more focus on 001 through to 011. That doesn't mean it will be bad (as far as I am concerned as I love psionic battles) but I'd doubt those who disliked episode 7 will be pleased if it turns into The Tomorrow People.
There is a lot to be told on why Eleven and Will are such a special kids.
Wasn't Will's ability simply because he survived so long in upsidedown land and because the thing got inside him? Maybe you could say he was special because he survived when others (Barb) did not?
011 and 008 are the result of drug trials on pregnant women. That was established early on in season 1 and is the same plot as Scanners).
I wonder, will it be exactly one year from season two ending as Chief Hopper indicated? If it happens around next Halloween, does it mean that there's so sort of ritual that opened the tear to our world in the first place?
I hadn't thought about the significance, but maybe the anniversary is important. Why would that be? It is just a man-made dating system?
You may be correct though. The portal/gate opening on the same day every year would be a SFF trope quite in-fitting with the other tropes in this series.
I'll now begin watching season 3 and find out, as I have that advantage.
 
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Wasn't Will's ability simply because he survived so long in upsidedown land and because the thing got inside him? Maybe you could say he was special because he survived when others (Barb) did not?

Exactly. Will survived and Barb disappeared, therefore it is likely that Will is somehow special, just like Eleven. He is also able to see the monsters, where as others not so much. They are like normal people, even if they are at the centre of unnatural events.
 
Not started Season 3 yet. I'm catching up on other things. Can I ask a spoilery question here? Barb is dead, right? We saw her real dead body? She hasn't gone somewhere in UpsideDownLand to become the bride of the Thing? Just asking! Because that actress was dealt a really bad hand getting written out of such a popular series so early.

I also read that they started filming season 2 almost immediately after season 1, because the child actors were ageing very fast. Season 3 doesn't have such a luxury, so I'm thinking that it will be very different just for that reason alone.
 
Barb is dead, right? We saw her real dead body?

We never saw the real body. Only assumed that she was taken by the first monster.

Season 3 doesn't have such a luxury, so I'm thinking that it will be very different just for that reason alone.

The kids are a bit more grown up, but not supremely so. It all makes still sense, as they're mostly in the age, where they start to get interested in the opposite sex. In the first two season, there's no real relationships, just an adventure and the grown up stuff is with the adults.

Season 3 is more of a classical conspiracy, and totally unexplainable by the history and real world. The upsidedown world is more of a parallel dimension that the Department of Energy taps into in their experimental. We know that these things happen in the real world, and the first two seasons can be explained by paranormal science means, whilst the next one is more of espionage scifi.

Thing about the espionage SF is that there not much about it out there, and I don't classify James Bond or Jason Bourne as such even if they utilise SF terms in their productions. It's just in the first two seasons of Stranger Things the Department of Energy plays that role, whilst in the next one it's reversed as a twist to the original storyline. If they continue on this track and allow kids to become teenagers at the turn of 90's, it's cool but there's not much future, if they'll keep dropping important people every season, because it creates problems.
 
We never saw the real body. Only assumed that she was taken by the first monster.
I'm sure there was a body under a pile of bones. When Will was first missing and they were looking for him. However, it might have been a dream sequence from Will or out of body experience of Eleven, and so it might not have been real.

I skipped over the other stuff you wrote.
 
So, I've just watched the first two seasons (courtesy of recent subscription to Netflix) and found them really gripping. I've also loved spotting the use of ideas from so many sources without it ever appearing cliched (other than the episode when Eleven meets Kali and her gang) - LOTR, Buffy, Close Encounters, ET, for starters, though I haven't watched many of the other references listed earlier in this thread.
One of the key things for me has been that the blood and gore has not been overdone, and that there's felt a certain safety/surety in believing everything will turn out OK in the end.
I've also been very good about not looking up anything that could give me hints as to what might happen next....
 
And I've now watched the first two episodes of "Beyond Stranger Things 2". While interesting, I doubt that I'll watch any further episodes. It all seemed a bit manic and overexcited with relatively little new information. It also definitely felt a bit odd seeing the actors being themselves (well, performing as themselves for the camera) after watching their characters onscreen.
One thing I found worrying/sad: Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) said that she found filming the scene with Brenner (the mind projection from Kali) so upsetting that afterwards she cried for 45 minutes in the lavatory. This seemed to be completely new information to others on the panel - Shawn Levy the director, and the Duffer Brothers.
 
Re Beyond Stranger Things Season 2
Despite my post above, I've now watched all seven episodes and, while I didn't learn much about Stranger Things, I thought they became less manic and more watchable as the series progressed.
In the seventh and last episode Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) was actually given occasional space to be heard, and spoke very articulately about how she saw her relationship with Brenner/Papa. These thoughts appeared to be a complete surprise to the director, Shawn Levy, and to the Duffer Brothers. Perhaps she had been coached in her role and motivation by others during production, but, given that she was only thirteen years old at the time of filming these episodes, I thought she came across as remarkably thoughtful and perceptive.
 
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