“Stranger Things” season two was great even with the high expectations going in after the fantastic first season.

The new season takes place about a year after the events of the first season. Will (Noah Schnapp) is having visions of the upside-down world and soon, another “monster” from that world invades their world. The group of kids have to team up again to save their world from being destroyed. With all of this going on, we get to learn a lot more about the past of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). We get to see more about her mother and her struggles of being kept secret all this time.

The cast of this show continues to impress as everyone in this season gave a great performance. Brown gave another outstanding performance as Eleven. She was able to show the emotional struggle of being isolated from her friends and did a great job showing growth in her maturity from the first season.

Gaten Matarazzo, Finn Wolfhard and Caleb McLaughlin were all great in season two and were able to show the inner struggles of the group but Schnapp gave the best and most surprising performance of all the cast members. With such little time to prove his acting in the first season, no one was sure what to expect from him this time around but boy, did he deliver. He proved he could hold his own for the entire season by giving an emotional and haunting performance of being tortured by his past and by the new threat to their world.

For this season, three new characters were added to the show, and they all felt like they added something to the show. Sadie Sink was the new kid and her battle was to prove her value to the group. Sean Astin was also a welcome addition, playing the boyfriend of Will’s mom. His character was able to add a bit of humor to a lot of the serious situations.

Almost every episode was wonderful and added to the story. Episode seven has a few different opinions out there on whether or not it was necessary, but I understood why it was needed even though it messed with the flow of the season. The show provided the perfect amount of nostalgia, emotion and drama to make this season something to be excited to watch.

The one thing that held this season back from being better than season one was the fact that Eleven was not part of the main group for this season. Her story arc for this season was good but I missed the dynamic she brought the group and her interactions with Mike and the other guys.

Verdict:

With great acting by the whole cast and great new additions to the cast, this season is a great second season for the series. Only one episode felt like it messed with the flow, but it can be easily forgiven for everything else that was awesome. The soundtrack was also perfect for the show and is something to listen once you finish the show. Overall, I can’t wait for the third season!

8.5/10