Let me start by saying that I wasn't really impressed with season 1 of Stranger Things. To me it was basically a copy of the Twin Peaks seasons 1 and 2 story condensed in fewer episodes with a ton of references from other movies and series blended in as well. The debate on the use of references and appropriation is very dense and often left out to personal taste, so I'll leave that to you. Personally, I think that Stranger Things lacked on creating a mood (or having a "soul") of it's own from the very beginning, relying on using media from the 80's and the nostalgia associated to it. If you take that out, there's little left.
Now on to S2E1, "Madmax". I was curious to see how it'd follow up the season 1 finale. Many of the Netflix Originals Series' first seasons tend to end somewhat self-contained, with a few cliffhangers that won't have a great impact if the series is not renewed. Stranger Things had this happen on season 1, and the direct result is that it gives you a lot of freedom on what to do next, which can be both a good or a bad thing. Generally, there's less time to write episodes of a follow-up season than to write the ones for the first season, which in the case of Stranger Things is a test of the writers capability, that previously mostly relied on repurposing other works. Meanwhile, the third season of Twin Peaks (The Return), object of my comparison, aired in between both seasons of ST and proved to be a carefully crafted masterpiece.
So, after all that, how the episode turned out to be? Not great. It starts with a random action scene. I can't help but think there's more effective ways of introducing a new character, but since we as an audience are so used to shallow adrenaline-filled scenes, it goes unnoticed. Most of what happens with the main characters in this episode is a step backward to what happened in the last one. Almost a year has passed with apparently no particular reason other than maybe to soften the growing of the kid actors between seasons. The character development is so bland that it never felt like so much time has passed, it feels like the events happened yesterday and everyone just had some sort of short term memory loss. The only plus side was that Winona Ryder didn't act as a complete one-dimensional terrified-all- the-time mother this time.
What annoyed me the most in this episode was the number of scenes used to build up useless suspense. Hopper in the cornfield, Dustin and the trashcan, Will staring at the skies. All done with the most obvious, over used sound design choices. OK, we get it. Framing and camera operation also seemed to not have any concept to follow, as each composition style changed from scene-to-scene to "what looks good here" instead, so characteristic of commercial advertisement media. No wonder the show can sometimes feel like it's just a fashion trend.
4/10. Good for nostalgia, terrible in artistic value.
Now on to S2E1, "Madmax". I was curious to see how it'd follow up the season 1 finale. Many of the Netflix Originals Series' first seasons tend to end somewhat self-contained, with a few cliffhangers that won't have a great impact if the series is not renewed. Stranger Things had this happen on season 1, and the direct result is that it gives you a lot of freedom on what to do next, which can be both a good or a bad thing. Generally, there's less time to write episodes of a follow-up season than to write the ones for the first season, which in the case of Stranger Things is a test of the writers capability, that previously mostly relied on repurposing other works. Meanwhile, the third season of Twin Peaks (The Return), object of my comparison, aired in between both seasons of ST and proved to be a carefully crafted masterpiece.
So, after all that, how the episode turned out to be? Not great. It starts with a random action scene. I can't help but think there's more effective ways of introducing a new character, but since we as an audience are so used to shallow adrenaline-filled scenes, it goes unnoticed. Most of what happens with the main characters in this episode is a step backward to what happened in the last one. Almost a year has passed with apparently no particular reason other than maybe to soften the growing of the kid actors between seasons. The character development is so bland that it never felt like so much time has passed, it feels like the events happened yesterday and everyone just had some sort of short term memory loss. The only plus side was that Winona Ryder didn't act as a complete one-dimensional terrified-all- the-time mother this time.
What annoyed me the most in this episode was the number of scenes used to build up useless suspense. Hopper in the cornfield, Dustin and the trashcan, Will staring at the skies. All done with the most obvious, over used sound design choices. OK, we get it. Framing and camera operation also seemed to not have any concept to follow, as each composition style changed from scene-to-scene to "what looks good here" instead, so characteristic of commercial advertisement media. No wonder the show can sometimes feel like it's just a fashion trend.
4/10. Good for nostalgia, terrible in artistic value.