Stranger Things: Better, the less you think about it

In short, Stranger Things (Season 2) is better the less you think about it; the plot - building on Season 1 - in which monsters and monstrous forces generated by a secret government installation in central Indiana are threatening to multiply and destroy the nearby town and beyond, and they somehow devour the consciousness of some of the children whom come into contact w/ them (never mind that in Season 1 the nefarious nature of the government agents involves capturing newborns and treating them like lab rats in hopes - successful - of endowing them w/ supernatural powers), is entirely incidental. The show is about good folks v evil forces, about a mother in distress and a couple of good men who risk and even give up their lives to protect and save others and most of all about a group of teenagers who work together to fight the evil monsters as they do battle w/ the equally strange, alien forces of adolescence. The greatest character is Eleven, subject of the mind-control experiments who has escaped from the government lab and now wants nothing more than a normal teenage life, but she can't quite decode all the messages of the world around her - taking undo risks, struggling to understand friendship and, later, the first blush of teenage love and affection. Unfortunately, Eleven plays less of a role in Season 2, but she still dominates the story line whenever she touches it. Despite the strong production values, the supernatural elements of the story make no real sense, but never mind - these series is really about people, and as such it rings true. The Duffer Brothers, writers and creators and directors of some of the episodes including the season finale, have a great sense for how kids talk and think and interact, they touch the right moments without getting overly sentimental or cliched, and they have a good sense of the period (circa 1980) as well. Thought the conclusion of Season 2 wraps up almost all of the loose strands, the door for another season was left ajar - I suspect we'll see more of these kids until they outgrow their roles.