Tween Terrors - Stranger Things Season 2

 


Published in FEED magazine - Issue 9: November 2017

Fear comes in all different forms, and growing up can create a whole new level of fear in many folk. Your body is changing. You aren’t a child anymore, but are nowhere near adulthood. You feel the pressure from school, your parents and your friends. Sounds pretty horrendous right? Well imagine you had to face bloodthirsty alien beings from another dimension, intent on breaking through from the other side! Welcome to Stranger Things. A world set in the 80's in the fictional town of Hawkins,Indiana, where creatures truly go bump in the night. Netflix has just released Season 2 of Stranger Things, and have amped up every aspect from Season 1. (Some spoilers for the Season 1 and hints to Season 2 ahead)…

Stranger Things became a smash hit last year, with an estimated 22 million streams worldwide. It pulled viewers in with its delicious 80's beats, mysterious government cover-ups and compelling characters. The show begins its journey with four best friends and self proclaimed nerds: Will (Noah Schnapp) Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin).

After a group game of Dungeons and Dragons, the boys split and head to their own homes. When Will arrives home, something is lurking in his backyard, and it has a taste for blood.

The fear of the unknown can make us feel fascinated, and at the same time, mortified. In the context of television, a world like Hawkins can be built up slowly, with a mystery slowly unravelling. What first seems like a standard creature feature becomes so much more, once the air of conspiracy seeps in. Will is gone and his mother Joyce (the superb Winona Ryder) is beside herself with worry, and calls on old high school pal turned cop Jim Hopper (David
Harber). 

Meanwhile the boys bump into a girl, who we learn to be known as Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), in the forest whilst on the hunt for Will. Eleven has broken out of a lab nearby and is more than reluctant to go back.

Season 2 goes even deeper into the complexities of this world and its inhabitants. Set a year later in 1984, it appears things have calmed down a bit. The boys are focused on their Halloween costumes, and they have their sights set on the new girl, Max (Sadie Sink).

However, something is not quite right with Will. A year after his stint in the upside down, he is still withdrawn and clearly suffering from some form of post-traumatic trauma. Eleven is still AWOL, much to the dismay of Mike, and let’s not forget the absence of Nancy’s best friend Barb. (#justiceforbarb)

Stranger Things is indeed drenched in nostalgia, and some critics have marked it down for this, but it is much more than that. It is acted, directed and written with careful craft and deliberation, focusing on characters and their relationships. It studies the idea that the scariest things in this world aren’t the poison infested monsters, but that gut-wrenching feeling that everything we love the most could be cruelly taken away from us.

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