The first season of “Stranger Things” was a complete shock and came out of nowhere. It became one of my favorite television shows as soon as I watched it. The second season came with a little bit more hype to say the least, and I am happy to say that it lives up to all of that hype. The new season is bigger, with one more episode, and even more characters to divide the time on-screen. The second season of “Stranger Things” is not as good as the first, but it is still an amazing nine episodes of television that you will not forget about for a long time.

    The returning characters in Stranger Things are all as great as they were in the first season, with Chief Jim Hopper, played by David Harbour, being my personal favorite. The group of children are still fun to watch, but are not as interesting. There are a few new characters, and most of them don’t feel like they justified their existence. Max, played by Sadie Sink, is the only new character who is interesting. The other characters really only serve to clog up the plot.

    The plot in the new season is better than the first. I enjoyed all of the places the story went and the surprises that happen in those places. I liked when the story required some of the characters to split off from the others, and some of the combinations were great. Dustin and Steve, and Hopper and Joyce Byers, were standouts this season. However, most of the cast had great chemistry, and it was enjoyable to watch the characters from the first season interact with each other again. The enemy in this season is bigger, in the sense of its threat to the characters, and I liked how this is shown in the story’s urgency. The plot makes sense for the kind of situation the characters are in and gives it more believability, or as much as there can be in a show about an alternate dimension.

    I really enjoyed the second season of “Stranger Things.” It was everything that I had hoped it would be, and though the story ends well. It leaves room for a new season. The returning characters were fun to watch again, especially Hopper but the plot gets a bit clogged with the new characters that don’t add much, as they take away screen time from more important characters. It isn’t as good as the previous season, but it is still great. Don’t miss out on one of the best seasons of television in 2017.