MovieChat Forums > Stranger Things (2016) Discussion > Season 2: Far more derivative than Seaso...

Season 2: Far more derivative than Season 1

posted 6 years ago by Mikey (415)
7 replies | jump to latest

I have watched the first three episodes of Season 2 and I am having a really hard time getting into it. It is one thing to pay "homage" to films of the 80s, but when everything you do is somehow connected to the works of someone else, it starts to pull you out of the story, and that is the big problem I am having with season 2. It seems very "self-conscious" or aware of Season 1's success and is more intent on capitalizing on that than good story telling. (To be honest, I felt Season 1 started to fall apart about half way through the season.)
But now everything in this series is an "homage" to something else and the creators are trying to do a "Did you notice this?" game of one-upmanship. The police uniforms are exactly like the ones from JAWS, that gooey stuff is right out of ALIENS, the moving clouds with lights are from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, the Ghostbusters costumes, the Reagan/Bush signs, the songs. It's too much --it is almost like you can see the creators saying "Let's put this in here to remind everyone of this" and it just overpowers the whole endeavor.

[–] Bowilly (171) 6 years ago

The way this show pays homage to the 80s is one of the biggest attractions for me. There’s a lot of truth in what you are saying though and of course the story is not for everyone. I’m mainly interested in the story of Eleven, the 80s references are cool, but I don’t find them necessary or distracting in the telling of her story. This show has a vast audience so its likely they will continue the process that made the show a huge success. I do have a complaint about the show which is a little different than yours, I find Joyce’s character very annoying particularly in Season One.

[–] Reaperscout (588) 6 years ago

Season 2 takes like 4 episodes to get going, which I kind of didn’t like. Season 1 took off immediately and kept things interesting. Plus it got right to the main plot. Season 2 though takes 3-4 episodes setting up all the subplots first while teasing the main plot. But even when things get going, I liked Season 1’s plot more. But to argue why I think Season 2 is a better season is because of the season’s ending. The season has the ending a lot of fans wanted for Season 1. But because of Season 2’s ending, I kind of feel that Season 1 and 2 are actually just one giant season broken into two parts. Season 1 had a better plot, but Season 2 had a much better ending. Heck, it was almost like a series finale, although a few things still weren’t wrapped up.

I felt there was just as many 80’s references in Season 2 as there were in 1, so I didn’t find it that big of a deal. But they could’ve gotten things going a lot sooner than the second half of the fourth episode. Also, I’m not tearing apart the 7th episode of Season 2. I actually enjoyed it, but I feel it could’ve been edited into the season a little better. I’m sure they could’ve edited Episodes 5 thru 8 a little better. That way fans wouldn’t hate the 7th episode as much. But maybe they might like it more if they rewatch the season knowing how things play out in the season.

[–] nauru-1 (160) 6 years ago

The snowball is great, but I would argue season 1 had a much more complete ending in other ways. All the character arcs from the season wrapped up very neatly and the necessary time was taken to settle things down after the climax. Season 2, by comparison, had so many things going during the final act and then immediately jump forward a month later without some of those elements ever getting resolved or getting the proper breathing room. It'd be like instead of having the scene of Will in the hospital in season 1, we immediately went from El disappearing/Hopper resuscitating Will to them playing D&D.

[–] DarthRoger (867) 6 years ago

Yeah, I quit watching season 2 of Stranger Things for most of the reasons you mention.

Despite the over saturation of hype that NetFlix and the cast members put out there, the problem with the second season is that's it's more of the same, like they're trying to re-create the mystery and suspense of the first season.
It doesn't work.
Even when I was trying to focus on the story, it couldn't keep my interest.

I'd hoped they would go in a different direction, maybe go to another town and give us a whole new cast and plot to follow. Sadly, I guess the Duffer Brothers are a one trick pony. Stranger Things, Season 2 is nothing more than an attempt to replicate the original story from Season 1.

Nothing to see there really.

[–] nauru-1 (160) 6 years ago

I actually see the biggest strength of the show as being the particular core group of characters, so not sure if I agree that a radical shift in focus would do the show well. I would have been cool with them mixing up the plot more than they did, but I wouldn't say season 2 had the same tone as season 1.

[–] xfool (932) 6 years ago

The El's sister episode is the most interesting, I bet next season its her turn to look for El to get help

[–] DracTarashV2 (4480) 6 years ago

I am amused by and just love the way they made Max sorta break the fourth wall and poke fun at these exact complaints of the show (her opinion of Lucas’ “story” perfectly describes this thread). Brilliant.