I was inspired to write this review due to some nagging possible inconsistency of detail.

Regarding the spoiler warning. I've gone to great lengths to be too vague to spoil anything for new viewers. Anyone who has watched both seasons may recognize spoiler type info or it will seem familiar, if not obvious. To those who have not watched they should not understand any "spoiling" information.

This review is regarding both season one and season two. I re-watched season one before watching season two, shortly after it was released.

I'm troubled I had forgotten so much of what happened in season one. I felt at times I was seeing things I had never watched before. So, if you grew up around the 80s when this takes place, or your prone to a Swiss Cheese memory, you might want to re-watch season one as I did. To me it was well worth it.

Since season one seemed to "conclude" pretty well, I wasn't not confident about what direction the second season may take. I believe season two surpassed season one in every way.

My favorite characters were El, and Hopper. The primary characters are obviously the club of Nerd kids which gets an addition in season two. I was always anticipating the next scene about either El, or Hopper.

In episode 203 forward, Dustin's thread with his new discovery was disturbing to me in the way one may watch a horror show when the screaming teens decide to go back into the monster's lair with only a lame reason instead of escaping.

For spoiler's sake Dustin's thread is nothing like said screamer horror movie plot. The relation is in how it made me feel while watching it. Call it anticipated but postponed dread.

I was also taken by surprise with episode 207, The Lost Sister. Nothing wrong with this episode. It perfectly fills plenty of plot points in the season, including answering some likely forgotten questions raised early in episode 201. To me, it seemed to interrupt the flow of the story line suddenly, unexpectedly, and abruptly.

El's entire thread from late episode 206 until near the end of episode 208 seemed unrelated to much of anything. That information may be extremely important in future episodes and it did fill a few holes in season two including a dramatic piece of the climax of the season, so it was not insignificant. It just seemed I was driving down one street in episode 205 and in episode 206 suddenly came out of a blackout on a different street, going a different direction.

This motivating inconsistency was nothing blatant but I've written fiction for decades and notice some things others may not notice.

FAIR WARNING: To avoid IMDb SPOILER worries, I would claim this may be a spoiler but it is such a small thing overall that I doubt it could spoil anything. It may give someone who has watched the series an urge to re-think this detail. It regards water and antagonists who seem averse to water.

My point is... at least one co-protagonists is aware of this aversion and it seemed to me, if I was aware of this detail it would have effected my character's behavior, particularly in episode 208 or 209 in regards to "Bob" (Sean Austin, a favorite actor to me.) and his brave activities in one scene. In retrospect it kept occurring to me he likely had the means to make the ever present "escape from danger" a LESS DRAMATIC affair. Not exactly a writer's goal for any scene I know well.

Once the water aversion occurred to me, post season, and thinking back, it seemed this aversion to water was mentioned and then the writers forgot about it until it was needed much later, but then never used it when it could have been helpful to the co-protagonists. I may be barking up an upside-down tree as I believe the only person who was obviously conscious of this antagonist "weakness" was ever Bob.

Bob was a rather minor character and was "out of the loop" nearly always. When he was consulted and discovered this possible weapon against the antagonist it was during an intense, urgent, and time sensitive search for answers to save an important character. Those who could have employed Bob's new knowledge more effectively could have easily "missed it" or it just never impressed them as important. But it nagged at me.

So there it is. Just seems weird to me this knowledge about "water" would have been extremely valuable from the time it was discovered until the conclusion of the season. I only imagine few times or places it would have been helpful, but nothing using the known weapon vs. the antagonist was ever apparently considered.

Still, 9 stars for both seasons without a doubt. Writers and producers were exceptionally clever on multiple levels and I never felt any actor was "acting".

One more "water" thought... In season one the antagonist has an event with Barbara Holland (actress Shannon Purser) in, and over a swimming pool when Barb is bleeding after cutting her hand attempting a party drinking stunt. If season one antagonist is related to season two's antagonist, and that seems likely, this seems another inconsistency with my nagging water aversion theory.