Bigger, darker and as mesmerising as ever
Last year, Stranger Things (Netflix) was a slow-burning success. It arrived with relatively little fanfare in July but by the end of the summer it had become one of the year’s most-talked about TV shows. It felt as authentically Eighties as the contemporary Steven Spielberg and Stephen King films that it so lovingly emulated but managed to be one of the most unique, fresh and creative shows in years.
The psychokinetic Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who last year had escaped from a laboratory that did experiments on her, is very much back this season. And we see much more of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), the unfortunate – and now rather traumatised – soul who spent most of the first series stuck in the creepy Upside Down.
Schnapp proves himself to be just as enviably talented as his young co-stars – who all wowed just about everybody with their performances last year. We find Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will’s sensitive best friend, struggling to move on nearly as much Will and pining hard for the presumed-dead Eleven. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is as garrulous, nerdy and charming as before, still frequently getting the best lines and now with a complete set of teeth, while Lucas (Caleb Mclaughlin) remains as cautious, cool and dynamic.
Winona Ryder, as the anguished but resourceful mother of Will, is now understandably reluctant to let him out of her sight. But there is some light in her life. She has a new boyfriend in the form of fellow Eighties child star Sean Astin (The Goonies), who plays the brainy and affable manager of the local Radioshack with an everyman appeal.
The usual teenage camaraderie and humour is there, but the Duffer brothers have ramped up the horror. After what are a fairly benign opening few episodes, the sinister tension and the gore (though mercifully still on the right side of too much), drips and then flows. To any who are wondering if this season is scary, the answer is yes.
Not all new additions work perfectly – later there is a detour outside the small town of Hawkins that succumbs to hokey cliché. But the attention to detail, both in period set-pieces and plotline complexity, remains as mesmerising as the electronic score. The Duffer brothers have promised that this season will be bigger, darker and scarier – and they deliver in spades.