I've watched both seasons and I have to admit I enjoyed the novelty of the first season and became disappointed with the second. Sure I get the whole 80's influenced mash-up thing. It is really enjoyable to recall the movies I watched back then. As a fan of all things Spielberg, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, David Cronenberg and many others to boot, I liked the idea of paying those guys a revisit as an homage to their great works. Of course, this is the 80's we're talking about and SFX could be really ropey back then, so I thought a modern reboot would be just what the doctor ordered. Sadly, the SFX were OK in Season 1 and took a backward step in Season 2.

First off, as everyone knows, as soon as you introduce anything with tentacles or root-like appendages there is a massive risk the whole show becomes a joke. It did and not in a good way. No matter how much the inappropriately and randomly used "suspense" music attempted to induce fear into the viewer I found myself horrified, in dismay.

If returning to the 80's horror genre requires the viewer to remove any 21st century expectations, and transplant them with those of 40 years ago, then so be it but having been there, seen it, and done it I for one would prefer the source material over this derivative drivel. It is all so lazy and obvious. OK, I understand I'm knocking on a bit as an over 50 and this show is meant more for the "youth" demographic but puhleese! there is no reason why every scene, every aspect of film making, every note and beat has to anchor itself in the past. What I was hoping for was an updated version of the 80s, etc, not an inferior one. Parodies of the 80's horror genre have been done before and with much greater humour. Indeed, we've even had parodies of the parodies, which have amazingly worked well too. So the Duffer Bros (or should that be Doofus Bros) have no excuse for this.

Some of the acting was up to par but other than that it falls way short of the mark. There's lots of social media comments about the cuteness of the kids, and how everyone would treat them way better than their contemporaries but all I see is a group of odd looking youngsters made to look utterly freakish by hair & makeup artists, who really don't like children. I guess that was the whole point but where was the humour to go with it? If it wasn't presented as a boxset I wouldn't have managed to make it to the end.

In the end, it all comes down to the production being seemingly unsure in which direction the show should go. Horror? Comedy? Thriller? Sci- Fi? Action Adventure? Parodies must surely be more than a cut n paste of source material. A lot is said about plagiarism today and there is a fine line between that and a genuine homage. This season ventured further towards the former and used the latter as the excuse. If such shows as Stranger Things are to be worth watching they need to send the originals up (like Z Nation) or out gun them (like The Fringe). Sadly, Stranger Things 2 does neither and I cannot imagine how awful season 3 will be.

C-, must do better.