Stranger Things 2 Series Review

I watched this series within all of my Friday night and early Saturday morning. I didn't want to stop. I didn't want to spare any time to not finishing the series. I was hooked from start to finish. If that doesn't sell you on the show enough, I don't know what will.

Stranger Things 2 picks up a year and change after the conclusion of its predecessor. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are enjoying 8th grade and moving on up in the world. Joyce Byers is happy as can be, with an excellent new boyfriend in Bob Newby, and Will Byers has returned from the upside down and is enjoying his time back home, but his abduction and experience haunts him to no end. The central plot revolves around the fact that Will is still seeing terrifying things from the upside down. And while the government working with the Byers family, and everyone around him, suspect that Will is simply suffering from PTSD, we, the audience, know that it's just the beginning of another evil entity trying to enter our world.

The show's start-up into the sequel is an absolute joy, with introducing just enough when it comes to new characters, plot points, and dynamics at play that one doesn't feel like the show is going overboard trying to out-do itself. Rather, every aspect of the show feels like a deliberate evolution of the previous season, as well within itself. The most fun aspect of Stranger Things is how it took known tropes from 1980's filmmaking and subverted it ever-so-slightly to give it a different feeling: the 80's coming-of-age story a la Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the alien encounter story of Eleven and the boys paying homage to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and Joyce's seemingly insane visions and encounters that reflect Close Encounters of the Third Kind are just a few that make the series that much more special.

The acting definitely helps the engagement of the show, though. It almost seems like Winona Ryder was waiting her whole life for the role of Joyce Byers, because she throws everything she's got into the role and emerges one of the strongest players of the show. David Harbor's delivery of Jim Hopper is always welcome, being the archetypal macho-man that the show needs, but the character himself isn't too inspired. The biggest, most pleasant surprise comes from Noah Schnapp playing Will Byers, who was relatively unseen in the previous series (because, y'know, the plot revolved around him missing). Out of all the kid actors, including strong newcomer Sadie Sink playing the all-around badass Max, Noah Schanpp has outshined nearly every single cast member, including fan-favorite Millie Bobby Brown playing Eleven. As the focal point of the series, I was absolutely thrilled to learn more about him, considering his absence in the first season. Noah is able to be just as intense as any adult actor, but gives off an authentic innocence that doesn't seem fake. Will Byers is absolutely the star here, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The special effects were somewhat lacking, I found. Where Stranger Things succeeded in acting as though they had the same special effect techniques and limitations of the '80s, Stranger Things 2 goes for more ambitious visuals that don't always pay off. The Mind Flayer's effects don't always work, particularly when he's in the Upisde Down with other actors involved. It's nothing especially bad, but it is considerably more noticeable compared to when the kids were just interacting with the Demogorgon.


 There's one more issue I have with Stranger Things 2, but because it's plot-related, I'm gonna save it for another post. Just throwing it out there that there's a plot issue in there from my perspective.

Despite the minor gripes I have with Stranger Things 2, I think the series has been elevated to a new level of complexity, action, and intrigue. Like I said, I stayed up late at night and well into the following morning because I was so invested in what I was watching, which is something I don't usually do when it comes to Netflix shows. This series is one of the best-produced in modern day. It seriously rivals the enjoyment I get from shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. If you have the means, don't delay - go watch!

Rating: 9/10

Stranger Things Review

A full year late for a review isn't half as bad as two full years late, when you think about it.

As a kid of the 2000's era, I cannot tell you how infuriating it is to constantly hear kids of the 80's whine and moan about how "nothing is as good as it was back then." I constantly HATE having my era and all its joys crapped on by the people in entertainment media who act so high-and-mighty that their nostalgia for a technologically-dry, socially-uneven, and disconnected time overshadows the amazing benefits and enjoyments that we find today. But I can safely say this: Stranger Things makes me understand their yearning for the 80's just a little bit better.

Stranger Things is one of those shows that you would think would be a hidden gem tucked away on some network like SyFy. The benefit of this series is that it has the budget and the support of Netflix, which allows the series to thrive. The best description I can give of this show is that it's a hodgepodge of the best of 80's cinema and culture: imagine if E.T., The Goonies, and Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind combined the most prominent elements of each of their films: the ominously hyper-aware government organizations, the group of kids on a whirlwind adventure, and the themes surrounding friendship, family, and love that permeate the story with weight and stakes. Stranger Things is an 8-episode journey that perfectly balances the horror, humor, and reality that kids and adults can face when presented with situations beyond their imagination; whether it's losing your child, your brother, your friend, or dealing with finding maturity in the midst of the action.

The acting is supremely superb from this group of young actors. What can sometimes be difficult when having child actors is getting them to emote the right way, or display the necessary facial cues that can help make dialogue or action believable. I won't say that each scene with the kids is nailed with perfection, but Stranger Things definitely displays the best child acting in a storytelling medium since the original The Conjuring film. And while certainly a lot of credit goes to those kids for their acting, the casting of these kids mixed with their effortless chemistry has to be taken into the account as to how their dynamics work. They act like real kids. They're somewhat flighty, they're self-interested when they think they can be, they're bold, they're dynamic, and their personalities clash. The acting from the adult actors like Winona Ryder and David Harbour is definitely stellar, but the series hangs on the abilities of the kids, and they deliver in spades.

Stranger Things is hard, in a sense, to unpack beyond an acting and thematically points of view thanks to the fact that it's seeping in mystery and mythology, as well as taking on at least three or four different character arcs all at once. It's a smartly told story, filled to the brim with character and narrative that's easy to follow without being overbearing or incomprehensible. This review, admittedly, will be short, thanks to the fact that I have no intention of spoiling the fun. If you are a Netflix subscriber, this is the first must-see on the service. And luckily enough, you'll have the opportunity to watch the second season immediately after the first. So stop reading this! Go watch Stranger Things!

Rating: 10/10*

*A 10/10 does not indicate a perfect score, but the score attributed to a masterpiece of modern work.

DC's Change into more Palpable Material: Reaction to the Justice League Trailer

Most people have consistently criticized DC Films for their dependency on darker, more serious themes compared to their rivals at Marvel Studios. While there can certainly be some hindrance to the identity of a franchise by gearing the films encompassing it in a dark overtone, I had never found that to personally be the issue with DC Films. Man of Steel was certainly not the happy-go-lucky Superman story many people are familiar with, but it succeeded in analyzing what a Superman in the real world might look like: how he might impact the lives of others, what his fears and doubts about his affect on the world might be. For all of the criticisms of Man of Steel and director Zack Snyder (and it's got it's fair share of criticism to have), it most certainly isn't the fault of the tone that the film fails in areas.


The same can be said for Zack Snyder's follow-up, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Folks might have been burned out with the dark and edgy DC Films tone (again, another fair critique since that's what we were exposed to in all DC films after The Dark Knight), but it's my opinion that the tone is not the primary problem of the versus film. The ultimate issue of BvS was its muddled plot, mixed with tons of exposition in the effort to set up the several films that would follow it. Not only that, but the disconnect in messaging from the film to the audience, in terms of expectations for the film's overall goal, was completely mishandled. Batman V Superman can certainly be described as a mess, but the tone definitely isn't the primary issue.


Enter Suicide Squad, a DC Film that arrived just 6 months after Batman V Superman, and give it to a studio so desperate to seem appealing to its audience that the retroactively edit what most likely would've been a dark, devious film featuring B-level DC Comics villains teaming up to go on a live-or-death mission mandated by a shady government organization, and change the tone of the film to be somewhat of a dark action-comedy featuring great musical hits every 7 minutes. The issues with Suicide Squad are actually more easily identifiable, in the splintered story, weak antagonist, and mismatched direction. And while I personally love Suicide Squad, I'm not going to bury my head in the sand and pretend not to see it's problems.  But the tone is not one of them.


Wonder Woman thus gave audiences what they were clamoring for: a hero to support, to get behind, because Wonder Woman herself saw the best humanity could offer, and fought for it. Not dissimilar to a classical Superman or the modern Captain America, Wonder Woman restored the idea that the world is worth saving not because it happens to be the place where we live, but because the beings that live on it are capable of great things. And unlike the modern Superman, Wonder Woman was able to see that from the beginning, despite her own tribulations with them. Nevertheless, Wonder Woman was the DC Film audiences responded to the best, and DC executives most likely attributed that to the tone of hope.


So, we now see a Justice League film advertising both stakes and lighthearted fun: a Batman that is more charismatic, a Flash that cracks wise, a rock-star Aquaman. The color palette is of a brighter, more vibrant choice. The camera seems to be shooting sharper, clearer imagery. The CGI seems to be the best DC has had thus far. Justice League offers a culmination of a story started since 2013's Man of Steel, with both a change in identity of the franchise and attitude to filmmaking.

Now, this could also be because previous director Zack Snyder had to step down due to a family tragedy, and director Joss Whedom (The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron) has since made his mark on the film. Both are comic book fans, both grew up reading comics like The Justice League of America, but it's clear that Joss likes to stick more in the realm of comic books when creating his superhero projects, while Zack takes after Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy) and tries to ground his films as much as he can, while remaining true to the comic book aesthetic. Clearly, DC Films, tired of losing to their competitor in the critics' favor, have taken it upon themselves to borrow more elements that make Marvel films fan favorites than they originally planned.

I'll say this much: Justice League looks fun. It looks like high-octance, action-packed, superhero fun. The cast looks great, I'm interested in seeing how the humor turns out, and I'm engaged in seeing where this franchise goes as a result of the new direction, both in the overall tone and the narrative results of the film. I only hope that DC doesn't become "Marvel 2" as a result of them reading the wrong signals from the audience. Dark is okay. Dark can even be good! Look at the Marvel-Netflix TV series like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, it can be done well. DC Films doesn't have to sacrifice it's entire identity as a film series just because people are misconstruing the problems with their films. Again, Justice League looks like it's gonna be a good time at the movies, but I just wish it wasn't so obviously a change in trying to steal some of the Marvel glory.

Then again, the entire idea of a DC Film franchise was stolen from Marvel, so maybe this was the natural turn of events.