Overall, this is a pretty solid show. The first season set up the world very nicely, and the second season expanded and greatly improved upon it. The story is structured nicely, and even just a few episodes into the first season I found myself caring about these characters and their issues. The story was articulated well and was very detailed, and clearly has the capacity to not only answer questions, but not only bring up more. I also particularly enjoyed the attention to detail like putting up political signs of the era and having popular 80s songs prominently portrayed in the soundtrack. The cinematography is pretty solid with some really impressive shots and action sequences. The CGI is also really solid, with all of the creatures having a very real presence in the scene and nothing seeming out of place or fake-looking, Netflix clearly put a lot of time, money and resources into the production of this show. Both seasons 1 and 2 have some fantastic acting, including many child actors, almost all the characters were portrayed very well and some standout stars including Winona Ryder, Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, and Finn Wolfhard. And while I could praise this show for many paragraphs on all the things it did right it is still not a perfect show in my mind. For one, the soundtrack is a little cheesy at times, making sure to let us know when a jump-scare is coming (something I was hoping this show would rise above seeing how it defies almost every other horror drama trope). And the jump scares themselves are another thing that I feel I don't even need to touch on, just that if you watch the show, you will probably notice them and be upset. Another issue is yet another horror trope of characters making stupid decisions seemingly for the plot's sake. And especially when those characters stupid decisions bring about a dramatic shift in the story, it's especially annoying. Also, it's kind of hard to portray the creatures as really dangerous and scary when it's obvious that none of the main characters are in any real dangers. Sure they kill off some of the side characters here and there, but they honestly waited a little long to do so. And the one character they did kill off in season 2 only died because he did the stupidest thing he could do in that situation. There are other little things, but I think you get the point that even though this show is not perfect, I still think it's pretty freaking amazing. I'm excited for season 3, and I'm excited for more Netflix original programming. And that's why I'm giving this series so far a 9/10.