Stranger Things - Season 2 [Extra Quality]
The second season of the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things, was released worldwide on the streaming service Netflix on October 27, 2017.[1] The series was created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as executive producers along with Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen and Iain Paterson.
Stranger Things - Season 2
This season stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Cara Buono, Sean Astin and Paul Reiser. Brett Gelman, Linnea Berthelsen, Matthew Modine, and Priah Ferguson also appear in recurring roles. The season received highly positive reviews, particularly for its story, character development, production values, visual effects, acting (particularly that of Harbour, Brown, Schnapp, Keery, and Astin), and darker tone compared to the previous season.
With the critical and viewership success of Stranger Things after its first season's release in July 2016, speculation on a possible second season was raised. The Duffer Brothers initially intended for Stranger Things to either be a standalone miniseries[7] or an anthology series.[8] They also considered the possibility of setting a potential second season (which they referred to as a "sequel") in the early 1990s and featuring an older version of the characters, along with all-new characters, who are drawn back to Hawkins after supernatural events begin occurring again.[7][8]
The success of the first season led the Duffers to let their writers' room propose any idea they could come up with out of desperation for ways to expand the show. However, Ross Duffer stated in the WGFestival 2022 that thanks to the writers proposing more ideas than necessary, they were forced to drop some. Several of the unused ideas for the season were later included in the fifth and final season.[13] The Duffer Brothers wrote the second season to make the combined first and second season feel like a complete work, but set elements in place to go forward with additional seasons if they were green-lit.[14] While most of the story for the second season had been decided before the first season aired, the Duffer Brothers took in the audience reactions from the first season to adjust some of the details within the second season. They knew they would not have the same element of audience surprise as when the series aired anew and were aware fans wanted to see certain elements, but Ross said "...the point is not to give everyone what they think they want. Because I don't think they really know what they want."[15]
The Duffer Brothers felt that the second season should be treated more like a sequel rather than a continuation, and thus opted to call the second Stranger Things 2. This approach had some trepidation from Netflix, since the company felt movie sequels typically have a bad reputation, but the Duffer Brothers pointed out that there had been many successful sequels that surpassed the original film, and felt confident with this name.[16] Despite revealing episode titles for the season in the announcement teaser in order "to provide some hint of where we were going in season two without giving anything away,"[17][12] Matt Duffer stated that some of the titles would change since there were some things "we didn't want to put on there because we felt like it would give too much away,"[12] and because "people are smart on the fucking internet" with fan-created "videos analyzing the chapter titles... right on a lot" of how the titles related to the plot of the season.[18] In early October 2017, the Duffer Brothers revealed the final titles for the first six episodes of the season.[19]
In October 2016, it was announced that Schnapp and Keery had been promoted to the main cast for the second season, after each recurring in the first season, and that Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery would join the main cast as Max and Billy, respectively.[20] In order to get the role, Sink told to the crew while auditioning that she knew about rollerblading and skateboarding; Sink actually knew how to do the latter but not the former, reflecting years later during an appearance in Jimmy Kimmel Live why did she think lying would help her nail the part as the two things weren't quite the same as she thought.[21] Ryder, Harbour, Wolfhard, Brown, Matarazzo, McLaughlin, Dyer and Heaton also return for the season.[22] Sean Astin as Bob Newby and Paul Reiser as Sam Owens are also part of the main cast in the season.[23] For Owens, The Duffer Brothers had referred to the character in their pitch to Netflix for the season as "Paul Reiser", and specifically alluded to Reiser's character Carter J. Burke in Aliens, with Ross referencing James Cameron's casting choice for that film, saying, "[Cameron] thought people would inherently trust [Reiser] and it would be a twist". Reiser's son was a fan of Stranger Things, and gave his father an early appreciation of the series so that by when the production called his agent about the role, Reiser was excited for the part.[24] Joining them in recurring roles are Linnea Berthelsen as Kali / Eight[25] and Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman.[26]
In the first week of November 2016, table reads for the season started.[27] The season was officially confirmed to be in production on November 4, 2016 in a social media post. It was accompanied by a photo of some of the cast members at a table read.[27]
Filming of the season started on November 7, 2016.[28] On November 14, 2016 photos of the cast on set in Atlanta were published. Seen in the photos were the main cast of kids and teens from the previous season, minus Millie Bobby Brown and Natalia Dyer, though who appeared to be a body double for Nancy was present. Chelsea Talmadge, who portrays the recurring character Carol, was also present. None of the new cast members were spotted, but the names Max and Billy were seen on the cast trailers, implying that newcomers Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery were present that day.[29]
The soundtrack album for the second season was released digitally on October 20, 2017, via Lakeshore and Invada Records.[32][33] The soundtrack was composed by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of the electronic band Survive. On the soundtrack's composition, Dixon and Stein together said that the score for the season introduces "new styles of composition, while still revisiting old themes when appropriate ... We've created new elements that are necessary to support the story, but still want to remain true to the sound of Season 1." The first track from the soundtrack, "Walkin' in Hawkins", was released on October 12.[33]
As was customary with the first season, the second season utilized period music primarily from the 1980s to evoke a sense of nostalgia amongst viewers while further solidifying the story's setting.[34] In all, over fifty pieces of music were used for Stranger Things 2, with release dates spanning from 1936 all the way until 1985.[34][35][36]
With the release of the second season of the series, Netflix also released Beyond Stranger Things, an aftershow hosted by Jim Rash. The guests of the aftershow are composed of cast and crew from the series, including the Duffer Brothers and the series' stars, to discuss the development and behind-the-scenes production of the series and its larger mythology. Unlike previous after-shows created by Embassy Row, such as Talking Dead and Talking Bad, Beyond Stranger Things is intended to be watched after a screening of the entire current season.[40]
The second season has been recognized by Parrot Analytics as the most in-demand digital original series of the world in 2017 and is included in the 2019 edition of Guinness World Records.[44] In August 2017, the marketing analytics firm Jumpshot determined the season was the seventh-most viewed Netflix season in the first 30 days after it was released, garnering slightly more than 20% of the viewers that the second season of Daredevil received, which was the most viewed season according to Jumpshot. Jumpshot, which "analyzes click-stream data from an online panel of more than 100 million consumers", looked at the viewing behavior and activity of the company's U.S. members, factoring in the relative number of U.S. Netflix viewers who watched at least one episode of the season.[45]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an approval rating of 94% based on 146 reviews and an average rating of 7.86/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Stranger Things' slow-building sophomore season balances moments of humor and a nostalgic sweetness against a growing horror that's all the more effective thanks to the show's full-bodied characters and evocative tone."[46] On Metacritic, the second season has a normalized score of 78 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[47]
In a review for Rolling Stone, journalist David Fear praised the second season's character development, going so far as to say it shined more than the narrative: "...By the time you get to the John Hughes finale, in which the school's winter dance ties up numerous loose ends, you realize that Stranger Things 2 has not only been crafting a story about kids fumbling through and finding their way into young adulthood, but that those parts feel more interesting than any Upside Down, et al. shenanigans ... if the second season has anything on the first, it's that these characters now feel less like they stepped out of E.T. outtakes and more like the actual teens who were in the audience watching it and dreaming."[48]
One of the most notable impacts of the series has been an increased demand for Eggo waffles, as they are shown to be Eleven's favorite food in several episodes and are seen as a representation of the series.[50] The Kellogg Company, which manufactures Eggo, had not been part of the production prior to the first season's release, but recognized the market impact of the series. It provided a vintage 1980s Eggo television advertisement for Netflix to use in its season two Super Bowl LI commercial, and is looking to become more involved with cross-promotion.[51] 041b061a72