The first season of Stranger Things became one of Netflix's biggest hits, generating a passionate fan base who have spent the last few months building up to 27 October, when the sequel to the immensely popular show will be released all at once for our binge-watching pleasure. With such an unprecedented level of hype, it could have been so easy for the sequel to fail to live up fans' expectations. But, thankfully, it's everything viewers could hope for. Read our spoiler-free review here…
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Will is back from the Upside Down
As the official synopsis for the sequel has already revealed, the second series kicks off almost a year after Will originally went missing. While almost everything is back to normal, Will is still struggling with his experience in the Upside Down, suffering from what the new scientists at Hawkins laboratory believe to be PTSD, while his mum (once again played perfectly by Winona Ryder), attempts to make her youngest son feel secure. Their homelife also has a new addition; Joyce's new, well-meaning boyfriend, Bob (Sean Astin). Meanwhile, Mike and Nancy are still in mourning for their friends, Eleven and Barb, and the gang meets a new girl at school, who Dustin and Lucas take a liking to, and her older brother.
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The show is full of 80s nostalgia
The second series is darker and certainly scarier than the original, but any danger of the story seeming derivative are unfounded. One of the reasons that the second season is a strong follow-up to the original is because of its amazing troupe of child actors, including Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Finn Wolfhard as Mike, Gaten Matarazzo as the ever-adorable Dustin, and Caleb McLaughlin as the cautious Lucas. Noah Schnapp also has a much larger role as Will this season, and may even have the stand-out performance of the series with his portrayal of a damaged, terrified boy still dealing with his time in the nightmarish parallel universe. In fact, the only time the new series suffers is with the arrival of the two new characters, who seem a little flat in comparison to the original gang.
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And fans need not be concerned about the show losing its nostalgic, 80s roots. The show is as chock-full of Walkie Talkies and throwback pop culture references as ever, and pays homage to a number of Eighties classics, with the Breakfast Club, E.T. and Indiana Jones among those to make an appearance. The whole series will be released on Friday, and welcome back to Hawkins everyone!