Score: 6/10
The Duffer Brothers bring us right into the action, which unfolds across four very different landscapes: suburban Hawkins, the military/twisted science industrial landscape, the moldy vegetative Upside Down, and an intriguing dreamier landscape of the Upside Down. Stranger Things has always put Hopper and Eleven at the center of their military and ESP science environs and what follows here is much the same, except that with Papa dead and Paul Reiser apparently out of the picture, the new evil doc who gives soldiers orders is played by Linda Hamilton, looking more like my grandmother here than I remembered her. She is effective, and like so many of the past and current cast (Matthew Modine, Paul Reiser, Sean Astin, Winona Ryder), she is a bonafide 80s star. It’s nice to see her back in action.
The two images of the Upside Down channel the grotesque and arabesque horror. There is more of an Edger Allen Poe vibe to the dreamscape. It is a surprise to see the recasting of Holly Wheeler, newly embodied by British actress Nell Fisher (ANNE WITH AN E). She plays the character with both plucky determination and vulnerability. Her sojourn through a seductively pleasant landscape of the Upside Down contrasts well against the other settings the show presents us. There are hints of Alice in Wonderland as well as Little Red Riding Hood in Holly’s wardrobe and her path across this horrorscape.
There is a necessary reorientation of friends here in order to bring out new qualities in our save the world team. Most intriguingly we see Robin paired up with Will, There is one exception: The Nancy/Jonathan/Steve triangle which seems to never reach a resolution.
The most intriguing twist in this new season is the way our Goonies-like team of heros/sleuths/Vecna hunters has used technology and secret tunnels to coordinate their members across two dimensions. We begin to see the Upside Down and (hardly) normal Hawkins as overlaid one atop the other, like one of their clever slide projector charts. This works well in keeping the expansive narrative tidy. The Duffer Brothers are aided here by exceptional writers and directors including Hollywood heavyweight Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption).
Audiences will need to wait for the final installments of SEASON 5 to drop at Christmas and New Years.
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