Stranger Things “Madmax”

Hey!  Stranger Things is back, officially as Stranger Things 2, but I don’t wanna call it that.

So, time has passed and after a brief cold open in Pittsburgh where a multi-cultural gang of thieves outruns the law thanks to a psychic member of the group, we’re back in Hawkins and things have moved on a bit.  Nancy is still with Steve, but she’s also still friends with Jonathan and Steve doesn’t seem to mind.  Mike’s been getting into trouble.  Some sleazy investigator is taking a lot of money from people to look into the weird stuff from season one, like Barb’s parents who are selling their house to pay this guy.  Hopper’s still sheriff, Joyce is dating some guy who looks like a Goonie or a Hobbit but is really Sean Astin as Bob, and that lab is still open under new management led by the not-at-all-suspicious Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser, being not-at-all-suspicious…really).  Eleven still seems to be missing, and Mike misses her.  And hey, Dustin now has some teeth.

But is the weird stuff gone?  Nope!

Now, one thing that I liked about this first episode, besides the idea Dustin and Lucas might end up fighting over the same girl, Max, or Madmax, she who is awesome at Dig Dug, is we’re seeing a lot of Will.  Given Will disappeared for most of season one, we’re only now getting to really know the guy.  And he’s messed up.  He keeps having flashes of the Upside Down.  You know, that evil place with giant tentacle monsters and blood-red lightning.  Every so often, Joyce takes him over to the lab to see Dr. Owens (who is, of course, not-at-all-suspicious).  They run tests, and when Will, Joyce, and Hopper leave, Owens heads down to the Lab’s basement to set a flamethrower on some other tentacled thing.

See?  Nothing suspicious about that.

But there are other weird things, like a field full of rotting pumpkins.  Or something in Dustin’s garbage cans.  Or seeing Sean Astin kiss Winona Ryder.

But there is a sweet surprise.  Eleven’s fine.  She even has some hair now.

She’s secretly living with Hopper.

Let’s see where this is going.