Writing in a Dark Room

I was pretty psyched to see the new season of Stranger Things show up on Netflix yesterday. I loved season 1, so of course I had to dive into season 2 as soon as I could. My thoughts on it so far, four episodes in (hey, I gotta sleep sometime)…

Someone posted on Facebook that season 2 made them appreciate season 1 so much more. Truer words have rarely been spoken.

Season 1 started off with an old school horror rush of blaring alarms, flickering emergency lights, and a guy running for his life. Wow. I was hooked.

Season 2 starts off with . . . a car chase and a group of bank robbers. Huh?

There’s the implication that one of them has powers like Eleven, but four episodes in, I’m still trying to figure out why that’s what the writers chose as the lead-off. It seems to have very little to do with the plot in general.

The story doesn’t really start to get interesting until late in episode 2. Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of the tension and magical writing that was the hallmark of season 1 is gone.

I may finish the series tonight. Whenever I do, I’ll share my final thoughts. It’s a pretty short season — just nine episodes total — so finishing it in the next tv session shouldn’t be hard.

AM