Stranger Things season two unleashes Aliens and Goonies on us
STRANGER Things is back on Netflix. This season features new faces from 1980s classics Aliens and The Goonies, who will surely have a huge impact on the show.
Madmax
STRANGER Things Season Two is back and it’s full of things that are, well, stranger than the first season. Best of all, Eleven is back as well.
Beware, it you haven’t started watching Stranger Things yet, we’re going to have spoilers as we discuss episode one, “Madmax”.
The first season of this spooky drama-comedy set in the 1980s was brilliant and we were worried season two was not going to hit the same heights. The good news is, the first episode offers us plenty of fascinating twists as well as the return of the central character Eleven, thought to have died in the destruction of the Demogorgon at the end of season one.
We kick off with an intriguing new face. Number Eight, obviously a product of the same process that created Eleven and with many of the same powers. However, she’s using her powers to help rob banks and outwit the police. How she factors into the goings on in Hawkins, we’re yet to discover.
Over in Hawkins, it’s Halloween and things are definitely going to get scary. More tricks than treats, for sure.
The boys are still friends, although Will is being somewhat smothered by his mother and brother. Yet they still haven’t given him a better haircut, which seems a bit unfair. But all that doesn’t stop him from having episodes or jumps into the Upside Down. And things are looking scarier than ever there. Some sort of shadow monster is lurking and it’s not happy.
Mum Joyce seems to have found happiness with a new boyfriend Bob, played by Sean Astin. Astin was the child star of the 1980s classic movie The Goonies, where he played the leader of a gang of misfits who had scary adventures and saved the day. So look out for him playing a key role in this season, rather than just be a plump figure of amusement.
Nancy and boyfriend Steve also seem rather happy. Obviously that can’t last because he’s still a creep. They have weekly dinners with the parents of her old friend Barb, who died at the hands of the Demogorgon. The parents have hired an investigative reporter to find their daughter, which isn’t going to end well.
That reporter is harassing Sheriff Hopper, who’s still somewhat spooked, especially when he discovers a field full of rotting pumpkins.
Obviously there was a deal done with the secret government lab, because Hopper and Joyce take Will there for tests.
That sets off alarm bells when we see the “friendly” doctor is actually Paul Reiser, best known as Carter Burke from Aliens. He was the company guy who seemed all nice but then tried to kill Ripley and Newt and impregnate them with aliens. You just know he’s not going to be a good guy, especially when he promises them he is.
The entrance to the Upside Down also seems to be trying to take over the lab, which sends in guys to burn it down, using weapons that look very much like the flamethrowers that the marines used against the aliens in Aliens. That didn’t end well either …
The title of the episode is Madmax. It’s nothing to do with Mel Gibson, although these days that would be horrifying, but rather a new girl at the school who can beat Dustin’s high score on video games. Dustin finally has his front teeth and thinks that makes him irresistibly attractive. Sadly, not so much. Obviously she will have a role to play, as will the mysterious thing in Dustin’s dustbin. Don’t think it’s going to be Oscar The Grouch from Sesame Street. But it will almost certainly be grouchy.
Mike is pining for Eleven, much to the disgust of his friends.
Yet there is a good news ahead. She is staying with Hopper. Her hair has grown and she’s looking well.
Now we just have to see how these pieces will all come together…