The success of Season 2 Stranger Things

Stranger Things Season 2 is actually better than we'd thought it would be; Season 1 was fresh and imaginative and ending on a pretty sharp note, and so many of these miniseries are unable to build on the first season and most just shrivel up and die the quiet death of non-renewal - but Season 2 of Stranger Things, at least at the half-way point, keeps up the nice spirit of the first season. Most of all the show is about the kids and their friendly, slightly nerdy relationships, and that carries on really well, even w/ the isolation of the central figure in Season 1 - Eleven - who unfortunately has only a peripheral role in this season. (The young actor who takes on the mantle of the one girl in the guy-group is a little too cool and pretty for the part, I think.) Winona Ryder carries on with her role as the mom outraged and frightened by what's happening to her son, Will - she's great for the part, as is a new character, her kind of goof and insecure boyfriend, Bob. I'd also say that the technical scenes - that is, largely, the goings on the "upside down" world are more sophisticated visually and musically than in Season 1 - budget must have been upped. All this, though, goes with a caveat: The series is good as long as you never stop to think about it, as the premise of this government-sponsored lab of evil doctors and scientists who manage to create some weird fungal virus that various appears as lizard- or slug-like creatures or as a mass of slime or as something like a giant spider or - I don't know - none of it makes any sense nor is it credible for a minute, but the point of a series like this is to just give in and let it take you were it will. ST works because it never takes itself too seriously (compare with, say, Glitch, which tries too hard to be credible) and stays close to the kids-eye-view.