Stranger days are here again
Things 2’s combination of multiple storylines, whip-smart dialogue and warm nostalgia makes for compelling, bingeworthy viewing, writes James Croot.
Netflix’s breakout show of 2016 is back. And while it might wear its 1980s inspirations on its sleeve, on its bedroom walls and in its very DNA, it’s a TV earworm from an earlier era that kept haunting me while treating myself to the first four episodes of Stranger Things 2
(streaming on Netflix from October
27).
‘‘They’re creepy and they’re kooky, Mysterious and spooky, They’re altogether ooky,’’ went the lyrics of the 1960s The Addams Family. The Duffer Brothers’ enveloping and engrossing sci-fi drama is filled with creepy characters, spooky moments and, this time around, some truly ooky visuals.
Events this time kick off on October 28, 1984, almost a year after the traumatic events of the end of season one. The boys are still missing their mage Eleven (Millie BobbyBrown) after she seemingly destroyed the ‘‘Upside Down’s’’ monster, Joyce (Winona Ryder) constantly worries about son Will’s (Noah Schnapp) health and state of mind and police department chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) continues to have concerns about the work of the nearby Hawkins Laboratory.
However, as the first episode, entitled Mad Max, opens, young Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) has far more pressing, personal concerns. Eagerly joining his mates at the arcade for another session of the hit new game Dragon’s Lair ,heis dismayed to discover his seemingly unbeatable Dig Dug high score has been usurped by a player called Mad Max. But as he attempts to track down this upstart gamer, Will experiences another ‘‘episode’’ – an unsettling
There are certainly enough visual horrors to disturb your sleep.
vision of the Upside Down.
Even more disturbing events though are playing out on the outskirts of town; pumpkin farmers are reporting that their crops have been turned into mush by some kind of blight. Initially they think it’s the work of their rivals, but Hopper suspects it could be something far more sinister.
As with the critically acclaimed and wildly popular first season,
Things 2‘s combination of multiple storylines, whip-smart dialogue (‘‘I feel like a viewmaster, caught between two slides,’’ opines Will) and warm nostalgia makes for compelling, binge-worthy viewing.
If JJ Abrams’ 2011 film Super 8 was the short story that harked back to the Spielbergian era of Goonies, Gremlins and E.T., then this is the second novel in what’s billed as a quadrilogy.
Naturally, it helps having the likes of Aliens‘ Paul Reiser, Beetlejuice‘s
Winona Ryder and The Goonies’ Sean Astin in key roles, but for Generation Xers like myself, this show is ripe for evoking reminiscences of a simpler time. Whether it’s arguing over who is going to be Ghostbusters’ Winston for Halloween or debating what chocolate bar rules, I challenge anyone who grew up in the 1980s not to be reminded of their own childhood while watching this.
That said though, Stranger Things 2 really doesn’t trade in warm glows; it’s all about cold chills. As one of the boys says, ‘‘this isn’t DandD [Dungeons and Dragons], it’s real
life’’.
There are certainly enough visual horrors to disturb your sleep and more than enough mystery to keep you glued to the action and convince anyone you’re sharing the viewing with to watch just ‘‘one more’’ before bedtime.