[SPOILER ALERT! Watch out for spoilers from both episodes!]
This is why everybody loves Stranger Things... the series pulls you in right from the first second and keeps you so entrapped by mysteries and lovable characters that you just can't tear your eyes off the screen. No wonder it's a favorite for binging! However, instead of a full season review, I'll be giving one for each couple of episodes as I go along, beginning with these two.
So, wow! Our kids are now teenagers! And boy, do they act like it. I totally love the ongoing transistion. Who didn't go through it? Old relationships are getting strained and newer ones being formed, especially as they begin coupling themselves up. I think it was a masterful move by the writers to begin Mike and El's scene with a kiss, mirroring that oh-so-touching ending of season 2. Lucas and Max are also now officially a couple and Dustin, when he returns, claims to have gotten himself a girlfriend named Suzie. Will, however, is quite left behind. And truthfully, the boy looks like he's merely trudging through life. The experience of the Upside-Down and being infested by its entity have not totally left him in the six months that have passed. He will never be the same.
As for the older characters, Nancy and Jonathan are still together, Steve is really at an all-time low working at an Ice-cream place. Jim is trying his best to be a good father to El and struggling through all the trappings of being father to a teen daughter, while his unrequited love, Joyce is still mourning the death of Bob from last season. I did pity Jim though. The pangs of unrequited love are strong, no mattter how old you are. As for Billy, that dude is so corny! I was glad Karen didn't stoop to having an affair with him, but who can say they were upset when he became infested as the new soldier of the Upside-Down? That was another great move by the writers-- making a character we hate the face of the villain right off the bat.
But let's talk about that! The Upside Down is, once again, coming into our world! The Russians opened their own gateway to the other world. What they are doing exactly still remains a mystery, but we know the entities there have a hive-mind, and now it seems, can once again control those parts of them that remained in our world: the particles forced out of Will. And that rat! I though they were exploding to join together and give body to the entity, but it seems each explodes to become a new creature of its own, all connected to the upside-down. If this is true, then with all the rats that have been infested and called, the upside-down's army on earth is going to be quite formidable. Dustin's silly radio tower intercepted the Russian's communication. They are in town. Of course, this can't be a coincidence, but it means one thing: they know about Eleven and the gateway that was in Hawkings. Oh boy.
When will our heroes learn to share their silly observtions of strange things with each other? Nancy and Jonathan are on their own investigation, Dustin and Steve with the new character Robin, who happens to be an unlikely right-brain genius on theirs, and Joyce on hers, with her children's science teacher of all people! Will is having flashes but, of course, will not talk about it, despite the fact thatit happen during a strange, creepy, unexplained blackout. If only they could just communicate! Gosh!
Anyway, these are just the first couple of episodes. We still have 6 more to find out how it goes. And frankly, I can't wait to get back to my binging. This season promises to be just awesome!
